Georgia is a beautiful southern state. The gorgeous Mississippi River flows through the East Coast state of Georgia and has blessed it with dense vegetation and excellent flora. And with such beautiful surroundings come variety in wildlife too.
Thus creating an opportunity for many enthusiastic hunters worldwide to come here and take the fun of hunting. Georgia not only has gorgeous four-legged creatures like deer. But it is also filled with many small games, such as quail, rabbit, possum, fox, bobcat, grouse, opossum, and alligator.
In addition, you can also hunt wildlings, such as mink, muskrat, otter, skunk, squirrel, and weasel. You can also hunt a bear if you want to.
However, let us say that you are more interested in hunting migratory birds. Don’t worry because Georgia has excellent migratory birds up for hunting too.
Birds include crows, doves, sea ducks, Canadian geese, common snipes, coots, mergansers, gallinules, snow and white-fronted geese, sora and rails, teal, and woodcock. If you are interested in hunting common ducks, that is an option too.
The sky’s the limit while hunting in Georgia. So, if you want to learn more about the Georgia hunting season, go through this article because we will have all the information you are dying to know.
Georgia Hunting Season: Licenses And Permits
Hunting is a serious business, and you might face serious consequences if you try to hunt without the proper license and permit. So, knowing all the licenses and permits you might need depending on your hunting species is good. The Georgia hunting season also requires licenses and permits to hunt around in public or private lands.
But do not worry. The process of getting the license and permits is easy. You can get your license by contacting a license agent. You can also get your license by calling or visiting the Georgia Department of Natural Resources website. Also, you can go to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to learn more about licenses and purchase the one that most suits your hunting requirement.
There are two main criteria to get your license in Georgia. You can either be a state resident, or you are not, which is called a non-resident. The process of obtaining licenses may differ up to a certain level, but both parties can get their required license and apply for different kinds of special permits and passes online.
Georgia Hunting Season: Hunter Education
If you are new to hunting or need to polish your hunting education, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources provides a hunter education course. These courses are designed for individuals born after or on January 1, 1961. Georgia hunting season’s season hunting license demands a certified completion of the hunter education.
But if you are just starting hunting and require only an apprentice or a short-term license, you do not require hunter education. Worried that you have a hunter education course, but it is not from Georgia? Don’t be because the hunter education can be from any certified State wildlife agency or a recognized Canadian province.
Do you have private land that you are using to hunt? Then we have good news: you do not require a hunter education course to hunt on your land or private land. You have permission to hunt. But hunter education makes you ready to hunt in any kind of environmental condition, so getting this education isn’t a bad idea overall.
Hunter Education: Age Requirement
Okay, now let us look at the age requirement of getting hunter education.
If you are under twelve, you do not require hunter education. However, children under twelve must only hunt if they have a licensed hunter as their strict supervisor.
Further, if your age is between twelve to fifteen, you need hunter education to hunt, but if you are hunting under a licensed supervisor, you do not need one.
From sixteen to twenty-five, you fall under the adult criteria for hunting. And when you are an adult to participate in the Georgia hunting season, you will need a season hunting license.
And to obtain the season hunting license, you need to show your hunter education certificate. So, you need one.
Finally, you will require a hunter education course if you are over twenty-five and born after January 1, 1961. But you are in for an advantage because you do not need to present your hunter education certificate to obtain a season hunting license. Also, you do not have to carry your hunter education certificate while you are on your hunt.
Hunter Education: Available Courses
In a world of many ways of getting your desired education, a hunter education also has varieties. Your choice will depend upon the money you spend and the time you are willing to take out of your busy life for this important course.
First, you need to create an account at GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com. Remember to make an account because this website is also responsible for providing you with your hunter education certificate. There are four paid online courses and a free in-person course too.
But the free classroom course is only for Georgia residents. After completing your course, you can get your online certificate on the Go Outdoor Georgia website.
In addition, the four online courses are Hunter-Ed.com™, HunterEdCourse.com, BeASafeHunter.org, and HUNTERcourse.com. For more information about the hunter education course and other learning opportunities, visit their website here.
Georgia Hunting Season: 2022-23 Season Dates and Bag Limits
Now, after learning about the necessary licenses, permits, and hunter education certificates you need to get, let us look at the hunting dates. Because the Georgia hunting season is complete with mentioning the dates, you can hunt your favorite wild birds or animals. The below-mentioned dates are for the 2022-23 season.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Deer
Hunters globally consider deer the most famous game during the Georgia hunting season.
If you wish to hunt deer by archery and want your hunt to be either of both sexes, then your hunting dates are September 10 to January 8.
Also, you can use extended archery for hunting either of both sexes of deer, but only in some selected counties like Clayton, Cobb, Columbia, and many others from September 10 to January 31. Further, if your hunting weapon of choice is primitive weapons and youth-only firearms, your hunting adventure will start on October 15 and end on January 8.
Finally, if you tend to use firearms for hunting a deer, your hunting dates are October 22 to January 8.
If you wish to hunt deer by hunting dogs, you need a special permit and should only do so on authorized seasons and locations.
Moving on with the bag limits, you can hunt twelve statewide deer in one hunting season. While counting your hunted deer, ensure that at least ten deer are antlerless and only two have antlers. Also, among the two-antlered deers, one should have four points.
