Realtree.com
LAND LINE - Features
Longbeard Plantation
Taylor County ranks as one to the Top 10 states for big whitetails in Georgia. However, wing-shooting and solid turkey populations are also a plus for this area.
When I was in my teens, I would lie awake in bed on many a Saturday morning while my dad made his way out to the garage. His thought was to let me catch a few extra winks while he started that old, white Chevy pickup, our chariot of choice for forays from Atlanta to south Georgia to go deer hunting in the fall. Truth be told, I was ready to go before he even got the key in the ignition.
Deer hunting has always been a truly magical experience, thanks to those memorable mornings. Dad had some friends, soybean growers and cotton farmers down below Macon, and they always took good care of us. Flashlight in hand, Dad would guide me to my tree stand and watch as I climbed up into my wooden blind and then pulled my gun up on a safety rope.
“Good luck, buddy!” he would always whisper. Next thing I knew he’d disappear into the darkness on his way to his own hunting perch. Up there in that stand, I knew exactly where I was meant to be.
That’s the feeling I got just a month ago when I first scouted Longbeard Plantation. Come to find out its 1,998 thickly wooded acres were Weyerhaeuser timberland that had only recently been sold off. As I quickly noticed, the boundaries of the property are still very evident by the telltale Weyerhaeuser yellow stripe on the trunk of trees. Prior to that, it was extremely fertile farmland. Today, it is a sportsman’s paradise.
Longbeard Plantation is located in Taylor County, approximately two hours south of the Peach State’s capital, Atlanta. Taylor County and its closest neighbors were the site of a 1972 program designed by the State of Georgia to reintroduce whitetails from Wisconsin as part of the state’s restocking program. To say the whitetails took is a considerable understatement.
That’s what I learned after I chatted with Daryl Kirby, managing editor of Georgia Outdoor News. His response confirmed my suspicions about what might actually be lurking in the wooded thickets.
“Taylor County is among elite company as one of Georgia’s best counties for big bucks. Georgia Outdoor News uses a formula based on official Boone & Crockett scores to rank all 159 Georgia counties, and Taylor ranked No. 8 in 2005. That ranking is not opinion. It’s based on 10 years of data.”
For bowhunters, who use a relatively short-range weapon, nothing is more important than being able to get a close-in shot. The best way to do that is to locate food sources that deer are using and then set up close by.
Longbeard Plantation has an abundance of persimmon trees, a preferred food of whitetails, especially early in the season. Muscadine vines are ubiquitous and can be found throughout the property.
In the middle and late season it should be easy to locate deer on some of Longbeard’s 100 acres of established food plots. Following a formula personally devised by noted wildlife biologist Grant Woods, all food plots at Longbeard are long narrow strips of corn and soybeans. The rationale behind this arrangement is quite simple: Easy access to immediate cover.
But whitetails aren’t the only game in town. “The plantation is called Longbeard for a reason,” says Kevin Krueger of OEI Properties. “While the deer hunting in this area is some of Georgia’s best, the turkey population on the property has to be seen to be believed.” Trophy toms are just the beginning. Longbeard Plantation also holds a 50-acre dove field and a 25-acre dove field. This past September the wing-shooting was fast and furious on both fields.
Krueger gave me a thorough tour of the property, with its meticulously manicured gravel roads, well-maintained gates and locks, rifle range, and plenty of well-established wildlife food plots.
At one of our many stops we pulled up and parked at a brand new 40x80 metal building with fold-up doors on all four sides. Ceiling fans whirred overhead. Krueger pulled up a topo map of the property. I quickly noticed that the property is hourglass in shape with a paved county road cutting through the middle.
Not far from our headquarters I got a good look at one of the property’s five man-made ponds. Easy access to water is one of the most important attributes to nurturing wildlife, and Longbeard’s naturally sandy soil proved to be challenging. Ultimately, Georgia clay was brought in to line and stabilize the ponds and ensure maximum water levels.
Just a couple of generations ago this part of Georgia was almost exclusively cropland. Today, it’s mostly timberland. As mentioned, Longbeard Plantation was a holding of Weyerhaeuser timberland, which managed the land for timber production. The majority of pines on the property—1,755 acres—was planted in 1982 with good stands of 6-year-old pines with stands of 2-year-old pines also in place. Most are loblolly.
According to Krueger, OEI can assist a buyer in making contacts with a local land manager or registered forester to put together a plan to maximize Longbeard’s timber revenue opportunities.
Some good timber tracts don’t make the best hunting tracts, and vice versa. Longbeard Plantation may well be the perfect combination of timber value and recreational opportunities rolled into one.
© Jordan Outdoor Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved. Website Design by Gray Loon Marketing Group, Inc.