# FDR Update



## General Lee (Dec 7, 2010)

We scouted all day monday and I didn't see enough sign to make me want to hunt today,so I packed it in.Beautiful place but no deer.143 hunters at the meeting last night,I heard 1 deer was killed this morning...............


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## Dupree (Dec 7, 2010)

Yup FDR sucks. We only killed 3 out of the 7 we saw today.


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## dawg2 (Dec 7, 2010)

I hiked the Pine Mountain Trail last week.  The dee I saw were in the "safety Zone" no hunting area. No lie.  A couple nice bucks and some HUGE does.  Even my wife was laughing about that!


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## General Lee (Dec 7, 2010)

4x4powerstrokesd said:


> Yup FDR sucks. We only killed 3 out of the 7 we saw today.


Nah,it doesn't suck.I enjoyed seeing it yesterday and staying in a cabin last night.I just have better places to deer hunt..........


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## Milkman (Dec 8, 2010)

How about it DNR............ we need stats for Yargo and FDR when available...    Who  has it ?????


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## Dupree (Dec 8, 2010)

Saw 2 this morning. Didn't  shoot either. 

The area I hunted was slap full of sign. I hope to be able to hunt it in the future. I was being sarcastic about it sucking.


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## Dupree (Dec 8, 2010)

26 deer were checked out yesterday. While I was skinning one today 3 came in. I didn't check the totals before leaving. I hated to leave, but it would take me an hour to get one out of there and then have a 2 hr drive, not something I wanted to do before a long day at work tomorrow.


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## firemedic1982 (Dec 8, 2010)

I had tons of sign where we sat last night and this morning. Never saw a deer.


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## hunter44a (Dec 8, 2010)

4x4powerstrokesd said:


> 26 deer were checked out yesterday. While I was skinning one today 3 came in. I didn't check the totals before leaving. I hated to leave, but it would take me an hour to get one out of there and then have a 2 hr drive, not something I wanted to do before a long day at work tomorrow.



Hey Sam, had a great time and a great hunt. Thanks for your help. Hope to do another one with you. If I don't see ya, I hope you and your family have a great Christmas and New Year! Andy


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## Echo (Dec 8, 2010)

General Lee said:


> We scouted all day monday and I didn't see enough sign to make me want to hunt today,so I packed it in.Beautiful place but no deer.143 hunters at the meeting last night,I heard 1 deer was killed this morning...............


 
It was some tough hunting for sure. I can usually get on some deer on most public areas with considerably less scouting than we put forth on monday but it just wasn't happening at FDR. If nothing else it made me appreciate the hunting that we have in southeast Ga. even more........we don't have any giants but at least we've got deer!

For what it's worth, in my opinion there is no way a population control hunt was justified at FDR this year. I have been to many, many WMA's over the years and only rarely have I hunted one that appeared to have fewer deer than this supposedly overun state park.


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## firemedic1982 (Dec 8, 2010)

Well said echo!


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## dawg2 (Dec 8, 2010)

Milkman said:


> How about it DNR............ we need stats for Yargo and FDR when available...    Who  has it ?????



I was told by the FDR rangers  a couple weeks ago that 200 deer were killed last year.


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## sittinginthewoodsjr (Dec 8, 2010)

I didn't see any deer.  Hunted all day both days.  Enjoyed it though.  When I left there were 30-35 deer killed.


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## dawg2 (Dec 8, 2010)

4x4powerstrokesd said:


> 26 deer were checked out yesterday. While I was skinning one today 3 came in. I didn't check the totals before leaving. I hated to leave, but it would take me an hour to get one out of there and then have a 2 hr drive, not something I wanted to do before a long day at work tomorrow.


Some areas it is butal to get one out.   I would be VERY selective at what I shot.


