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Hunting

Jones County Non-Typical Wins 1989 Hilman’s Big Buck Contest

Editor’s Note: Below is a story from 30 years ago that will appear in the Days GON By section of the February 2020 issue of GON. We miss our dear friend Bill Hilsman and the great deer contest he used to host. The crowd of deer hunters gathered around the Hilsman’s Deer Cooler booth at…

Lake Burton WMA’s Biggest Buck Ever

Rumors of the buck had preceded it, but when Michael Long and his brother finally dragged the buck straight out of the Lake Burton WMA woods of Rabun County and up to the checking station, the Game Management personnel working the hunt still couldn’t believe it. The buck’s rack didn’t look like it belonged to…

Worth County Wallhanger Only 2 1/2 Years Old

Although there has yet to be a Boone and Crockett record book buck killed in Georgia this season, there have been a number of outstanding bucks killed. Mike Roberts Jr., 22, of Sylvester, was one of the lucky hunters. Mike shot a 235-lb. live-weight Worth County buck on Nov. 13. Like many of the big…

Wild Hogs: Georgia’s Other Big Game

Hog hunting conjures up visions of large boars crashing through the woods with snapping jaws bristling with long tusks capable of tearing up dogs and hunters alike. Hog hunting, particularly with dogs, does have the potential for danger, while still hunting hogs can be as challenging as deer hunting. In addition, many people feel that…

Wheeler County River Bottom Giant

Early morning mist rose serenely from the swampy bottomland along the Oconee River as David Frost’s boots squished and padded softly through the dark, rich Wheeler County mud. He was going through the motions of his usual still-hunting methods, unaware that within seconds, a three-year crusade for the animal of a lifetime would begin… or…

First Georgia State Park Land Opened To Hunters

In a precedent-setting move, the first Georgia parks property has been opened to deer hunters. The Beaver Dam Creek marina site at Lake Richard B. Russell has been opened to archery-only deer hunting. The 350-acre tract located off Hwy 72 is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and leased to the Georgia Parks…

State-Record Bibb County Shed?

  Antlers of whitetail deer are often referred to as horns. Although antlers and horns both arise from the frontal skull plate, they are vastly different in composition and growth. Horns, such as those of goats, buffalo and bighorn sheep, are composed of keratin, the same material in fingernails. Horns are permanent, never shed and…

One-In-A-Million Meriwether County B&C

The odds of shooting a Boone & Crockett buck in Georgia are astronomical at best. In the past two seasons more than 900,000 hunters and countless millions of man-hours spent deer hunting have resulted in just three B&C bucks. The latest B&C buck was killed in Meriwether County by a hunter from Grantville, Charles “Shotgun” Johnson.…

Harris County’s Chessboard Bucks

Gorman Riley is one of those rare deer hunters who decided that he wanted to kill a Boone and Crockett buck—and then went out and accomplished the feat. Gorman, born and raised in Harris County, killed his first buck when he was 10. At 15, he told his father that he was going to kill…

Piedmont NWR Turns 50

Fifty years ago, the land that is now Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge was essentially a desert. Cleared by settlers in the 1800s, the land had been transformed from forest into massive cotton farms. Crop after crop of cotton finally wore the land out, and by the 1870 about half the farms in the area had…

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