Lost my place, need advice going forward.

[ucfireman]

I would say if you can in any way swing your own place, do it. I looked for a long time, 5-7 years maybe longer, Stumbled on my place by accident on the internet and got what I feel like was a pretty good deal.
As for 10ac, I would say look for more. The taxes will be high and you need 10 + the minimum to build on to get the CUVA which will help lower your taxes.
Pay attention to how large the neighboring tracts are, and how quickly the area is growing up unless you are looking to buy then sell in short order.
Also as said the drive time is important,.
Maybe look for a run down house with some land, you could at least have a "hunting camp" plus the infrastructure will already be in place, and that's expensive.
Like said all the money and sweat you put in will be for your own benefit, not for someone else's.
And I would say if you can get a creek or pond, do so.

 

[Professor]

Public land. When I lived in Lawrenceville, hunted public land 99% of the time for many years. Killed deer every year, and a few hogs.

Bingo

 

[Professor]

You are an hour from Helen, Cleveland, and Suches. There you will find Blueridge, Coopers Creek, Chestatee, Chattahoochee, and more WMAs. You are that close to hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest land too. If you love love hunting features and doing it without feeding the deer and spying on them with game cameras, then you have no problem with where to hunt.

 

[ASH556]

I'm curious if the property in Athens is the one across from the landfill. Was there an old wooden playground built around a giant tree? I'd bet it is. I debated buying that piece of property. Curious how the hunting on it actually was for you??? Thanks

No sir, it's close to that, but just down the road a bit. Sits on the corner of Old Lexington and HWY 78. Here's a rough approximation of it. As to how the hunting actually was: Excellent as far as I know. Not tons and tons of deer, but good movement, the property seemed to hold a handful of deer including always having 2-3 good mature bucks. I think the lack of food plots, intrusion, etc created a haven for them.

Had to let this guy go last January. I took this video of him at 35yds, bow in hand, but was out of buck tags:
http://instagr.am/p/CJ4dgoWA2zs/
Other bucks from over the years I was blessed to take off this property:

2009:

2011:

2016:

2017:

 

[Bob2010]

Public land is fun to hunt and super simple to deal with. Show up, hunt, go home. However taking kids out to hunt public land is a different story. I don't want my kids around gun hunters that we don't know. There is a risk involved in hunting public land.