Deer hunting in the Southeastern states

[Podad]

WOW, A new forum called Deerhunterforum and I am the first to post a thread in the deer hunting sub forum. I followed a link from Woodys/GON forum and signed up. I have been a member there since the beginning days of the forum.

I live and hunt in Georgia. I started deer hunting in 1968 at the age of 13 and am still as addicted now as I was then. There have been radical changes during those years. It was not uncommon in the late 60s and early 70s for a hunter to go all season without even seeing a deer. When I was in high school we boys who hunted would get together and tell excitedly about the tracks we saw or someone we knew who had actually seen a deer while hunting. If a hunter got a deer it was common practice for them to go to the county newspaper office and have photos taken. Many times a picture of the deer and hunter were front page news.

The whitetail population rapidly increased. By the 80s and 90s deer were here in huge numbers. Seasons time frames and limits were continually increased to accommodate the hunters and control the expanding deer population. Either sex dates and limits were very liberal. There appear to be less deer now than during the 90s. We still have a very long season and liberal limits, but either sex days are more limited now. My sons began hunting during those hay-day years of high populations. My grandsons are now hunting with us as well. The blessing of hunting with my family is the greatest of any possible hunting experience. 48 years deer hunting in Georgia and hoping to make it a few more.

Where do you hunt for whitetail? Tell us a little about your experience.

 

[blumsden]

I'm close to your age, i'm 53. I hunt on my farm in Alabama and i have a club an hour away. I'm fortunant to hunt 2 different ruts, one around Thanksgiving on my farm and in January on my club. I remember all too well the lean years of the 70's and early 80's. I tell my kids all the time, they dont know how good they got it. They walk down bushhogged lanes to stands already up in prime locations with clothes that have thinsulate and gortex in them. We never had that. My grandson is the one i'm teaching now, he got his first deer,a doe, and his first buck, a 4pt last year. I hope everyone has a good season.

 

[mthornton99]

Alabama. Grew up in north Alabama hunting small game, didn't start deer hunting until I got out of high school. Now hunt and live in east central Alabama(almost 20 years). Family obligations don't allow for nearly as much hunting as I would like, but family is priority.

Glad Alabama extended the season into Feb. In this part of the state you were lucky to get a few days of the rut before season ran out(Jan 31). The deer in my avatar came on Feb 6th. Great hunt with me and my youngest.

 

[Neahawg]

I just hit 30 in April, hunt in Northeast Arkansas, very big into habitat improvement, have planted pears, plums, apples, and chestnuts as well as oaks all around our place, have several food plots this year being our first attempt at soybeans, got a 2 year old at home and hoping to have this place really pulling in the deer by the time he is ready go.

 

[dogdoc]

Welcome to the forum. Your the first to post because we just got the Deer Hunting Room started today!

No one in my family deer hunted. I grew up with a family full of quail hunters. I got into deer hunting shortly after graduating Vet School in 1991. My family owned some land where there were a few deer. Seeing one deer on a hunt was very exciting for me. I realized shortly after that I needed to do some work to increase my deer numbers. I did lots of research and started planting food plots. The next year my deer sightings went way up. I was limited with what I could do because this was family land and not my own. Fortunately in 2002 I was able to purchase my own piece of property--nothing huge--160 acres in decent (not great) but decent deer habitat land. After developing several food plots and some TSI I have my own piece of hunting heaven here on earth and couldn't be happier.

todd

 

[Podad]

Welcome to the forum. Your the first to post because we just got the Deer Hunting Room started today!todd

Hopefully the first thread of thousands to come.

 

[THE LLC]

WOW, A new forum called Deerhunterforum and I am the first to post a thread in the deer hunting sub forum. I followed a link from Woodys/GON forum and signed up. I have been a member there since the beginning days of the forum.

I live and hunt in Georgia. I started deer hunting in 1968 at the age of 13 and am still as addicted now as I was then. There have been radical changes during those years. It was not uncommon in the late 60s and early 70s for a hunter to go all season without even seeing a deer. When I was in high school we boys who hunted would get together and tell excitedly about the tracks we saw or someone we knew who had actually seen a deer while hunting. If a hunter got a deer it was common practice for them to go to the county newspaper office and have photos taken. Many times a picture of the deer and hunter were front page news.

