# Habrasham, stephens, Franklin and banks



## Thunder Head (Dec 29, 2012)

I hunt several propertys scattered across stephens county and one 400+ acre farm in franklin north of I-85. When i started hunting in 1985 there werent that many deer. In the late 90s deer populations were booming. My journals show i saw as many as 150 deer a season. 
 When the limit moved to 12 things started to change. For a few years i wasnt that concered. I was still seeing deer almost every hunt there were just fewer of them. Five or six years ago i limited myself too no more than one doe per property. Spots that i would have considered marginal or only used sparingly were now empty. The last 2-3 years i have realy payed attention too fawn numbers. I remember when i first started bow hunting it was hard to kill a doe early on because they all had spotted fawns. Now i see lots of does in september with no fawns.
 Move forward to this year. Not only have i have had the worst season since the 80s as far as siteings i have had a hard time getting trail camera pictures. I can attribute some of this to food sources that are pulling deer onto other propertys but not all of it. So here i am sitting with 23 total deer seen.
 Im looking for some input from the guys that hunt the surrounding countys. 

 How do you feel about general herd numbers?
 Is this season just a blip on the radar?
 If you still seeing plenty of deer, what kind of propertys are you hunting?


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## Buford_Dawg (Dec 29, 2012)

*Same with my clubs...*

Deer are simply not abundant any longer.  Seen steady decline for 8 or so years.  I hunt Franklin, Elbert, and Oglethorpe. Used to see 100+. Last 5 years I see about 40 or so per year. We see more small bucks than does now. Does have been hit hard all around us. Coyotes have hurt the fawn survival rate. Take a look in the deer hunting forum and many fellow hunters are upset.


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## Thunder Head (Jan 2, 2013)

I think you can scrap the idea of the lowering the limit. They have made it pretty clear its so people can manage "their" propertys.

 I wonder if there strong support for lowering the doe days in north ga.? If enough of us showed up at the meetings we might get them changed.


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