Posts by Duncan Dobie
Frank Pritchard’s Jasper County Monarch
Frank Pritchard chased big bucks across Georgia for most of his adult life. He began practicing trophy management long ago before it was the “in” thing to do. Fifty years ago, Frank shot a massive non-typical buck in Jasper County that sported a rack with 22 points. By every standard, it should have qualified for…
Read MoreThe Bone-Crusher Buck From Coweta
It had been a slow morning for Douglas Freeman. After several hours in his portable stand, he decided to climb down and do a little walking. “I reached the edge of a large corn field that had been cut several weeks earlier. A lot of scattered corn was still on the ground, and some deer…
Read MoreThe Quest For Blackbeard Part 3: Turkey Hunting Fiction Series
Things were going almost too well for Cliff. He continued working hard at the Holloway farm on Saturdays. He had killed a nice gobbler with a shotgun, and he knew he was lucky to have a special relationship with Big Sam. He had not seen or talked to Freddie Burns in many weeks, but by…
Read MoreThe Quest For Blackbeard Part 2: Turkey Hunting Fiction Series
Ellis Holloway III was a third-generation landowner. Even though he was accused of having been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, which he couldn’t deny, he had set about early in life to do more than live off the family inheritance. He had always been a hard worker, and he loved the land…
Read MoreArthur Woody’s Native Turkeys
Arthur Woody had a lifelong passion for his mountain turkeys. Next to his beloved deer and trout, wild turkeys were the most important game animal in Ranger Woody’s life. He hunted them as a boy, and during the 1920s and ’30s, at the height of his restoration program with deer, he worked hard to try…
Read MoreThe Quest For Blackbeard: Turkey Hunting Fiction Series
The large black gobbler came tip-toeing over the small rise like a perfectly balanced ballerina, zigzagging from side to side as if he were floating above the leaves on nothing but thin air. He took a few quick steps, paused, puffed up, and then continued his dainty toe-stepping ballet toward the unsuspecting decoy. His thick,…
Read MoreStory of Zeus: A Potential State-Record Buck
By now, many GON readers are familiar with the recent controversy that erupted after Lee Ellis killed a giant buck named “Zeus” on Nov. 16 that could end up being Georgia’s best typical buck ever taken with a bow. Within a few days of killing the big deer in a north Atlanta suburb, a story…
Read MoreSam “The Bird Man” Fite
A worn 1976 Georgia license plate reads “RUFF61,” as a reminder of the previous 1975 ruffed grouse season in the Georgia mountains. It had been his best season ever with 61 birds. Not only is he a seasoned veteran, he’s also a seasoned backwoods philosopher. Seven decades of chasing the “big three” in Georgia has…
Read MoreThe Story Of Arthur Woody And His Deer
Arthur Woody was the most famous forest ranger ever to refuse to wear a uniform. Born in 1884 near Suches, in the heart of Georgia’s “high country,” legend tells us that he witnessed his father kill the last living deer in Fannin County around 1895, when Arthur was 10 years old. In 1912, Arthur was…
Read MoreThe Story Of Georgia’s No. 3 Bass
When George Perry caught his immortal world record 22-lb., 4-oz. largemouth in a backwater slough near Montgomery Lake in Telfair County on June 2, 1932, he unwittingly caused Nickie Rich and a handful of other singular Georgia bass anglers a great disservice. By setting such an imposing and seemingly unbeatable record, many of the exceptional…
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