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## j_seph (Dec 8, 2010)

Echo said:


> It was some tough hunting for sure. I can usually get on some deer on most public areas with considerably less scouting than we put forth on monday but it just wasn't happening at FDR. If nothing else it made me appreciate the hunting that we have in southeast Ga. even more........we don't have any giants but at least we've got deer!
> 
> For what it's worth, in my opinion there is no way a population control hunt was justified at FDR this year. I have been to many, many WMA's over the years and only rarely have I hunted one that appeared to have fewer deer than this supposedly overun state park.


Welcome to North GA deer hunting


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## Echo (Dec 8, 2010)

j_seph said:


> Welcome to North GA deer hunting


 
Well, I can understand some of the complaining a little bit better now anyway. If that place is indicative of what a lot of folks have to hunt nowadays then I'd say the doe harvest needs to be backed off of completely for a couple of years just for starters.


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## Milkman (Dec 8, 2010)

Echo said:


> Well, I can understand some of the complaining a little bit better now anyway. If that place is indicative of what a lot of folks have to hunt nowadays then I'd say the doe harvest needs to be backed off of completely for a couple of years just for starters.



Think about it.......That property is over 9000 acres that is only deer hunted* 2 days a year*. 

So it probably has a *higher *deer population than the surrounding area.


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## firemedic1982 (Dec 8, 2010)

Milkman said:


> Think about it.......That property is over 9000 acres that is only deer hunted* 2 days a year*.
> 
> So it probably has a *higher *deer population than the surrounding area.



Absolutely, thats why we had high expectations, but if FDR has a "higher population" than the surrounding area I feel sorry for the local boys. I live 45 miles from the stand I was hunting( per GPS coordinates) and I see many more deer here. We drove the roads at night going to the store and to eat...never saw a single deer up there. Boy it sure is a BEAUTIFUL place though! I had a great time with some new friends back at the camp as well.


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## Echo (Dec 8, 2010)

Milkman said:


> Think about it.......That property is over 9000 acres that is only deer hunted* 2 days a year*.
> 
> So it probably has a *higher *deer population than the surrounding area.


 
Sure, that sounds logical but the hunts over the last 2 seasons likely took out a large portion of the "excess" animals and now the ones that are left probably still have low reproductive rates because the habitat is still in such terrible over-browsed shape so the herd can't bounce back from the pummeling it has recieved lately. I'm not doubting that FDR once was heavily overpopulated with deer......you can look at any edible green browse and notice a virtual absence of edible stems and leaves. An almost complete mast crop failure on FDR this season also certainly did nothing to improve matters for deer or the hunters.


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## JCBANJO02 (Dec 8, 2010)

i only saw deer yesterday afternoon. shot a 80 lb 6 1/2 yo doe. saw a total of 6 but she is the only one i could get a clean shot at. they should move this hunt back into november so food sources could be targeted. Also there are way to many people at 145. 100 would be better and open some of the safety zones up.


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## General Lee (Dec 8, 2010)

JCBANJO02 said:


> i only saw deer yesterday afternoon. shot a 80 lb 6 1/2 yo doe. saw a total of 6 but she is the only one i could get a clean shot at. they should move this hunt back into november so food sources could be targeted. Also there are way to many people at 145. 100 would be better and open some of the safety zones up.


Good points...........


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## yelper43 (Dec 9, 2010)

Six guys were in our group and nobody pulled the trigger. We scattered out and found tons of sign but in total we seen 8 deer and 2 of them were by the road as we drove through. The deer were not moving at all those we seen were jumped up while scouting or going to our stands. The park has some good looking woods but in my opinion they do not have the number of deer they think they have.


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## DSGB (Dec 9, 2010)

My report:

As I figured, my main areas were covered up with other hunters. I still saw some deer, but not as many as I expected.
I saw a good buck the first morning, but never could get a clean shot. He came in behind me and I didn't see him until he was started up the next ridge. By the time I got turned around, there were too many limbs in the way. Probably a good thing, cause I didn't see a doe the first day, unless you count the two I spooked walking out.
I could have killed a doe the second morning, but it was still early and I was hoping I'd see that buck again. Spooked a couple more walking out for lunch. 
Saw a big gobbler sitting in the truck eating my sammich. Not much activity in the afternoons.


