I try doing a “post hunt” thread whoever I get an SOA hunt since it can be hard to find info. Figured it’ll probably help someone down the road.

Ended up doing the Geneva State Dog Hunt on Friday, 12/6/2024. The hunt is a two day hunt but I only planned on hunting that first morning since our family already had plans for Saturday morning.

I live in NoAL, so I picked my son up early on Thursday and made the 4.5 hour drive to Opp for the night. We checked into the Best Western and went to grab burgers at a place called Benton’s (highly recommend), then stopped at the dollar general for snacks and other stuff to get ready for the hunt in the morning and then called it a night.

Check in for the hunt ran from 5 till 630am, immediately followed by a safety brief. On the way, My GPS tried taking me down some random road on the WMA that was someone’s driveway but I ended up just pulling over and waiting for the truck behind me to pass so I could follow (biologists sent out a strip map a week prior but I didn’t have it up). When we got to the are around 530,, we were greeted by one of the people running the hunt who started putting all the trucks into about six different lines. Each line was about 12 trucks long (the lines ended up being the different groups that would convoy out with dog trucks to hunt a specific area). We hung around til the safety brief started, then went back to the trucks.



Once we got back to the trucks following the safety brief, a couple dog trucks would drive from their separate staging area to the front of a line of trucks, and lead a group to their hunt area. I expected maybe a 5 min drive, but I think our group drove for about 10-12 miles to the other side of the WMA. Once we got to our area, the lead truck (who was one of the organizers) would stop, and point to a red placard on a tree that was your assigned area, then take the rest of the convoy further down the road to their spots. I believe you were allowed to move within 25yds of your placard but that was it. You also were not allowed to leave til 11am since everyone was lined up by the roads and the dogs would be running.



All trucks got set up and it sounded like they let the dogs out around 730. The morning hunt was uneventful for us. We heard the dogs running in the thick stuff about 100-200yds behind us, but they never pushed a quite deer our way. We heard a couple shots coming from our group but we just didn’t see anything from our spot. We would randomly have dogs come out of the woods (not on a track, so they weren’t barking) so it wasn’t that we were put in a bad spot, the deer just didn’t run our way once the dogs were on it.) we hung out til 11, when they started honking horns to signify the morning hunt was over. I didn’t intend on doing the afternoon hunt since we had a 4.5 hour drive back home that evening but my son liked it enough that he wanted to go again, so we drove back to the area from the morning safety brief and was assigned a new line to set up in for the afternoon hunt.

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My son and I took a nap in the truck around 1215, but woke up to the sound of everyone’s engines starting a few minutes later and before we knew it, the lines were leaving to go to back out. We followed our line of trucks to an entirely new area.
We got dropped off at ours and started getting set up. Around 1300, they had let the dogs go.

By 1315, we could hear the dogs on a track and headed right for us. Sure enough, I see a nice rack bouncing in the brush about 150yds ahead of the dogs but only 40yds away from us. I squeezed off two shots, then the deer stopped for a second. I squeezed off a third and the deer disappeared. The dogs came up but they got quiet and then they just went on their way in silence. I walked my 25yds circle to look for the deer or blood but didn’t see any. Some of the hunt organizers came up about 10 min later to help me look but we didn’t see anything (I was in disbelief with how I could have missed with 3x 3.5” 00 buck shells at 40yds). They helped look for 5-10min but the dogs started headed towards a highway so they left to catch up with them. As soon as they were leaving, I stumbled on the buck I shot in thick brush about 50yds from where he was shot. I dragged him to the truck and had it dressed and loaded by about 1430.




The bag limit is 1 deer per day for the hunt (buck or doe) and we weren’t allowed to leave our spot til 1600, so I just unloaded my shotgun and played in the dirt with my son for the next hour and half. To be honest, it was probably one of the highlights of my life. I’m not sure what could be better than getting a nice buck with your son and getting to spend the next hour and a half of your lives together with absolutely nothing else to do. While we were hanging out waiting for 1600, we ended up having the dogs push 3 more deer towards us. I would have had a clean shot on two, but we just sat and watched them since we had our limit. It was fun to watch.

1600 rolled around, the organizers started honking to horns, and we started headed back to the staging area for the biologist to weigh the deer and get their data. Not the biggest rack, but it ended up coming in at 155lb dressed. It sounded like they had 13 or so deer checked in for the day for what I estimated to be about 80-100 hunters.

