Drone Deer Surveys in Tennessee

Tennessee's 2025-26 preliminary prevalence figures are the highest of any state we work in: Fayette County 28.67%, Hardeman 23.5%, Shelby 5.6%, Haywood 3.5%. TWRA notes that distribution within a county is uneven, so those averages understate the hot spots.

At that prevalence you are not managing a herd anymore, you are managing a decline. And harvest trends — the number most landowners use as a proxy for population — become actively misleading in that situation, because harvest reflects hunter effort and hunter confidence as much as it reflects deer.

If you own ground in west Tennessee right now, an independent count is worth more than it has ever been.

Tennessee has 23 CWD-positive counties, and a CWD Management Zone covering 20 counties west of the Tennessee River. Both lists have changed repeatedly — counties get added after a detection and occasionally removed. Baiting and feeding are now prohibited in CWD-positive counties east of the management zone.

Current CWD counties, zone boundaries and restrictions: TWRA — CWD in Tennessee

This is the fastest-moving rule set of any state we work in. Check it every season.

That feeding prohibition matters for the same reason it does in Mississippi: a baited camera survey is the default density method in the Southeast, and in a growing share of Tennessee it is off the table. A thermal census uses no bait.

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The Tennessee calendar

Two structural things matter here.

A note on units. TWRA now uses Units 1 through 6. The old Unit A / Unit B / Unit L / Unit CWD naming has been retired, though a lot of forums and aggregator sites still use it. If someone quotes you a rule using the old names, the information is out of date. Antlerless limits differ meaningfully between units, so knowing which one you're in matters before you set harvest goals off a survey.

Tennessee's survey advantage: the longest leaf-off window of any state we serve. Tennessee's gun season closes earlier than Alabama's, Georgia's, or Mississippi's — which leaves the widest post-season stretch of bare hardwoods anywhere we fly. If you want the most accurate count we are capable of producing, Tennessee's calendar gives you the best shot at it.

Current season dates, units and bag limits: TWRA — Deer Hunting

TWRA adjusts seasons annually and has been actively changing CWD-related rules. Verify before planning.

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Where Tennessee's deer actually are

The state's 2025-26 top five harvest counties were Sumner, Giles, Franklin, Lawrence and Henry — the year before, Giles led the state outright with 4,254. Four of those five sit in or on the rim of the Central Basin.

Statewide harvest ran 166,060 deer in 2024-25, of which 68,303 (41%) were antlerless, up from 152,865 the prior year. Population estimates put the herd near 900,000, down from roughly a million in 2019. TWRA does not publish a headline statewide population figure, so treat any number you see — including that one — as an analyst estimate rather than an official count.

One caution if you follow the in-season numbers: TWRA Wildlife Division Chief Joe Benedict notes that Hunter's Toolbox data is self-reported and unproofed until it is reviewed in March and April.

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Terrain, west to east

Tennessee bands cleanly from the Mississippi River to the Smokies, and each band flies differently.

Mississippi River bottoms and Coastal Plain — Lake, Dyer, Lauderdale, Tipton, Shelby. Flat, ag, cypress sloughs and bottomland hardwood. Good thermal ground and, not coincidentally, the CWD core.

West Tennessee Loess Plain — gently rolling silt-capped uplands, row crop with hardwood draws. Straightforward flying.

Western Highland Rim — Tennessee River east to the Central Basin. Dissected, cherty, heavy oak-hickory.

Central Basin (Nashville Basin) — the most productive deer ground in Tennessee. Limestone, cedar glades, pasture and row crop. Open and rolling, and the best-case thermal country in the state. Sumner, Giles, Lawrence and Franklin all sit here or on the rim.

Eastern Highland Rim — the elevated shelf between Basin and Plateau.

Cumberland Plateau — flat-topped at 1,800 to 2,000 feet, sandstone, deeply incised gorges. The largest single block of contiguous forest in the state, and the gorges make line-of-sight the real work. Flyable with the right plan, and we will say so before we quote it.

Ridge and Valley — Chattanooga to Bristol. Long parallel limestone valleys and shale ridges, farms in the valleys and forest on the ridges.

Blue Ridge / Unaka Mountains — the Smokies and Cherokee National Forest. Steepest terrain in the eastern United States, mostly public, lowest deer densities.

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Tennessee DMAP: the state will pay you to hire a professional

Tennessee's Deer Management Assistance Program has the highest barrier to entry of any state we work in — and, buried in the fee structure, the clearest financial argument for bringing in outside help.

• Minimum 1,000 contiguous huntable acres
• $1,000 annual permit fee — reduced to $350 if the participant hires a private wildlife biologist to write the management plan
• Participants must collect harvest and observational data per their plan
• TWRA may inspect the property and hunting records without advance notice
• Antlerless quotas cannot be set until data is analyzed — typically at least one full year of collection before permits issue

That $650 differential is a direct subsidy for professional services. And the mandatory observational-data requirement, combined with the one-year lag before quotas issue, is exactly what a census flight compresses: instead of collecting a season of hunter observation data and waiting, you produce a hard population estimate up front.

The 1,000-acre threshold also pushes Tennessee landowners toward neighbor cooperatives more than any other state we serve — Tennessee skews toward smaller individually-owned tracts and family farms, especially in Middle Tennessee, with far fewer large timber-company club leases than Alabama, Mississippi or south Arkansas. One flight across several adjoining properties in a single day produces one consistent count for the whole cooperative, with no double counting where the lines meet.

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What we need from you

Your property boundary — onX link, KML, shapefile, or a marked-up map.

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Get on the Tennessee schedule

We fly November through March. Because gun season closes earlier in Tennessee than anywhere else we work, your late-winter window is the longest of the five states — leaf-off, cold, and no hunting pressure on the herd. Check your dates with TWRA.

Call or text (205) 394-6256.

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Where to verify

Season dates, units and limits: TWRA Deer Hunting · CWD counties and zone: TWRA CWD in Tennessee · Harvest data: WBBJ, March 2026 · DMAP: Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1660-01-20-.01