Georgia Counties Ranked For Big Bucks In 2011

Howard McCants, of Bogart, shot this 11-point buck last Nov. 19 in Madison County. With a net score of 139 7/8, Howard’s buck will pad Madison County’s score for the next 10 years in GON’s equation that measures big-buck production.

It’s tightening up at the top of GON’s rankings of Georgia counties for their big-buck production. Topping the list for years with scores that approached 200 points were Dooly and Macon, neighboring counties along the Flint River long known for being the best trophy-buck counties in the state.

The latest numbers have been crunched, and Macon is still on top, but with a score that has dropped by about 14 percent in the past five years. The top three counties — Macon, Worth and Lee — are only points apart with scores in the 160s. Dooly, meanwhile, has dropped to No. 8 and is in danger of losing it’s premier red status as a county that scores above 100 points.

Fourth and fifth places in the rankings go to two Northern Zone counties that are rising stars when it comes to consistent production of top-end bucks. Morgan County comes in at No. 4 this year with a score of 153. Morgan is a Piedmont county with a ranking fueled by some some large tracts and intensive management that has spread across the county to tracts large and small. The deer-management formula of food plots, high-protein supplemental feed and mineral supplements common now across the nation, had its beginnings in Morgan County with deer-hunting fanatics who worked at Godfrey Feed, Pennington Seed and the Banks Farm. Fulton County, despite a huge portion of its acreage eaten up by asphalt and houses, is No. 5 and rising like a rocket with a score of 139. From no deer at all just a few decades ago, the suburbs north and south of Atlanta now are home to giant bucks that live and travel in narrow ribbons of habitat.

The other Northern Zone county in the red is Hancock, and good production of trophy-racked bucks seems to be spreading in that part of the Piedmont. Four counties that touch Hancock’s border are among the Top-10 counties in Georgia with the biggest increases in big-buck production.

Nine counties scored above 100 this year, which is down from 10 last season and 11 in the 2009 rankings.

GON keeps a massive database of officially measured bucks that allows us to track the big-buck production of every county on a yearly basis. We use a formula based on official net scores from bucks taken in the past 10 years, and we also factor in the square miles of each county. Every county gets a score.

Scores can drop because we only look at a 10-year window. Bucks killed 11 years ago fall out of the equation. Obviously, a high-scoring buck or two killed in the past season results in an increased score for a county.

If you kill a good buck, make sure you contact GON. Call us at (800) 438-4663, or you can email [email protected].