Advertisement
GON Subscriber Exclusives
Sometimes it’s wildlife that becomes the victim of opportunity; sometimes it’s a poacher. On Jan. 4, 2010, Officer Keith McDonald with DNR Law Enforcement received a call from 911 dispatch in Lowndes County a little after 9 a.m. Dispatch put him in touch with a complainant who witnessed someone shooting at a turkey from the…
When it comes to producing big bucks, the agricultural fields and the Flint River bottomlands of Macon and Lee counties are still king, and Worth remains third-best for the 19th year in a row, but the gap is narrowing between the south Georgia stalwarts and some counties to the north. Morgan County is poised just…
Levi Garrett trudged through the thick privet hedges on the outskirts of the swamp bottom, an enormous array of 10 incredibly tall and almost perfectly symmetrical dark brown tines weighing heavily on his drooping head. On a cold, clear day, gunshots rang out around the county, and the sounds of thumping hooves and vocal deer…
A few yards off a deer trail in the privet thicket, Jamie Sikes bent to inspect his doe in the beam of his headlamp. It was a fine kill; a mature animal that would make for many good meals. “We’re gonna eat good this weekend!” he said to his hunting buddy Clark Dickerson, who stood a…
On the ride to the hospital, Mike’s right forearm had already swollen to nearly twice its normal size. The skin around the cottonmouth bite had blistered and turned a nasty dark purple. Bloody discharge oozed from two small fang marks just below his elbow. At the wheel, his hunting buddy Clark raced as fast as…
A thunderclap rolled over the swamp bottom of Beagle’s Demise, a harbinger of the heavy rain Mike Shaw dreaded. Stuck in mud with water up to his armpits, he cursed his luck. No matter how hard he stretched, he could not put a hand on his canoe. It was wedged under a blowdown just out…
Murphy and Charlie made it back to the hunting property a little after 10:30 p.m. to help Charles Lee drag The Ridgerunner from the top of the mountain. Charlie had hopped out of the truck to open the gate when Murphy’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. As the 16-year-old fumbled with the combination lock,…
With lungs sputtering short, spastic breaths, hands trembling and his right heel drumming the ground like a sewing machine, Otis Hicks forced in a deep breath, attempting to gain control of his adrenaline-soused faculties. Less than 150 yards in front of him, standing broadside in the crosshairs, almost as magnificent as the man’s dreams, was…
Murphy looked on in desperation as the scene unfolded before him with terrifying speed. Wounded, Attila the black bear was in mid-charge, and the targets of his aggression were Charles Lee and his teenage son Charlie. The two bowhunters were lying in a heap at the edge of a pine thicket. No longer the focus…
On one knee with his elbow propped on the rock in front of him, Charles Lee’s aim was steady. The big buck had disappeared, fully concealed behind a huge old oak just moments earlier, and Charles Lee was waiting for it to step out on the other side. At his shoulder, Otis Hicks was almost…