Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
CROSS Outdoor Exchange of Boiling Springs, SC is a multi-faceted organization that truly embraces the outdoors. One side of the organization is a non-profit youth ministry that uses the outdoors as a means to share with, mentor to, and help guide children and youth ages 7-15. CROSS Outdoor Exchange has monthly and seasonal outings to keep kids involved. As part of the program CROSS Outdoor Exchange offers individual hunts/fishing trips to youth that are part of the program. This year CROSS Outdoor Exchange has added a youth deer hunt. The hunt is a fund raiser for the youth injured in the Cleveland Park train wreck earlier this year. This will be an annual event and will help these families in the future.
The other side of CROSS Outdoor Exchange is a for-profit Archery and tackle shop. The store is used not only for sales, but to be a place in the community where folks can find the CROSS ministry. The store carries bows by Bowtech, Strother, and Elite. The archery and tackle shop is also set up as dealers for Bass Pro, Lone Wolf, Lucky Buck, and Rhino. With a full line of fishing tackle and live bait, they also offer a consignment area as a way for outdoorsmen to change some of their older gear for newer models. The consignment area also helps the kids in the ministry get the gear they need at a lower price.
Do you remember your first deer rifle? If you're like me you probably can remember just about everything about your first rifle. My first deer rifle was a Remington Semi-Auto .243 that my Dad bought at a local gun shop. It was a heavy gun and because of that we traded it for a Remington Model 700 .270 the next year. It was with the .270 that I killed my first deer.
Choosing a rifle is one of the most important things you do when preparing a young hunter for their first season. Confidence in your rifle is very important and with a young hunter it is imperative that you build that confidence by choosing the correct rifle. We often hear debates about what is the best caliber but to me it more about confidence than caliber. You can build that confidence by finding a rifle that fits.
I think JD has found the rifle that fits him. JD bought a Remington Model 700 Youth .308 from Sportsman Inc. located in Newport, SC over the weekend. I wasn't able to tag along when he bought it but based on what JD told me it sounded like an awesome experience. The staff at Sportsman Inc. went above and beyond to make sure JD had everything he needed for his first rifle. On Saturday we packed up and headed to my friend Rick's house to get the scope mounted and sighted in.
As we arrived at Rick's house and stepped from the car a cool breeze signaled that deer season was just around the corner. I couldn't have been more excited about watching JD shoot his first rifle. It didn't take long and Rick had JD's scope which is a Nikon 3x9x50 mounted and ready for the shooting range. We set up a bench at 25 yards and got everything ready. We took some time to give JD some safety instructions and get him comfortable with his set up. Again safety and getting familiar with the rifle goes along with building that confidence that is so important.
We had a minor hiccup before JD made his first shot. The mount screw for the scope was a hair too long and wasn't allowing the bolt to close. Rick was on top of it and within minutes he had the screw filed down and the gun ready again. JD got set up and made his first shot at 25 yards. I was eager to see the recoil from the rifle because that is definitely something you want to manage when starting a youngster out shooting. To help with this JD bought Remington's managed recoil ammunition. On the box it stated that it reduces recoil by 50% and I was sold after watching JD make a few shots. We shot about three rounds at 25 yards and then backed up to 50 yards. After making a few more shots we finally backed up to 100 yards. JD shot about nine rounds down range and with each shot you could see his confidence rise.
It was a fun day of shooting and I can't thank Rick enough for his help. We got to teach JD a few things about safety and shooting and we watched JD start to build a bond with his rifle. He's a pretty darn good shot! Now it's time to go hunting!
What do you remember about shooting your first rifle? Check out JD's first shots in the video below.
This past weekend I checked my game camera on Friday to see if I was getting any action at one of my stands. When I got back to a computer and checked I had 885 pics within a one week time span. Needless to say, this was a good sign. The pics had some bucks, does, fawns, and squirrels in the mix. With the cool front moving in over the weekend I felt like it should be a good weekend to hunt. Though my weekend schedule would only allow me to hunt in this specific stand on Sunday afternoon. I looked forward to the hunt all weekend.
Let me back up and say that I hunted this same stand two weekends ago and had a deer bust me. I had been in a hurry to get to the stand, didn?t have time to spray down or use my scent control products, and I rushed out to the stand. I was sitting in the stand when all of a sudden I heard a deer blow at me from behind my stand. The deer was alone & bounded away into the woods. I never saw it, but only heard it as it fled my area of the woods. The fact that it was alone makes me think it was one of the bucks I?ve got on camera. I was not a happy camper.
This stand sits back in some dense woods and early in the year it?s really tough to see due to all the leaves on the trees. It?s a good stand for later in the season when visibility is better, but with so much activity on the game camera I figured I should try my luck. Though, knowing that a deer would be in really close to me before I would see it meant I should take better care of my scent or else I?d get busted again. This time I would be prepared.
I spent some time with my Atsko Scent & UV Control System 4-pack over the weekend. I washed my clothes in the Sport Wash, then applied the UV Killer, took the soap to the shower, and mixed the activator with the N-O-dor spray to get it ready for spraying down before entering the woods. After washing the clothes and ridding them of my scent I dropped them in the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag and let them marinate in the earth scent wafers that I had in the bag. Before hunting I took a shower with the Atsko Sport Wash, got dressed, and sprayed the rest of my gear down. Even if I didn?t see a deer I was going to have my scent better under control on this hunt.
I got into the stand a little early because I didn?t want to be rushed & because I had pics with deer over the corn pile early in the afternoon. I got set up with my Irwin Quick Grip Redneck Engineered Camera Arm and was ready to rock. I still wish Irwin would come out with a camouflage quick grip, but I?d settle for a black one? if they don?t I guess I?ll have to spray paint my current one. I had quietly clamped the camera to the right side of my stand and had it in position. The camera wouldn?t be falling off this time!
As I sat in the stand the squirrels were driving me crazy. They were everywhere and as they raced around the woods I thought back to Andy Hahn?s blog and wished he would have had them cleared out back there because they were getting my heart rate up every now and then! I sat for a long time without moving. I tried to be as still as possible because, like I said, a deer can get in on you at this stand (early in the season) without you even knowing it. I didn?t want to get busted again. I sent some text messages to other friends who were hunting and sent a few tweets on Twitter as I scanned and listened to the woods around me.
It got to be ?the time? right before dark when you feel like you should see something. I was starting to think I was going to be unsuccessful again and I couldn?t figure out why with all the pics I?d been getting at this location. Then I heard leaves cracking at a slow and steady pace. My first reaction was to cut the camera on. I slowly moved my hand to the camera and hit the power button. I could hear something walking, but couldn?t see it. It was getting closer to me and my heart starting going. It kept on walking through the woods at a slow pace and I finally saw movement. When I saw the movement and was sure it was a deer I hit the record button. Right after I hit the record button I slid my safety off, but left my gun lying in my lap. I had the camera pointing toward the corn in front of me, but the deer was to the right of me. I wasn?t going to swirl the camera and risk getting busted so I just recorded the whole time until the deer got close enough to the viewport of the camera.
With the deer?s next step I saw its leg through some leaves. There was still plenty of light to see, but it was just so thick I couldn?t see well. Finally I saw the outline of the deer and it was only about 25 yards from me. The deer stood still and ate some acorns and while it stood still I heard even more leaves cracking behind it. There were more deer.
It didn?t take long before I could tell that the lead deer was a doe and a good sized one. I watched it as it got closer to me. This deer crossed in front of me at about 15 yards, broad-sided and I could have probably knocked it down with a football?well maybe a couple of years back I could have, but it was really close. I didn?t want to shoot a doe if it had fawns with it and I also wanted to see if the deer trailing behind were any decent bucks. The doe crossed in front of me and I filmed it as much as I could. At one point the barrel of my 243 got in the way of the lens and blurred the video shot, but I wasn?t going to move it just for the sake of the camera. I filmed as best as I could while l kept looking to the right to see what kind of deer the other sound I heard was.
The lead doe had worked her way across the front of me and was over to my left. She didn?t seem interested in the corn I had only 10 ? 20 yards to her right. I was finally able to see the other deer that was making the cracking of the leaves behind the lead doe. It was another doe, a little bit smaller, but not a fawn. It seemed there were as another deer off in the distance, but the sound of it was getting smaller as it got further away. At this point I had all the information I needed in order to make the decision to take the lead doe if I got a good shot.
With where the doe had walked there were now leaves and a few small trees in between us, but to my surprise the doe turned back to the right and headed toward the corn pile. It was only a matter of time. This doe ate corn for what seemed like forever?though it was probably only a couple of minutes. The good part was that she had her butt facing toward me while she ate. This gave me the opportunity to lift my gun up and get it situated. I had her in the crosshairs and was waiting on her to turn and give me a good angle. As she ate corn I waited and waited and eventually pulled my face back from the gun for a moment because I got tired of squinting for so long. I was glad I did because the barrel of the gun was right under the viewfinder of the video camera and had I shot it would have probably jumped up and hit the camera. I slid the gun over and leaned back in. The doe ate and finally popped her head up to the side. I guess she saw me because she perked up real quick and stomped her foot at me. I didn?t have a good angle with her first stomp, but when she looked at me harder she turned the rest of her body and it gave me a good angle. I took the shot and saw her back legs jump up in the air. I knew I had made a hit. I heard her run about 40 yards and crash.
One of my rules that I use after I shoot a deer is to sit in the stand and for a little while and calm down and collect myself. I don?t want to pressure the deer and I don?t want to do anything dumb by being in a rush. I sat there and took some deep breathes and tried to get my heart rate down some. As I sat I could still hear the other deer over in the woods. It didn?t scatter off like you might imagine a deer to do. For a moment I thought I might be able to get 2, but then I decided against it as it was starting to get darker. I put my gun on safety and started taking the camera down from the stand. I turned my light on and climbed down.
Even though I saw the deer jump & heard it crash I still wanted to go to the point of contact to make sure I saw blood because stranger things have happened before when trailing deer. I saw a drop of blood and knew I had contact. I sent some text messages to friends saying I would need help shortly. I walked in the direction that I heard the deer run in and shined the light up ahead and saw a white belly. It didn?t take me but about 5 minutes to find it. Help arrived soon thereafter and we got the deer out of the woods and to the processor.
* Had a problem with my camera & was unable to get any pics off the camera :-(
It was a great early season hunt and I?m glad that I took care of my scent before going in this time because those deer got really close to me. The doe weighed 120lbs and was a good sized doe by South Carolinian standards. I will probably return to this stand at some point and try to get one of the bucks I?ve been getting on camera back there.
Do you self film your hunts? If not you should give it a try?it is challenging, but pretty rewarding to be able to re-live the hunts.
Regards,
Clint
This September weather has been brutaly hot and really tested our endurance and love for the sport. Though, with plenty of crackers, gatorade, and bug spray, we've managed to do pretty good this season. We were able to get some more youth interested in the sport of waterfowl hunting while having their parents spending more time in sporting good stores, purchasing their needs, and some of their wants! We worked with them in the field, discussing firearm safety, decoy placement, conservation, and of course "calling". As we always say, youth are our future!
The below entry is a guest blog from a friend of mine from Nova Scotia, Mr. Gifford Watkins
When I was a seminary student at Southwestern Baptist Theological School (Fort Worth) I took at job as an intern at Park Cities Baptist Church. After working there a few weeks I got to know the mailman, who said due to his recent divorce he had extra room in his house. I thought since most of my life was in North Dallas it would be a good idea so I moved in. My fiance at the time thought it would be ideal for us to spend Thanksgiving at their ranch in South Texas. As I packed a weekend bag, I heard the door slam and the footfalls of my new housemate. I really didn't know that much about him at the time, but after I mentioned heading to a ranch for the weekend, he asked if I was going hunting. I said I was not planning to, I didn't have a gun, or bullets, or a license to hunt in Texas, to which he said, "Puh, you don't need a license, do you want to borrow a gun?" I asked what sort of gun and that was when the fun began. His name was Troy. Troy led me to a wall in the living room where he pushed and out came a door; the door to his cache. A huge steel cabinet with decals I cannot describe (Death from Above might ring a bell with some) was unlocked and inside, was well, the inside. I chose a Smith and Wesson .41 caliber hand cannon with a scope and 6 bullets; three hollow points and three full metal jackets. I loaded these into a stainless steel carrying case and headed out the door.
