I can retire from the military this year and have been offered a job in Macon, Georgia. Please tell me about the areas hunting, fishing, etc. opportunities. I have never lived in the south, but I think this is going to happen. I`m sure there are lots of deer, hopefully lots of hogs and maybe even a few bears. How`s the Macon area as far as living?

Thanks!

It's unbearably hot and humid in the summer, lots of skeeters, many snakes, the famous Georgia clay up to your knees. They also have some rather fine Georgia peaches.I haven't hunted Georgia in 25 years so I'm afraid I really can't help on that, although in the old days they had plenty of deer, just not real monster bucks. There's a couple of members from Georgia that hang out mostly in the big bore and Africa forums, see if you can catch up with JudgeG on one of them and I'm sure he can help.

hoss101,
I know much about the area but am short on time right now. Will holler at you either tomorrow or Sunday.
Hank

Hunting around Macon can be good. the current bag limit on deer is 10 anterless and 2 bucks per year. There is a few WMAs in the area where public hunting is allowed, but the private farms are the best.There are a few bears in that part of the state,but many more in the swamp on the Fla border.The city of Macon is a total shit hole,crime is very high.Racial tension is very high. Keep a pistol handy stay away from the urban areas. I have hunted off Hwy 74 for about 25 years.Good luck . Rug-Ben

Don't expect too much in the way of bears. N GA has much better bear pop but even so it's not like the northwoods of Maine.



I can't tell you about the city but Oaky Woods WMA has at least fair deer pop. good turkey and very good hog hunting as does Tuckahoe WMA down toward Sylvania. There is another WMA toward Savannah with supposedly good hog hunting but I haven't hunted it. Go to GA's DNR webpage for more info. I've hunted Piedmont NWR several times with no success, it has fair deer and turkey pop but is quite crowded because of limited hunt schedules. Being a Refuge it's grossly overmanaged IMO.



You are less than three hours from the Atlantic and 4 from the Gulf. Not bad at all.



The Ocmulgee River is a minor flyway and has good waterfowl hunting in the pothole and pass shooting styles. Good fishing from what I've been told but you know how that goes.



You're only a couple of hours from Flint River WMA with good hog pop. in SW GA.



Up 441 towards Athens is Redlands WMA in the Oconee NF that is responsible for several poor exam results while in college at UGA. Good fishing on L. Oconee and turkey hunting in NF(though now crowded).



One nice thing is you will be smack dab in the middle of good FW fishing; Oconee, Blackshear, Juliette, Sinclair. All within one hour's drive.



And only about three hrs from Eufaula, Bartletts's Ferry, Seminole and Russell.



If you make the move e-mail me.

I lived in Macon for seven years, four in college.... five years in the Marines... then three years in law school.



Macon is like any city of more than 100,000 folks. It has great areas, slums, projects, crooked politics, etc. If you have children, I'd be very particular about what schools they would attend, picking a home in the best area for that.



Hunting is varied and generally good. There are plenty of great public areas with deer populations over 45 @ square mile. Macon is right on the fall line between the rolling hills of the Piedmont and the coastal plains. Deer populations are great both sides of the line, but since the great crap-hole of Atlanta is north, it may do you well to find a club south of Macon... Atlanta folks haven't realized that they are in the South and still act like Yankees (an Atlanta native is hard to find now days). The farther south you look for a club, the bigger it will be, with dog hunting (a couple of days a week) on some of them. I usually hunt when the dogs are in the pen, btw. I'm a member of several clubs in S. Georgia. One is 22,000 acres, another is 11,000 acres. One is 500 acres, but there are only two of us. In N. Georgia, the leases will be a few thousand acres at best.



The season for deer is long.. bow starts in mid-Sept with rifle in mid-Oct, both lasting until mid-Jan. There are very productive "draw" hunts on the coastal islands. Camping on Sapelo, Blackbeard and Cumberland usually results in shooting opportunites and the 50 or so folks camped have a great time in the evenings. Transport to and from the islands is easy to arrange.



If you get into a club, most have camping areas with travel trailers, electricty, water, etc. It gets to be quite a family thing in some clubs with wives and children as egar for deer season as the hubby.



Bears are available in both the north and south of Georgia. We have plenty on one of my leases in Ware and Charlton counties. Baiting is illegal, so many use dog's in the South. In the mountains, finding a whiteoak tree seems a good idea, or a farmers field at the base of a craggy peak. Politeness will get you everywere, so far as permission is sought. You might be refused the first time, but if you are refused, smile and ask if the owner minds if you check with him the next year. You'll be surprised, pleasantly come next fall, I'll bet.



Hogs are in "pockets" all over the state. Zillions are on the coast. The Ogmulgee river which flows through the Macon, has plenty along its flood plain as does the Flint and lower Oconee.



Clubs are the way to go. I'll bet you that you'll work with a few guys who are part of a club and will be glad to have you. Yearly dues can vary from a few hundred bucks for deer/turkey, etc., up to a few thousand for primo big buck (managed) areas. Don't let anyone tell you that bucks can't grow big in Georgia. I've seen plenty of 140 to 170 class bucks where they keep the population of does down and let the big ones walk.



You may even find a club or two taking members if you look in the classifieds in the paper. Don't look in the Macon paper. Check the smaller towns.. Cochran, Monroe, Manchester, Dublin, .. towns that size. Don't tell them that you are foreign. They'll figure it out on their own, and may not shoot you the first day. For the first year or two, ask questions and don't offer opinions and for goodness sake, don't use anyone elses stand.. or even go near it. Find you own "honey hole".



If Golf is you thing, too (be it playing or watching), you will be in Mecca for that.



