can y'all describe to me what it is like hunting in your area? My wife is itchin to move closer to family and I've never hunted outside the state of Texas. Here in Texas, 97% of the hunting land is private, which means you pay out the arse to hunt--not uncommon for a season lease to be 300-12/1500 acres and cost $800-$1500/gun plus the land owners family gets hunt rights. There are also the $3000 for a 3 day guided hunt and even $5000 for 5 days with sometimes a kill fee based on the buck B&C measurements. on the lower end, if you look hard enough you can find a day lease $100/day-no kill fee etc, but if you are not there on the first 2 weeks you might not see a thing because the deer turned nocturnal!
Much of the hunting is in tripods or other stands, usually sitting over corn feeders or crop fields or along fence lines, pipe lines, roads, or clear cuts-occasionally you will find a day lease where the owner will let you stalk, but most of them want you rearend in the stand due to liability reasons...
At the right itme of year and in places where the buck/doe ratio is right, you can rattle 'em in which is a LOT OF FUN!! The limits out here will range from 1 buck only counties to some 1 buck 2 doe counties and some places allow 2 bucks and 3 does-all this is "all season combined meaning it includes archery season-or season go from October to November archery only then November to Jan 3rd or 15th depending on you location being gun season, but you can still use archery equip during gun season if you like. Folks out here are VERY protective of their hunting lands...what I mean by that is I understand in some parts of the country a land owner who is used to hunting his neighbors land for the past 30 years will feel like it is right to do so even if that land changes ownership--here in Texas that will get you shot! I also understand that some parts of the country have "hunting clubs" where 50 people join and they hunt 300 acres--way too crowded for me!! and some folks also chase deer down with dogs--not my thing.

So what is it like in Georgia, Alabama, and FAR north Florida (panhanlde)?

Thank you

David

I got the same question... I am going to be stationed in southern Ga. I can't wait to get there. The only thing that I have killed while out here in cali is doves and yotes. If any one can help us it would be great.

Thanks

Ray

Stay away you won't like it. There's only about 700,000 acres of bow only free wildlife management areas left in Alabama, & I'm sure Ga. & Fl. are in the same situation. Also you can only take one a day for 4 mos. of the season & that doesn't count doe days & tags. So see you won't like it.

Check out www.aldeer.com

But if you come to Alabama, leave the corn feeders in Texas. First offense of "Hunting with aid of bait" will run you @ $400--$500, in most Alabama counties.



And you might as well cut up your rattling horns for knife handles. The extreme overpopulation (1.7 to 1.9 MILLION deer) and the HORRIBLE buck-to-doe ratio have resulted in a "trickle rut" in many locations around the state. I have had very little success rattling here.



That's why we now have, in most of the state, a bag limit of 2 deer per day, only one of which may be an antlered buck. On certain private lands enrolled in the "Deer Management Assistance Program", you may legally take 3, yes THREE, deer per day for the entire season. 15 October through 31 January. 109 days. 218 deer legally in one season, 327 if enrolled in the DMAP !!!!!



Again, only one buck per day.



Not quite so bad in the north end of the state; the farther south you go, the worse it gets.



And that 700,000 acres of "Public Hunting Land" is shared daily by deer bowhunters, and gun small-game hunters, starting with dove in September, and rabbit and squirell on 01 October. Not to mention the yahoos running all over the place, tearing up roads on 4-wheelers, just for the hell of it; or the trash dumpers; or goobers just sightseeing; or buttheads riding around drinking beer, looking for some critter to shoot out the truck window. The deer are usually pretty well stirred up by 15 October.



And I have no idea where the $300 annual membership dues came from. Nothing like that anywhere that I have hunted. Count on $1,000, for 1500--2500 acres, with about 100 acres per member. That's if you want a decent club, with decent woods and food sources and neighbors who won't "help" you hunt it without paying dues, or run their stinking hounds across it twice a day !!!



Hog, crow, groundhog (found only in the north half of the state) and coyote season are year-round. No bag limits.



Turkey runs 15 March to 30 April in most of the state, gobblers only, season limit of 5.



Any other questions, e-mail me at ex_gw@hotmail.com