Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
Over the course of the Food Plot Journey we?ve been demoing the GroundHog MAX as well as planting a lot of Tecomate Seed. We?ve demonstrated that average Joes (and rookie food plot web people like myself) can even use these products and get a decent food plot to come up. All of the products that we?ve used can be purchased online, but recently a new outdoor store right across the NC line opened up that carries these products and more!
The Springs Wild Game Center is located in Mineral Springs, NC and is run by Bryan McCarver. The Wild Game Center is a sister company to the local Feed and Seed company in Mineral Springs. It takes about 25 minutes to get there from Pageland and is also not a bad ride from Buford or Lancaster. It sits right off of highway 75 just across the train tracks. The store is relatively new and is really nice. From cities like Pageland?s perspective, it beats driving an hour to Rock Hill or to a store in the Greater Charlotte area and it?s a nice ?country? drive along the way (Google Map to Springs Wild Game Center).
The Wild Game Center carries both fishing and hunting products and is also going to carry guns in the near future. As I mentioned, the store hasn?t been open too long and has some plans for some really neat things such as an archery course and even a 3d archery course?so it?s good now and will only get better in time. The Wild Game Center is also one of the few places where you can find another emerging product in ?BuckYum?.
We had some WeHuntSC.com decals up there earlier, but they?re out now. We?re working to get some vinyl decals offered permanently in the store as well. Best of all you can go there and pick up a GroundHog MAX or a McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag and even some TrueTimber camo! You can give it a look and touch/feel it before you buy if you want. Bryan and the guys at the store can also get any flavor of Tecomate Seed that you want.
If you?re on the NC/SC border then you ought to give the Springs Wild Game Center a look at some point. We like to use our site to promote good places and good people and this place definitely meets both of those criteria! If you go, be sure to tell them that you heard about them from WeHuntSC.com! Once the 3d range gets set up I?m going to go back and shoot some video of the place to give you a feel for what it?s like too!
Regards,
Clint
As you read from my previous blog entries, I?ve been duck hunting in a couple different swamps the past few weekends. I took my camera to record the hunts and I also took my tripod to steady the camera for various shots. After looking at my videos and pics, I realized that I need to camouflage my tripod a little because it was sticking out like a sore thumb. When I?m deer hunting, I usually have my camera behind some burlap, camo cloth, or clamped to a piece of wood. In those settings it usually works out well, but in more open settings like duck hunting it would be better if I could camouflage the tripod some.
The legs of the tripod go inside each other so I don?t want to bother the lower sections for fear that they would not extend smoothly or become tough to deal with. Many times I?m sitting on the ground or in a low spot and don?t need to extend the tripod out the whole way anyway. My first thought was to spray paint the top section of the tripod with black, green, brown, and grey paint which I guess could work, but I?m not sure if it would hold up over time with as many scratches and wear & tear that I?ll undoubtedly put it through. Would it be sticky, smell, rub off on clothing or my hands??? These questions were running through my mind when I thought about painting the tripod. It could work, but I didn?t want to risk messing the tripod legs up so I held off.
Later in the week I went to Dick?s Sporting Goods and found something that was the perfect fit. I picked up two rolls of camouflage tape. I used both kinds, but it was obvious that Hunter?s Specialties camo tape product called No-Mar Camo Gun & Bow Tape was the one to go with. I?d never tried any camo tape on anything before, but this stuff got the job done. I used both kinds of tape, but the No-Mar tape holds a lot better than the other (which I can?t remember the name of now), is more durable, and tears better. One roll cost $7 and I came home and covered the non-moving parts of the tripod and it looks really good. I went in circles on the first leg then realized that going vertical gave a better, smoother presentation. So on two legs it looks really good and not as good one the other! Though, I was really pleased with the overall outcome. I shot a short video and sent it to a couple people and some of them thought that I had bought a tripod that was painted camouflage! Obviously that is a good sign as it had them fooled! Hopefully it will also confuse any deer/ducks in the woods or swamps in the hunts to come.
Below is a video of the tripod after applying the Hunter?s Specialties No-Mar tape
Get you some Hunter?s Specialties camo NO-Mar tape and cover whatever you?ve got that?s making you stick out!
This past Christmas I was fortunate enough to get two Moultrie game cameras. The cameras also came with the Game Spy Connect feature which allows the game camera to upload images directly into a database that can be viewed online via Moultrie?s Game Management web site. Speak of the convergence of technology and hunting.
