What are we doing wrong in Charlton county?

There is some good info in the latest GON mag on the locations for some of the best bow bucks taken. Can't help but notice the lack of big bucks and information on big bucks in Charlton county (and the south eastern coastal plains in general).

I have a small lease in Charlton co just under 400 acres. I have a couple small food plots I try and keep going. I keep feeders going year round. Ive seen some nice bucks taken on the clubs surrounding mine. What are some other things we can do here in SE GA to grow some bigger deer?

Work together with adjacent land owners to get buy in to let the deer grow?
What else?

I think that age is a factor but without genetics it's just not gonna happen

The soil over that way is real poor. Suited for growing pine trees and blueberries and not much else, big whitetails included.

I hunt in Tattnall. There's not much we can do but pass on as many young bucks as we can and hope for the best. Give em minerals during the spring and protein.

Can have the best genetics in the world, but if a buck never gets past 2..doesn't matter. Down here they may tap out at 120. I have seen a couple of 150s. They just need time. I wouldn't expect a booner though.

I hunt Ware, And Brantley and we just don't have the genetics, or food source. The lowland coastal area soil is acidic and doesn't support vegetation that has protein. If you notice as you drive north you hit hardwoods and different soil and the deer are much bigger. Around here you have to hunt Coffee, Bacon or north.

You would be amazed at the number of big bucks that aren't in any record books. A lot of hunters don't care about records. Go talk to processors in the area for accurate reporting. At least that's how it is where I hunt.

Yeah but your in Kentucky.....

Very poor sandy acidic soil does not grow guduns so easily. One of my hunting buddies quit deer hunting down that way and gos to Illinois instead where instead of a good buck being 110 its ^^^^^

I hunter some with the family that was the largest land owner in Charlton County, and had been for nearly 100 years. They practiced QDMA before most of the folks here could spell it. With 10s of THOUSAND of acres, and tightly controlled access, they would shoot the occasional 8 and 10 pt. that would be considered a modest trophy here in Piedmont Georgia.

The soil there just doesn't have the necessary ingredients to grow large antlers on a consistent basis.


As far as genetics, the island deer, which are similarly "small" were stocked all across Georgia, and provide much of the basic "stock" for today's deer population.

GDAWG84 said:

The soil over that way is real poor. Suited for growing pine trees and blueberries and not much else, big whitetails included.

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This ^ plus poor genetics.

It would not hurt to have soil samples taken and perhaps adding lime to the areas you wish to plant. Lime can work some magic. It may or may not make a big difference, but it can never hurt to try and you never know it may help more than expected. The soil where I hunt is pretty sandy and it can be difficult to plant fruit trees. We had soil samples taken and adding lime was the ticket. Now our food plots are so green it looks like Ireland, and my pear trees are going to make it. We're in a different part of the state and agriculture is pretty abundant where I'm at, but it can be tricky to plant there if you have no experience in that area.

Year round feeders with a steady, high protein feed could not hurt either. If it were me I would set up several feeders and have at least 3 different mixes of high protein feed throughout the property. Deer are like humans in some ways and something different to eat from day to day, or week to week will hold them on your property better. One day the bucks may want acorns, the next day they may want corn, etc.

The soil may not be ideal for agriculture but you can always find ways to improve the food sources and overall quality of deer. Good luck.

Hard to grow booners on pine tops and gall berries.

Charlton Co. Booner!

I hunt in Se Ga as well and I believe the deer don't have food source they need near the coast. The farming isn't good near the coast and further away you get from coast the better the farming and bigger the deer.

We will never have the number and quality of big bucks that is found further north. However, as already said, give the bucks a chance to grow and provide them with good nutrition and you can have bucks in the 120" range and occasionally bigger. I can attest that there are some good bucks in Ware and Pierce Counties.

My thoughts are: consider a trophy a trophy for the area you're in. A 120" buck in SE GA is comparable to a 150" up north. Likewise, a 90", 90 lb buck on Sapelo is a trophy for there.

You will go broke or crazy trying to kill big bucks in charlton county

GDAWG84 said:

The soil over that way is real poor. Suited for growing pine trees and blueberries and not much else, big whitetails included.

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And saw palmettos. There's about 30,000 acre of sandy scrub oaks and pine this way that I thought I saw the biggest rack deer cross I ever saw. He was a 14 point. The next stander got him. He was barely bigger than a dog is what made his antlers look so big. What beats me is folks will rent land within a dollar or two per acre, good land or poor.

No doubt, genetics is genetics, ( horned cattle in Texas being dehorned by a recessive gene in the Bull in a very short time) . Management can quickly become over management. No doubt in my mind, darting and artificial insemination or sneaking some Wisconsin bucks down here will eventually have an effect.

So with improved genetics will Sapelo Island deer and Daufuskie Island Deer find enough sustenance to survive? Mash Tacky Ponies for instance.

