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Hunting
It was Thursday morning before opening day of the 2023 season. I stood in the pre-dawn darkness in anticipation of the first gobble of the season. I did not have to wait long as the horizon started to lighten and a barred owl awakened the woods followed by the first gobble of the season. After…
Deer season has come and gone. Bradley Carpenter had a typical season harvesting a couple of does and one nice 3.5-year-old 8-pointer, all on public land in north Georgia. It was a mild Saturday morning in the middle of February, and Bradley was out walking on Lake Russell WMA. He was there before daylight, listening…
It had been a half hour since my last call. I had no idea if the bird was even still in the neighborhood or not. He hadn’t given me any reason to believe he was, and when he had last gobbled, he was still in the same vicinity as he had been when he first…
Jimmy Collins, of Hamilton, was climbing down from his Harris County deer stand on Dec. 13, 2003 when his wedding ring caught on a screw-in step above him. “I let loose with my right hand and was going for the next step,” said Jimmy. “When my ring hung, it threw me off balance, and…
A Booner stepping out was the last thing on the mind of a newcomer to the area. Gary McMahan, of Franklin, N.C., was enjoying his first year in a Hancock County club during the 2003-04 season. On the evening of Nov. 22, Gary made a decision that would place him in Georgia’s deer-hunting annals forever.…
How many white-tailed deer should we have in Georgia? The answer varies depending on whom you ask. Management of Georgia’s white-tailed deer herd can be a challenging and, at times, controversial topic. According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD), the white-tailed deer is Georgia’s most popular game species. Currently, management…
Now that the white-tailed deer season has ended, hunters will likely turn their attention once again to small game like rabbits, squirrels and the bobwhite quail, although quail hunting is nothing like it once was. When fence rows from small farms and family gardens crisscrossed Alabama and the Southeast, the bobwhite flourished. Since large-scale farming…
I’ve been avidly hunting my whole life, starting with my dad. I harvested my first deer when I was 6 years old. My family takes it way more serious than most. We’ve always had a few clubs we’ve been in and even managed a few hunting clubs over the years. I’ve experienced the club atmosphere,…
Georgia has a new No. 2 best-ever typical bow-kill buck. The giant Gwinnett County 10-pointer grossed 182 inches and netted 174 3/8 inches and was recently scored by official measurer Bobby Bond in Fort Valley. When looking at overall Georgia bow bucks, both typical and non-typical, Grant Bailey’s buck is No. 6 on that list.…
Georgia’s deer season rating sees yet another uptick from hunters rating their seasons at “Excellent.” While the percentage of happier hunters rises less than 1 percent, it does bring the season total of those rating their seasons as Excellent to 25.7%. This is an all-time record since GON began conducting the survey more than two…
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