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## GA DAWG (Dec 9, 2010)

Aint no deer down there..I think they should make it a early Nov hunt this coming year..I'd probably put in to go back.I have 2 rejections


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## markland (Dec 9, 2010)

Shot 2 of the 3 does I saw the 1st day, did not see anymore deer the rest of the hunt.  All the areas I scouted out the week before were overun with trucks and people so had to start out in a new spot which basically consisted of the best looking area I could find far from the road and as far between other trucks as possible when I parked.  Way too many people for the amount of actual huntable land and the deer are definitely not up high, all down low which consists of many of the red zone areas.  No food, no acorns, the deer I saw were browsing on shrubs and some kind of little blue berries.  Talked to the rangers about moving the hunt back a couple of weeks, but this time is the lowest use time for the park and they have to do it then.  I cannot see anywhere near 62 deer per sq mile on that park, maybe in the red zone areas but not widespread.


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## BornToHuntAndFish (Dec 9, 2010)

Congrats to those that had success.  Thanks for all the hunt reports.  

Wouldn't surprise me if a week or 2 before state park hunts if organized anti-hunters try to run all over the place pressuring & driving out as many deer as they could before the hunt, but hopefully DNR watch out for nasty trash tactics like that.


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## ButcherTony (Dec 9, 2010)

GA DAWG said:


> Aint no deer down there..I think they should make it a early Nov hunt this coming year..I'd probably put in to go back.I have 2 rejections


 yea me too


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## GA DAWG (Dec 9, 2010)

ButcherTony said:


> yea me too


Its your fault they aint no more deer there I really cant remember but didnt our cabin kill 11 or something like that?


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## ButcherTony (Dec 9, 2010)

GA DAWG said:


> Its your fault they aint no more deer there I really cant remember but didnt our cabin kill 11 or something like that?


 thats right....


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## DSGB (Dec 9, 2010)

markland said:


> All the areas I scouted out the week before were overun with trucks and people so had to start out in a new spot which basically consisted of the best looking area I could find far from the road and as far between other trucks as possible when I parked.



That's what I did, as well.



markland said:


> I cannot see anywhere near 62 deer per sq mile on that park, maybe in the red zone areas but not widespread.



The Ranger at the meeting said they were in the upper end of the carrying capacity of 30-35 psm. I think that 62 was the original estimate before the first managed hunt.


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## markland (Dec 9, 2010)

Yeah I thought I heard him say that but did not put it together at the time.  But definitely not a widespread population problem over the whole park I can guarantee you that, unfortunately the deer are gonna move to where the food is and this late in season, that is definitely not on most of the park which happens to be higher elevation.


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## Echo (Dec 10, 2010)

Just out of curiosity.....can anyone confirm that there was at least one antlered buck killed on this hunt?


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## j_seph (Dec 10, 2010)

GA DAWG said:


> Aint no deer down there..I think they should make it a early Nov hunt this coming year..I'd probably put in to go back.I have 2 rejections


 


ButcherTony said:


> yea me too


 I have 3 count em 3 that's right, can't get drawn with some getting drawn 2 or 3 times seems like


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## Dupree (Dec 10, 2010)

Bucks were killed.  I didn't see them but the Gw said a few "good ones" were brought in. Anyone heard the final kill total?


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## rbrooks449 (Dec 10, 2010)

We killed 3 in our party.  2 monster does (10 yr old and a 6 yr old).  Both were over 150 on the hoof.  Third was a yearling that came in with about 6 more.  I saw 3 on the final day and couldn't get a shot.  One thing nobody is mentioning is the obvious:  a lot of us walked all over the place Monday and the wind had them bedded down on Tuesday.  Still, once we found our honey hole we saw about 20 deer between the four of us.  I'd go back in a heart beat even in December. Found the spot too late.


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## Milkman (Dec 11, 2010)

Milkman said:


> How about it DNR............ we need stats for Yargo and FDR when available...    Who  has it ?????





dawg2 said:


> I was told by the FDR rangers  a couple weeks ago that 200 deer were killed last year.



