Coastie

Got a nice Doe about an hour ago and missed the spike that was following her. She was broadside at about 60 yds and ran straight towards me after the shot then veered to the right for a couple of steps then fell and slid the rest of the way to the bottom of the draw.
I looked back to where she had been standing and the spike was off to the right and across the power line right of way about another 30 yds. I waited until he turned a bit and touched off a round but I believe it was deflected by a bit of brush. His tail went up and he trotted off into the brush. No flinch, no jerk, no blood no deer.
I am happy to have the Doe, she is a beautiful typical Doe for North Georgia, about 90 lbs field dressed and guaranteed good eating.
We have a serious over population problem again this yeer agravated by a near total failure of the mast crop, there are going to be a lot of barren does next year and those that do carry a fetus through the winter will be in bad shape come spring time.

James B

Good going on the camp meat Coastie. I hate to sound dumb but what is the crop you were speaking of? We either don' t have that up north or call it something else. When does your season end down there. Ours is over except that they extended the doe season to include the first couple weeks of Jan. This also do to an over abundance of does and yearlings.

hntngirl

Congratulations on the deer, Coastie!

Coastie

James B., don' t feel left out, I had never heard of it reffered to in that way before moving here either. It refers to the Acorn crop that Deer and Bear require to survive the winter. This year we have none.
Our season in the Northern zone ends January 1st and in the Southern zone January 11th or 15th (I' d have to look it up to be sure. Our archery season began Sept. 15 and ran until Oct. 24th or there abouts immediately followed by a one week muzzle loader season immediately followed by the rifle season. We may take 10 does and two bucks through the course of the season. Doe days in the Northern zone are not as numerous as in the Southern zone, but if you wish to use a bow, you can take a doe during any part of the season.

James B

Thanks for the info. We have winter wheat and sunflowers and several types of bean crops to feed the deer. Also lots of corn and apples. Nut much for nut crops up here. The deer however can eat all the ice they want.

SCGOBBLER

Congrats on your deer coastie. Maybe you can get the other one later.

edknuthjr

congrats.

webejonesin2

congrats on your doe coastie-sure sounds tasty--enjoy!!

trophyhuntr

sounds like you have nine more to kill, get er done

JoeA

Mast is a commonly encountered term in wildlife management. It can be thought of as tree & shrub produced food sources (nuts, twig shoots etc.) as opposed to fruits & graze.

It' s not surprising that thiere was low mast production this year in the SE US. Two season ago it was almost the exact opposite, a lots of acorns everywhere. With the forage down the deer maybe moving a lot once the cold weather sets in in GA.