The whitetail population rapidly increased. By the 80s and 90s deer were here in huge numbers. Seasons time frames and limits were continually increased to accommodate the hunters and control the expanding deer population. Either sex dates and limits were very liberal. There appear to be less deer now than during the 90s. We still have a very long season and liberal limits, but either sex days are more limited now. My sons began hunting during those hay-day years of high populations. My grandsons are now hunting with us as well. The blessing of hunting with my family is the greatest of any possible hunting experience. 48 years deer hunting in Georgia and hoping to make it a few more.

Where do you hunt for whitetail? Tell us a little about your experience.

Good to have you. I was one of Woody's first members--number 9 I think. He was a good friend. Place went to crap when GON got it and Woody told me with his own mouth that was the worst decision he ever made! Anyway, welcome here. I hunt in Madison County--just east of Athens.

 

[farmhunter]

I was on that site back then too - I had a lot of friends on Woody's Taxidermy site - in those days, learned a lot about southern plots and shared a lot about northern plots. Found out we had more in common than not - there were specific reasons I moved away from there back then, seems like a long time ago. I remember Jim Thompson, Early Riser, Deerslayer2, RJ, and others -

 

[THE LLC]

Farmhunter, what was your Woody's handle?

 

[David Cleveland]

Another N Ga hunter here, it all started at 1:00 Thanksgiving day back in 1977,I was ten years old. That little Wilkes county buck changed me forever !!! I now hunt about 6 miles from that property on a good friends farm and help him with his quest to build a paradise property.
I usually hunt pretty hard in Wilkes county the head home to Stephens and Franklin co about thanksgiving as things usually get pretty exciting up this way then.
As far as Woody and his site go, he was one of the best guys I have ever had the pleasure of calling a friend , he mounted that first buck for me back in 77 and did several more for me and my dad I sure miss sitting around on those cold rainy January days at his place in Baldwin.
Triple C ,your place is looking awesome I would love to get lunch in sandy cross one day and say hello

 

[Keithw247]

I live and hunt on the coast of South Carolina. I was about 20 when I shot my first doe on some family land. Prior to that I had only deer hunted a handful of times and never saw anything...thought deer hunting was too boring! After that I hunted more often but didn't have much success. In my late 20's began hunting a friends plantation that had been doing QDM for years. Took an 8 pt, a 9pt and a 12 pt over the course of several years. That really spoiled me and showed me the difference QDM can make. Began hunting some unimproved family land for a few years after that and success ratio dropped to nil except for does although my dad and brother had some success. Began trying to improve timber land my family purchased in 2012. It's more time consuming than I thought and I don't have a lot of time with work, a ten and six year old and some other obligations. My dad is retired and does a good bit but it really is time consuming just to keep up the property much less "farm" it. We haven't taken a quality buck off the property yet but there are a few around based on trail cams. I am enjoying the journey however and as Neahawg
said hope my kids will enjoy the fruit of my labors.

 

[farmhunter]

Farmhunter, what was your Woody's handle?

I'm pretty sure it was farmhunter or Farm Hunter

 

[davidhelmly]

Another Georgia hunter and Woodys/GON member. I've got a lease that I hunt in Meriwether County. It's good to see everyone here and to be a new member.

 

[TRF GA]

I too am new to this site following the closure of the QDMA forum. I live and hunt in Georgia as well. I hunt my farm south of I-20 in Glascock Co. It is great to see so many familiar names on this site including Triple C, The LLC, Farmhunter, DogDoc to name a few. Look forward to continuing what we had and built on the other forum.

 

[jbr9999]

I hunt in south central Illinois. Very good hunting, and we have started being a little more selective on our deer to increase size. I can't wait for Oct 1 so I can hit the stand.

 

[Triple C]

Podad - Welcome to the forum. Great to see familiar names here from the GON forum! David Hemley grows some monster bucks on his place. David, post up n pics and info about your plotting and feeding methods on your place.

 

[Shack]

I live in NW Fla. and hunt in South Ala.

