The Fab 40: Georgia’s Best Bucks Of The 2015-2016 Deer Season

No. 1 – Heath Allegood Dougherty Co. 175 5/8 Typical

Georgia is due… this could be the year for a magical season.

Calm down UGA football fans. We’re talking about the potential for a stellar Georgia deer season that produces lots of big, high-scoring bucks.

So why the optimism?

Here’s the theory. This could be an exceptional season for big Georgia bucks because we’ve had four straight years that were just average or well below average. It’s a trend we call the Rebound Effect, when a very poor year of big-buck production is followed the next year or two years later by an exceptional season for high-scoring bucks. It’s a simple concept, but it’s held true in the almost 30 years that GON has been compiling data on high-scoring bucks recorded in Georgia.

So here’s the hiccup. That very poor season was 2013, and we’ve now seen two subsequent seasons that were only average. This will be season No. 3 since that 2013 season when rainy weekends, low deer populations and other possible factors resulted in poor hunting and one of the worst seasons on record for big-buck production.  

The chart on the next page shows the numbers for the past 20 years of Fab 40 bucks broken out by how many scored above certain ranges. Last season was a tad above average for 160+ bucks, with eight recorded. With 24 bucks that netted better than 150‚ last season was right on the 20-year average. During the poor 2013 season, we had only 15 bucks top the 150 mark.

The best season ever for high-scoring Georgia bucks was 2011, when we saw 13 bucks that netted better than 160 and 36 bucks that scored above 150. 

Last season, the Top-3 bucks came from south Georgia, at least temporarily supplanting a trend of giant suburban Atlanta bucks topping the Fab 40 list. 

The No. 1 buck from last season was the state’s lone qualifier for the all-time Boone & Crockett record book. Heath Allegood’s Dougherty County typical netted 175 5/8, comfortably topping the B&C minimum of 170 for typical-racked bucks. Heath’s buck set a new Dougherty County all-time record, according to GON’s official County-by-County Big Buck Rankings. The story of Heath’s buck is featured in an article by Bill Cooper that begins on page 26. 

The No. 2 was a non-typical that came up just short of making the all-time B&C record book. The non-typical minimum score is 195 net inches, and Randy Kent’s Dooly County giant tallied 192 2/8. 

Rounding out the Top-3 was a Ben Hill County typical buck killed by Wendell Davis that netted 164 6/8. Wendell buck is the new No. 1 Ben Hill County buck of all-time.

A pair of north Georgia bucks tied for the No. 4 spot in this year’s Fab 40 with bucks that netted 163 2/8. GON subscribers will recognize Jill Brown and her Putnam County buck from Truck-Buck coverage and from Jill’s appearance on the January GON cover. The other buck tied for No. 4 was David Lee Robert’s Jackson County typical, which also set a new county record.

In addition to producing the No. 1 buck last season, Dougherty County was also tops among Georgia counties with three Fab 40 bucks. Lee County shared that distinction of producing a state-leading three Fab 40 bucks last season.

Will the 2016-17 Georgia deer season be one of the state’s best ever in terms of producing big bucks? Since the benchmark 2011-12 season, we’ve seen four straight seasons of average-at-best results for high-scoring bucks getting killed. We are due. Either that, or average is the new norm for Georgia… but that’s not a reality we’re counting on.  

If you kill a potential Fab 40 buck this season, don’t be shy about it. It’s a huge deal to take a Georgia buck that’s Fab 40 caliber. Call GON at (800) 438-4663, and e-mail us at [email protected]. Take lots of good pictures, so you will look good in next year’s Fab 40.