Georgia’s Best Bow Bucks For 2023-24

Long-time GON friend Joe Chandler, of Madison, did it again with another P&Y buck last season. This one netted 134 1/8 inches. In our online Georgia Deer Records, Joe currently has 14 typical-racked bucks from Morgan County that net above the 125-inch minimum. We’re absolutely certain he’s got his eyes on No. 15, and likely No. 16.

The 2023-24 season has tallied up 96 record-book bow bucks officially scored so far. When last year’s September issue went to press, we had recorded 99 P&Y bucks (currently at 111). Based on the Georgia’s Best Bow Bucks By Year chart below, the last four years of Georgia’s archery season have been pretty much cookie cutter.

The number of record-class bucks for the 2023-24 season will spill into the triple digits as more are measured, but it probably won’t top the all-time record of 111 in one season, a tie between the 2022-23 and 2020-21 seasons.

The state map to the right represents the overall number of P&Y bucks taken in each county. The counties in orange had at least one P&Y buck taken last season. Bacon County finally put some color on the map, with its first P&Y buck ever taken last season. This leaves only 12 counties without a P&Y buck.

For a complete listing of the P&Y bucks taken last season, all 96 of them are listed below.

In all, if you look at GON’s Georgia Deer Records at GON.com/deer-records, Georgia has 1,865 record-class bow bucks recorded. This number is a true testimony to Georgia, its hunters and the kind of bucks we’re growing. Georgia continues to be the state to hunt in the Deep South if you’re looking to tag a mature bow buck.

GON continues to add deer scores, photos and hunt stories online to GON’s Georgia Deer Records. If you have old photos of the bucks you see listed online, or maybe you’d like to write your story of a buck killed years ago, GON.com is the place. We want you to have a place in our online record book for your great-great grandkids to look at one day.

If you’ve got a bow buck you need to have scored, scoring info is at GON.com/hunting/get-your-deer-rack-measured.

Shan Akin had a great 2023-24 bow season, taking a pair of P&Y bucks. He killed a typical (above) in Sumter County that netted 150 1/8 inches. This other buck (below) was a non-typical that came from Dooly County and netted 162.

Joe Schofield with a 146 5/8-inch buck from Hart County. There were three P&Y bucks reported from this northeast Georgia county last season.

Zak Germaine with his 145 2/8-inch deer from Jackson County.