Five Firearms Deer Tags, 29% More Doe Days For 1991 Georgia Season

Georgia’s bag limit for firearms deer season is about to increase by 60% for the 1991 season. In their continued effort to reduce the state’s deer population from the current level of approximately 1.25 million deer down to 1 million deer, the Game Management Section is proposing to increase the firearms bag limit from three to five deer. In conjunction with the increased bag limit, the state is also planning to increase the number of either-sex days by 29% overall and to move the doe days earlier in the season when the deer are more vulnerable.

Because the state has already printed the 1991-92 deer tags, they will look just like last year’s version, which included two tags marked archery-only and antlerless only. Despite the markings on your new set of tags, you’ll be able to use all five tags during firearms season. The “antlerless-only” stipulation, however, still holds.

For archery hunters very little changes from last year except the “bonus” aspect of the two extra antlerless tags. As was the case last year, archers may kill five deer during archery season, or they may burn the tags in a combination of bow and gun hunting. This year, however, all five tags remain good after the close of archery season. It will be interesting to see if archery license sales drop this fall as a result of some bowhunters putting their bows down and waiting to burn their five tags when its easier during firearms season.

To reduce the size of the herd, game biologist hope hunters will use the antlerless tags and will pull the trigger on the reproductive engine of the herd—the nannies. Last year, approximately 40% of the harvest was antlerles deer. To reduce the herd by 20%, approximately 45 to 50% of the harvest must be does.

The two-buck limit will remain in effect as the buck segment of the herd can’t sustain any additional hunting pressure. Biologists estimate that more than 75% of the 1 1/2-year-old bucks in Georgia are harvested each year. The liberalized doe days may actually serve to reduce pressure on bucks as hunters will be dragging does out of the woods when they might otherwise be hunting a buck.

Too, as the number of deer goes down in heavily populated areas, the quality of deer will go up.

The biggest increase in the number of doe days falls in the belt of Upper Coastal Plain counties where the greatest problem with deer/crop depredation exists and the area with the biggest problem with deer/car conflicts. If Game Management’s recommendations are approved by the Natural Resources board, many coastal plains counties will have seven additional doe days, jumping from 30 last year to 37 next fall. And in all of the same counties, either-sex hunting days will begin early in the season in Nov. 1.

In the Piedmont Region, doe days increase only by one, but the number is still liberal, increasing from 21 to 22 days. In the mountains, doe days remain essentially the same as last year.

With five tags in your pocket, an abundant deer herd and liberal doe days, putting venison in the freezer shouldn’t be a problem next season.