When I lived in WV there was an old empty farm house about 1/2 mile down the road.
There were three chestnut trees on the property, after tracking down the owner and getting permission to pick up any fallen, it was a close race between me and the deer(?) to see who got them first!
Most of the time the pods were already split open, there were a few that needed to be opened, heavy gloves were a good thing.