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Bear Hunting

Middle Georgia Bear Hunt Yields Three Bears

It was a great day to bear hunt with fairly good weather and mid temperatures, but the bears didn’t seem to be moving At the end of the day on Dec. 16, 2023, only two bears were brought into the Oaky Woods WMA check station for the middle Georgia bear hunt that covers private lands…

Of Bears, Dogs—And Friendships

  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…

Police Shoot Bear In Backyard

A situation where a police officer shot and killed a bear in the backyard of an Elberton home was an unfortunate situation, but no charges will be brought against the officer, DNR Law Enforcement says. Elberton Police Chief Scott Marunich said he stands behind the action that the officers took, but his department is receiving…

Quitting Is For The Enemy

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…

Middle GA Bear Hunters Take 10 Bears

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…

Two Bear Thursday

By Steve Platek After completing the morning chores—cooking breakfast, tending to the dog and getting the wife and kids off to their respective destinations, I packed the truck with my hang-on stand, my longbow and my rifle. I was hoping to cross paths with a nice 8-point mountain buck I had on trail camera but…

Cohutta WMA Bear Hunt Draws Crowd In 1985 Caprice

By Barden Revelle Some days you can do no wrong. Some days everything goes wrong. This tale is a mixture of both. The end product is really what matters. Picture in your mind the second Saturday of Georgia deer season in the year 1991. It is before daylight in Paulding County. I’m drinking black coffee in…

Tick Check For Bears

Editor’s Note: Rosmarie Kelly, PhD MPH is a Public Health Entomologist on the Vector-Borne & Zoonotic Diseases Team working for the Georgia Department of Public Health. Kelly was at the Oaky Woods WMA check station collecting tick data from harvested bears during the one-day middle Georgia bear season on Dec. 18. The Department of Public…

Six Bears Fall On One-Day, Middle Georgia Bear Hunt

The annual one-day bear hunt on private lands in Houston, Twiggs, Bleckley and Bibb counties was held on Dec. 18, and this year six bears were brought to the Oaky Woods check station.  New for 2021, Bleckley County was added to the list of bear hunting counties, so now bear hunting is allowed on the…

Conservation Law Enforcement Corner – December 2021

Bleckley County: Wild hogs have been deemed public enemy No. 1. Efforts to reduce their numbers range from federal invasive species dollars being spent on helicopter snipers to hunters using high-dollar night-vision weapons. If you’re going after hogs at night in bear country, be careful, as a pair of hunters in Bleckley County found out…