Letters To The Editor – December 2021

Special Permits For Deer Killing Needs More Does, Less Bucks

Dear GON,

I hope you can help get some changes made to the current special permits allowing farmers to shoot bucks. 

I am on some leased property in Crawford County that has the potential for some nice deer to be taken from year to year, but it is getting harder to find these deer because there is a local farmer who has a permit to shoot anything he wants to. I realize deer can be a problem for farmers, but on the other hand, there are a lot of hunters who spend a lot time and money to have an opportunity to shoot a nice buck. Unfortunately the one nice buck that I had on camera this year made the mistake of visiting the farmer’s peanut field and was killed and left to waste. In my opinion that one deer was not going to destroy his crops. 

If Georgia wants to be known as a trophy state, something needs to be done to the permit system to exclude bucks with more than four points on one side. 

I don’t have a problem with the permit system except when it comes to killing trophy deer and letting the meat waste. Over the years the hunting standards have changed in Georgia. It is time for the permit system to be updated to coincide with the system. More does killed, but save the bucks. There is no telling how many trophy deer have been hunted for years just to end up being shot at night legally by the current system.

One of Many Angry Hunters,

Andy Young, McDonough

Andy Young’s Crawford County target buck found left to waste.

North Georgia Bears Are A Growing Problem

Dear GON,

 A few years back, I attended a meeting in Young Harris put on by DNR concerning the growing bear population in north Georgia. I do most of my deer hunting in the mountains and that is why I, too, am concerned about the bear population getting out of control. 

I attempt to keep supplemental feed out for the deer and turkey. As you can tell by the attached picture, the effort has become impossible. The picture of a sow with four cubs is not a rare thing. I can fill GON magazine up with other sows with three and four cubs. It’s the norm! 

When you show this picture to the general public, you get comments like “Oh how cute.” If we have a year where the mast crop is a complete failure, it will result in bird feeders and trash cans being destroyed and pets that go missing. “Cute” is not the word we will hear. What can we do?

One of the outputs from the meeting in Young Harris was DNR established a nine-day bear hunt for dog hunters on two of the north Georgia WMAs. If we look at harvest data, we can see where this was a success in decreasing the bear numbers on these areas. Now it’s time to do the same for the other mountain WMAs and the Chattahoochee National Forest, as well. 

Bear have no natural predators, so hunting is the only way to control this out of control problem! 

Tim Dangar, Ball Ground

GON Hunt Advisor Tim Dangar shares concerns about the growing number of bears in the mountains.

GON Social

GON Facebook: Wes Underwood with a Glascock County tank harvested Oct. 24.

GON Instagram: Josh Rogers, of McDonough, with a Henry County bow-kill.