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COVID-19 inflicted all sorts of casualties throughout 2020, but Georgia’s deer season wasn’t among them.
In fact, according to Georgia’s Wildlife Resources Division, hunters with extra time on their hands due to furloughs and business closures may have performed better this season than in previous years.
One early concern, according Georgia State Deer Biologist Charlie Killmaster, was the potential for over-harvest.
“It seemed like people were hunting more during 2020,” he said. “Even the turkey harvest in the spring was high.”
As autumn arrived, and firearms season opened for deer, there was a definite spike in the typical number of deer killed, based on the state’s online check-in system through which hunters register same-day kills through phone apps.
“I was really concerned around that first cool week of the season,” Killmaster said. “We were coming out hot – really hot!”
In an unusual departure from typical years, the highest harvest day of the entire season occurred earlier than usual – on Oct. 17, when approximately 5,000 bucks and 2,800 does were reported; followed by Oct. 31, with 4,300 bucks and 2,900 does checked in.
By comparison, the heaviest harvest days during the 2019-20 season occurred later, with with the highest daily harvest Nov. 2 with 5,100 bucks and 3,900 does checked in; followed by Nov. 9, with 4,800 bucks and 2,700 does reported.
Although Georgia’s 12-deer limit, combined with increased hunting pressure, could have pushed harvest numbers to unhealthy levels, those concerns did not materialize.
“After the first weeks, it really normalized,” Killmaster said. “And it continued to normalize, which is good.”
Georgia’s firearms season closed Jan. 10, and the totals (at press time) appeared to be shaping up to a small increase over last year.
During the 2019-20 deer season, Georgia’s 180,000 hunters took approximately 210,000 deer, including 88,546 bucks and 91,036 does reported through the online check-in program.
This season’s totals are expected to be similar or slightly higher. As of press time, hunters had checked in 92,249 bucks and 85,223 does, with many more expected during the final week of the season, which traditionally includes a heavy antlerless deer harvest.
In the Augusta area, Burke County remains the top deer-harvest county, with 3,547 kills reported so far this season, compared to 3,758 in 2019-20. Burke is also among the top three harvest counties statewide.
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Other Augusta area county harvest figures (current year followed by 2919-20 season) include:
Richmond County: 794 and 798.
Screven County: 1,558 and 1,557.
Columbia County: 1,493 and 1,536.
Hancock County: 3,369 and 3,415.
Jefferson County: 2,230 and 2,043
Lincoln County: 1,261 and 1,250.
McDuffie County: 1,421 and 1,204.
Hunters can visit https://georgiawildlife.com/harvest-summaries for more details on deer harvest. The summary includes a link to the Georgia Deer Harvest Dashboard, which features an interactive map with county-by-county harvest data.
To access all Game Check results statewide, including wildlife management areas, visit https://gamecheckresults.gooutdoorsgeorgia.com/ for deer and other species.
Rob Pavey is the Outdoors contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at robbie.pavey@theaugustapress.com
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