I remember threads from last year that told the percentages, it wasnt that many if I remember correctly



Echo said:


> Just out of curiosity.....can anyone confirm that there was at least one antlered buck killed on this hunt?





4x4powerstrokesd said:


> Bucks were killed.  I didn't see them but the Gw said a few "good ones" were brought in. Anyone heard the final kill total?





Sounds like maybe they didnt keep any stats or at least not by anyone that reads here.


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## Milkman (Dec 11, 2010)

An un official report in this thread.

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=589351


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## GA DAWG (Dec 11, 2010)

Milkman said:


> I remember threads from last year that told the percentages, it wasnt that many if I remember correctly
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I remember ED crying about the hunt in a thread last year myself..Apparently he aint alone  Nowhere near 200 deer killed last year..Was not that many killed on the very first hunt..Maybe the first 2 years combined 200 were killed..


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## Milkman (Dec 11, 2010)

I knew I remembered seeing it posted somewhere.. here is a link to a post where Charlie gave the stats from the 09 hunt at FDR.  Looks like in 09 it was 134 hunters and 44 deer killed

http://forum.gon.com/showpost.php?p=4369855&postcount=12


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## fish hawk (Dec 11, 2010)

firemedic1982 said:


> Absolutely, thats why we had high expectations, but if FDR has a "higher population" than the surrounding area I feel sorry for the local boys. I live 45 miles from the stand I was hunting( per GPS coordinates) and I see many more deer here. We drove the roads at night going to the store and to eat...never saw a single deer up there. Boy it sure is a BEAUTIFUL place though! I had a great time with some new friends back at the camp as well.



Local boys dont have a problem seeing deer I can guarantee that.I think yall may have run all the deer across the valley to Oak Mountain because we been seeing plenty


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## rbrooks449 (Dec 11, 2010)

I gotta agree that the rangers used the old deer herd totals to entice everybody for the hunt.  I wouldn't doubt if the actual total is less than they said at the meeting.
BTW, none of ya'll on this thread asked any of those "dumb" questions at the end of the meeting did you?  That was like sitting in a first grade class room with some of the questions those guys were asking.


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## Dupree (Dec 12, 2010)

rbrooks449 said:


> I gotta agree that the rangers used the old deer herd totals to entice everybody for the hunt.  I wouldn't doubt if the actual total is less than they said at the meeting.
> BTW, none of ya'll on this thread asked any of those "dumb" questions at the end of the meeting did you?  That was like sitting in a first grade class room with some of the questions those guys were asking.



I asked if we were allowed to cross safety zones with an unloaded weapon. I agree about the silly questions, most were things that were already discussed or on the paper we were handed walking in.


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## cgn526 (Dec 12, 2010)

I hunted with rbrooks449 and a couple of other friends and we weren't that disappointed with the hunt. We were a little late zeroing in on them, but I saw 9 over the 2 days rbrooks saw 3 and one of our other friends saw 12 or 13. Couple that with the 3 we saw on Monday and that's about 27 deer. Admittedly we would have seen that many apiece at BF Grant during the rut hunt. Kinda makes you wonder what this hunt could be if held at the right time of the season. Very few acorns around, the mast crop seemed to be a failure, very little browse and all of it down low. For all the beautiful wide open hardwood valleys, they were practically sterile and devoid of food. You were hard pressed to even find a squirrel in the hardwoods. Still, we'd go back in a heartbeat. We drug one deer a mile and another over 1000 yards. We aren't afraid to work a little for our deer on public land.


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## cgn526 (Dec 12, 2010)

We had 143 hunters at the meeting and 30 deer checked out on Wednesday night. That should work out to .209 or 21% for a success rate. Not as good as last year, but better than some WMA's. I don't mind the $30 permit fee they charged. The park has to recoup some of the expenses of hosting the hunt. They lose a fair amount of revenue in the campground those days. Not to mention the additional labor costs that are incurred. I was thankful to be allowed to hunt there.


