# Dog Hunting



## Treed (Dec 4, 2011)

What are you guys thoughts on opening Georgia up to bear hunting with dogs ?  Think it will ever happen ?  I believe our population is healthy enough.


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## GA DAWG (Dec 4, 2011)

They can in south ga. Should be able to in north ga. Beings we have the most bears! At least some type of quota type hunt like they did this yr with hogs on WMAs.


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## Backcountry (Dec 4, 2011)

i hope not in north ga....just more opportunities for irresponsible dog owners to allow their dogs on my hunting property.


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## tree cutter 08 (Dec 4, 2011)

it would have to be a set aside season. public land is covered up with deer hunters during deer season


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## bullsprig1100 (Dec 5, 2011)

LOL......I forgot the deer hunters owned the National Forest.......


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## buckeroo (Dec 5, 2011)

This is totally selfish, but I hope not. I got to see first hand this year how just the pressures of running coons with dogs affects the bears. I was seeing bears every couple of times I went out until the area I'm on started getting hammered by coon hunters that could care less about bears. 

That said, the NF belongs to us all and we are all free to legally hunt it so the running of coon dogs is legal and something I will have to expect next year. 

I am thankful to have seen bears this year. I absolutely loved it and cant wait til next season.


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## Unicoidawg (Dec 5, 2011)

Ummmmm no........


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## rivercritter (Dec 5, 2011)

dogin affects nothin i get a tennesse permit just so i can shoot some 2 my dogs theyve doged for years and every hunt if got on a bear. they do like 2 run alot further. i hope they do and ill be right in the mix we dont hav any deer left any way might as we dog bears. think about it.


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## bearhunter39 (Dec 5, 2011)

We need a dog season in georgia,but we first need to get rid of all the deer hunter's who think they own the whole state just because they own a few acres,if they don't want dog's on their property let them put up a fence .


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## Unicoidawg (Dec 5, 2011)

bearhunter39 said:


> if they don't want dog's on their property let them put up a fence .



That is one of the craziest things I have read on the forums in quite some time........ It is the dog owner's responsibility to control his animals not the landowners. Look I have no problem with folks persuing something they enjoy, but dog hunters wonder why some feel so strongly against them. Attitudes like this are why........your hurting your own cause.


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## Vernon Holt (Dec 5, 2011)

rivercritter said:


> *dogin affects nothin i get a tennesse permit just so i can shoot some 2 my dogs theyve doged for years and every hunt if got on a bear. they do like 2 run alot further. i hope they do and ill be right in the mix we dont hav any deer left any way might as we dog bears. think about it.*


 

You have hit on the solution, my friend. Do your bear dogging in TN where the atmosphere seems to be more receptive.

You are fortunate to have the period for "dog training" in N. GA. You will be lucky if you are able to hold onto this privilege.


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## plottman25 (Dec 5, 2011)

Anyone stupid enough to beleive that bear/coonhunting with hounds effects deer movement needs to read this.
http://www.georgiafederationcha.com/members/raccoonimpact.pdf
I know this thread was started about bear, but i dont really see much difference.
The way i see it the whole state should either be doggin or no doggin for deer, bear, hog etc.  Ive never understood why you could deer hunt with dogs in south ga but not north.  And why its ok to hunt over feeders in south and not in north.  JMO


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## Unicoidawg (Dec 5, 2011)

plottman25 said:


> Anyone stupid enough to beleive that bear/coonhunting with hounds effects deer movement needs to read this.
> http://www.georgiafederationcha.com/members/raccoonimpact.pdf
> I know this thread was started about bear, but i dont really see much difference.
> The way i see it the whole state should either be doggin or no doggin for deer, bear, hog etc.  Ive never understood why you could deer hunt with dogs in south ga but not north.  And why its ok to hunt over feeders in south and not in north.  JMO



While I do not agree that dogging does not affect deer. I do completely agree with you in that it needs to be one or the other. This wishy washy stuff is crazy....


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## funderburkjason (Dec 5, 2011)

Unicoidawg said:


> While I do not agree that dogging does not affect deer. I do completely agree with you in that it needs to be one or the other. This wishy washy stuff is crazy....



A study has been done to show that running deer with dogs has no real significant effect on deer movement patterns.


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## buckeroo (Dec 5, 2011)

I saw my own study this year.....