 

[Triple C]

WOW, A new forum called Deerhunterforum and I am the first to post a thread in the deer hunting sub forum. I followed a link from Woodys/GON forum and signed up. I have been a member there since the beginning days of the forum.

I live and hunt in Georgia. I started deer hunting in 1968 at the age of 13 and am still as addicted now as I was then. There have been radical changes during those years. It was not uncommon in the late 60s and early 70s for a hunter to go all season without even seeing a deer. When I was in high school we boys who hunted would get together and tell excitedly about the tracks we saw or someone we knew who had actually seen a deer while hunting. If a hunter got a deer it was common practice for them to go to the county newspaper office and have photos taken. Many times a picture of the deer and hunter were front page news.

The whitetail population rapidly increased. By the 80s and 90s deer were here in huge numbers. Seasons time frames and limits were continually increased to accommodate the hunters and control the expanding deer population. Either sex dates and limits were very liberal. There appear to be less deer now than during the 90s. We still have a very long season and liberal limits, but either sex days are more limited now. My sons began hunting during those hay-day years of high populations. My grandsons are now hunting with us as well. The blessing of hunting with my family is the greatest of any possible hunting experience. 48 years deer hunting in Georgia and hoping to make it a few more.

Where do you hunt for whitetail? Tell us a little about your experience.

For you guys that don't have grandchildren yet then you just can't understand the joy of spending time in the woods with them. It is beyond good! Every region of the country is unique when it comes to deer hunting. As podad stated in his post, deer hunting down south was pretty much non-existent prior to the early '70s. Just no deer to hunt. I can remember the 1st deer track I saw on the farm I grew up on when I was probably 15 or 16. Told all my buddies about it. Back then, deer season was very short. If I recall, we had a 1 buck 2 doe limit in the mid '70s and I'm not sure about the 2 doe limit. Either sex days were few and far between. Today, we are blessed with a very healthy deer population that's not at the level of the late 80s and early 90s when it almost got out of hand with the population increase. And, thanks to QDMA, (sorry...they did a great job in the early years), we have seen a huge increase in the age structure of bucks along with a more balanced herd. We now have a 10 anterless tag limit in GA along with 2 bucks of which one must be at least 4 on one side. When I got my boys into hunting, it was pretty much shoot anything that's legal. If it had horns it died. Opening day of firearms season was a pole full of spikes, fork horns and the occasional basket rack 1.5 yr old 6 or 8 pt. Today, it's fairly common to be able to produce 3.5 yr olds and better that score 120" and up in much of the state. That's inspite of a very long and liberal firearms season - almost 3 months. Metro Atlanta produces some freaking monster bucks each year now as it's limited to archery only. I love hunting in the South. Relatively mild winters and the opportunity to at least have a reasonable chance of encountering a few 4.5 yr old bucks and older from time to time. Nothing probably like the midwest but still pretty darn good. We hunters in GA have a great relationship with the DNR. Their leadership posts regularly on the GON forum and host multiple public meetings on anything deer related. Overall, the southeast, and particularly GA, are great deer hunting destinations. I'd be disappointed to go 2 sits without seeing deer from the stand. Hope we can keep it that way.

 

[Btaylor]

Grew up hunting in a bow club in SE AR. Started going with dad when I was 8 and would climb the same tree. I would go up above him so that when I sat down on the platform of my baker stand we were eye to eye with him standing on his baker. No safety straps or harness or seat climber just hug and lift. Mom did make us a couple of chest pads with a neck loop for going up and and down the trees. Really helped on hackberries. That would have been the 76 season. Saw a couple misses and several kills before I ever climbed with my own bow. The club was 10 guys and they could flat lay some deer down. From 68-69 on they were killing 25-30 deer most years obviously all with trad bows. 6 of them went to CO in 71 and 5 killed bucks on public land. I couldn't imagine a better group of guys to learn from than them. Still hunt down south some but just public ground. Mostly hunt in the north central part of the state now on a friends place. Big difference between the Ms river bottoms I grew up hunting and the ozarks foothills where I hunt now.

 

[Podad]

Dont be shy.............. tell us about your beginnings or where you hunt.