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By Pete Cox On Oct. 13, 2024, at approximately 7:15 a.m., we both sat in an old cypress box blind. This is the beginning of year two of sitting in this Ware County box blind. We have had our eye on Splinter since the beginning of last year. Ashton had a chance last year to…
After four weeks of archery deer hunting, Georgia’s 2024-2025 deer season makes a transition on Saturday morning, Oct. 12, as primitive-weapons hunting opens statewide. Also, kids 15 and younger can hunt with rifles as the Youth Week opens in conjunction with the primitive-weapons season. The general firearms deer season for all hunters opens next Saturday,…
Significant efforts are underway this season to expand venison donations efforts in Georgia. The longest-running program, Georgia Hunters For The Hungry (GHFTH), has been active for more than 30 years, and this deer season the number of participating processors has tripled. Last year there were 12 processors in the state for Hunters For The Hungry.…
With the dog days of summer coming to a close, deer hunters are anxiously waiting for the crisp autumn air to set in. Year after year, we spend countless hours pouring sweat, all in hopes that it pays off once the season comes around. With a cell cam and corn out, the stage was set…
As deer season rolls around, the woods become filled with hunters ready to bag the big one for the wall or to fill the freezer. For all the enthusiasm you’ll find on social media, there’s also a growing sense that you need the latest and greatest equipment and gear to succeed in the field—a sentiment…
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Deer Hunting
By Pete Cox On Oct. 13, 2024, at approximately 7:15 a.m., we both sat in an old cypress box blind. This is the beginning of year two of sitting in this Ware County box blind. We have had our eye on Splinter since the beginning of last year. Ashton had a chance last year to…
After four weeks of archery deer hunting, Georgia’s 2024-2025 deer season makes a transition on Saturday morning, Oct. 12, as primitive-weapons hunting opens statewide. Also, kids 15 and younger can hunt with rifles as the Youth Week opens in conjunction with the primitive-weapons season. The general firearms deer season for all hunters opens next Saturday,…
Significant efforts are underway this season to expand venison donations efforts in Georgia. The longest-running program, Georgia Hunters For The Hungry (GHFTH), has been active for more than 30 years, and this deer season the number of participating processors has tripled. Last year there were 12 processors in the state for Hunters For The Hungry.…
Turkey Hunting
Although Georgia’s turkey season ended more than two weeks ago, it’s still newsworthy when we talk to a guy who killed a gobbler with a 16-inch beard. Milledgeville’s Bobby Day was just about to put an end to his frustration and give up on his morning turkey hunt. The hunting club where he hunts in…
If it comes as a surprise that an annual onion harvest could spawn a week-long festival that has spanned 47 years, you’ve probably never tasted the sweet goodness of a true Vidalia. The 2024 Vidalia Onion Festival was held April 25-28 and featured live music, vendors, rodeo and fantastic food—onions included. The grand finale was…
Jamal Lane, of Chula, is a rugged guy, a man’s man. He’s a landscaper. He farms on the side. He’s a dedicated turkey hunter who gets up before daylight to chase birds before beginning his regular workday. He never dreamed that the sight of a special turkey could bring out a different side of himself.…
Predator Hunting
I have written to GON before about my experiences with the Georgia Trappers Association (GTA), particularly in regards to the annual Convention and Youth Field Trials (both of which are not only free and fun, but will teach you more about trapping than years spent watching YouTube videos), but today I wanted to talk about…
There are a fewer coyotes nabbing baby turkeys and deer in the Georgia woods right now thanks to the Georgia sportsmen who took part in the 2024 GON Coyote Cull. And we also need to recognize the Coyote Cull sponsors for their generous support this year. Please thank them for stepping up in the only…
The 2024 GON Coyote Cull is off and rolling as hunters and trappers step up to the plate to kill song dogs in an effort to save fawns and turkey poults. Listed below are all the entries of those who have found success and taken a photo with their June 2024 issue of GON. We’ll…
Hog Hunting
As the first rays of dawn broke through the fields, I knew I was on the brink of an adventure that would push me to my limits and fortify the connection to my ancestral lands. I’ve hunted for well over 20 years, but this time was going to be different. Today, I was leaving my…
It was the Friday of a Memorial Day weekend when I struck out for the Wilkinson County river swamp. With my climbing stand on my back, I slipped into my hunting spot around 8 p.m. and quietly ascended the tree with my safety belt attached. I took my Voo-Doo deer lure out of my fanny…
It’s dark now. DARK dark. Like a bear down a well. Without a flashlight. The sun went down hours ago on this second January Tuesday. Turbid clouds are rolling ominously overhead, fleeing a tornado-spawning system headed my way. The wind moans and, at times, howls. Limbs click, clatter and thump to the ground. The ground…
Alligator Hunting
Ashley Bowlden first started putting in for her Georgia alligator tags back in 2018, when she got to attend her first gator hunt. She loved it so much that she immediately started putting in for herself and her children every year, as well. Six years later, on the opening weekend of Georgia’s 2024 alligator season,…
Gator season won’t officially close until Oct. 7, but this season has already been highlighted by some really big Georgia alligators and happy hunters. As we always enjoy doing in October, we show off some hunters who took the time to send in pictures and info. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get all of those photos on…
When I was a little boy, I loved dinosaurs. I loved how big they were, how cool they looked and how exciting it was that the world used to be covered in them. I had all the dinosaur toys you can imagine, went to see every Jurassic Park movie, read and re-read the dinosaur encyclopedia and…
