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Scouting secret to success on any hunt The fully alert archery hunter looked out from his elevated stand as dawn broke from the misty shad ows. He had been briefly serenaded by whippoorwills and hoot owls but as the first rays of sunlight filtered through the leaves he heard wild turkeys fly down from the roost. Now he could see the clear stream nearby and soak up the pleasing sound of its’ waters gurgling over granite rock shoals. A twig snapping somewhere in the distance sharpened his attention and straining his eyes he could make out faint brown shadows moving in his direction. The hunter had scouted the location well. Soon the healthy does eased toward an area where the creek bank was gentle, not steep, and showed the wear of sev eral generations of white tails. The does stepped qui etly into the stream, took a brief sip of water and jumped up the opposite bank. The enthralling scene was not yet over. An impressive looking six-point buck had held back, but now he ner vously followed the does. As his head was shielded by an oak tree the hunter took an opportunity to raise his bow and slip his release on the string. Just as the buck jumped the creek, th*. hunter took advantage of the activity to draw the bow As the buck paused to determine the direction the does had traveled, the hunter found the correct distance pin in the center of his peep sight and quic kly released his arrow. It passed through the buck's chest so fast the hunter wasn’t cer tain he had made a good hit. As the deer ran away, the hunter thought he heard it stumble through the brush. Giving the buck a few min utes to expire, he anxiously climbed down out of his tree stand. Finding a good blood trail, he had only traveled 75 yards before he located the dandy buck. Where is this wildlife par adise located? With abun dant game and wildlife you might suspect it was an expensive lease property, but you might be surprised to learn you have a personal vested interest in the land, so to speak. This hunt and many like it take place each year on the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, located on 34,000 acres in Jones County, just north of vjfc. i* ■ B iftiP Touchstone Energy Cooperatives®. The Power to Help America’s Businesses Grow. Three and a half years ago, IDMI* and its vision for the future of Internet technology products were nothing more than the best plan Gary Martin and Tommy Chambers had ever had. Today, its a thriving, profitable business- with ten employees, and the business is growing every day One electric service provider was there from the beginning: Flint Energies To help Gary and Tommy harness the power or their ideas. Turn their dreams into reality. And power their company's phenomenal growth. We are America’s Electric Cooperatives Flint(2)nergies • Solutions for Living A Touchstone Energy* Cooperatives The power of human connecliont www.ntntenergits.com *IDMI (912) 953-9922 • www Rjrninc.com Jkt- John Trussel I Home Journal Outdoors Macon. So if you're a loyal citizen of the good ’ol USA, you can hunt on the Pied mont National Refuge. Some hunters might think public hunting opportunities are crowded and unsafe, but that's usually not the case at all. In fact, hunting accidents are much more common on private properties than on national or state wildlife areas. II you have bypassed public hunting opportuni ties in the past, you may want to reconsider. An added bonus for the Piedmont deer archery sea son is that no quota ticket is required to participate. Unlike the refuge gun hunts, which are limited to 1.500 hunters on each hunt, permits for the archery hunt are unlimited and free. Successful appli cants for the gun hunts must pay a $12.50 hunt fee. Still a great bargain, but to get ready for the gun hunts, why not do some serious scouting and per haps put some early archery season venison in the freez er? All a hunter has to do to earn a free archery permit for Piedmont Refuge is sign his name on the front page of the current Piedmont hunting regulations pam phlet. The pamphlet is avail able at the cheek station, visitors center or through the mail. Archery' hunters are required to appropriately fill in their big game license if they kill a deer, so if you are lucky drop a deer, it will count against your statewide limit of five deer. (This doesn’t apply during the gun hunts when a spe cial tag will be supplied by Piedmont personnel, so gun killed deer won’t count against your yearly limit.) For the 1999-2000 sea son. the archery season at Piedmont runs from Sept. 18 to Oct. 3. The gun hunt dates are buck only Oct. 28 -30. Primitive weapons Nov. 4 -6; either sex hunts are Nov. 12-13, and Nov. 19- 20. On the gun hunts there is a limit