From three weeks ago:

Deer hunters statewide are buzzing. Some have been hunting with bows for a few weeks now and others will hit the woods with muzzleloaders in a couple of weeks, but the big event is in three weeks. Gun season opens statewide on October 21.

Some hunters are prepared for gun season. They have zeroed in their guns, checked their stands for safety and placed them in key areas they have carefully scouted. Others will wander into the woods opening day totally unprepared, with guns that are not accurate and stands they may fail and cause injury or death.

The worst of the unprepared will simply drive dirt roads until they find woods without “posted” signs on them and look for deer. These folks are breaking the law since they do not have permission to hunt on private land. It does not matter if the land is posted, the law requires you to have permission from the land owner to hunt.

Some people have put out corn or other bait and will sit near it opening day. That is legal in south Georgia but those in north Georgia, including this area, risk a hefty fine if caught. It seems unfair that half the state can do something legally that the other half can not, but that is the law.

If you are trying to kill a deer over bait, or in my opinion even over a food plot legally planted to attract deer, you are not hunting. You may harvest a deer but it is more like farming than hunting.

I have no problem with killing deer in food plots, I do it. But I do not consider what I do hunting. I am interested in harvesting venison to eat so I do what the law allows to help, but hunting involves much more effort to locate a deer in natural habitat, figure out the way it moves during the day and set up to shoot them.

I respect hunters that put out the effort to kill a trophy buck. It takes a lot of work to truly hunt a wise trophy buck and kill him. But it is not for everyone. Choose what you want to do, harvest or hunt, and act within the law to accomplish your goals.