Advice on Georgia??

[35 Whelen]

While I have noticed that the gals in Georgia; were some lovely specimens of the opposite sex, :wink: I never Thought of it,as a place to kill big racked Whitetails.??? :?:
Anyway I have a first cousin, that hunts all over the world, in some weird places, and it's common to get a text from him on Monday and he's in Scotland shooting Grouse; and Friday he is in Africa!
Anyway he found this place in Georgia, on a military plot (that he somehow got permission to hunt) that can only be reached by boat. So last month, he went there to hunt "hogs" which they did and saw literally "dozens of them" and shot A bunch a Good ones, however while hunting hogs there, he saw a lot of deer and commented some of the bucks,
Appeared to have large racks compared to their body size??? He says they saw one , a couple of times running off that was non typical, and some other Bucks with nice tall racks.
He wants me to fly down and meet him for the last 3 days of the season , starting on Jan 12th ???
Claims this spot is " unhunted" as they never saw a boot print there???
Question; when do the bucks drop their antlers in Georgia?? Does it produce big racks like he puffing
about??? What is a good avg weight of a field dressed 10 Pt buck in Georgia ??
His pig pictures looked like it was fairly open at this " secret spot" they were hunting , But he said they were surprised, they were jumping deer, all day long everyday???
Can someone from Ga comment on this????
Don't know weather to go or Not?? Looks like 6.5x55 country to me!
E

 

[skidmark]

Well I can agree with you that Georgia has an abundance
of lovely Ladies... I married one.
As for those Hogs..Looks like Omugee River Bottom near Macon
or further east at Ft Stewart. Mostly river access.
Hogs have become a huge problem in middle and south GA.
Safe handling when field dressing is a must.
As for WT's again very abundant, every year I see a few 130-140 class 150+lb live wt.
in my middle GA location, and although that's not huge its not too bad
for all the pressure put on them and a diet of acorns. This aint Pike Co. Ill.
Please come to GA and kill Hogs. The DNR will thank you. Skid

 

[35 Whelen]

Lol, love your reply! Thanks for the heads up! Though I am not a hog hunter persay, I shot lots of them when I lived in New Zealand, from Hughes 500 helicopters..... back in my "wilder days"
Here I am in the Southern Alps with a good Chamois, shot with my old faithful BAR .270 .

 

[Guy Miner]

That's a pretty danged cool photo! Not something most of us will ever experience - hunting chamois in the Southern Alps.. Awesome!

Guy

 

[35 Whelen]

Check this photo out Guy!
Here I am with a " NetGun" ready to
Fire it over a Red Stag. See the tracking
Antennas on front? We would take a " hind"
That was in estrous ( with tracking collar on her) Out to where we knew ,there
We're Stags to smart to come out in daytime. Then wait a few days for them to
Find her then blow in there in the 500 and fire nets over them!!! Cheating but it
worked! You won't find many Americans that ever got to do it!
Even with a safety strap hanging out on the skid in gusty conditions was pretty
dangerous stuff to say the least, that's Ken Tustin flying that day. Most of my hunting
I did was with the now famous Dave "Sax" Saxton. When I left NZ he had always admired
The BAR you see in the photo with Chamios, so I gave it to him! He still has it to this day I believe?
Here we are after a successful Red Stag hunt, Sax in his chopper letting the turbine cool down. My custom Landrover with a 327 Chevy engine in it!!

 

[SJB358]

Great pictures E. I used to do some work from helo's myself in a different place and time!

I have always heard and read that when Georgia restocked a certain area of the state with deer in the 50's I think, they used MidWester/Canadian deer. I used to see pictures of ginormous bodied bucks and wonder why they were so big while our deer here in Virginia were/are small bodied.. No idea if that was state wide or just certain regions.

 

[35 Whelen]

Tnx Scotty,
We will have a great yarn someday about the " helicopter days"; over a fine bourbon or scotch your
Choice!
Of course we did have some easier jobs, check it out!
Tough Duty but someone had to do it!

 

[skidmark]

I forgot to add...
The state in its effort to rid the swine population
Has allowed hunting them at night
Using any legal weapon
No bag limit
No closed season
Using lights at night which is carried on the person, affixed to a helmet or hat, or part of a belt system worn by a hunter
And my favorite
Using bait.
Unfortunately no hunting from motorized
vehicles.....no rotor/fixed wing fun.
Go figure... :|

 

[35 Whelen]

Lol, I think when the sun goes down I would rather focus on a different sorta nite life! Like admiring some of those
Beautiful "Southern Bells" you harbor down there!!!! Lol

 

[Darkhorse]

During the restocking era of our Whitetail deer population the state used deer from numerous locations, for awhile they purchased deer from whoever had some for sale. Wisconsin, Texas and even locations within Georgia such as our barrier islands were trapped and released in areas devoid of deer. This resulted in size variations and separate and distinct rut dates across the state. Depending on the original location of the released deer. 30 + years ago the introduction of new genetics was obvious in bucks taken in these areas, not so much in today's deer however as with the spread of the new gene pool the effects have pretty much leveled out.
The heaviest buck I've taken could not be weighed. In 1976 there were no deer processors in rural ga. with scales, instead we tried to use a 250 lb. cotton scale. I remember the head and front shoulders just starting to clear the ground when the scale bottomed out. The deer had a huge neck and a roman nose, the only one I've seen on a Georgia buck. He had a rack that grossed over 150 and netted 147 5/8". None of the original photo's survive, just a few of him mounted.

My second largest was taken, I believe, in 2006 in another part of the state. Live weight 265 pounds. No roman nose on this one. He grossed 165 5/8 and netted 161 1/8". His photo is the second one shown in the back of my old blazer.

That picture looks like the Ocmulgee river bottom around Robins AFB. The reason it's so open is it floods often and drowns out most vegetation. You can see a moss line or dark bases on some of the trees. That is the average water mark. There is a possibility all this will be under water.
These were the requirements to hunt Air Force property a few years ago.
You had to take a state hunter safety course and attend prehunt courses given by the Air Force.
At one time you needed a base ID to hunt but that may have been dropped.
You could only hunt in recognized hunting zones during scheduled hunts.
I don't know all the details but something just doesn't sound right about this hunt.
The season goes out mid. January, not in December.
One requirement for a buck to grow large antlers is a chance to grow old. Another one is proper nourishment. They can grow old there but the food is only going to be average.
Some of our bucks will begin shedding antlers in Mid. January.
I have seen 2 bucks a good bit larger than my 2 biggest ones but the fact is those type bucks are rare as hen's teeth down here. All 4 mentioned bucks were shot or seen on large tracts of private land bordered by cornfields. These properties got very light hunting pressure at the time. It's location pure and simple.
I was a dedicated trophy hunter for many years and if I decide to try for a booner it will not be in Georgia you can rest assured.
I would check his information very carefully as some of it sounds like a pipe dream. And the last thing I would want is to be caught with a firearm on base property without the proper documentation.

 

[35 Whelen]

Nice bucks, thanks for the update: That was a typo on the dates it is for Jan 12/15. He was a fairly high ranking officer in the USCC and am pretty sure , that will have entered into the Military part of it. I dont think he has ever
broken the law in his life!!! Lol
So that part didnt concern me at all. And I couldnt agree
More about bucks needing to get old to have mature racks.
Thanks so much for your reply! Like you if I was truely looking for an old Smasher I would head up to Saskatchewan ! This was just to try something when its -25 Here in Maine??? And by the way; we still have a few good local ones! :wink: