Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
Last season was my first season turkey hunting and I have to tell you? I really liked it. Mr. Bruce Puette was nice enough to take me on my first turkey hunt and it was a blast. He made it look easy and then we gave it a shot! We fell short a few times and learned a little bit, but by the end we were able to call some turkeys in and get them on camera. We even got one to talk back to us while using a shed antler! Now that I know a little bit more about turkey hunting and have a video camera that will actually zoom, I?m really looking forward to this year?s turkey season.
And speaking of turkey season, I just want to let everyone know it?s already decided that we will be having 2 turkey competitions in the upcoming season?a Turkey of the Year and a Youth Turkey of the Year. Yes, you will have to have the date in the picture again so get ready for it! Go ahead and think about how you are going to take your picture and be sure to carry your camera with you!
We are in communications with some sponsors and I can tell you that it?s looking like the prize packages will be good this turkey season as well! We'll post more information about the competitions in the weeks to come...
Regards,
Clint
This past year we started hunting a new piece of land in our area and one of the things we looked forward to doing was some off-season scouting. During the season we got a good feel for where deer were traveling, what food sources they liked, and the locations we should probably put stands in. Though, we specifically wanted to wait until the leaves got off the trees to walk around and see where any deer sign is when the deer haven?t been pressured in a while. We thought that we may be able to find deer sign in places that we didn?t expect and give us better insight as to hunting strategies for next fall.
This past weekend provided a great chance to not only do all that, but to do it in the snow! Since Adam and I were both in the area we headed out to do some scouting. We walked over a large portion of the land looking for sign and checking game cameras. One thing we noted was that the location of one of our feeders wasn?t feeding anything but raccoons and black birds! Walking in the fresh snow also gave us insight as to the paths the deer were traveling. And not one track led to that feeder?so yes, we?re going to move it!
As we walked over the land we saw a couple of prominent places where the deer were frequently walking. You could easily tell that they were deer trails because of all the deer tracks that were printed in the snow. One trail showed us where the deer were crossing a creek on the land. It was also good to see that one of the trails led straight to our Tecomate Seed Food Plot! One of the heavily traveled trails led us to several rubs on trees. It?s a good sign to see buck sign in the area and I was glad that we did get out and do some scouting.
The snow definitely gave us a unique perspective of the land. We?ll probably move some stands and do some strategic thinking about our food plot placements in the upcoming Spring & Fall. If you haven?t ever taken the chance to get out and walk your land after a snow, then I encourage you to do so because it could give you some insight that may change the way you hunt your land!
Another interesting note was that Adam was scanning the woods as we drove down the road and he spotted 3 does. So, like any webneck would do?we stopped, backed up, shot some film, and then tried to make bleat and blow sounds at the does.
One of my most favorite parts of working on the web site is to be able to give the competition winners their prizes! One of the winners quoted this past weekend ?Shooting the deer was good enough, now this is just the icing on the cake!? and that?s what it?s all about! Seeing the winners smile while they get their prizes makes us feel good and is rewarding for us too!
Again our winners were (See pics of the winner's deer):
The winners received some great prizes from our sponsors and each left with a handful of goodies to play with and we hope to get some ?field test? reports from them as well. I think in total we gave out just short of $2,000 worth of prizes to the winners. This is pretty good for the site just being a little over 1 year old and we hope it will get even better in years to come.
We did get some interviews from this year?s winners so check it out in the video below. Thanks again to the sponsors and to everyone who participated. Be sure to tune in early next season to see what competitions we?re hosting, what rules we?re enforcing, and what prizes you can win.
*If you are one of the competition winners we will contact you via email soon!
You voted and now here are your winners:
In a couple of days we?ll have some happy hunters in South Carolina when we deliver the competition winners their prizes! I?ll take some pics/videos and will post a blog about the prize delivery too! If you?re interested in seeing the results of the voting, go back to the vote page to see the results.
Thanks again to all who participated and to our many sponsors who have donated the prizes for our competition winners.
Be sure to tune in early next season to get the updated rules for next year?s competitions!
It was around this time last year when we got the green-light and started the Tecomate Seed Food Plot Journey. The first blog entry aired last January and I didn't know what to expect, but I knew I had a lot to learn. Around 25 blog entries and a year later, we've had some successes, some failures, some lessons learned, some memorable hunts, and some really good looking food plots.
I?ve posted some pictures below of the spring/summer and fall/winter food plots.
Spring
Fall
I'm no guru by far, but even from my little bit of experience over the last year I can tell you that the soil was one of the most important factors in our Food Plot Journey mix. We planted food plots in several different areas and the areas where the soil was best fit for the food plot were the areas where we had the best food plots. Of course rain is crucial, but rainfall is something we can't control. Essentially the soil acts as the "transfer agent" through which your plants will get the nutrients they need to thrive. One of my takeaways will be the quality of the soil. You can get a high quality seed or a low quality seed, but it's all moot if you don't have fertile soil.
