Requiem for this deer season (2025)

Requiem for this deer season (2025)

I love to hunt but I only hunt deer and turkeys unlike my grandfather who mostly hunted rabbits and squirrels. That was because in those days there were no turkeys and precious few deer in Georgia. I used to tag along behind him with my little 22. And although he has been gone since 1971, I feel he is still with me when I venture into his woods. Maybe it is in his memory that I don’t eat store bought red meat.

It is time for my annual report on deer hunting. The deer that live on my farm are lucky. I passed on over 50 shots this season because of my unwavering standards. I do not shoot immature deer. I do not shoot fawns with their mothers even if the fawns are weaned. I shoot no buck under six points. As a result only took one nice doe during bow season with my Wicked Ridge RDX 400 and none during gun season. During the last week of gun season I was tempted to break my rules since that one doe is almost gone being consumed on occasion by me and daily by Lili, my remaining German Shorthaired pointer. I was seeing about 8 deer per day moving near my ground blind. But none to shoot. There was a momma doe with three smaller does, a spike, a button buck and a buck with one two point antler only on one side. I passed on them all. Now that the season is over I will have to coax Lili to eat lean chuck and I will make do with fish and fowl.

Five years ago I had to have around 70 acres timbered because of pine beetles. The loggers had to widen the two trails to the backside of the farm to get in their equipment. The result is that the trails have now become impassable due to severe erosion because the loggers removed the topsoil and vegetation. I cannot even get my ATV down them. I will get a bulldozer and try to repair the damage this winter. But my hunting has significantly deteriorated since the land was timbered. I have had four poor seasons in a row. Some decent does but no big bucks.

I cannot get to my stands on the backside of the farm where I hunt late in the season. I can only hunt three spots instead on the frontside. One is a great place during bow season with plenty of does but I have only seen one shootable buck there in 30+ years (except at 2:30AM on my trail cameras). Where I have consistently shot big bucks during the rut has been a disaster since the timbering. Now all the big deer stay on the adjacent property where the guy who leases it says he killed a nice 8 pointer this season. I envy him. 

I generally will see deer on the ridgeline when the acorns fall. It has no pines but only hardwoods. This year we had one of the best mast crops ever and I saw almost zero deer and no big ones. Too much food is a good thing for the deer but a bad thing for hunters since the deer move less. They are staying on the adjacent property. Georgia now allows you to bait and I have pictures of both (small) deer and hordes of turkeys walking past the corn to eat the (white) acorns. Naturally since it is deer season I have been overrun with turkeys and during turkey season I will be overrun with deer. But if anything, the photo of the turkeys shows that at least they are on the property in abundance.

I guess it would have been a frustrating season if I did not enjoy being on my ancestors’ land so much. For the past few years I have said that maybe I will take the momma doe after the little ones have been weaned. But I never can bring myself to do that. The one time that I did was some years ago during bow season. The two fawns never left the momma doe’s side after I shot her. I could not even chase them away. Since then I cannot bring myself to break up a family unit. So I still look for that single barren doe and that six point or greater buck. That I come home empty handed brings back memories of my sainted mother who loved to ridicule me saying “You might have well stayed at home working your jig saw puzzle!” My mother was never wrong and she was delighted that I loved her home place where she had so many cherished memories. But I ready do love being in the words if only being entertained by squirrels, chipmunks and woodpeckers.

I once told the wildlife ranger that I had too many little deer on my property. He said “Shoot the little ones. They taste better anyway.” He then said “You have too many deer and the only way you are going to get bigger ones is to thin out the herd. That is why we let you take 10 does during the season.” I know he is right. I know that other hunters do this. You should see what they bring into my processor. Maybe I will have to modify my standards due to my advancing years. I replaced all my hang on stands with ladder stands since I had one sabotaged by some yahoos that resulting in my falling twenty feet and having total shoulder replacement. Now my arthritic knees balk at going up and down the ladder stands. I have instead put ground blinds in two locations and plan to put in three more if I can again access the backside of the farm after I get the trails repaired.

I have in my basement a metal table, a meat saw, all the knives, a refrigerator with hooks for hanging meat in it and a vacuum sealer. I could shoot those little deer and process them myself without feeling shame of taking them to the processor. But I haven’t so far. Again, I tell myself “maybe next year.”