I was consistently seeing bears in the area of NF I was on. Once dogs started running the mountain I was on for coons it was game over. Bear will change their habits and movements due to this pressure. I saw it myself this year and have no doubts about it.

I say let the guys keep doing it though because it is legal and IMO their right. I have no problem with it, I just need to be a better shot and not miss during muzzle loader like I did this year so I dont have to contend. ;-)  Pressure moves and changes animal patterns and behavior..... Period!


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## Unicoidawg (Dec 5, 2011)

funderburkjason said:


> A study has been done to show that running deer with dogs has no real significant effect on deer movement patterns.



I have seen it with my own eyes on family land that it does..........


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## koyote76 (Dec 5, 2011)

if you want to support dog hunting goto http://www.doghuntingworld.com/forum/
we are all dog hunters coming together to fight for our rights.

theres alot of people on GON  that will not support dog hunting, they might say they do, but they will throw us under the bus at any chance. fight for your rights. just because someones a hunter doesnt mean they arent an anti just like hsus.


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## koyote76 (Dec 5, 2011)

Vernon Holt said:


> You have hit on the solution, my friend. Do your bear dogging in TN where the atmosphere seems to be more receptive.
> 
> You are fortunate to have the period for "dog training" in N. GA. You will be lucky if you are able to hold onto this privilege.




i will always support dog hunting sports, even when our backs are against the wall. but its clear that most of you wont support us. but let this be known ALL DOG HUNTERS WILL ALWAYS SUPPORT YOU AND YOUR RIGHTS TO HUNT! even when you choose not to support your fellow hunters.


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## huntin_dobbs (Dec 5, 2011)

There will always be different opinions thrown around and arguments started over what’s better, what’s going to ruin our sport, what’s going to help our sport. Bottom line is WE can save our sport, but all this arguing amongst hunters is going to ruin ALL of US. I know that sounds silly but bear with me. What's funny to me is that everyone that’s posted on this thread is a hunter yet we are all so quick to bash each other’s way of doing things.... Each group brings something different to the table. Yea it’s great to be part of a group of hunters with similar interests and hunting methods (dog hunters, bow hunters, gun hunters, etc…), but we have to step back and see that while we are all fighting against each other, we are just adding fuel to the anti's fire to do away with ALL aspects of our sport of hunting.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to have a little rivalry amongst ourselves but when it gets to the point of damaging each others’ way of doing things I say it’s gone too far. I feel like when someone bad mouths a group of hunters for the way they do things they might as well be shooting themselves in the foot! My love of the outdoors has gotten me to try and explore many different ways of hunting and just so happens that my favorite is with dogs. That doesn’t mean I’ll bad mouth a stand hunter for putting up a stand somewhere, just know that I will respect that hunters ways and expect the same from him/her. We need to learn to respect each other’s ways of doing things or not too far down the road we won’t have to worry about a whether a hunters' dogs are going to scare off "*your* deer" cause none of US will be hunting at all. Take a step back and look at the big picture.


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## rivercritter (Dec 6, 2011)

im not bashin anything i would just like 2 see a small maybe week long dog hunt i dont want much. i think everyone has the right 2 pursue game in the way they enjoy most. ill even say i disagree with some of the dog trainin days. i think its may 1-15 i dont want 2 hav a gobbler that iv fooled with all day just get right and a pack of hounds come through and flush him. all of ar regs need work i think ar deer season is 2 long. i could go on and on. maybe a late season hunt would be more apropriate because it is easyer 2 patern bears early that way stand and stalk hunters can get thers i just want 2 get mine. im not angry everyone is intitled 2 ther on opinion.


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## Backcountry (Dec 6, 2011)

bearhunter39 said:


> We need a dog season in georgia,but we first need to get rid of all the deer hunter's who think they own the whole state just because they own a few acres,if they don't want dog's on their property let them put up a fence .




i'm still trying to digest this...i don't know where to  or


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## Treed (Dec 9, 2011)

Wow !  Looks like I opened a can of worms here.  Obviously there a varying opinions on this.  Personally, I would like to see some type of managed hunt.  As far as dogs altering deer movements, I guess it does happen on occasion.  However I can tell you I have seen/killed deer in the same areas where I coon hunt.  I think it all comes down to the hunters responsibility.  It also depends on how hard the area is hunted with dogs. But all in all I believe coyotes and hogs have more effect on deer movements than the handfull of coon dogs that are in the woods now.  At least thats the case in the mountains where we hunt.


