2017 Oglethorpe County reports

Triple C

Senior Member
BD...1st year since 2011 we haven't fed protein. Interesting enough, pics of bucks is way down from previous years. Got tired of feeding pigs, coons n squirrels so we decided not to feed this summer. Plus, with thinning of pines, we have browse everywhere. Hoping the bucks are just scattered around. Put out a couple more cams this past weekend so hopefully I'll have a few more buck pics in weeks to come.

We gave up on trying to eliminate pigs. Shoot em on sight but wasn't carrying when pic above was taken. Easily shot 20 or more this summer. They come and go. We just tolerate em and keep shooting.

Interesting thought about pigs...Wonder if they eat snakes. In 6 years, we've seen only 1 copper head. Not a single rattle snake or cotton mouth and we have the perfect habitat for both. And we're on the farm a lot. Son goes down about every day to check on things and I've sat on that beaver pond for hours thinking I would see a cotton mouth slipping by. Never a one. Hard to figure but not complaining.
 

jbird1

Senior Member
BD...1st year since 2011 we haven't fed protein. Interesting enough, pics of bucks is way down from previous years. Got tired of feeding pigs, coons n squirrels so we decided not to feed this summer. Plus, with thinning of pines, we have browse everywhere. Hoping the bucks are just scattered around. Put out a couple more cams this past weekend so hopefully I'll have a few more buck pics in weeks to come.

We gave up on trying to eliminate pigs. Shoot em on sight but wasn't carrying when pic above was taken. Easily shot 20 or more this summer. They come and go. We just tolerate em and keep shooting.

Interesting thought about pigs...Wonder if they eat snakes. In 6 years, we've seen only 1 copper head. Not a single rattle snake or cotton mouth and we have the perfect habitat for both. And we're on the farm a lot. Son goes down about every day to check on things and I've sat on that beaver pond for hours thinking I would see a cotton mouth slipping by. Never a one. Hard to figure but not complaining.

Our place is in the North end of the county...been there since the 70's. We have LOTS of six foot black snakes. Personally, I have only come across a only a single baby copperhead back in the 90's. There was a rattler killed on the river very early on as well(many decades ago.) I know the rattlers are more prevalent in the Southern part of the county and I think I recall someone stating they saw a fat one crossing the road near Sandy Cross...which isn't all that far down the road. I gotta believe that the bigger black snakes keep their #'s down and I'm sure the pigs get their share as well. I'm always keep my eyes peeled though. I figure there are more next to my house in N. Forsyth/Dawson than over there.
 

Buford_Dawg

Senior Member
Jbird...

We used to lease 240 acres off Turner Hill road (intersects with Lexington Carlton road) on the Broad River for about 20 years (back in my younger days). We killed many a copperhead every year there. Our land was in the middle of those 2 big granite yards and I guess all that rock kept them around. We see a few black snakes around my camp and my club in the Glades/Sandy Cross area but no rattlers or copperheads ever.
 

jbird1

Senior Member
We used to lease 240 acres off Turner Hill road (intersects with Lexington Carlton road) on the Broad River for about 20 years (back in my younger days). We killed many a copperhead every year there. Our land was in the middle of those 2 big granite yards and I guess all that rock kept them around. We see a few black snakes around my camp and my club in the Glades/Sandy Cross area but no rattlers or copperheads ever.

Yep...those thoughts I have had quite often. We are basically surrounded by quarries and also have giant boulder outcroppings throughout the interior of the property...seems like the perfect rattler den habitat. I'm not complaining though! Another species I keep an eye out for are pygmies. Their range supposedly includes Elbert and NE Oglethorpe, etc. Never run across one though. I'm just fine rubbing elbows with my buddies, the black snakes.
 

transfixer

Senior Member
Our place is in the North end of the county...been there since the 70's. We have LOTS of six foot black snakes. Personally, I have only come across a only a single baby copperhead back in the 90's. There was a rattler killed on the river very early on as well(many decades ago.) I know the rattlers are more prevalent in the Southern part of the county and I think I recall someone stating they saw a fat one crossing the road near Sandy Cross...which isn't all that far down the road. I gotta believe that the bigger black snakes keep their #'s down and I'm sure the pigs get their share as well. I'm always keep my eyes peeled though. I figure there are more next to my house in N. Forsyth/Dawson than over there.