If you've been following along then you've seen everything that we've done via video, pictures, and the text in blog entries. I created one last video of some of the before/after shots that happened along the way.
I've had a great time learning, creating, and documenting the food plots in our Food Plot Journey and hopefully I haven?t bored you with it all. A big thanks to Tecomate Seed & the GroundHog MAX for working with us to sponsor the Food Plot Journey.
And if you are on your own "Food Plot Journey" then it won't be long before it's time to start the soil samples again. I know that we're already making plans for the upcoming spring/summer and next fall/winter plots?
This past Friday morning was New Year?s Eve and a handful of the WeHuntSC.com crew and some other local hunters got together to go rabbit hunting. We all met up near McBee, SC and Chip was even nice enough to have cooked sausage for everyone. We munched on sausage and hung around for a little bit before starting out on the hunt. There were probably 12 ? 15 people there and I met some nice guys from River Bottom Kennels in the Rock Hill area there too!
While everyone was talking and eating, ?Hoot? (the internet phenom who grunts up rabbits) showed me the new addition to his dog box. He created a piece of metal that reads ?Hoot?s Holdaline Hounds? and mounted it on his dog box. So, if you are in SC and see a dog box with "Hoot's HoldALine Hounds" on it, then you?re riding behind Hoot.
Since we were over by Hoot?s truck I grabbed Hoot and did a quick pre-hunt interview. We had to cut the first interview short as someone cranked a truck up in my ear and messed up the audio. We did a second interview, but since the camera loves Hoot so much I?m posting both below for your viewing pleasure. Shortly after the interview it was time to chase some rabbits.
We left and ended up at a cut-over within a couple of minutes. Everyone got ready to walk through the brush of the cut-over. I think the dogs could sense that we were getting close because you could hear their anticipation building in the dog boxes. Some of us parked on the side of the road and the others drove up the dirt road that went to the cut-over. Once we all got there Hoot did something that I thought was neat?he opened the hunt up with a prayer. We all stopped and paused while he lead us in prayer and then about 5 minutes after the ?amen? dogs were hitting the ground.
I?m not an avid rabbit hunter, but once the dogs got on the ground it reminded me of when we went rabbit hunting last year. Within minutes the dogs were all fertilizing the soil and a strong stench filled the air! Hoot says that?s just part of the fun though!
I wasn?t able to stay too long because I still had some family holiday functions to attend so I had to jet early in the hunt. I would have loved to stay and get some more footage though. I believe the guys ended up getting about 5 rabbits in total. Hoot was kind enough to send me a pic of two rabbits on the tailgate.
It was neat to get out and meet up with some of the crew plus to meet some new faces. I hope we can do it again sometime soon! Thanks to Chip for cooking and all the other guys for making it a good time.
It?s going to be like a second Christmas pretty soon for the winners of our competitions?but first someone has to win! Last year we selected the winners, but this year we?ve narrowed it down to 3 entries per competition and are letting the site audience vote on our winners. Voting will be live for 7 days and run through Jan 10th. On Jan 11th the winners will be announced and the prizes will be delivered shortly thereafter. Stay tuned for the winner?s blog when we post pics/videos of the winners receiving their prizes.
As you know, this year we implemented the ?have the date in the pic rule? and that made many pics ineligible for the competition. We had to enforce this rule because site users were uploading pics of deer shot in previous years. Forcing hunters to put the date in the pic removes the question as to when the deer was harvested. In this year?s GroundHog MAX Buck of the Year Competition we had to make a ruling on a pic that was a tough decision.
Ryan Lyle posted a game cam pic of a deer (with the date in it) then posted a pic of the harvested deer right beside of it. It was a great deer! It seems Ryan found out about the competition after he harvested the buck so he created a side by side pic showing the game cam pic of the deer and then the pic of him and the deer after he shot it. While the rack in both pics looks very similar, we threw this pic out from judging because we want to abide by our own rules, we want to be fair to the entries that did have the date in the picture of the harvested deer, and we also don?t want to have to compare any racks with game cam pics in future entries. It?s just too fine of a line to walk and could lead to unfair decisions and future scrutiny. While this deer is one of the biggest deer I?ve ever seen shot in SC, we?re sorry that we can?t accept the photo as an entry. Feel free to complain in the comment section below.
With all of that said, thanks to everyone for participating and thanks to our sponsors for donating such great products to WeHuntSC.com & to our winners.
Go and Cast Your Vote