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## GA DAWG (Dec 9, 2011)

Treed said:


> But all in all I believe coyotes and hogs have more effect on deer movements than the handfull of coon dogs that are in the woods now.  At least thats the case in the mountains where we hunt.


Not to mention BEARS!!! On my trail cams. When the bear move in. The deer leave out. Ive said it before so I'll say it again. Take Dawson Forest for example. It gets hammered by coon hunters and squirrel hunters and rabbit hunters WITH DOGS. Every single day its not a deer hunt. They killed probably 40 trophy bucks this year. BF Grant gets hunted just as hard if not harder with dogs for a MONTH almost before the first gun hunt. This yr in only 3 days of that gun hunt. They killed 30 something trophy bucks. I wonder why the hounds aint running these deer off????????  Could it be some people just cant deer hunt? Yes I think so.


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## funderburkjason (Dec 9, 2011)

GA DAWG said:


> Not to mention BEARS!!! On my trail cams. When the bear move in. The deer leave out. Ive said it before so I'll say it again. Take Dawson Forest for example. It gets hammered by coon hunters and squirrel hunters and rabbit hunters WITH DOGS. Every single day its not a deer hunt. They killed probably 40 trophy bucks this year. BF Grant gets hunted just as hard if not harder with dogs for a MONTH almost before the first gun hunt. This yr in only 3 days of that gun hunt. They killed 30 something trophy bucks. I wonder why the hounds aint running these deer off????????  Could it be some people just cant deer hunt? Yes I think so.



Some people are just blind and only see what they think to be the truth when in reality its completely different.  People that dont hunt with dogs are normally against it because of varying opinions but 99% of the time dog hunters stand up for all forms of hunting. I dont believe that can be said for people who dont hunt with dogs. Just saying that when the time comes that hunting of all types gets outlawed because of all these PETA heads we are gonna wish that we all stuck togeother and supported each other.


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## hounddog (Dec 11, 2011)

I hope we get to hunt bear with dogs in north Ga


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## NCHillbilly (Dec 12, 2011)

I'm saying this as someone who has spent over half his life hunting bears, coons, and rabbits with hounds, and loving it. I wish the bear season here had the first couple weeks WITHOUT dogs. You can say what you want, but I've spent a lot of time in the woods, both behind a pack of dogs and without dogs, and when the first dog is turned loose, you ain't seeing any more bears in the daylight without dogs behind or under them. There is no chance here for anyone who doesn't own hounds to stalk-hunt bears. They should at least open early bow season/muzzleloader for bear without dogs, we have a crazy amount of bears now, but no way to hunt them except with dogs. I see several bears in daylight every year the couple weeks before bear season opens, but it's game over at daylight opening day of bear season. As soon as it opens, the woods are absolutely full of dogs and people running everywhere you go, and the bears hole up in the thickets 'til dark. I'd like to see some kind of compromise here so that everyone can bear hunt, not just houndsmen. Again, nothing against houndsmen, I'm a several-generation houndsman myself.


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## bullsprig1100 (Dec 12, 2011)

Why not allow for some sort of bear hunt with hounds on the larger WMA's, where there are limited opportunities for deer hunting anyway, and schedule them around the deer hunts. That way the deer hunters get their time in the woods as has been the case, and bear hunters get a new opportunity to run their hounds for bear, without interfering with anyone....


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## simpleman30 (Dec 12, 2011)

NCHillbilly said:


> I'm saying this as someone who has spent over half his life hunting bears, coons, and rabbits with hounds, and loving it. I wish the bear season here had the first couple weeks WITHOUT dogs. You can say what you want, but I've spent a lot of time in the woods, both behind a pack of dogs and without dogs, and when the first dog is turned loose, you ain't seeing any more bears in the daylight without dogs behind or under them. There is no chance here for anyone who doesn't own hounds to stalk-hunt bears. They should at least open early bow season/muzzleloader for bear without dogs, we have a crazy amount of bears now, but no way to hunt them except with dogs. I see several bears in daylight every year the couple weeks before bear season opens, but it's game over at daylight opening day of bear season. As soon as it opens, the woods are absolutely full of dogs and people running everywhere you go, and the bears hole up in the thickets 'til dark. I'd like to see some kind of compromise here so that everyone can bear hunt, not just houndsmen. Again, nothing against houndsmen, I'm a several-generation houndsman myself.



