Hollins offers a single day of hunting on opening day of the regular season, followed by a seven-day gun hunt and a two-day primitive weapons hunt in December. In January there are seven-day and two-day gun hunts. There are 19 days of firearms hunting in all.

As mentioned earlier, both areas are open for archery hunting throughout the Alabama deer season.

"We've noticed that the seven-day hunts give people a chance to relax and enjoy themselves a little more," Liles said. "We get a lot of people camping and hunting. There's a social aspect to it that goes along with the hunting."

Gene Carver, the Hollins manager, said they've noticed a change in the pressure with the addition of the seven-day hunts. They still get the same number of hunters, but they're spread over more days.

"We might have 100 people a day spread over 29,000 acres on any given day of a seven-day gun hunt," he said.

The harvest is directly proportional to the number of people hunting.

"When we get 1,000 or 1,200 people walking around, they jump deer and run them over someone else," Carver explained. "We don't have as big a harvest when there are only 300 people hunting."

Bowhunters kill nearly as many deer on Hollins as the gun hunters do.

"We only have 18 or 19 days of gun hunting through the season, so the bowhunting is very good," he added.

Hollins bowhunters often do quite well around the many small food plots on the area.

On Choccolocco, the Thanksgiving hunt may be the best gun hunt to try. The deer then are either in rut or just winding down from the rut. Gardner said the best rut hunting might actually occur in bow season before the gun hunts start.

The five-day primitive weapons hunt is another good opportunity, and it allows hunters to harvest up to two deer per day.

A new development at Choccolocco is a 1,700-acre area set aside for disabled sportsmen. It did not get a tremendous amount of use last year, but the word has gotten out. More hunters with disabilities are expected to use the area this season.

The regulations on the disabled area are the same as for the WMA at large in regard to the type of hunting and when it is allowed. However, disabled hunters are allowed to use ATVs and vehicles to get around in the area.

"Logging roads and firebreaks make the area very accessible," Liles said.

On Hollins WMA, the best hunts are the late December primitive weapons session and the seven-day hunt the second week of January.

"Our deer are just starting to rut in mid-January," Carver said. "We might get a little bit of rutting activity in late December, but there's significantly more rutting on that second seven-day hunt."

There is an intensive planting program in place at Hollins, with 128 green fields and 35 acres of summer forage planted each year.

"The more intensive habitat management is taking place on the WMA," Carver said.

In some years, the archery kill exceeds the gun kill on Hollins. Those many green fields are prime hunting grounds for bow hunters. Many of those fields are behind gates that are never opened to vehicular traffic.

Carver advises hunters to look for pines that have been thinned near hardwood drains. The drains are prime travel corridors and can be excellent places to set up.

"The WMAs in the Talladega National Forest are underrated and underutilized," Carver said. "They are great places to hunt. Some of my archery hunters hate it when I brag on our area because they don't want the competition."

Randy Liles of Choccolocco echoes those sentiments. "The face of the Talladega National Forest is changing," he said. "And it's very much for the better."