Hunting on Wild Magnolia Plantation Property is Plentiful

No matter what you like to hunt, Wild Magnolia plantation has everything you want.  On the property there are Whitetail deer, doves, turkey, geese, ducks, rabbits and the occasional wild bobwhite quail.

Quality Deer Management (QDM) principals have been in place since early 2008.  Prior to this, the property did have antler point restrictions.  But QDM focuses on protecting young bucks, yearlings and 2 1/2 year olds, while harvesting enough does to maintain a healthy and balanced deer herd.  But QDM is not just about herd management.  It also includes, hunter management, which is education to the costs and benefits of QDM.  Herd monitoring includes harvest data and observation data.  Through trail cams in the summer of 2008, it was observed that there were good young bucks and does.  During the 2008 hunting season only does were taken.  The final principal of QDM is habitat management.  To maintain a healthy deer herd you need to provide essential nutrition during all seasons of the year.

Nine food plots totaling eight acres are planted throughout the property to provide additional nourishment to deer and other wildlife during the two lean seasons.  Five of the food plots are summer food plots to provide nutrition during the late summer period.  During this period, the favorable and easily digestible plants of the spring and early summer are gone or are no longer desired.  Adult bucks and does are typically forced to live on below average forage.  As a result, fawns that are born late will have poorer quality milk.  Each one of the plots is planted with a different crop to give the deer variety and help balance their dietary needs.

The other four food plots are planted with the stress of winter in mind.  Although the stress the deer go through in Georgia is nothing compared to that of Northern deer, there is still very little food during the winter months.  Deer, especially bucks, can expend up to 15% of their body weight in energy during the rut.  So not only is there very little food available, but they are starving as well.  Winter food plots are there to fill that gap, as well as to hunt.

There are eleven tree stands strategically placed throughout the property.  Four of them are tower stands or condo blinds, primarily for rifle season.  The other seven are ladder stands, which can be used for bow, muzzle loader, or rifle season.  Five of them are new Big Game Treestands, which come with safety harnesses.

In the southeast corner of the lake, is a floodable 1/2-acre duck pond.  It can be drained in the spring and allowed to dry.  Then planted and flooded in the fall.  Providing nourishment for local and migrating ducks.  The 11.4-acre dove field, adjacent to the 5-acre lake, planted in browntop millet will provide plenty of food for the abundant local doves.  Wild turkeys have been seen all throughout the property.  20 acres of NWSG will provide cover and safety for all forms of wildlife, from whitetail deer to rabbits and songbirds, for decades to come.