Deer archery season beginning in Georgia

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

It's that time of year with fall approaching, a much anticipated sport season kicking off.

OK, besides football. Dove hunting season is still young, and archery deer season begins Saturday in Georgia.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division reports that 118,238 archery hunters brought in more than 74,490 deer last year. The archery-only season this year ends on Oct. 10, but hunting with archery equipment is allowed throughout the entire 2014-15 deer season.

Archery deer season in Tennessee runs Sept. 27-Oct. 24 and Oct. 27-Nov. 7, and a muzzleloader and archery season is set for Nov. 8-21. Each of those has a limit of three antlered deer, as does the gun, muzzleloader and archery season that runs Nov. 22-Jan. 4. In Unit A in Tennessee -- which includes the southeastern part of the state -- there is a limit of four antlerless deer for both archery-only and the muzzleloader-archery seasons.

In Georgia, hunters are allowed 10 antlerless and two antlered deer for the entire season, with one of the antlered deer having at least four points on one side of the rack. And that state's hunters are reminded that they need not only a valid hunting license and a big-game license but also a current deer harvest record. The harvest record is free but required -- and available from retail license agents or from www.gohuntgeorgia.com.

• The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is taking comments for its 2015-16 sport fish and commercial fishing regulation changes, as proposed at the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting in late August. Among those are moving the delayed harvest area on the Tellico River upstream; it would extend from the Tennessee-North Carolina state line to North River.

The comment deadline for commercial fishing is Monday, but sport-fishing comments will be taken until Oct. 20 at TWRA.Comment@tn.gov (with "2015 Fish Comments" in the subject line) or TWRA, Fisheries Division, P.O. Box 40747, Nashville, TN 37204.

• A permit drawing for Tennessee's second sandhill crane hunt will be held Oct. 18 at the Birchwood Community Center (formerly Birchwood School). The hunting season will be Nov. 22-23 and Nov. 29-Jan. 1, and 400 permits will be available with each allowing up to three birds.

Registration will begin at 8 a.m. that Saturday for the drawing to begin at about 10. Applicants must have a valid Tennessee hunting/fishing license, and anyone winning a permit must pass an Internet-based crane identification test before being allowed to hunt. If there are leftover permits after the Oct. 18 drawing, they will be announced on the TWRA website on Oct. 20 for availability at the agency's regional offices on Oct. 22.

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