Glad I checked the regs closely

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jmr40

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I'm going to hunt some NF property about 35 miles north of here tomorrow. In most of GA it is buck only from the beginning of the season on Oct.21 for a week or 2 then either sex until the season ends on January 14. The exact date when either sex starts varies by a few days in different regions, but once either sex is open, it is open until Jan14 in most places. But there are a few counties where they have the craziest thing I've ever seen.

The area I'll be hunting is right on the border between Walker and Whitfield county. Just to be sure I looked at the regs for both counties earlier.

In Walker County:

10/21-11/3 buck only
11/3-1/14/18 either sex

But in Whitfield county:

10/21-10/27 buck only
10/28-10/29 either sex
10/30-11/3 buck only
11/4-11/5 either sex
11/6-11/19 buck only
11/20-11/26 either sex
11/27-12/31 buck only
1/1 either sex
1/2-1/14 buck only

I've never hunted this area before, but I volunteer with a search team that searched this area last year for a missing hiker. That is how I found the area and liked it well enough to want to try to hunt there some this year.

Last year I noted on my GPS that there were many times where part of our team was in each county. To be honest I'd just as soon have a doe for the meat. but I guess I'd better put fresh batteries in the GPS and keep a close watch on it if I do.
 
How long has that been in effect?
I bet if it was before the GPS, that folks regularly where you're going harvested deer in one county when being actually in the other county. I know the deer don't know so if there is over population of deer on one side of the human-border, there is right on the other side too. ;)

LD
 
Here in WV they try to force doe on people..You have to kill a doe between buck kills on archery,or gun hunting to be legal...I don't agree with that policy,but "Rules is rules".
 
In most of the counties the regulations are much easier to understand. Most are the same as Walker county, or it is either sex the entire season. It isn't just Whitfield county, but a block of counties in the north central and NE part of GA. Most bordering on TN, SC, or NC.

Only a few years ago we only had 2-3 either sex days the entire season, but the numbers have gone up and there has been a push to add more doe days. I do most of my hunting on WMA's which have different rules, so I don't always pay much attention to the seasons and bag limits on private property and National Forest land. That is why I decided to take a look at the regs yesterday just to be sure.

Bag liimits on WMA's are 1 or 2 deer or bear per WMA depending on the area's regulations and those don't count against your statewide bag limit. Technically, and if I got real lucky I could legally kill 10-15 deer each year if I could schedule enough WMA's and score on all of them. Like that is going to happen.

Whitfield County must be short on funding. That's bordering on entrapment IMO.

I don't think so, I believe it is the politicians who set the seasons. Most of the game wardens I actually knew are dead or retired now. All the new ones don't look old enough to me to legally carry a gun and I simply don't know many anymore. But I know that many of the old ones didn't agree with some of the laws and regulations coming out of Atlanta anymore than the hunters did.

I'm just guessing, but the areas with the crazy schedules have lower deer numbers. Many of those places have far more bear and hogs than deer. I'm betting that the state wanted to reduce the number of doe days there and some state senator who has never hunted dreamed up this schedule.
 
Thanks, the graphic explains things much better. Most of the state is pretty straight forward. It is only the counties in orange and yellow that can be really confusing.
 
There's probably a lot of research and thought put into either sex days in GA. Terrain, land usage and even the dear themselves vary a lot across the sate. Peak rut even ranges from Oct to Jan depending on where you're at. I think coyotes are one reason for lessening doe days in some areas and I'm sure insurance companies lobby hard for has many doe days as they can get (some years my wife has killed more dear with a SUV than I shoot with a rifle). FWIW, I think our DNR does an OK job.
 
Kind of makes hunting pest and nuisance species 24-7-364 seem kind of attractive,
doesn't it?
 
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