These four points must be one inch or longer on any side of the antlers. The four points can also be fifteen-inches spreading outside the antler.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Dove
Doves are beautiful birds and one of the most loved migratory bird species for hunting. If you wish to hunt these flying beauties, your statewide hunting dates are September 3 to October 9, November 1 to November 27 and December 19 to January 31.
The bag limit of the dove is fifteen per day. That is a lot of doves. But to control your dove hunting instincts, you can possess only forty-five deer in one Georgia hunting season.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Opossum and Raccoon
Raccoons and Opossums are the world’s most curious mammals. Often creating havoc on people’s lives, your statewide Georgia hunting season dates to hunt these intelligent creatures are August 15 to February 28 on public land.
However, if you wish to hunt these creatures on private land, you can hunt them anytime. But if you wish to hunt only raccoons, your hunting dates are from October 15 to February 28.
Good news! The bag limit for hunting opossums and raccoons is limitless. Which means you can hunt as much as you like.
However, if your hunt is only for raccoons, then your bag limit is three raccoons per day.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Rabbit
November 12 to February 28 are the Georgia hunting season dates to hunt the gorgeous rabbits jumping around the state.
Also, you can only hunt twelve rabbits per day.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Quail
If you love quails, the ground-nesting tiny little birds, then the Georgia hunting season would be the perfect destination to hunt them. Their statewide opening dates are November 12 to February 28.
The number of quails you can hunt is only twelve per day.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Sora and Rails
Soras are waterbirds that are extensively found in the beautiful state of Georgia. They are often referred to as Sora Rail or Sora Crake. If you wish to hunt these tiny little oviparous, your hunting dates are October 8 to October 28 and November 8 to December 26.
Sora and Rails come in different varieties, and their bagging limit differs according to their variety. If you want to hunt Sora and Virginia, your bagging limit is twenty-five per day, but you can only possess seventy-five. Also, King and Clapper, you can hunt fifteen per day but possess only seventy-five.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Grouse
A Grouse should be your first choice to hunt a new bird species. The dates for hunting a Grouse during the Georgia hunting season are October 15 to February 28. Grouse’s bagging limit is three per day.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Bobcat and Fox
Cunning animals such as the bobcat and fox are also in the front runner to hunt. The season dates for hunting them are December 1 to February 28.
Did you know that there are no bag limits in hunting bobcats and foxes? Yes, you can hunt as much as you desire during the hunting dates.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Falconry
Falconry is an excellent form of hunting animals and birds in natural habitats using a trained bird like a falcon. You can use falcons to hunt squirrels from August 15 to March 15. Similarly, your rabbit, quail, and grouse hunting dates by falconry are October 1 to March 15.
Talking about bag limits, it is quite high. You can hunt twelve squirrels and three grouses per day. Also, you can collectively hunt twelve rabbits and quails per day.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Crows
With no bag limit, you can hunt an infinite number of crows per day. Your Georgia hunting season dates for crows are from November 5 to February 28.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Turkey
The Georgia hunting season’s specialty is turkey hunting season. The statewide dates for private lands are April 1 to May 15, 2023. However, for public land, the dates are April 8 to May 15, 2023. The bag limits are two per season and one per day.
If you are sixteen or younger, or if you have some kind of disability, then you fall under the Special Opportunities Youth or Mobility Impaired criteria. For you, your turkey hunting dates in the Georgia hunting season are from March 25 to March 26, 2023. However, this criteria’s turkey hunting season isn’t for public lands.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Alligator
Although most of the season dates and bag limits in the above list are for statewide private and public lands, alligators follow a different route.
There are only some zones and quotas to hunt an alligator in the Georgia hunting season. The hunting starts from August 19’s sunset to October 3’s sunrise.
According to the quota permit, you can only hunt one during the alligator hunting season.
Season Dates and Bag Limits: Bear
We have left the best for the last. Bear is unbeatably the most anticipated hunting species worldwide. And it is an even bigger delicacy in the southern state of Georgia.
There are three hunting zones in which you can hunt bears. They are the Northern, Central, and Southern Zones. Each zone has different hunting dates.
Starting with the Northern Zone; here, you get three options to hunt a bear. You can use archery or primitive weapons like archery equipment, air bows, . 30-cal. rifles, larger air rifles, muzzleloaders, muzzle-loading shotguns, or firearms to hunt bears. If you are a youth considering using primitive weapons, use any firearm legal for deer.
The hunting dates for archery are from September 8 to January 8, primitive weapons are from October 15 to January 8, and firearms are from October 22 to January 8.
For the Central Zone, you can use firearms only on December 17.
Similarly, you can only have firearms for the Southern Zone, but the Georgia hunting season dates for bears are extensive. The dates are September 22 to September 24, September 29 to October 1, October 6 to October 8 and October 13 to October 15.
Let’s talk about the bag limit, shall we? For bears, you can hunt two per season. But you can take up to one bear from the Northern and Southern hunting zone.
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Georgia Hunting Season: Conclusion
Hunting is an exciting but dangerous task. So, being well-prepared before you go on one would be best. Ensure you have all the proper training, guidance, tools, and equipment to smooth your hunting experience.
Also, the season dates, licenses, permits, rules, and regulations of the Georgia hunting season keep on the season. So, be up to date with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources website to be up to date with any new changes.
Finally, we at Best Budget Gears also have many informative and interesting blogs on our site to know everything about hunting.