of two deer but on the archery hunt the limit is five, the same as the state As a Touchstone Energy® Cooperative, Flint Energies is committed to providing customers large and small with state-of-the-art technology and personalized service at affordable rates. We’re part of an alliance of local, consumer-owned electric utilities, Touchstone Energy, which serves millions of businesses and homes all across America. So whether you’ve been in business for 3 years or 30, Hint Energies has the power to help your business grow. Let us put the "Power of Human Connections" to work for you. limit. Applications for the gun hunts must be received normally by the end of August. Successful appli cants for the gun hunts will be notified and then they must mail in a $12.50 fee to receive a hunt permit but remember the archery per mit is free. . According to Ronnie Shell. Piedmont Refuge Manager, the area deer herd continues to provide excel lent hunting opportunities for middle Georgia sports men. He says the deer herd on the average is probably down slightly from previous years, but is very healthy and within the carrying capacity of the land. He estimates that the Piedmont deer herd is still running about 28 - 35 deer per square mile which is typical of the Piedmont sec tion of Georgia. During the 1998 - 99 deer season, all hunters harvested a total of 521 whitetails. Naturally most of these deer were taken during the firearms season. Typically during an aver age year. Shell says 20 to 30 deer are bagged during the annual archery season. Pre dominately the harvest dur ing the archery season is mostly does, but each year 2 to 3 nice bucks are brought in to the check station. Shell says for the diligent nunter. Piedmont Refuge is a great place to hunt and he remembers one hunter who tagged three deer last year during the archery season. Shell is hoping the mast crop will be improved this year. “Last year we had one of the poorest ac uni crops I can remember, but the deer were still in good shape with plenty of grasses and other green browse." Shell said this fall the hunters visiting Piedmont should put in sufficient time scouting to pin point well worn deer crossings and hardwood ridge feeding areas. Finding good areas to deer hunt can appear to be baffling at first because Piedmont is quite large at 34,000 acres. The refuge is broken down into 1,000- acre tracts for timber and wildlife management pur poses. According to Shell, the deer harvest is prehy veil distributed across the entire refuge. If there is any deer harvest pattern at all. Shell says the majority of deer are harvested within a couple of hundred yards from th« nearest road. The refuge is well crossed with a couple of state high ways and numerous gravel refuge roads that are well maintained so that 4-wheel drive is rarely needed. Shell reminds hunters that ATV’s are not allowed on the refuge, so leave them at home. Bring your walking boots because the exercise will do your body wonders. For serious hunters who want to get away from other hunters, you'll find a lot of elbow during the Piedmont Refuge hunts. Shell esti mates the average weekend turn out as only 40-50 peo ple and even less during the weekdays. Most of these hunters are probably “regulars” who have been visiting the refuge for years because of the fine hunting. They know that despite the large size of the refuge, the best strategy is to pick a location and scout it thoroughly. Like many Piedmont reg ulars. this writer has been hunting different sections of the refuge for more than 30 years. I have participated in the archeiy. primitive* weapons, and gun hunts and have taken at least ont deer off the property (some times two) in most years. Like many hunters. I have several places I hunt, but Piedmont is special because I have so many fond memo x .ies ot trips there over the years. I love the lav of the land and I’ve experienced good success there. Hunting clubs come and go. but Piedmont is one of the very few places where I can hunt in the same loca tion I did ma years ago. Many Georgia hunters share those same feelings about Piedmont Refuge Benefit golf tourney will be Oct. 1 at Perry CC Special to the Home Journal A golt tournament has been planned to benefit the Pregnancy Care Center of Perry, a Christian Outreach Ministry'. The event, to be held at the Perry Country Club Oct. 1, is sponsored by Allgood Electric Co. Pre-registration and sign-in will be held from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.rn.. fol lowed by lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.rn. and shot gun start at 1 p.m. The cost is S2OO per team. S2OO per hole sponsorship and Mulligans, $5 each. There will be door prizes. 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