Overall it was a great hunt. In all honesty, I didn’t have the highest of hopes going into it to actually bag a deer since I was bringing my son and I have the worst of luck these days but i was pleasantly surprised. Everyone from the dog club members to the biologist and staff were amazing.

Lessons learned;

Don’t bring ATV. I brought mine since I didn’t know how they do it there or how well the roads are on that WMA. I never had a chance to use it since the actual areas we hunted on the WMA’s were about 20-30 min drives away from the staging area.

Bring a good lunch. There’s no real time or area to get food during the lunch break. We brought plenty of snacks but If not, we wouldn’t have had many options.

Bring a climber. Some people brought their climbing stands with them. The first spot I was at would have been great to get above the under brush since it was tall but it also had some mature pine trees that could have been climbed to get above it. If I had gone solo, it would have been a great thing to bring. My second spot would not have benefited from a climber and I shot my deer while just standing on the ground.


Notes;
My son was close on the age limit. I called the biologist to clarify before hand. If you have any questions on the rules, I highly recommend calling the biologist prior to arriving so you don’t get disappointed.

The Best Western was actually a pretty decent hotel. It was only 25 min from the WMA Staging area, so I’d recommend it if you’re traveling from NoAL for the hunt.

The organizers drive the road during the hunt to move/control the dogs. Don’t expect it to be completely empty during the hunt. Hunters are the ones who are not allowed to move.


Lastly, big thanks to the dog clubs, biologist, and other organizers! It was very organized and I know how much time, money, and energy goes into the dogs and hunts. Everyone might not get the chance to tell ya’ll, but we’re all very grateful for putting on a hunt like that.


—Feel free to add notes, tips, or lessons learned below for others who might do the hunt in the future—

Great write up, Thanks for the info!

That's pretty cool. Never dog hunted on land. Only once off my airboat with some close friends many years ago. Dog hunting is definitely different.

It was definitely fun. I grew up hunting a small parcel of land that was surrounded by a large dog club. We used to have them running deer through a couple times a year but I was never actually part of the hunt. It was neat to be around the dogs again.

Great write-up. Growing up, we would go on two dog drives a year, one in Tallapoosa County and one on the Ridge outside of Greenville. I have great memories of those hunts with all the men standing around a fire between hunts telling stories and lies and the kids listening in awe. Jumping in the trucks to "cut the dogs off", moving stand locations and listening to the chatter on the radio were always filled with promise in a kid's mind. The one in Greenville used to be done with men on horses and a few old black men running teams of beagles. It was a spectacle of the Old South and manners and discipline were expected from the hunters.

I have had issues with guys running dogs through my property before, but if done right it is a great experience. Would like to go on a hunt like that again. Might try to sign up for this one next year just to experience it again.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like a lot of fun. From my screen name you might guess that I am a dog hunter. What you describe sounds a lot different than the way we operate. There is usually only a handful of us hunting and is much more fast paced we will turn loose 6-10 times in one day. Not just two but with only a few dogs at a time. Might have to get in on one of these hunts in the future.

Awesome! Grew up dog hunting and ain’t nothing like hearing a good pack of dogs burning up a deer.

During the morning hunt, it seemed like they kept catching and releasing the dogs in our general area. Basically, dogs would start running out of our bounds for our section and they would catch them and bring them to a new area back within our section and do a re-release. It sounded like they usually hunt might tighter spreads among their dog clubs but they spaced us all out for safety since it was a SOA hunt.

I grew up hunting a mostly dog club. We had some great hunts. Got crazy every now and then. Good times!

Way to go! Glad you didn't get gar holed. Surprise the dogs ran off, usually when a deer goes down the dogs will hang around. There may have been more than one deer. I got to hunt with dog hunters around about the time the ol'timers around us were getting too old to want to fool with it and the kids wanted to stand hunt. The first deer I ever got was on my first dog hunt with grandads 12 gauge Mossberg and the second a nice 8 on the wall. Interesting to watch how different deer act. Some will circle down wind, others slip out, others run straight to the next county, and some jump off the trail. Really interesting to see a mature buck use the wind and run way ahead of beagles, sometimes just standing off to the side while they pass. I still here folks run dogs around areas I have hunted for years. Some deer will run all day and a good dog may not want to give up. I will say about 10 years ago I saw a picture of a deer close to a city that would go around 140+. Seeing a deer that scored 138 the dog hunters deer probably went 150+.