Rate Your Deer Season

By the looks of that smile, we’re thinking Julie Hester, 11, of Watkinsville, might just rate her season pretty good. She shot her personal best buck in Oconee County on Nov. 3.

VOTES, which stands for Voice Of The Educated Sportsman, is a GON survey that has been around for more than two decades. A question on the survey each and every year is Rate Your Deer Season, which gives us county-specific ratings that can be compared to historical trends. We’d like to hear how your deer hunting was this season, and we’d like to hear why you gave it that rating. We also want to hear your comments and opinions on how you feel the hunting could be improved.

In addition to the annual Rate Your Season survey, we also ask other survey questions. Here are this year’s additional questions to the Rate Your Deer Season survey:

Question No. 2: In 2022, the Georgia turkey hunting season began opening later and gobbler limits were reduced. After three years of those regulations, has the turkey population on your property (or public area where you hunt)…

• Improved

• Declined

• No noticeable change

• I have no opinion

It’s not exactly front-page news that Southeastern turkey populations have taken a nose dive in recent years. As researchers probed into the issue, some believed that gobblers being shot before the majority of breeding was done was a cause for declines in turkey populations. As a result, GAWRD believed a shorter turkey season for Peach State hunters, with a reduced limit, would be a step in the right direction.

So, with three spring seasons under our belts—with less time turkey hunting and more uninterrupted breeding going on—we’re curious to see what our GON readers are seeing in terms of turkey populations on the primary property where they hunt.

Question No. 3: Do you support the later opening day of turkey season and the fewer days of Georgia turkey hunting that began in 2022?

• Yes

• No

• I have no opinion

We’re curious if folks are content with limited turkey hunting opportunity, maybe in hopes that populations will rebound. Or, are hunters wanting to see Georgia go back a longer season that begins earlier?

Tripp Vick with his second, and final, turkey of the 2024 season. He is 7 years old and was hunting in Effingham County on May 4.

How Do I Vote?

There are three ways to get your VOTES responses to GON by the Feb. 14 deadline.

• GON subscribers who we have email addresses for have already received an online VOTES ballot through a service called Survey Monkey. The emailed survey will also include a way to write and submit comments digitally. The email survey is super convenient for GON subscribers. If you received an email and did your VOTES survey there, we have your results—there’s no need to use your cover ballot or do anything else.

• You can fill out, cut out and mail your cover ballot to GON VOTES, 1080 Experiment Station Road, Ste 200, Watkinsville, GA 30677. A mailed photocopy of your filled-out cover ballot will be accepted, too.

• If you don’t want to rely on the mailman to send us your survey, you can take a photo with your phone and email the picture of your ballot to [email protected]. Simply include your comments in the email along with the attached picture of your cover ballot. Send to [email protected]. In the subject of the email, please type “Rate Your Season.”

I Just Want To Rate My Deer Season

If you only want to respond to Rate Your Deer Season and not answer the other ballot questions, you can send an email to [email protected]. Simply list your rating (excellent, good, fair or poor), the primary county you hunted, and write your comments on why you rated it that way. In the subject of the email, please type “Rate Your Season.”

Again, the deadline for GON to get your VOTES survey responses is Friday,  Feb. 14.