We haven't seen any copperheads , or rattlers on our lease in a very long time, don't think our hogs have much to do with it though, as they don't roam our whole lease, but as I've gotten older and feel a little less bulletproof I've started seriously watching where I walk anyway, bought a set of snake chaps two years ago, ( which were waaay too hot) and bought a good pair of snake boots this summer.
There was a 3 or 4ft rattler killed about 30yrs ago on our lease, don't think we've seen one since, and to my knowledge I don't think anyone has seen a copperhead, which I've always thought was weird? I figured we were just lucky, I'm sure they are there.
Back about 78 or 79, there was one year we couldn't hunt the land we now lease, prior to that it was open land, Columbia woodland, they sold it to Champion International, during the transition year we had to lease another tract, a small 60 or 70 acre tract somewhere near Sandy Cross, I remember it was very close to a small quarry, that wasn't used anymore, there was an old quanset hut there, and the quarry had 15-20 ft of crystal clear water in it, with a crane underwater still in the hole, we were told local kids used it for a swimming hole, but it always looked like rattlesnake heaven around there with all the rocks and ledges. We only leased that land one year, and then started leasing what we have now.
 

georgia_home

Senior Member
We've only seen a few snakes over the last 10 years. 2 copperhead. One of which was a baby, dead on road. Other fair size, alive and crossing.

Seen a number of the skinny black ones. Racers I think they're called.

2 weeks ago, walked the farm, sneakers and knee high weeds. And after the first pass through, the vision of a rattle/head there got me back into more visibility.

Didn't see any hogs but the guys have stopped feeding pigs cause the feeders looked like hog wallows.

Had some deer and rabbits around too.
 

jbird1

Senior Member
We haven't seen any copperheads , or rattlers on our lease in a very long time, don't think our hogs have much to do with it though, as they don't roam our whole lease, but as I've gotten older and feel a little less bulletproof I've started seriously watching where I walk anyway, bought a set of snake chaps two years ago, ( which were waaay too hot) and bought a good pair of snake boots this summer.
There was a 3 or 4ft rattler killed about 30yrs ago on our lease, don't think we've seen one since, and to my knowledge I don't think anyone has seen a copperhead, which I've always thought was weird? I figured we were just lucky, I'm sure they are there.
Back about 78 or 79, there was one year we couldn't hunt the land we now lease, prior to that it was open land, Columbia woodland, they sold it to Champion International, during the transition year we had to lease another tract, a small 60 or 70 acre tract somewhere near Sandy Cross, I remember it was very close to a small quarry, that wasn't used anymore, there was an old quanset hut there, and the quarry had 15-20 ft of crystal clear water in it, with a crane underwater still in the hole, we were told local kids used it for a swimming hole, but it always looked like rattlesnake heaven around there with all the rocks and ledges. We only leased that land one year, and then started leasing what we have now.

I'm with you..I wear Danner's for deer & turkey. We hunt OTG for the most part so surprised we haven't kicked up a few.

As far as quarries for swimming, I remember back in the 80's when there was one or two that were swimmable...the trick was to make sure you had a good spot to EXIT the swimming hole before taking the plunge...haha.
 

Arrow3

Senior Member
BD...1st year since 2011 we haven't fed protein. Interesting enough, pics of bucks is way down from previous years. Got tired of feeding pigs, coons n squirrels so we decided not to feed this summer. Plus, with thinning of pines, we have browse everywhere. Hoping the bucks are just scattered around. Put out a couple more cams this past weekend so hopefully I'll have a few more buck pics in weeks to come.

We gave up on trying to eliminate pigs. Shoot em on sight but wasn't carrying when pic above was taken. Easily shot 20 or more this summer. They come and go. We just tolerate em and keep shooting.

Interesting thought about pigs...Wonder if they eat snakes. In 6 years, we've seen only 1 copper head. Not a single rattle snake or cotton mouth and we have the perfect habitat for both. And we're on the farm a lot. Son goes down about every day to check on things and I've sat on that beaver pond for hours thinking I would see a cotton mouth slipping by. Never a one. Hard to figure but not complaining.

Too far north for Cottonmouths. Southern Lincoln/mcDuffie county is about as far north as they come.

This side of Oglethorpe County has VERY few rattlesnakes. The other side of the county has a fair amount. I have lived here for 37 of my 41 years and I've never seen one on my side of the county.
 

jbird1

Senior Member
Arrow...do you have any theories about why the timber population doesn't run the length of the county? I was wondering if all the quarry racket (vibrations) pushes em out of my area...just a thought.
 

transfixer

Senior Member
Went to the club today and checked trail cams, and was pleasantly surprised ! Got a good half dozen smaller bucks also off this same cam, couple basket 8pts, and good many 4 and 6pts, prior to this batch I've been getting mostly does and yearling bucks , looks like our population is a little better than I thought. Still not seeing many fawns, I'm hoping its not due to yotes, I've gotten a few yotes on cams, but not more than 5 or 6 scattered over a large area.
 