ShadowHunter,

I hunt in southern Wayne County, near the Little Satilla River, about 30 minutes from you. Same soils, same habitat, same issues. We’ve had very good success with QDM and so I thought I’d respond. Look at the top-10 bucks for Wayne County when you get the next issue of GON (those will be the gun and bow kills combined). Most of the top-10 bucks in the county were killed on our land or by our neighbors. I’m still hoping to put one on the bow list!

First, if what you want is a Booner or Illinois-sized buck in Charlton County, you’re going to be disappointed. Can’t help you. But if you’d be happy producing the best bucks in Charlton County, or seeing more rut activity than you saw before, or having more luck with rattling and grunting than before, or seeing fatter deer than before, then keep reading. It’s all about measuring your success using a local yardstick, like GON’s county records.

Second, forget the word “genetics.” No deer anywhere have a “genetic problem” or a “lack of good genetics.” You can’t change or manage genetics anyway, but you can make great improvements through managing AGE and NUTRITION. That’s all we’ve done.

Regarding AGE, if you want to make the county list, you’ve got to build numbers of bucks age 3.5 and older. Protect all yearling bucks, and maybe protect most or all 2.5-year-olds as well if you are willing. Do NOT try to “cull” or take “management bucks,” just pack as many bucks as you can into the older age groups. This will have the effect of increasing scrape and rub activity, chasing activity, fighting, and it will make rattling and grunting more effective. You’ll find more sheds and see more bucks while hunting. Hunting will be a lot more fun. And, you’ll get better at studying bucks in the woods and learning to age your local deer and see what they can produce for antlers at various ages.

When it comes to AGE, remember that not every mature buck will have huge antlers. Every age class includes a lot of bucks with average antler size, a few with below-average antlers, and a few with above-average antlers for their age (and location). The problem is, those bucks with above-average antlers will start looking very nice at a very young age, and they are highly likely to get shot by you or someone else before they are mature. This is where you have to restrain yourself from killing yearling and 2.5-year-old bucks with great antlers! I can’t emphasize this enough. This is where most people fail at producing good bucks: They let antler score drive their trigger decisions instead of age, and they end up shooting their best bucks while they are still young. If you can spot these outstanding bucks at young ages, you might even consider giving them to 3.5 or 4.5 or maybe older. Just depends on how much pressure is around you and how long you are willing to wait. Passing them does not guarantee you will see and kill them later, but killing them guarantees you will not. As you mentioned, getting some neighborhood cooperation going will also help. Get to know your neighbors and try to get support for protecting yearling bucks based on age, not on antler size.

As far as NUTRITION, we do not feed. We plant a few fall food plots, but mostly we thin the timber to put sunlight on the ground, and we burn in winter to produce a lot of year-round natural forage. I realize you are on a lease, so you likely have no control over timber harvest and may not be able to burn. If that’s true, then keep supplemental feeding and add some food plots. However, if you can, encouraging more natural forage is the ticket. It’s what they need year-round. Putting out a couple of food plots and some feeders in fall during hunting season has little impact on antler growth, body size and fawn production the next spring. You need year-round food, and producing natural forage is cheap and easy if you can get permission to cut down low-value trees, harvest some timber, and light a fire. Talk to the landowner.

Finally, give some thought to your hunting strategies. If you produce a few older bucks but you over-hunt the property, or hunt in predictable ways, you will never see those bucks and you will push them onto other lands. Set aside some sanctuaries that you don’t hunt, or set aside some food plots or other good stand sites that you ONLY hunt when the rut is on and conditions are perfect.

These are my thoughts on how we have been successful with QDM in the Lower Coastal Plain. I hope it helps!

Soybeans grow great in sandy soil and also watermelons. Adapt your food plots to more summer stuff. Cant help with genetics

Scrapy said:

And saw palmettos. There's about 30,000 acre of sandy scrub oaks and pine this way that I thought I saw the biggest rack deer cross I ever saw. He was a 14 point. The next stander got him. He was barely bigger than a dog is what made his antlers look so big. What beats me is folks will rent land within a dollar or two per acre, good land or poor.

No doubt, genetics is genetics, ( horned cattle in Texas being dehorned by a recessive gene in the Bull in a very short time) . Management can quickly become over management. No doubt in my mind, darting and artificial insemination or sneaking some Wisconsin bucks down here will eventually have an effect.

So with improved genetics will Sapelo Island deer and Daufuskie Island Deer find enough sustenance to survive? Mash Tacky Ponies for instance.

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Genetics is hardly the problem. It is food. All the genes in the world wont help this area is bad for plots and we have removed the native food sources.

wingnut2000 said:

I hunt in Se Ga as well and I believe the deer don't have food source they need near the coast. The farming isn't good near the coast and further away you get from coast the better the farming and bigger the deer.

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I am in the same boat with wingnut. I live in the glynn area and hunt in wayne. The difference observed is tremendous just in that 50 mile drive. A doe will go 150 on the farm I hunt in Wayne. On the coast a big buck is 150.