Beginning Of My First Turkey Season

By Erika Cochran | March 20, 2019

Turkey season opens this week. What better way to get ready than to do a little shooting and getting comfortable with the gun I would be using? Shooting in front of others definitely got me out of my comfort zone, as well as filming. Normally, I like to be behind the camera. However, things are…

February 19, 2019

Here Comes Turkey Season!

What better way to start off turkey season than by attending the 43rd Annual NWTF Sport Show in Nashville, Tenn. this past weekend. Let me start off with the road to get there was not as easy as planned. My weekend started off with me waking up a 4 a.m. to go to the Truck-Buck…

January 25, 2019

Slow It Down

This past weekend I took a weekend trip to Asheville. Driving through the curvy mountain roads gave me time to reflect on this past hunting season and what I wanted to accomplish this coming year. This past season I didn’t hunt as much as I wanted, due to work and school, as well as for…

January 10, 2019

The GON Parking Lot

Crazy thing happened to me over the holidays. I met GON freelance writer Donald Jarrett in the GON parking lot. That’s alone is not crazy, but the happenstance, circumstances and connections turned that random meeting into something very special. I also met his Donald’s son Devereaux. Still not getting it? If I didn’t walk out…

December 20, 2018

Just Kill A Deer Already

“Cochran, you just need to kill a deer.” Those were the words that Brad Gill spoke in our discussion about me not being sure if I was ever going to sit in my spacious blind again. It was difficult for me to come to terms that I injured a buck and was not able to…

Articles written by Erika

November 11, 2016

Georgia Public Land Giant Buck Expected To Make Fab-40

Jeff Goins, of Good Hope, harvested a giant Georgia buck while hunting on the Oconee National Forest in Putnam County early this morning. It was the last day of his two-week vacation. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of deer,” Jeff told GON. Jeff was hunting with his fiancée, Erica Maxwell, also of Good Hope. The two were hunting in a…

October 25, 2016

Urgent Call For Chattahoochee National Forest, Cohutta WMA Hunters

Hunters still have a chance to make comments that could lead to improvements to habitat and an increase in wildlife populations on 143,419 acres of the Chattahoochee National Forest (CNF) and parts of Cohutta WMA, an area known as the “Foothills Landscape.” Comments can be made at two upcoming U.S. Forest Service meetings or by going online to www.tinyurl.com/FoothillsLandscape.…

October 4, 2016

Chattahoochee National Forest, Cohutta WMA Hunters Need To Rise Up

A series of upcoming U.S. Forest Service meetings will determine whether or not parts of the Chattahoochee National Forest (CNF) will receive much needed habitat management. Proper timber management would boost and stabilize animal and bird populations, including deer and turkey, which have been impacted by a “hands-off” approach championed by environmental groups who want no timber…

October 1, 2016

Big Salary Bump For DNR Officers

A well-deserved pay increase is headed for state law enforcement officers in Georgia, including officers with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Law Enforcement Division.  Gov. Nathan Deal recently announced a proposal for the increase, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2017 and will go to all state law enforcement officers, including Georgia State…