Posts by Daryl Kirby
Rut-Crazed Dawson County Buck Is A Hoss!
Mornings in the Georgia deer woods like Timothy Vaughan experienced are what get hunters excited about the potential of the rut. Peaceful stillness in the stand can be transformed immediately into unexpected, exciting action—an adrenaline rush people who don’t hunt could never imagine. “It was a very quiet, calm and cool morning…” That is how…
Read MoreImagine
What’s the best song ever written? For the folks sitting around your campfire this weekend, a song from Haggard, Hank Jr. or David Allan Coe might come to mind. Who knows why, but this morning I got on the internet and searched ‘Best Song Of All Time.’ Don’t do it, you might be disappointed. One…
Read MoreSuper Tall 11-Point Should Set Hancock County Bow Record
A tall-tined buck with a symmetrical rack should set a new Hancock County record as the best ever taken with a bow. And that’s saying something special coming out of one of the Piedmont Region’s top big-buck counties. The buck was taken on opening day of gun season by Dalton Trammell, who decided this season…
Read MoreGON’s Georgia Deer Records Now Online
The County-by-County rankings that appear in the magazine each year include the Top-10 bucks ever recorded from each of Georgia’s 159 counties. The rankings were first published in 1994. But the process began in 1991 by compiling official scores from old big-buck contests, getting scores sheets from certified measurers, and by crisscrossing the state to…
Read MoreGeorgia’s Top Big Buck Counties 2020
The numbers have been crunched, and the Top-3 counties in Georgia for big-buck production remain the same—Worth, Lee and Dougherty are the best of the best. The No. 4 and 5 counties swapped spots, with Fulton edging past Macon County as the No. 4 ranked county in Georgia for big bucks recorded in the past…
Read MoreState Mourns Passing Of DNR Captain Stan Elrod
I don’t recall exactly how or when I first met Stan Elrod, suffice to say it was in the mid to late 1990s when I was a young editor at GON and Stan was an even younger DNR game warden. I do clearly remember the morning in February 2007 when Stan called and asked if…
Read MoreBlast Update, Politics And Keeping History
Outdoor Blast Update The 2020 GON Ag-Pro Outdoor Blast was officially canceled a few weeks ago. This was a painful decision, but with all the restrictions in place and uncertainty from week to week, it was not a tough call. No choice, really. Time to put a fork in 2020 and get ready for 2021,…
Read More13-Foot Seminole Gator With A History
The 2020 Georgia alligator season is off to a good start, with reports of some huge gators already taken since hunting began Friday evening, Aug. 14 at sunset. GON will have full recaps and highlights of the season next month. One of the more interesting stories so far comes from Lake Seminole, where the Kilgore…
Read MoreThe 2019 Fab 40 Georgia Bucks
An average season for giant bucks in Georgia is pretty awesome, especially when compared to other Southern states. The Fab 40, GON’s annual compilation of Georgia’s best bucks from the previous season, includes only those measured by certified scorers. The Fab 40 provides a great way to compare our deer seasons. The chart on page…
Read MoreEditorial-Opinion August 2020
I can’t watch the news anymore. Every story is maddening on some level, whether it’s simply what is being shown—how people are behaving—or it’s how the ‘reporter’ spins the story. Both drive up the blood pressure. Very frustrating times. You know what’s also maddening and frustrating? This stinking virus. Do the kids go to school,…
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