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transfixer

Senior Member
Pulled cameras this past weekend and nothing to get to excited about. Almost 2 years after thinning of pines I am thrilled to hear quail calling throughout the property. Be cool to actually be able to hunt wild quail at some point in the future. With all the rain this year the understory in the thinned pines is a jungle. It's a beautiful thing from a habitat perspective. Looking forward to getting fall plots in the ground in a couple more months.

Triple C , I was totally surprised today when taking my 4wheeler out one of the interior roads on my way to check trail cams, I had two immature Quail running down the road in front of me ! First Quail I've seen on our property in probably 20yrs ! We used to have 3 or 4 coveys on our lease back in the day . I guess they're making a comeback ? Or did the state release a bunch of them in Oglethorpe county ?
 

Buford_Dawg

Senior Member
Nice buck Transfixer

We were down in clouds creek Saturday posting our property lines in the sections that recently got logged. Was a hot AM. We saw 6 deer, including a mom and 2 spotted fawns on the property. I guess I will be down in OC pretty much every Saturday going forward. Cleaning up our camp next weekend, then the following 2 weekends are club work weekends, then the season opens up. Speaking of quail, we had several coveys last year at our Sandy Cross club, hopefully they still around.
 

transfixer

Senior Member
In watching the weather its always hotter over in the Oglethorpe county area than it is where I live in West Ga, add that to the fact that the wind doesn't blow through the trees on a pine plantation lease, makes for a very hot workday this time of year.

I did some mowing yesterday with my trailcutter mower along the sides of the roads through our property, cut a couple trails that the deer will hopefully use, have more to do as well in the next couple weeks.
 

Arrow3

Senior Member
Arrow...do you have any theories about why the timber population doesn't run the length of the county? I was wondering if all the quarry racket (vibrations) pushes em out of my area...just a thought.

I have no idea . There's an old wives tale that they won't cross hwy 78 :bounce:

Really, it doesn't make any sense but they just aren't many here... Get down toward Stephens and Maxeys and there are a good many...Ive killed them in Philomath too.
 

jbird1

Senior Member
I have no idea . There's an old wives tale that they won't cross hwy 78 :bounce:

Really, it doesn't make any sense but they just aren't many here... Get down toward Stephens and Maxeys and there are a good many...Ive killed them in Philomath too.

I figured you probably had the best feel for the rattler situation around those parts. Yeah, it makes no sense at all...that there's some imaginary line. I could understand if their range didn't extend past a line (like cottonmouth) but the N. Ga mtns. are full of em. Now watch me kick one up after all this discussion.:D
 

ADDICTED2HUNTIN

Senior Member
I have no idea . There's an old wives tale that they won't cross hwy 78 :bounce:

Really, it doesn't make any sense but they just aren't many here... Get down toward Stephens and Maxeys and there are a good many...Ive killed them in Philomath too.

I've never seen any on my place but my buddy has killed them across 78 on Stevens grove church rd. So this old wives tale may hold some water!
 

Arrow3

Senior Member
Here's one from Stephens this morning.
 

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transfixer

Senior Member
Okay now, you guys are going to have me watching where I put my feet so much I'm not going to see any deer if they're standing in front of me :bounce: I had my snake boots on Sunday when I was up there, and I will continue to wear them till the weather gets cold, I'm only about a half mile/mile north from hwy78, I'm pretty sure they don't care that they aren't supposed to cross 78 :rolleyes:
 

red neck richie

Senior Member
Okay now, you guys are going to have me watching where I put my feet so much I'm not going to see any deer if they're standing in front of me :bounce: I had my snake boots on Sunday when I was up there, and I will continue to wear them till the weather gets cold, I'm only about a half mile/mile north from hwy78, I'm pretty sure they don't care that they aren't supposed to cross 78 :rolleyes:

Don't wear snake boots. Never have in many years of hunting the county. I have seen some copperheads but took care of them with an axe handle. I have never seen any other poisonous snake. Not saying they aren't out there just saying your not likely to run into one. Be alert but not paranoid.
 

transfixer

Senior Member
Don't wear snake boots. Never have in many years of hunting the county. I have seen some copperheads but took care of them with an axe handle. I have never seen any other poisonous snake. Not saying they aren't out there just saying your not likely to run into one. Be alert but not paranoid.

I've been hunting this same tract since 77, never really worried about snakes till a few years ago, starting wearing chaps about 2 years ago, didn't like them as they were too hot, bought a pair of snake boots this year, I don't move quite as fast as I used to, and don't feel bulletproof anymore like I did when I was younger, so I figured it was a good idea to start wearing them,, lol
 
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