On a site note for you ?web-necks? out there, the online application is very neat. It has a slick, user friendly interface built with J-Query integrated into the app offering modal/light-box windows for easy photo viewing. The application allows users to view photos online, delete them, store them in galleries, change all the settings on the game camera right from your computer, check the battery levels on both the camera and GPS module, as well as integrating GPS functionality with Google maps so that you can pin-point exactly where your camera is located.
The system allows hunters to instantly see what game is coming by and when they are coming by?as in? I get an email a few minutes after it happens. I even check mine from my I-Phone throughout the day. On occasion I?ve been sitting in one stand and received an email letting me know that something got its picture taken at the location of the camera. With this level of functionality you don?t have to continuously return to the woods to check your game cameras, but rather only return to check on them when you need to change the batteries. This reduces the scent that you spread in the woods. All of this is really neat, but it does come at a cost. There is a monthly fee for this service. The rate you are charged differs depending on which level you choose. See the Game Management Packages.
Just as you would imagine, the gadget freak in me was excited to hook all this up and get it out and on a tree. I waited to start the photo-uploading service until we got some of our food plots up and growing well. I got the camera out and turned everything on just like the manual said. I waived my hand in front of the camera and 2 minutes later I had an email sitting in my inbox saying ?You?ve got deer? even though it was just a picture of my hand. Neat stuff! I was pumped about the fact that I would be able to be anywhere and see anything that passed in front of the camera! For about a month the camera did just as it was supposed to, but then I noticed I wasn?t getting any more pictures. I got back out to the woods the first chance I got and checked on the camera. I kept getting an error message saying that there was a file upload error. The error message read something like ?File upload error, Wait srvr response?. I didn?t know what was wrong with the unit. I put brand new batteries in it and everything, but still no dice.
Since the cameras are pretty expensive and I?m paying for their service, I figured the product should work. I called the Moultrie Game Management support line and the lady on the other end of the phone walked me through a couple of steps. In just a few minutes the information we gathered while on the phone was enough for her to have me send the camera in to be fixed. I went to the post office and put the camera in a box (if it fits it ships) and sent it on its way to Alabama. A couple days later I started getting pictures again in my inbox except this time they were of someone?s hands counting 1, 2, and 3. I knew it was back working again. A day or two later the camera arrived back to me and it came back with a new GPS module. I emailed in again and asked about the payment for the time in between when my camera quit working and when I got it back again. I got a quick response denoting that my payment had been suspended for one month. They fixed the product and made the situation right?like they should do.
I write all this to say that there still are some cases of good customer service out there. I would like to to promote Moultrie?s organization and customer service because they made the situation right. The steps taken to correct the situation are obvious ones to consumers, but ones that some organizations don?t take. In a competitive market consumers must look for more than just the product when we buy. Business processes that keep the customer in mind are the ones that help organizations thrive and prosper in the long run. So thanks to Moultrie for having cutting edge products and great customer service! After this experience I won?t have any hesitation about buying any more Moultrie products in the future. Moultrie?s customer service gets an A+.
Now let me run? I?ve got some new pics to look at here?
Below are some screenshots of Moultrie?s Game Management System application interface
The Moultrie Game Management System Photo Viewing Interface
Moultrie Game Management System Camera Status View
Moultrie Game Management System Settings View
As you know, we?ve been working a lot on the Tecomate Seed Food Plot Journey over the course of the past year. Most of the time when we?re out working we are talking about deer hunting and optimistically dreaming up scenarios where huge bucks come into the food plots or into shooting lanes and how we would position ourselves, etc. I?m sure you may have had similar experiences. Many times when Adam and I have been out working and having these conversations he kept bringing up the subject of scent control. I have known your scent was important, but I?ve never really thought about it, or taken it to, the level at which Adam does. What level is that you may ask? the level of spraying down when going to check game cams, washing your clothes in odor reducing detergent, taking showers with scent free soap, looking up which direction the wind is blowing before hunting, etc. Initially to me, that was a bit much, but hey?everyone has their own style of hunting.
This season we?ve been using the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag as well as Atsko?s products to work with our scent management. This is a regular routine for Adam, but for me it?s a whole new ball game, so I figured why not try it out and see what happens. So, as you know from previous blog entries, I?ve been using the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle bag to fuse earth and pine scent into my hunting gear. I mean I?ve been putting everything in the bag?my clothes, m boots, my smaller bag, even my Thermacell, and this past week I also stuck my video camera?s tripod in there too! Literally everything in the bag smells like dirt now. So I?ve got my hunting gear taken care of and smelling just right.
I?ve also started testing out and using some of Atsko?s scent reduction products. Atsko has a 4-pack (the same one that someone is going to win this year) of scent reduction/UV killer products. I put the N-O-Odor soap in my shower and put the N-O-Odor spray right beside my McKenzie bag. I was eager to test all this out because in this early season heat, anything I can do to reduce my scent is beneficial since I sweat a lot and it?s been very humid.
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Ok?jump back in time to one week ago?
A week ago (when we put down lime and seed) I also went out and put some corn out at an area where we?ve had an old stand forever, but that hasn?t been getting hunted out of much lately. We have a feeder out there that hasn?t been working for a while too (you?ll see it in the video). Since I had some time, I took a game camera out and tied it up on a tree and put some corn out in front of it. I didn?t know what to expect or even know if any deer were in the area, but I figured I?d try it out. I put it out and really just forgot about it.
When I came back home this past Friday, I went out to check the game camera. I put a new chip in and brought the chip that was in the game camera back to the house. Looking at the chip I could see that deer had been in there all hours of the day and night. In one week I had 268 pics on it. That answered the question as to whether there were any deer moving in that location. There were a lot of does on the camera, a small 4 point, a small 6 point, and every once in a while an 8-point came through and paused for the camera and ate some corn. I guess I had the game camera really close or something because the majority of the pics were close-ups like these:
With so much activity going on in that location, I figured I?d go and sit there the next morning to see what would happen.
I knew I was going to go sit in this stand on Saturday morning and I was thinking about my scent-game-plan. I let my McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle run all day Friday and all night Friday night while I was at the game and even while I slept. After the game (Eagles dominated Chesterfield again!) I came home and took a shower and used Atsko?s odor eliminating soap. I planned to use it that night and also in the morning. And yes, when you use it?you can?t smell anything. I sat the odor eliminating scent spray near my McKenzie bag to spray my shorts (the shorts that I wore under the camo) and socks down.
So the game plan was this?take showers using odor eliminating soap, put on regular underclothes (shorts & socks) and spray them down with the scent eliminating spray, and then wear the camo and take gear that had been getting scented all day and night with the earth/pine scent. This would hopefully reduce any human scent and/or bacteria that deer smell that may have been on me and then cover-scented my gear with a natural smell. Doing all of this really felt extreme and out-of-the-ordinary for me, but again? I?m just giving all this scent management stuff a whirl.
I executed all scent management steps and set out to the stand. This stand is a very small, old, wooden stand located in a thick forest area. Due to this scenario; I didn?t take the tripod, but was set to MacGyver a way to video or either get busted by a deer moving around trying to video. It was going to be so tight in the stand that I wouldn?t have room for the tripod. I knew this would hurt me in some way, but I just wasn?t sure how.
I sat for a little while and my vision was slowly getting better as the sun was starting to rise. Shortly thereafter I heard something moving behind me in the woods. If you?ve hunted before then you know the sound of a squirrel running through the leaves?they?re loud and go in spurts. This sound wasn?t like that, but rather was a slow pace and sounded like a deer rummaging through the forest floor as it walked. Due to the high activity of game cam pics, I felt sure it was a deer. This sound started out behind me?what would be 6 o?clock on the clock-face and it was extremely close. I was frozen in my stand and wasn?t budging. I knew that however many deer were back there were close and that any movement would leave me busted and hearing deer blowing at me as they ran away. My heart beat was escalating with every step that the deer took. It got closer and closer and was coming up my left side. I was looking to the left in my peripheral vision as much as possible, but didn?t see anything initially. I didn?t want to turn my head and just kept looking to the left. I looked until my eyes started hurting from straining them so much looking so hard trying to find what was making this sound. I?m sure this may have happened to you before as well.
