Buy Hunting Land Series: Lookin’ At South Georgia

I started deer hunting when my family moved to Macon in 1970. The man who owned the company my father worked for leased 750 acres in Jones County. He allowed a club there, which was mostly employees, their families and a few customers. Jones County is just outside of Macon and close to the middle of the state.

We killed a lot of deer on that place, many while sitting in stands made from pallets supported by a couple boards nailed up between two trees with hickory steps. Rarely more than 10 feet off the ground, we would use an aluminum “web” lawn chairs for a seat.

When I graduated from UGA, I started working in Gainesville. I asked the first day on my job, where do y’all deer hunt? Almost to a person, the same answer—south Georgia! Are you kidding me? I just moved over two hours north to find out I’d have to drive four or five hours south just to go deer hunting with my new friends. That was not what I had planned. It just didn’t seem right. There had to be deer closer to Gainesville than south Georgia. Then I asked the question I should have asked, “Where are you calling south Georgia?” The answers were Greene County, or maybe Franklin County.

I would start to explain how there is a whole state south of Athens… but I just didn’t go there.

When I was at ABAC in Tifton, we would get permission from farmers to hunt and rarely had anyone turn us down when we asked. Often enough, we would get a call when someone found out we would hunt squirrels out of the pecan groves. Sometimes we would go deep into the swamp off the railroad track, but I don’t know that anyone ever actually got a deer back in there. There were some great soybean and corn fields to hunt along with pastures. That wasn’t an option so much around Macon. When I was in Athens for a couple of seasons, I hunted out near Watkinsville and went home with my roommate to hunt near Madison.

Over the years I would have the opportunity to hunt on the Georgia coastal islands—Ossabaw, Sapelo, Wassaw and due to some special relationships, St. Catherine’s Island.

South Georgia encompasses a lot of varied hunting experiences. From the rolling Piedmont to thick scrub and swamps, from running with dogs to watching a huge soybean or peanut field.

Determining what you are going to buy for your hunting land must match your interests long-term. Please do not buy something off the internet before setting foot on the property unless you just have the money to do so and it doesn’t matter.

When I have a hunter contact me about property, I have several questions I ask to be sure we are on the same page before spending a lot of time looking at what doesn’t work. First, what is our budget? If I don’t know that, there is no second question. Is this going to be a family property or a club, and if a club or family, how many member/hunters?

Once we know how much money we have to spend and how many people may be hunting, we can narrow our search. With families, 5 to 15 acres per hunter is usually more than adequate to have a great place and keep a safe distance. With a club, 10 acres per hunter is a minimum in my opinion, and I like more than that if the budget allows. Ten acres is 435,600 square feet, about 7.5 football fields.

I also need to know what is your primary game hunted and what else might be hunted? Deer, sure, but what about turkey, ducks, quail, rabbits—or trapping? Knowing this going in allows me to look for openings or grown over fields, water—swamp or ponds, that hold other game. And access—does it need to be close to the nearest main highway or interstate or farther from everything? You see, a good realtor can do a lot of this work for you before you spend any time looking. Of course, you can do all this yourself, as well, but you won’t know about those unlisted places where someone has said they are interested in selling if the right deal came along.

Once the process begins, be patient. Winter is by far the best time to look because leaves are off and you can see everything better, even in south Georgia. Bring your kids along, too!