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## olabone (Dec 12, 2010)

rbrooks449 said:


> We killed 3 in our party.  2 monster does (10 yr old and a 6 yr old).  Both were over 150 on the hoof.  Third was a yearling that came in with about 6 more.  I saw 3 on the final day and couldn't get a shot.  One thing nobody is mentioning is the obvious:  a lot of us walked all over the place Monday and the wind had them bedded down on Tuesday.  Still, once we found our honey hole we saw about 20 deer between the four of us.  I'd go back in a heart beat even in December. Found the spot too late.


I'm glad yall saw some....We ended up by Callaway and didnt see any deer.  It was really hard to get in to over there.  No other hunters either....guess that explains alot.  Still don't think the deer numbers were as high as I expected.  And man was it cold!!


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## Doc70 (Dec 13, 2010)

*fdr*

money maker!!! what it's all about.


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## Milkman (Dec 13, 2010)

Doc70 said:


> money maker!!! what it's all about.



Explain what you mean ????


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## Doc70 (Dec 18, 2010)

$30.00 x 146 hunters showed up +++ $5.00 parking pass x 146 hunters showed up. All to help with the deer population that's eating the " native flora"... Oh by the way, you have to shoot a doe first before you shoot a buck.. Oh yea, don't hunt in the 3000 acres of safety zones.


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## Milkman (Dec 19, 2010)

Doc70 said:


> money maker!!! what it's all about.





Milkman said:


> Explain what you mean ????





Doc70 said:


> $30.00 x 146 hunters showed up +++ $5.00 parking pass x 146 hunters showed up. All to help with the deer population that's eating the " native flora"... Oh by the way, you have to shoot a doe first before you shoot a buck.. Oh yea, don't hunt in the 3000 acres of safety zones.



I see what you are referring to now. 
But since they had to close the park to all other fee making activities  for a few days due to the hunt there  may not have been much extra money made. They also had to import several extra staff to manage the hunt as well.   
At some parks like Hard Labor Creek loosing 3-4 days of lost golfing fees is probably much more than the hunter and camping fees gained.

I still wish DNR or Parks or someone would give us the official stats for these hunts.


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## Dupree (Dec 19, 2010)

C killmaster was there hunting. He should have the final numbers. I'd like to know what he saw/killed.


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## C.Killmaster (Dec 22, 2010)

146 hunters, 9 bucks and 23 does, 22% success (don't have the sheets in front of me, but button heads are included in the bucks).  Seems a little slow, but based on the current density estimates and time of year of the hunt it was really right on par.  Most of the deer head for lower ground once the acorns are cleaned up on the ridge.  I've lobbied for an earlier hunt, but the park can't afford to shut down in October or November.  Recruitment rates are pretty low, so the reduction was accomplished quickly in the first two years.


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## rbrooks449 (Dec 22, 2010)

I did find one acorn on the ground.  I was so excited I put it in my pocket to take to the evening hunt and put it out for bait...... is that considered baiting??? lol


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## Milkman (Dec 22, 2010)

C.Killmaster said:


> 146 hunters, 9 bucks and 23 does, 22% success (don't have the sheets in front of me, but button heads are included in the bucks).  Seems a little slow, but based on the current density estimates and time of year of the hunt it was really right on par.  Most of the deer head for lower ground once the acorns are cleaned up on the ridge.  I've lobbied for an earlier hunt, but the park can't afford to shut down in October or November.  Recruitment rates are pretty low, so the reduction was accomplished quickly in the first two years.



Thanks Charlie !!!


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## Echo (Dec 22, 2010)

C.Killmaster said:


> Recruitment rates are pretty low, so the reduction was accomplished quickly in the first two years.


 
After scouting and hunting the place for a couple of days that was really the only conclusion that I could come up with as well. 

 The reality was that FDR no longer  held an overly high deer population but judging from the incredibly overbrowsed and damaged condition of the range, it was obvious that it once held way more deer than the land could support.


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