Atlanta has an SCI chapter as does the entire state. You should join that. If you like traditional bowhunting, there is a great group called the Traditional Bowhunters of Georgia (about 400 folks who shoot primitive, recurve and longbow). These are the folks who probably are most knowlegeable about deer hunting in the state. They welcome new members, even those who don't hunt with stick and string (so long as they're willing to learn). It is a great way to get close to some experts and maybe get on a lease. I haven't checked lately, but you can find Tradional Bowhunters of Georgia on a search engine, I'm sure.

That sounds a lot differenct than what I`m used to (spent the last 8 years in Alaska), but I do like the idea of lots of deer. Will probably not get to hunt in GA this year anyway, but will be going to North Carolina to hunt with a buddy of mine. What about gun clubs, shooting ranges in the area? Good gun stores?

Went to college in Atlanta in 1980-1981. Hunted deer down around Thomaston in Upson county. One thing I loved about Georgia was the folks were friendly and had their heads screwed on pretty straight when it came to guns. I could go into a hardware store in Forsythe (north of Macon) and buy slugs for my 16 ga. When I lived ther the limit was 3 deer and one of them HAD to be a doe. I see the limit has raised. Good.

Judge G - So you are a former Marine. I knew there was something good about you. I am a former SeaBee. Got along a whole lot better with marines than Navy fleet sailors.

Take a look at the map of Boone and Crockett entries in the map below. Look at the southestern US states of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia. Macon, GA is in center of the state of Georgia. Look at the concentration of B&C record deer entered from the area just south of where you'd live. There's no other place in the southeastern US that has a better concentration of record book deer.

Duck hunting is great all around the state, though certainly we don't get the number of big ducks you get in the central US. Wood ducks are everywhere and there are some big ducks on the larger lakes.

We have the best quail hunting in the US, primarily concentrated just south of Macon on private lands, though commercial hunting is available, too.

We have just recently passed Missouri to become the country's top turkey hunting state.

Dove hunting is a favorite pastime of many of us with great shoots throughout the season on farms around the state, though most just south of Macon.

Opportunities for fishing are all over the state from large lakes to small farm ponds. Bass get huge as the world record came from Georgia.

Fishing off the coast of Georgia is also fun.

Our seasons are long and the bag limits are generous.

The weather is mild, snow is rare, we have the country's cheapest gasoline (lowest gas tax), and if you like the outdoors, you'll love Georgia!

The others have it pretty well covered. If you are serious about moving to Georgia, I suggest that you subscribe to Georgia Outdoor News ( gon ). It is a very good reference for sporting in Ga.

Regarding fishing in Georgia, here's a fish I caught here a few weeks ago:







And our deer aren't to bad either:





And I'll post you a picture of the turkey I shot this morning later!

If you like turkey hunting, Georgia is covered up with them. They are throughout the state. I got my first bird of 2004 yesterday morning. It took a bit of patience, however, as the gobblers again just weren't interested in me when they flew down off their roost, likely heading off with their hens. I stayed in the spot where I had been calling to them, which was on a ridge up above a swamp and creek bottom, and continued to intermittently call so that the gobblers would know I was still there. Sure enough about 45 minutes later I heard a gobbler looking for me. He was down in the bottom and began responding to my calls. He worked closer until he about knocked me out of my boots with a thunderous gobble at no more than 20 yards! Problem was, he was behind some brush and I still couldn't see him. I decided to wait, fully expecting him to move a bit and show himself. Well, he didn't. I waited several minutes and then called again, which inspired an immediate roar from our nearby gobbler, still in his hidden spot. This time, he did start looking for me and as he slowly walked from my left to right, I slammed him with a 3 1/2" #5. He was a beautiful bird with 1" spurs while his beard was only 8", though very full.
You may notice in the pic a deer's skull. I found that right near where I shot the turkey and decided to put him in the pic, too.
My turkey's next stop one day this week will be on my grill!

Hoss,

check out Woody's Taxidermy Campfire forum at
www.woodystaxidermy.com


You can also check at the site for the Georgia Outdoor News: www.GON.com

As stated above, get involved in a good club, buy your WMA stamp - to go on special quoto hunts, and check out Georgia's county wide QDM programs for selected middle Georgia counties.

Also, check into the hunting on Georgia's military bases, since you will have a record with them.

Hope it works out for you.

I`m sure that it will work out, as I accepted the job today. Will be down that way around the middle of September

If you're really curious about the quality of deer hunting in Georgia, read the report linked below. Here's an excerpt:

Over the years, Georgia has become renowned for its deer management and deer hunting opportunities; with many deer taken that exhibit antlers of superior quality and size. To date (2003), at least 98 Georgia white-tails have exceeded the All-Time requirements of the Boone & Crockett Club. This number greatly exceeds the combined total of record bucks from all five of Georgia's neighboring states. While this is a testament to quality of Georgia's deer herd and deer management, it represents only a fraction of the quality deer taken each year.

Check this out: Deer hunting in Georgia

Here's a few Georgia deer.

Link

Bill,
Those are some great pictures on your web site. I don't know about you, but sometimes it seems that I measure the passing of time by deer seasons as much as anything else.
That first deer you shot back in the 60's was to me the most impressive. Not necessarily because of it's size (though it certainly was a great one), but because of the period in Georgia's deer history when you got him. The number of deer in the entire state was a fraction then of what it is now. There were no QDM practices then which encouraged the bucks to grow to mature ages as is so common today. To have gotten such a fine animal then was indeed a great accomplishment. Anyway, I enjoyed seeing some of your hunting history on your site. No doubt your time in the outdoors has been a very defining part of what makes you who you are.

Thanks. It looks like

The older I get,
the better I was

Check out the elk hunt especialy the "Adventure with Pete"