BY THE NUMBERS
12 Daily bag limit each for quail, rabbits or squirrels in Georgia
101,000 Small-game hunters in Georgia in 2011
153,000 Georgia small-game hunters in 1991
Note: Hunter data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The holiday season marks a special time for many hunters across the South, as they take to the woods for some small-game action. Targeting quail, rabbits and squirrels was the main hunting activity in the region before the recovery of the deer herd.
Pursuing small game is more than simply bagging a meal for the dinner table. Such action has been a tradition in many southern households from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.
The demise of family farms in the 1940s and ’50s coincided with a couple of generations moving to the cities or suburbs. But the holiday season often entailed family gatherings with parents or grandparents that also included some hunting.
Small-game hunts generally involve camaraderie. Groups could follow pointing dogs on bird hunts or beagles on the trail of rabbits. Squirrel hunters could stay in close proximity as well, as they hunted beneath a stand of oaks or hickory trees.
Such activity was ideal for passing along to younger generations the love of the outdoors and appreciation of nature.
Times and conditions have changed, but many families in Georgia still take to the woods and fields in late December. Family farms in most cases now have been replaced by public lands for these outings.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources manages more than one million acres of public land for hunting. Most of these tracts are open to small-game hunters, except during deer or other big-game hunts.
Several wildlife-management areas relatively close to Atlanta provide good small-game options.
Paulding Forest, Pine Log, Sheffield, Clybel, and Joe Kurz WMAs are nearby and have areas of open fields with brier patches that harbor rabbits. They also have stands of hardwood trees where squirrel hunting is good.
Visit georgiawildlife.com and click the links for Hunting and then Wildlife Management Areas to see a complete list of Georgia’s public hunting lands.
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