Georgia turkeys

[mattwill00]

Hey all

I have a close buddy who moved out of Colorado to Georgia a couple of years ago who, after multiple attempts on my parts, is finally starting to pick up hunting. Thing is he doesn’t know anyone out there to mentor him, and has no access to any good private land. I threw the idea out there that I could come down for 4 or 5 days this year from Colorado and try to get him on a public land birds. And hell maybe myself if it all goes well. I grew up in Ohio and miss eastern birds. Colorado is slim pickins on public land turkeys but I’ve finally started to enjoy some success, so I feel like anywhere with a higher population should be a little bit easier of a hunt. Keyword is obviously “should”.

Anyways, he went out last year to some WMAs and got pretty discouraged. I tried for years to get him to hunt to no avail so I don’t want to lose this opportunity. I have a couple of areas picked out I just want to bounce some ideas off some people who have actually hunted the area to see if I’m on the right track. Feel free to pm me if you want!

Regardless, I’ll post up a report when I’m finished up there. Not enough turkey reports here even during season. Spring is the best time of the year!

 

[FLATHEAD]

GADNR Hunting
What part of the state? I used to live in the northeastern part.
Quite a few WMA's in Ga.

 

[mattwill00]

Yeah I’ve poked around on the site a little bit. It’s where most of my ideas have come from thus far. He’s right outside Atlanta and isn’t afraid to travel for some birds. What’s the quality of the public in the state? Over run with hunters?

 

[hobbes]

If your experience with turkeys on public land is limited to Colorado, you are going to be surprised at the number of hunters on public land in the SE. Think opening day of archery season in Colorado. Opening day of second rifle may be a better comparison.

I've not hunted in GA, but it's not going to be much better as far as pressure goes than Alabama, and I have been there. I would plan for week days if at all possible.

 

[gaswamp]

what part of Georgia does your friend live in?

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Turkey hunting on private in Georgia is without a doubt the hardest turkey hunting I've ever done, I couldn’t imagine how tough public birds are.

 

[Millwood21]

I live in north Ga. I hunt turkeys 100% on public land. It’s a tough go. I hunted every weekend of the season and finally had an opportunity at 1 bird last year. Only one I took all season. Year before I tagged out. I heard turkeys almost every day I went. But getting them to keep responding or getting on them can be a challenge itself after locating.
I usually try to hunt NF. It’s scarce for sure but the wma areas are super crowded around me. You can find places that’s not but it’s tough. I used to see a lot of turkeys while out driving around on private. But have not seen near as many in the last year or two.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Yeah I’ve poked around on the site a little bit. It’s where most of my ideas have come from thus far. He’s right outside Atlanta and isn’t afraid to travel for some birds. What’s the quality of the public in the state? Over run with hunters?

The vast majority of forested land in Georgia is privately owned. He will need to pay to play/join a hunting club. Most give year round access so deer, turkey, hogs, whatever he wants to do that is in season. Typically $1000-$3,500/year dues with "you get what you pay for" coming into play.

$1000 is going to be a disorganized, brown it's down club with too many members, with Cletus and everyone in his extended family hunting on his one membership. Lots of drama.

The $3,500 club will have few members with more stringent rules around guests/family, drinking, and harvest rules. Will include power for your RV, food plots, stands, etc....no drama or you are out. There are waiting lists for these places, and an interview process.

The GON forum has a subforum that focuses on wanted or available land to lease. Most of these ads are for hunting clubs. https://forum.gon.com/#leases-and-land-management-and-gardening.61

I know several people in Atlanta who are in clubs......all drive south of Atlanta to Crawford, Meriwether, Upson, Twiggs, or Jasper county. These are within 1.5 her drive depending on where in Atlanta you live.

 

[gaswamp]

The vast majority of forested land in Georgia is privately owned. He will need to pay to play/join a hunting club. Most give year round access so deer, turkey, hogs, whatever he wants to do that is in season. Typically $1000-$3,500/year dues with "you get what you pay for" coming into play.

$1000 is going to be a disorganized, brown it's down club with too many members, with Cletus and everyone in his extended family hunting on his one membership. Lots of drama.

The $3,500 club will have few members with more stringent rules around guests/family, drinking, and harvest rules. Will include power for your RV, food plots, stands, etc....no drama or you are out. There are waiting lists for these places, and an interview process.