When I was twelve years old my Dad gave me my first knife. If I close my eyes I can still picture that day and remember thinking how cool it was to have my own knife. It wasn't much to brag about but you couldn't tell me that at the time. I spent many hours whittling on sticks in the woods with that knife. It was a small black folding knife that to this day I have tucked away in a special place.
With this being JD's first deer season I thought it would be special if I could get him a knife that he could not only use but cherish for the rest of his life. I knew JD was no stranger to knives because he often had one on his side or in his pocket when we would go on fishing trips over the summer. With that being said I wanted to make sure the knife he got for his first hunting season was special in every way.
About ten years ago I bought a "Pikes Peak" pocket knife from CRKT - Columbia River Knife and Tool. I was always looking for a good pocket knife and when I bought that knife I hit the jackpot. The knife has held strong since I bought it ten years ago. The only hiccup was about two years after I bought the knife when the clip that attaches with three Torx screws came off in my pocket and I lost one of the screws. The next day I called CRKT and within the week I had a new clip and three new screws. The representative I talked to was very helpful and gave me a tip of putting Loctite on the screws before I reassembled. From that point forward that knife has been rock solid.
Based on prior history, I knew that CRKT was the company I wanted to use to find JD a knife for his first season. With their help, we found the perfect knife in the Russ Kommer Brow Tine. When the box came in the mail I could hardly stand it. When I opened the box and pulled the knife from its tooled leather sheath I was pumped. The stag antler handle fit perfectly in my hand and I could see my reflection in the stainless steel mirror finished blade. As a hunter this was a dream knife and I couldn't wait to give it to JD.
Unfortunately when the knife arrived we were in the middle of about a week's worth of rain. I wanted to surprise JD with the knife, so I waited until the weather cleared up. The weather finally gave us a break last Monday so I called JD and asked if he wanted to go check on the food plots. I told JD I was going to do an update video for the blog but as we started the video I told him to look in my camo bag. As he pulled out the box I think I was about as excited as I could be. JD was totally surprised and I don't think he has stopped smiling since. Now he has an awesome hunting knife to carry on his side this year. Inscribed on the side of the knife it says field tested. Hopefully we can put those words to use this year in JD's first season.
I think JD will cherish that knife for a very long time. It is these memories that we can really hold on to and I was blessed to be able to share that moment with JD. Do you remember your first hunting knife? What memories do you have of it and your first deer season?
The below blog entry is a guest blog entry by Andy Hahn:
Some folks say they hunt squirrels because it hones their stalking and shooting skills, making them better big-game hunters. Other guys tell me they only hunt squirrels because their kids enjoy it. Well, I need no such excuses. I go squirrel hunting because I love to hunt squirrels.
As a teenager in Pennsylvania I used to rush home from school, grab my single-shot 20 gauge and orange vest, and head for nearby woodlots in search of bushytails. When I was in my mid-20s, I lived in Philadelphia. Every Saturday in October and November I?d wake up at 3:30, drive to State Game Lands in south central Pennsylvania and greet the dawn on a hardwood ridge overlooking the Susquehanna River, squirrel gun in hand. My pulse always got to racing at the glimpse of a tail flicking among the branches or the sound of a small critter shuffling through fallen leaves?and it still does!
In 2006 I was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig?s disease), a neurological condition that has put me in a wheelchair and rendered my arms nearly useless. Now I hunt with the help of friends and adaptive shooting equipment. While a ?point man? handles the rifle, we watch the sight picture via a special video camera and monitor that show with a scope?s-eye view, crosshairs and all. When things look right, I squeeze the trigger with a cable release.
Three years ago my buddy Ron Wagner and I were hunting the last week of deer season at Bang?s Paradise Valley Hunting Club in Ehrhardt, SC. We commented that many of the stand sites seemed overrun by swarms of grey squirrels. ?No wonder my corn bill is so darn high!? joked the lodge owner, Bang Collins. ?Maybe you guys can help me by thinning out the rodent population.?