It was still a little dark and tough to focus clearly. Then I finally saw movement and it was about 10 yards away from me! It was heading toward the corn pile. I wasn?t moving for anything as the deer walked right beside me, but my heart started pounding because I saw antlers! The trail I walked into the stand had me coming into the stand in the same path that this deer was walking toward?i.e. his path was going to intersect the path I took and he would be smelling right where I walked as he crossed my path. I knew I did all this scent stuff, but I also knew I was sweating some. I really didn?t know what to think.
As the deer passed around my left side he went behind some brush. If I was going to turn the camera on with any structure in between us, that moment was the time to do it. I reached over and cut the camera on and it started recording. Keep in mind that, due to size constraints, I didn?t bring the tripod and the camera was not secured to the stand, but rather just sitting on top of the side of a 2 x 4. I was nervous that I would knock it off, but I had to get it turned on. After I got the camera turned on I moved my gun a little, cut the safety off, and got my body in position. The deer kept walking and I could hear him getting closer to the corn as he moved. Finally he popped out at the corn pile and was broad-sided, giving me the perfect shot.
Something neat happened when the deer got over to the camera. Obviously the camera sensed movement and starting taking some pics. I was looking through my scope and also looking through the camera at the same time. I was going back and forth with my eyes again from the scope to the camera. Out of my right eye I saw a really bright light flash, but I didn?t see it out of my left. From what I could tell, the video camera picked up on the infrared flash, but my naked eye obviously was unable to and apparently the deer?s eye couldn?t pick up on it either. This may be common knowledge, but when it happened to me in the stand it kind of startled me at first because my initial reaction was that the deer would be spooked. You?ll easily see the camera flashing in the video.
As it got lighter I watched this buck eating corn for what seemed like forever. I mean I had the best case scenario from the moment that he arrived at the corn pile. I let him go for a few minutes without pulling the trigger. I wanted to make sure that this buck was not a 6 pointer because I?m trying to let the deer get to a decent size in this area. I looked and looked and finally counted 8 points, but even then I still debated not shooting this deer. I could tell he had a good sized body, but I just went back and forth in my mind about letting him walk and shooting him. Then I finally decided to shoot. (This is why you see me let him eat the corn for a while and not take the shot until late) The deer was eating corn and I had the perfect angle, but at the moment I decided to shoot he kind of gave me a quarter shot. I waited a few seconds and he raised his head up quickly and his body tensed up. I thought he sensed danger and was about to bolt?so I took the shot. When I took the shot I knew I hit the deer because his back legs jumped up in the air. The bad news was that when I pulled the trigger the camera fell off the ledge of the stand ? the good news is that it fell back in the stand rather than out of the stand! I caught it in my lap. I heard the deer go down about 20 yards away so I didn?t think it would be a tough deer to trail.
I always sit in the stand after I make a shot just to calm down some and gather myself. I want to give the deer time to die and also want to make sure that I get my safety back on my gun and that I don?t get in a hurry and leave anything or hurt myself somehow. On this specific day all my hunting buddies were not around and were out of town or were working. So I put the call in to my parent?s house and told them that I shot a deer and that I was going to start dragging. They said they would come out to help.
After a couple of minutes I got out of the stand and walked over to the corn pile and shot some post game footage. I walked a little bit and then saw the deer lying down about 20 yards away. I knew I had made a good shot. I went over and started dragging. My parents showed up not too long after I had started dragging the deer. My dad has been having some trouble with his knees lately and just walking the terrain of the land was killing him?so what does any good mother do?that?s right?my mom helped me drag the deer out of the woods! Talk about unconditional love. So to the people around Pageland reading this?if you see my mom tell her that you heard she?s dragging deer out of the woods in her slip-ons! I felt bad as one time she fell down when we were pulling the deer across a dried up creek, but she soldiered up right on through it and kept pulling. We had to stop 2 ? 3 times, but soon enough we had the deer to the edge of the woods. My mama has always told me ?They don?t make them like me anymore? and after last Saturday I have to say that I definitely believe her!
That was how the story of the hunt went. Reflecting back on the hunt, I have to tell you that I really think the measures I took of scent control played a big part in my success. The reason is because that deer started out behind me and came full circle all the way around me at a very close range and even walked across the path that I walked in on. The deer ended up in front of me and was clueless that I was even in the woods. If I would have smelled then he would have winded me a couple times over and fled the scene, but you already know how the story went. Needless to say, I?ll be covering my scent and paying more attention to it in all my upcoming hunts. Maybe the deer was dumb or couldn?t smell, but you have to "dance with the one that brung ya" right??? So I?ll keep focusing on my scent and see how the rest of the season goes. Maybe Adam?s scent management techniques aren?t too extreme after all!
