VOTES 2021: Rate Your Deer Season, Turkey And Dove Regs Survey

VOTES, which stands for Voice Of The Educated Sportsman, is a GON survey that has been around for more than two decades.

A question on the survey each and every year is Rate Your Deer Season, which gives us county-specific ratings that can be compared to historical trends. We simply want to know how your deer hunting was this season, and we’d like to hear why you gave it that rating. We also want to hear your comments and opinions on how you feel the hunting could be improved.

In addition to the annual Rate Your Season survey, we also ask other survey questions, and this year those questions are related to turkey and dove hunting seasons and regulations. To answer those questions, you will need to fill out the ballot that appears on the magazine cover.

You don’t have to cut off the bottom of your January magazine cover to participate in the VOTES survey. You can photo-copy it, or you can take a digital photo with your phone and email the picture of your ballot to [email protected]. Simply include your comments in the email along with the attached picture of your cover ballot.

Also, again this year, GON subscribers who we have email addresses for will receive an online VOTES ballot, which will also include a way to write and submit comments digitally. This email survey is super convenient for GON members. If you got an email and did your survey there, we have your results—there’s no need to use your cover ballot.

So how was your deer season? We’re going to guess that Stockbridge’s Warren Rutledge gives it a pretty good rating after killing this Henry County 10-pointer on Nov. 6.

Here are this year’s additional VOTES questions that related to turkey and dove seasons and regulations:

Question 2: Southeastern states, including Georgia, appear to be seeing a reduction in wild turkey numbers. Biologists are looking into potential causes. Which, if any, potential changes to Georgia’s turkey regulations or seasons would you support?

Something is going on in the turkey woods. Across the Southeast, wild turkey populations are down. In some areas, turkeys are flat gone from good habitat that supported big flocks for decades. The response from other state agencies has been to limit hunting opportunity, with the most common theme to start turkey season later after peak breeding.

Please take a moment to read the article submitted by Dr. Michael Chamberlain, a turkey hunter and biologist who has made studying wild turkeys his life’s passion and work.

Georgia hasn’t yet proposed any specific changes to our turkey-hunting regulations. However, other states like South Carolina are starting turkey season later, and Alabama is considering changes. Georgia could also look at making some changes.

Which of these changes would you support (check all that apply):

• Delay season opener to reduce breeding disruption

• Daily bag limit of 1 gobbler

• Bag limit of 1 gobbler in the first 10 days of the season

• Reduce season bag limit to 2 gobblers

• No changes

Question 3: Following the change before last season to the mourning dove hunting dates, which were changed to allow for additional hunting opportunity in September and to extend the season until Jan. 31, some hunters have said they still wish to have dove hunting opportunity in October. 

To gather more public input on the preferred dove season dates, please select your dove season preference from the three options below:

• Do not change the current season structure. Dates in 2021 would be Sept. 4-30, Nov. 20-28, and Dec. 9 – Jan. 31.

• Delay third season start and extend first season into October. Dates in 2021 would be Sept. 4 – Oct. 10, Nov. 20-27, and Dec. 18 – Jan. 31.

• Delay opening of both first and third seasons. Dates in 2021 would be Sept. 11 – Oct. 17, Nov. 20-27, and Dec. 18 – Jan. 31.

Important reminder: If you only want to respond to Rate Your Deer Season, you can do so with a quick email. Simply list your rating (excellent, good, fair or poor), the primary county you hunted, and write your comments on why you rated it that way. Then simply email us at [email protected] with the subject “Rate Your Season.”