this is the most reasonable statement so far.  i've never been bear hunting, but it makes sense.  however, as an avid deer-dog hunter, i know this is NOT the case with deer.  i respectfully disagree with those above that claim deer-dogging affects regular deer patterns.  if you hunt less than a few hundred acres, your deer are merely passing through anyways and the factors outside of your control that affect a deer's pattern are infinite.  i could go on and on with this argument but most folks' minds are already made up, despite the cold hard truth.

back to bear hunting... i suppose that the compromise is already there:  you can bear hunt with dogs in south ga, just as you can deer hunt with dogs in parts of the southern zone.  i agree that a late bear dogging season is a better compromise, but you'll have a hard time convincing your hound-less counterparts.


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## bullsprig1100 (Dec 12, 2011)

simpleman30 said:


> back to bear hunting... i suppose that the compromise is already there:  you can bear hunt with dogs in south ga, just as you can deer hunt with dogs in parts of the southern zone.  i agree that a late bear dogging season is a better compromise, but you'll have a hard time convincing your hound-less counterparts.



The only issue with the Southern Zone bear season is that it is limited to 5 counties, I believe, and there is little or no public land to hunt bear with hounds in that area. The Northern bear zone has a large volume of public land, for which a better opportunity to run bears with hounds exists for the general public. Otherwise , I would agree with your comment


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## Blessed (Dec 15, 2011)

First of all there is no reason for Ga to be broken into any less than 3 zones, maybe 4. There should definately be a mtn zone and the rules and dates should be different. I am not a bear hunter but I do feel like dogging bear should be allowed for at least a two week season. You could do this between bow season and rifle season and have a break in between. This would generate a lot of revenue from non resident doggers and would help control the population which has almost reached a level of out of control here in the mtns. I also feel that deer season should open mid nov. and run thru Christmas. Why should it take a hunter longer than this to kill a deer or two? If you give an idiot 4 months to walk around in the woods with a rifle and know nothing about hunting he will kill deer. Shorten it up and lets share these awesome woods we live in.


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## redneck_billcollector (Dec 15, 2011)

Ironically the deer hunters in north GA complain about the bear population taking all the fawns, yet they do not want the best method allowed for taking bears.  I have hunted deer most of my life in areas where hounds are used for deer, coons, fox, bobcats and now hogs yet the deer hunting has only got better.  I am assuming the question delt with hunting on PUBLIC land where frankly a houndsman has as much a right to hunt as any stump hunter has.  In south Ga where they hunt bear with dogs, the deer hunting has only gotten better.  I personally have more of a problem when folks from Atlanta come into the woods (on public land) and make racket to beat all  after sunrise .....I digress though.  I imagine the dog bear season would be early before most of the deer hunting really peaked, simply because the rut would kick in after the bears were all gone to bed.  

I see complaint after complaint about all the bears eating most of the fawns yet those same folks who have never hunted with hounds (I grew up hunting deer with hounds along with bears with hounds in N. FLA back when bear were legal game) think that some how hounds mess up deer hunting.  I have stump hunted lands in many a south GA county where hound hunting was legal (until recently ,  I mean the 70's, that is how alot of the hunting was done near where I live).  I never understood the divide between houndsmen and stump hunters..... I own land down here and I have a problem with line hunters and poachers, all stump hunters, that doesn't mean all stump hunters are bad.....

I am also a trapper so I argued with houndsmen back in the day (once again the late 70's) and I was really confussed, 'cause I considered myself a houndsman back then also.....ol Ben Franklin had it right when he said "We must all hang together, or we will surely hang together".  That could be applied to the hound/stump hunter debate, the hound/trapper debate....the debate outlawed trapping in FLA in the late 70's and guess what, the same folks that egged on the houndsmen went after them next and guess who their allies are/were...the stump hunters.  The NF do not belong to any one group, they belong to us all, we keep fighting each other, the bird watchers, the tree huggers and the Atlanta urbanites will surely come after ALL hunters in the NFs if we don't all support each other.


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## GA DAWG (Dec 15, 2011)

Why not have a bear dog season this time of year. Bears are hid out right now. Bear season is over for the state. Gun and bow hunters have already had a go at em. They have no idea how many bears are even in north ga. I can tell ya now the estimates are waaaay wrong. Bears have took over.  Another thing. Why does bear season close the first of Dec. Anybody know?  They want more killed. Looks like it would run through and end when deer season ends.


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