Bear Hunting
There’s no accounting for the bug that bites you. Or when it happens. For some, it’s a process of growing into whatever activity they eventually fall for and become consumed. Others are suddenly smitten. Like Don Butts. His parents didn’t see it coming during a vacation trip to the Great Smoky Mountains all those…
Normally, this is a period fraught with chaos. Never mind the ever-present and who-knows-how-deep black water, claustrophobic brush, vines and briers clawing and ripping; just hurry as best you can. Hounds are roaring out of their minds, hunters sloshing, tripping, bleeding, pushing on… Because some 987 interminable yards into the Okefenokee Swamp, a bear is…
The temperature was a crisp 38 degrees, the wind was still, and the skies were partly cloudy as the sun rose across middle Georgia for the annual one-day bear hunt in Houston, Twiggs, Bibb and Bleckley counties. The good weather meant the bears should be moving, and Sam Land, of Swainsboro, was patiently sitting in…
Dove Hunting
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, Richard B. Russell Project, will host dove hunts for youth and the general public on Sept. 28 and Oct. 5, 2024, at two fields in Elbert County, and one field in Abbeville County, South Carolina. Youth and public hunts will begin at 2 p.m. The youth hunts start…
It’s hard to believe we’ve only got about a month to go before hunters will file into prepared dove fields in hopes of collecting a limit of 15 birds for the grill. Thankfully, WRD does a really nice job of providing public fields for hunters to shoot. To the right is the latest list of…
The new hunting season is just around the corner as we print GON’s annual Pay Dove Shoots list. Dial these phone numbers, reserve your spots and shoot straight. Dove hunting will legally begin one-half hour before sunrise on opening day, Saturday, Sept. 7. Some of these shoots may wait until the traditional 12 p.m. start…
Duck Hunting
Another season of duck hunting will roll around soon, and all duck hunters wonder how the Georgia duck forecast looks. Duck hunting here is dependent on many factors, and at the forefront is bad weather up North. Wet conditions in the spring and summer is good news in the breeding-ground wetlands, and nasty, cold weather…
Hunters can get a jump on the waterfowl season with the upcoming early teal and Canada goose hunting seasons. Early Canada goose season for 2024 is Sept. 7-29, with a daily limit of five geese. The early teal season for 2024 is Sept. 14-29, with a daily limit of six teal. “Teal migrate earlier than…
“Do you love it?” That is the question that startled me awake. It was asked by Grayson Crews. To give some back story to that quote, it’s 5:01 a.m, and the first good duck hunt is on the horizon. To say I was excited is an understatement. However, when he asked me that, I still…
Squirrel Hunting
“There’s a season for squirrels?” That was the reaction of a young kid when told of the upcoming squirrel season opener on Thursday, Aug. 15. The 2024-2025 squirrel season in Georgia runs from Aug. 15 to Feb. 28 with a daily limit of 12 squirrels per hunter. The simplicity of squirrel hunting and potential for…
Looking for a healthy, sustainable source of protein and a good woodland hike? Squirrel hunting season, which opens Aug. 15, can meet those goals, and get everyone excited about fall hunting seasons, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD). “Squirrel hunting season is a great introduction to hunting,” said Alan…
It had been 23 years since I stepped foot on Redlands WMA in pursuit of critters. A return trip was certainly overdue, and Saturday, Jan. 15 was the perfect opportunity to take a trip down memory lane. The occasion was the 2nd Annual Squirrel Master Classic with a great group of folks who run a…
Quail Hunting
Did you ever wonder what it was that inspired your love of fishing or hunting or just being outdoors? Was it a parent, a friend, a book, or movie? Maybe you can’t put your finger on one person or thing. For me, the answer is crystal clear, my Uncle Suggs. I will soon celebrate my…
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…
When I grew up in the late 50s and early 60s, my house, in a suburb of Jacksonville, Fla., backed up to a large pine forest with underbrush that was about knee high but not too thick; perfect quail habitat. I can remember waking to the sound of the northern bobwhite quail calling to each…
Other Georgia Hunting
Hunters can get a jump on the waterfowl season with the upcoming early teal and Canada goose hunting seasons. Early Canada goose season for 2024 is Sept. 7-29, with a daily limit of five geese. The early teal season for 2024 is Sept. 14-29, with a daily limit of six teal. “Teal migrate earlier than…
In the fall of 1999 I had a bad case of the melancholy. My up-and-coming grouse dog had died and had left me feeling down in the dumps. Little Mac, our young Brittany spaniel, had died from what was evidently a brain tumor. Little Mac started having seizures in his second year which progressively became…
In the Southeast, when a person mentions upland hunting, the bobwhite quail is usually the first, and sometimes only game bird that people think about. The late Charlie Elliott named the bobwhite the “prince of game birds.” When you go into the Appalachians, the ruffed grouse enters into the conversation, but the lack of timber…
Georgia Hunters on the Road
By John Holbert Jonah and I both drew either-sex muzzleloader tags for Colorado elk this fall. Neither of us had undertaken such a challenge before, and we were eager to try. We spent all summer researching, preparing, packing and training for the safari. The rut forecast predicted we would have good timing to see some…
Gathering around the campfire at Camp Isilwane (lion) in Matetsi, Zimbabwe we look out at the vlei, which is a prehistoric river bed. The buffalo come into the dying waterhole for that last drink as the day succumbs to darkness. It is the end of the dry season, the last of the water before the…
When I think of exotic animals, I envision animals being created in a lab through experiments and test tubes. However, my husband Paul and I decided to read more and more about exotic hunting ranches and we decided to peruse the Internet for research. Although these animals are not indigenous to North America, they are…