🧊 Deer Drop
Where do I take this deer? Check whether you hunted inside Georgia’s CWD Management Area, follow DNR’s freezer steps, and see the local shops we could verify on their own website. The complete site list lives on DNR’s map.
Self-serve freezer steps
From DNR’s drop-off instructions (PDF). Supplies are in the freezer basket.
- Remove the head, leaving at least 4 inches of neck measured from the jaw line.
- Remove the antlers if they are still on — at the base or as a skull cap. A saw is in the basket.
- Fill out the sample tag completely. Heads with incomplete information are not tested.
- Bag the head, squeeze the air out, attach the tag to the zip tie, and seal it. One bag and tag per deer.
- Put the bag in the freezer. Check results later on DNR’s testing page.
A participating processor or taxidermist can sample the deer if you take the whole animal there instead.
Verified local shops
DNR adds freezers and shops through the season. If a place is on their map and missing here, tell us — we will add it only after we can verify it.
After the shot — before you drive
- Cool the meat now. September in Valdosta averages an 88°F high. Field-dress immediately and get ice in the cavity. Our opener guide covers why evenings beat mornings in this heat.
- Carcass disposal is required statewide, not just in the CMA: leave remains on the property, use a commercial processor, or a permitted landfill. Do not dump a carcass in the next county. Source: DNR CWD: What to Know.
- Game check is still required within 24 hours via the Outdoors GA app or GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com — or call 1-800-366-2661.
- Illegal live-deer import or a suspicious carcass: DNR Ranger Hotline 1-800-241-4113. CWD questions: cwd@dnr.ga.gov.
Where do I take a deer harvested in South Georgia?
Deer Drop answers the after-the-shot question that season dates and a forecast cannot: if you kill a deer in or near Georgia’s Chronic Wasting Disease Management Area, where do you take it, and what do you actually drop off? The app is built for Lowndes, Berrien, Lanier, and Atkinson counties — the four counties Georgia DNR currently lists in the CMA — and for neighboring South Georgia counties where testing is optional.
Georgia confirmed CWD in a hunter-harvested deer near the Lanier–Berrien line in January 2025. DNR drew a management area around each positive and any county touching a five-mile radius. As of DNR’s published guidance, that area is Atkinson, Berrien, Lanier, and Lowndes. Testing inside the CMA is free and strongly encouraged. DNR contacts the hunter if a sample is positive. Results for CMA deer typically take two to six weeks; samples from other counties may take months.
How to use it
Pick the county you hunted. The card tells you whether that county is inside the CMA and what DNR asks you to do. The numbered list is DNR’s self-serve freezer procedure — head plus four inches of neck, antlers off, completed tag, one bag per deer. The shop cards are only places we could confirm on the business’s own website. The official, complete map of processors, taxidermists, and freezers is DNR’s, and the big button opens it.
Where the data comes from
County status and freezer steps come from georgiawildlife.com/cwd/know-georgia, the hunter-info page, the testing page, and DNR’s August 2025 drop-off PDF. The Valdosta processor listing was checked on August 30, 2026 against airportmeat.com, including that shop’s dedicated CWD page and published phone numbers. Coordinates were geocoded from the address on that site. We do not invent hours; season schedules change, so the card tells you to call or open their hours page.
Common questions
Why is only one shop listed?
Because a wrong processor phone is worse than a short list. DNR updates sampling sites on its map through the season. We will add a shop when we can verify it the same way.
Do I have to test a deer from Cook or Brooks County?
DNR says testing is not necessary outside the CMA. Participating shops will still sample for free if you want one.
Can people get CWD?
DNR and the CDC state that CWD has not been shown to infect people. The CDC still recommends not eating meat from a deer that tests positive.
Season dates: Hunting Season Tracker. Activity score: Hunt & Fish Forecast. Drive home after dark: Deer Collision Radar.