After all this I got all my scent control products together and took some pics with the deer. The deer ended up being 8 points, 155lbs. He?s not a monster, but he was a decent buck.
Here?s the video of the hunt?sorry the camera fell, but we don?t have a camera-arm sponsor yet?lol! So next time I?ll take some rubber-bands or start saving my money up for a camera-arm. Also, you?ll notice that my video edits aren?t great?but I?m a web guy?not a video guru so this will have to suffice.
Be sure to bump the resolution up a little in the bottom right-hand corner of the video where it says "360p"
Something else neat occurred to me later that morning?when I was hunting the camera was flashing right? I sat there and thought to myself? that pic will have the deer in it and also have me in it (if it could see that far out). So I journeyed back out to the stand again to get the chip (that had only been out there for one day) again and see what the pic looked like. I was surprised to have over 80 pics just from the past 24 hours. Those deer were out there all night long again! That 8 point was there in the middle of the day on Friday and there were even deer at the corn pile at 5:45 am?the same time when I started walking to the stand. I probably scared them off on my way in. Anyway, I found the pic of the deer at the corn-pile right before I shot and you can see me in the background, but it?s kind of blurry. You can make out my head, the gun barrel, and the dark area where the camera is. Check out the pic
So I sweated a lot dragging the deer and even got some blood on my camo and what did I do?that?s right? I put them in the washing machine and washed them with Atsko?s odor eliminating detergent. I dried them and then stuck them right back in the McKenzie bag. I think the stars aligned just right for me on this day or something. I?ve only been in the woods hunting 2 weekends and have harvested 2 deer. This season has been a success whether or not I get any more deer this year?and I?m just fine with that, but I?ll still be out trying to videotape! If you made it this far, thanks for reading all this.
We initially covered the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag at the Pee Dee Deer Classic and since then McKenzie Outdoors has sponsored every competition that we?re having on the site this deer hunting season! I am also going to use a McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag this deer hunting season to see how it affects my hunting and scent control.
If you didn?t read the blog entry that reviewed the Pee Dee Deer Classic, then you may not be aware of what the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag is all about or how it works. Essentially it?s a duffle bag that has a fan on one end and a place to put any kind of scent on the other end. You plug the bag in and the fan pulls the scent through the bag scenting everything in the bag along the way. I think the bag is a really neat concept and I can tell you that within just 1 hour of running the bag my clothes/gear is already smelling like dirt!
When I first got the bag, it smelled like something new?you know what I mean?the smell of new material. I can?t really describe what it smelled like, but it wasn?t pine, dirt, or any scent in nature. So I needed to ?get the new? off and get my clothes scented. To achieve this I left the bag open for a while outside letting the air blow through it. This helped knock off the ?new smell? that it initially had. After that I placed all my gear in the bag and most importantly, I put my boots on the end of the fan. This helps the bag stay upright and gives the fan the maximum area to pull air from. I stuck everything I would take hunting in the bag (the bag is pretty big too) and I do mean everything. I even stuck my Thermacell in there as well. I don?t think the plastic in a Thermacell has any odor, but hey why not you know? So I put all my articles of clothing and hunting gear in the bag and turned it on.
The McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag comes ready with everything that you need. The flaps on the end have Velcro on them so you can easily roll it back and pen it up to allow for maximum flow. Also, the bag is geared with a cigarette light plug and also has a converter to let you plug the adapter into a regular electrical outlet. This allows you to plug it into your truck, ATV, or at your house. The fan in the bag runs on low voltage (12v) for safety.
I?ve had it running for a while now and will probably let it run for a couple more hours for good measure. I?m scenting it with the ?Fresh Earth? scent and I can smell dirt just when I get in that area. From playing with the bag some, I think what I?ll probably do is keep the bag in my truck or here at my house and turn it on either the night before I go hunting or around mid-day if I?m going hunting in the afternoon.
If you?re like me and sweat a lot or if you?re a bow hunter and must get the game really close, then you should definitely give the McKenzie Scent Fan Bag a shot. I don?t think you?ll be disappointed.
The below video is me showing you what I did this morning with the bag.