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Hunting
Georgia seems to be in a rut, of sorts, when it comes to the number of record-class bow-killed deer that are being taken each season. Last year’s 53 bucks sits right on average when you consider that since the 2013 season, bow-kills have averaged 53.8 deer per year. For the 2007-2012 seasons, bowhunters averaged 69.3…
It all started while trout fishing at Rock Creek in the Blue Ridge WMA on Memorial Day weekend 2008. I had my limit of trout and was riding the back roads looking for places I might want to try and harvest a mountain buck on a future deer hunt. I came upon the local game…
You’ve just settled in your stand. In a few moments the grayness of dawn will bring the woods to life. For a while, maybe since last season, you’ve been longing for this moment, this spot. Comfortably you await, and then you see it—a flashlight approaching. You flash back, but it comes nearer and nearer. Less…
For deer hunters who love trying to kill a deer with a stick and string or a crossbow bolt, there are certainly challenges, but there is also great opportunity. The first weeks of Georgia’s archery deer season often find big bucks still on a late summer feeding pattern, and unpressured does make putting some meat…
After five years of patient and anxious waiting, Brian Walton, of Hillsboro, finally got drawn for a Georgia gator hunting tag. The wait was certainly worth it when Brian was able to harvest a 600-lb., 11-foot, 3-inch alligator the night of Aug. 20 while hunting in the Oconee River near Toomsboro in Wilkinson County. Brian…
Back in 2013, as a 14-year-old boy, I had a passion and the determination to be able to harvest a whitetail deer with a bow and arrow. I worked my tail off all summer long to be able to buy a new Mathews bow in hopes of taking a Georgia whitetail. During the summer of…
If rainfall totals are any indication, dove fields across the state should be in good shape. “Given the recent rains, we are expecting good production on our dove fields. If the rains continue, we should get good seed production and plenty of food availability on the fields,” said Greg Balkcom, WRD’s migratory game bird coordinator.…
I’m pretty sure I haven’t heard the first complaint this summer that it’s been too dry to plant a dove field. In fact, I was talking to an old country farmer the other day who actually had to wait a few weeks past his normal time of planting because it’s been too wet in his…
If it weren’t for bowhunters killing some amazing bucks, last deer season in Georgia would have gone down as the worst season for big bucks since GON began compiling scores and data three decades ago. Eleven archery bucks made the prestigious Fab 40, which is GON’s annual presentation of our state’s best bucks from last…
I’m thankful for Charlie Killmaster, head deer guru for WRD, and all the Game Management region biologists and supervisors who keep up with WMA check-in and sign-in data. Without those numbers, which are also used to gather important information to help manage WMA deer herds, hunters would be left in the dark about which WMAs…
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