We needed no further encouragement. Bang lent us a Ruger 10/22 and the following day we started collecting the main ingredients for a big pot of Brunswick stew. That evening as we talked about our ?rodent-control project? I noticed a youngster listening with wide-eyed attention. Nine-year-old Klay Elixson had come to Ehrhardt with his grandfather Rick Hires, another regular visitor at the lodge with whom we?d become good friends. I asked Rick, and when he gave his permission I invited Klay to join Ron and me for a tree-rat safari.
The next dawn found the three of us in a pop-up blind, anxiously waiting for some squirrels to appear. We didn?t have to wait long. We used the Ruger and my shooting equipment, which kept everyone involved in the hunt. Ron aimed while Klay and I took turns using the cable control to squeeze the trigger. Klay displayed fine hunting skills by keeping still, spotting bushy-tails and patiently waiting for high-percentage shots. The scope camera proved an excellent teaching tool as we followed squirrels on the monitor and discussed why different situations and angles made for good or bad shot selections. Our apprentice soon earned the title of No-Playin? Outa-the-Wayin? Lead-Sprayin? Squirrel-Slayin? Machine.
Sharing our knowledge and watching a young hunter enjoy himself, Ron and I probably had more fun than Klay that morning. Time in the woods with an enthusiastic kid also showed me that despite having special needs, disabled hunters can and must take responsibility for helping pass on our outdoor heritage to the next generation.
The following season I bought a Marlin Model 917 VSCF .17 HMR, added an Alpen Kodiak 6-24x50 scope and dubbed it ?The Squirrel Eraser.? Ron, Klay and I now get together at Bang?s once a year for a tree-rat roundup.
Last year a deer hunter scoffed at our small-game pursuits: ?I don?t waste time hunting squirrels.?
?Me neither,? I replied. ?I enjoy every minute of it.?
Hello all! Just a short entry before I take off for the weekend festivities. Well, the weather is getting cooler (and almost down-right cold today in the Upstate) and I can feel fall! Bow season officially came in yesterday for me but I will not have a chance to go this weekend. How many of you have been and have you had any luck? I'm excited to get the season off to a start! College football is in full swing and deer season has arrived. This is the most wonderful time of the year!
I am also excited to announce that I was one of the girls all over the country who got selected for the 'Field Staff' position for the women's outdoor company: Babes, Bulletts, and Broadheads. This awesome company represents/encourages women in the outdoors and our goal is to educate and get more women and children involved in the great outdoors. I'm so excited for this opportunity (and all the free gear I get too!). If you get a chance check out the webiste and if you have a Facebook account 'Like' the page to support us! We appreciate it!
Wish you all the best this season!
As you are most likely aware, Tecomate Seed & BuckYum have partnered with us on a blog series we've dubbed "Intro to Game Management". We want to go ahead and throw down the disclaimer NO WE'RE NOT PROS, WE'RE NOT BIOLOGISTS, OR ANYTHING CLOSE TO IT! We're just some good ol' country boys and we hope to learn more about game management through our field trials, research, interviews, and these blog entries.
We're calling the series "Intro to Game Management" because it's an introduction of the concept of game management and it's just as much as an introduction to us as it is to anyone else. We're not trying to teach game management, but rather through this series we're journaling what we're learning about game management as we try to take the right steps in managing game on our land. We don't have tons of money to throw around, but we do have some elbow grease and sweat equity that we'll put in and hopefully it will pay off. Again, we're on a learning mission here and are merely documenting what we learn.
Throughout the series we hope to interview some people who do really know what they're talking about to give some pointers on game management so that we can derive some take-aways or best practices for managing game. Hopefully this information will be valuable to you just as we hope to gain knowledge as well.
We feel that raising awareness for Game Management in South Carolina will help out the future generations of hunters and potentially the overall quality of deer in our state. We all want a quality deer herd in our state and to reach that goal there must be a shift in the culture of hunters and the way we view hunting and game management. This blog series is just one step in the cultural shift.
Thanks for joining along and if you have some information or even want to write a guest blog along the way feel free to chime in. After all this is a resource for everyone so if you want to contribute you are more than welcome to!