The GON forum has a subforum that focuses on wanted or available land to lease. Most of these ads are for hunting clubs. https://forum.gon.com/#leases-and-land-management-and-gardening.61

I know several people in Atlanta who are in clubs......all drive south of Atlanta to Crawford, Meriwether, Upson, Twiggs, or Jasper county. These are within 1.5 her drive depending on where in Atlanta you live.

good post

 

[FLATHEAD]

If your experience with turkeys on public land is limited to Colorado, you are going to be surprised at the number of hunters on public land in the SE. Think opening day of archery season in Colorado. Opening day of second rifle may be a better comparison.

I've not hunted in GA, but it's not going to be much better as far as pressure goes than Alabama, and I have been there. I would plan for week days if at all possible.

True, and why I dont Turkey hunt anymore.

 

[deerhunt1988]

Be aware that Georgia recently changed their public land regulations. The later opener will just further consolidate pressure as many folks who've been hunting private opening week will jump over to public when it opens to take advantage of fresh birds.

Also, GA turned several popular WMAs to draw for the first time this spring due to the ever increasing hunting pressure.

 

[mattwill00]

Damn sounds like it’s a pretty bleak picture. Any neighboring states any better? I’m no stranger to the crowded public game (otc elk, Colorado/Nebraska public turkey) but it seems like a pretty rough go out there. Maybe I’ll see if I can’t get him to come out to Nebraska or something. Thanks for all the responses as well as the pm’s.

Regarding the hunting clubs, he’s a recent father of two little ones. Unfortunately I think he’s not that committed yet. Part of the reason I want to help him out. Remove the years of frustration I had when I was teaching myself how to turkey hunt as an 11 year old haha.

 

[Southern Heritage]

Drive north meet in Iowa, Ohio, Kentucky, even South Carolina. Make it a annual 7 day trip. I’m in Alabama. Even When I hunted every day of the season I still couldn’t wait to head North to get out of pressured birds. There just fun to hunt. I typically kill 5 birds a year in Alabama the un fun part is I do very little calling a lot of sneaking and waiting.
I go to. Un pressured birds and I call all day long every day. Birds always gobbling and if they stop find another.

 

[dtrkyman]

Iowa is a draw hunt for non residents, unless there are leftover tags. otherwise a good plan leaving the south.

 

[Southern Heritage]

Good point i didnt think of.

 

[mathews8pt]

Ive made the trip to GA public a couple times. First trip we hunted within an hour or so of Atlanta and got very lucky to walk in on a ridge that had some birds. My buddy killed a jake and i killed a tom on that trip. The next trip we went to SE GA because of bad weather in the northern part. Never heard a bird gobble in 3 days of hunting all day.

The hunting pressure was pretty nuts down there. They take their turkey hunting seriously and there are plenty of guys out putting pressure on the birds.

I would look north, TN or KY. KY has treated me pretty good over the last few years and there is a lot of public. Im going to try TN this year, instead of my normal GA or AL trip. Good luck wherever you go.

 

[mattwill00]

Well now we’re considering Alabama or Tennessee. Also, does it make sense to walk into the more heavily timbered WMA/NF’s instead of the more broken habitat on the smaller parcels? I’d imagine the bird density is lower in the timbered areas, but maybe pressure is down. At this point we’re considering backpacking in to get away from the pressure but even then I’m not sure if it’ll be worth it for the few birds that might be deeper in the timbered tracks of land. Any insight on that?

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Drive north meet in Iowa, Ohio, Kentucky, even South Carolina. Make it a annual 7 day trip. I’m in Alabama. Even When I hunted every day of the season I still couldn’t wait to head North to get out of pressured birds. There just fun to hunt. I typically kill 5 birds a year in Alabama the un fun part is I do very little calling a lot of sneaking and waiting.
I go to. Un pressured birds and I call all day long every day. Birds always gobbling and if they stop find another.

We have a decent amount of birds in SC but the $100 NR tag fee keeps most people out. Thats on top of your $125 NR license and $100 big game permit...You do get 2 tags...but you can only use 1 the 1st 10 days of season.

 

[dtrkyman]

You find turkeys where they are, I am always trying to go into those remote places and hunt, and basically walk by all the turkeys!

Got to hunt em where they are!

 

[Ndheidmann]

I just moved to Colorado from Georgia. When people in GA say it's pressured, they mean the WMA's and easy to access areas. If you're willing to hike 2 or 3 miles, there's a lot of unpressured birds all through the national forests. Yes it's less dense but the turkeys are there and the service roads are easy to drive and call from as a start. I've turkey, deer, and bear hunted all over north GA and never saw another hunter in the national forests.

I'm amazed at how hard it is to find access to the national forests here in northern Colorado from the front range side. GA was so easy!