Photo by Kenny Bahr.

Georgia deer are caught between a freeze and a hot place this year. We had a late April freeze that hurt both the hard and soft mast crops in much of the state and devastated the acorn crop in some of North Georgia. Then fires in South Georgia burned thousands of acres of habitat. Both events will affect your hunting.

In the mountains of North Georgia, the loss of much of the acorn crop has hurt deer, and will disadvantage hunters. Such a predicament causes deer to move less and to stay close to any source of food they've located. If you find food, you find deer, so planting fall and winter food plots is an important strategic move that will draw the animals in when you want them.

The fires in South Georgia are a mixed blessing. Where they open up areas of thick pine trees, a lot of browse grows for deer in places that have been poor for them in the past; the open areas produce food for several years until the pines again thicken into pine barrens. The bad news is that those fires burned the oak trees, too. Bottomlands where lots of acorns provided deer with an excellent food source in the past will take many years to recover -- again making fall and winter food plots vital.

The best news: Georgia's deer herd is in good shape statewide. Numbers are stable in most areas, with some increases in spots and little in the way of decreases. In most parts of the state, the chances of seeing deer and putting meat in the freezer are excellent.

An estimated 1.2 million whitetails roam Georgia. This past year, hunters killed about 320,000 deer, which seems like a lot -- until you run the reproduction figures. In very general terms: If half the herd is does, and each averages two fawns a year, the herd could double in one year; hence our long season and liberal limits. Even though hunters can take 12 deer a year -- only two of which can have antlers -- most don't take anywhere near that. Last year 242,000 licensed hunters killed an average of only 1.3 deer per hunter, so if you killed more than one deer last year, you were above average.

To break those numbers down further: 195,000 licensed resident hunters took 254,000 deer. Add to that another 25,000 non-resident hunters that harvested 36,000 deer and 22,000 honorary license hunters that took 29,000 deer and you see the statewide impact of hunting on the deer herd.

Deer harvest increased from just over 245,000 kills in 2005 to more than 319,000 during the 2006 season. For the year before last, it took 14.59 days of hunting to kill a deer; that improved this past season to 12.72 days hunted per deer killed. Higher success rates should also mean more hunters sticking with the sport during the coming year.

When it comes to deer, Georgia is split up into regions for various purposes. First, the four broad physiographic regions: Blue Ridge Mountain, Ridge and Valley, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain, each area with individual geophysical characteristics. The state is also divided into game management units, which are distributed among the physiographic regions with regard to governmental boundaries; each of these is administered from a management office, which is responsible for all kinds of game-related issues within the area, including running the wildlife management areas. The offices almost match up with the Law Enforcement offices.

The nine deer management units are concerned more with area-specific deer management, each containing similar habitat and herds exhibiting similar characteristics. These smaller units help with planning the number of doe days for similar herds, as well as other management practices.

Even within the DMUs a lot of variation is seen. Breaking it down to the county level yields more particularity, but tremendous differences can be seen within a county, too. Although one county may generally have good hunting for numbers rather than for trophy bucks, you find big deer in some places even within that county.

A look at each DMU will give you an idea of the vast variety of habitat and herd quality in Georgia; the information even may help you decide on where to hunt.

DMU 1
Most of north Georgia's higher mountains and steeper valleys are included in DMU 1, which runs from the state line on the east almost all the way across to Alabama. The terrain is tough on deer, and populations are generally the lowest in the state.

Deer are very dependent on the acorn crop here, and the late-April freeze damaged any trees developing when it hit. Some oaks in the higher zones that had not started putting out leaves when the temperatures dropped may have acorns this year, so to find the deer, you should hunt higher elevations rather than down in the valleys.

Ken Riddleberger, regional supervisor for GMU 2, which includes much of DMU 1, said that, as both the hard and soft mast producers were hurt, hunters need to scout more to find deer. The deer try to conserve energy when food is scarce, and food plots will help if you can plant them where you hunt.