Let me try this again now that I blocked those dudes.

Have you tried Fort Benning? The Post commander has put a bounty on pigs at fort benning. It's not much but better than a poke in the eye. Loaded with pigs.

Georgia is a good state to get started in.

Nothing wrong with a trophy. I don't think you have a problem with it and I bet you'd be excited to have the opportunity. Just not your goal right now. Am i right?

Here is my take.

I grew up hunting in the Midwest, but lived in SC and GA for 13 years. For the money that you would spend going out to TX for a "meat hunt", you can get on a decent lease in middle/southeast GA and kill 5 does and a buck every year. I know you haven't had the best experience with leased land in GA, but there is a huge difference in going to a lease as guest and going as a member. As a guest, unless you have a really good friend, you are going to get put in the "left over" stand, where you will see a deer if you are lucky. If you do happen to have that really good friend, you will get put in a solid location. That being said, on a standard lease where you are hunting local food sources (not food plots or feeders) and the hunting pressure is pretty high, you may only see one deer every 5 outings. The trick is to get into the woods more. When I was living in GA, I only saw deer about 20% of the time I was in the woods. Not for lack of trying, but deer don't move on my schedule and I can only hunt out of 1 stand at a time. There were many times when I hunted one stand and had deer under 2-3 other places on the lease (verified by trail cameras). That is the other thing. Once you get on a lease, you should have at least 3 places that are "yours" with trail cameras out at each of them. If you are not seeing deer on those cameras, find a different location. YouTube is a good resource for figuring out where to place stands and cameras. Also, if your lease doesn't have food plots, look into get the members together to plant them. If they do, you may not get to hunt the food plots as a new member, but look for places that the deer use to travel to and from the food plots and set up there.

When I lived in TX, I took advantage of going to some ranches and doing meat hunts, because a 2-5 hour drive wasn't that difficult and the price was right. Now that I live in Missouri, the only reason I am going to TX is to trophy hunt exotics and that is only when I don't get drawn for a hunt out west.

The GON and Outdoors Trader forums are good resources where you have a good chance of meeting up with people in your area to show you how to do things. I am a member on both of those forums as well. I was a Moderator on the GON forum when I lived there. There are some great folks in GA who would be more than willing to help show you the ropes, but rest assured, they won't just give up all the secrets until you build a relationship with them.

As for how to process your own game, there are plenty of really good YouTube videos on how it is done. As well as how to prepare game meat for consumption. The most important thing is how the meat is cared for after the shot. The trick is to get it cooled down as quickly as possible. At all my leases we had either a skinning shed or at least a grambel in a tree. My goal was to get the deer from shot to cooler in less than 2 hours unless the temps were really high in the early season, then the goal was <1 hour.

I hope this helps.

Probably a state combo hunt and fish license, plus a fort benning permit to hunt and fish, and you are good. A trotline and a couple trips after rabbit and squirrel and it's probably paid for itself a couple times over, if you are looking at economics.

And get a shotgun. You are gonna set yourself up for a lot of dissappointment using just a crossbow.

Remingtons game loads, #6 shot. About $5- $6 per box of 25 and good on small game to around 30 yards, so your rabbit and squirrel are about 25 cents apiece. Use high brass federal #4's for fox squirrels and shooting high up in the pines. Cost more like $8 a box but worth it for the extra ten yards range and knockdown power.

I know it feels like asking his royal majesty for permission to take game. But without the revenue this stuff generates there would be no good hunting or fishing.

If you ever make it to South Dakota I can help you get several deer and show you the ropes along the way.

If you ever make it to South Dakota I can help you get several deer and show you the ropes along the way.

Got bad news for you. Venison, wild pork, wild fish...any living animal whether it lived free or was finished on a feedlot will have hormones. There is no such thing as hormone free meat. Hormones occur naturally.

Also - the effects of implants (growth hormones in small doses) is negligible on the levels of "hormones" in the finished product vs a non-implanted animal. Also - all meat sold in the US is antibiotic free. Lots of myths that constantly race around to hurt the Ag industry.

With that said - I commend you for wanting to put healthier options on the table as venison and wild pork are much healthier (less fat and a lot less saturated fats) than grain finished animals. You have had some great offers and great advice.

I didn't see you mention anything about fishing. I know there is great fishing in Georgia. Fishing is also A LOT cheaper way to put some other healthy meat options on the table (just don't fry everything!).