Nearly 300,000 Peach State deer hunters harvested more than 350,000 whitetails in 2008, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Deer Harvest Summary, a 53.4 percent hunter success rate!

"More than 207,000 does were taken," said senior wildlife biologist Charlie Killmaster. "That makes up 59.2 percent of the harvest and is a 1.1 percent increase over last year's harvest."

Killmaster said that every season's results are influenced by certain variables that affect the herd's condition.

"There are no real problems with the deer herd right now," he said. "The habitat influences the total number of deer, which right now, statewide, is about 1.3 million whitetails and that's about where it should be."

The 2009 archery-hunting season opens statewide on Sept. 13 and the firearms season opens, Oct. 18. A 12-deer limit applies, only two of which may be antlered and one of the antlered deer must have at least 4 points, 1 inch or longer on one side of the antlers. The firearms season runs through Jan. 1 in the Northern Zone, through Jan. 15 in the Southern Zone and from the looks of things, it will be another good year for Georgia deer hunters.

Harvest rates averaged 1.23 deer per hunter, and those hunters were afield an average of 17.6 days for each deer killed. All told, deer hunters spent an average of 21.7 days in the woods last year in the Peach State.

According to last year's summary, 291,911 hunters bagged 207,623 does and 143,092 bucks. The doe harvest was up only slightly, but the buck harvest increased by 14.7 percent.

Looking ahead to this season, wildlife managers hope the generously wet spring will yield a good mast crop this year.

"Last year was a very poor one for the mast crop due to the extensive drought conditions," Killmaster explained. "Acorns are an important food source for deer and last year's herd suffered somewhat from poor production. Acorn impacts are always on a one-year lag.

"To the deer herd, a poor mast year can mean lower body weights and antler development. A bad acorn year also depresses buck activity, so bucks don't rub as much and they don't chase does. This situation makes things harder for hunters, since deer don't tend to leave as much sign during low acorn years."

So where do you go to maximize your chances of harvesting a deer in 2009? One of the best ways to find the answer is to look at where deer were taken last year and plan to hit at least some of these areas for hunting trips.

Region 1
Region 1 covers the northwest corner of Georgia and is a mix of steep mountains and rolling hills. There are some good whitetails out there, but there are a lot more people hunting for them.

Wildlife biologist David Gregory said there are two outstanding wildlife management areas in the region -- Berry College in Floyd County and Crockford-Pigeon Mountain in Walker County -- that perennially get high marks among the state's public-hunting areas.

"Berry College had a 15.55 percent hunter success ratio in 2008 and Crockford-Pigeon Mountain had 10.89 making them our best places to harvest a deer," he said. "Although the numbers were down last year, these WMAs always produce good hunter success ratios."

Gregory also noted that hunters at Paulding Forest WMA near Dallas in Paulding County enjoyed an 8 percent firearms success rate.

"Paulding Forest is very diverse," he offered. "The upper half is covered in pines, so there's little mast production pushing the deer into the lower half and that creates lots of hunter pressure, so that's a pretty good ratio considering the circumstances."

Region 2
Seven hundred one whitetails were harvested last year in Region 2, right in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and wildlife biologist Kevin Lowrey expects things to be as good or better this season.