Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
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
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?
As I drove down an old farm road the other day I was immediately reminded that deer season is just around the corner. Velvet antlers caught my eye as a young buck stopped at the sight of the four wheeler. As the buck slipped into the thicket I sat there for a few minutes and soaked in the silence. It was then I decided to make a detour and head down to one of my favorite spots in the woods.
I entered the old oak hollow and followed a trail that lead to a spot that my Dad and I discovered some twenty years earlier. On top of a little knoll we found the perfect funnel area for deer to travel between the two adjacent crop fields. It didn't take long for Dad and I to nickname the spot "The Acorn Stand". I can still picture the first time I eased through those woods by myself when I was twelve years old. Not much has changed about the spot over the years except for that stand that Dad and I put up. It has started to look like a retired prize fighter over the past several years. Standing only a meager eight feet tall in its prime the stand seems to have shrunk and it now stands with a distinct sway to one side. I was hesitant about climbing it that day but as I reached the top it was as if I had just sat there for the first time all over again. Mother nature and time have put a beating on this stand but the stand still had that feel that made it my favorite spot from the first time I hunted it.
My detour that day to my favorite hunting spot was not only to reminisce but also in anticipation of the upcoming season. This season only a couple hundred yards away from where I made my first memories in the deer woods another young hunter will climb into a stand with the hopes of a successful hunt. The young hunter is my cousin JD. JD will be twelve this coming season and after taking him last year on a hunt I could tell that the passion that caught fire when I sat in "The Acorn Stand" twenty years ago was there for him as well.
I'm not exactly sure how the season will go but as I sat in my favorite spot that day I thought about how fun it was going to be to walk with JD on this journey of his first deer season. JD has been helping me get ready for the season and I know he's pumped. My goal is to help guide him through the ups and downs that a young hunter goes through and also to teach him as much as I can about the things I've learned over the years. Another goal is to try to capture as much of his season on video so one day JD can watch it unfold over and over again. So with all that being said wish JD luck and say a few prayers for the cameraman. I think this season will be a special one.
It seems like time just slips away on me and before you know it deer season is almost here and I feel like I?m behind on my envisioned schedule. This past weekend I pretty much dedicated the whole day on Saturday to accomplishing some things I?ve wanted to do for a while. There are always cameras to put out or move, feeders to set up, stands to move & check, ground to plow, and the list goes on and on. Up until now I?ve been doing some of this whenever I could, but with the season right around the corner for me I had to get on the ball.
I ended up not getting home after our game on Friday night until 2am. I had an 8 o?clock meeting on Saturday morning to do some work so, as you may expect, I was a little tired. After getting a biscuit and a Bojangles sweet tea I was good to go. We took the tractor over and did some plowing on one of our hunting properties. I?m planning on doing a separate blog about these food plots so I won?t go into too much detail other than to tell you that the tractor messed up on us after plowing the first plot. We had to stop at this location shortly after the tractor quit running. I did walk the land some taking a few pictures and as I walked down one area something caught my eye?a 4 foot long snake! I did have my snake boots on and I was glad that I did because initially just seeing this thing scared me. I looked closer at it and saw that it was just a black snake and that calmed me down a little bit. I tried to get a picture of it, but it scurried off before I was able to get the camera on my phone turned on.
Also, walking down this same path I saw where some turkeys had been ?dusting? on the edge of the woods. I had never heard of a turkey ?dusting? before until last spring when Mr. Puette told me about it. Apparently turkeys can get mites that aggravate them and to remedy this they choke the mites out by wallowing around in dust. I guess it makes them feel better, but you could definitely see the circular patterns of dirt on the edge of this area and the turkeys had dropped some feathers there as well. I guess it?s a good sign to see that you have turkeys on the property though!
After my walk (and since the tractor quit working) I moved on to the next business I had on schedule for the day. I traveled down to my in-laws house where we put together a new deer stand. Last year at Christmas I got a deer stand as a present and I exchanged it for a ?buddy stand? and have been meaning to get it together and put up for some time now and I finally got around to it. Turns out putting this deer stand together and putting it up was quite the process. My father-in-law and another member of the family helped me assemble the stand and it took 3 of us about 3 hours to figure it all out and get it properly assembled. The parts weren?t labeled and the directions weren?t the greatest. The winds from hurricane Irene were blowing enough to keep it somewhat cool, but every now and then they?d stop and the sun would come out and it was really hot. We had tons of pieces of this deer stand just lying around on the driveway and slowly but surely we figured it out. In retrospect I don?t think one person could have gotten it done by themself and if so, it would have taken about double the time necessary. It was a project to complete and some bonding time with my in-laws nonetheless.
After getting the stand assembled it was time to get the stand up. One of my in-laws who was assisting just happen to have a new tractor and the tractor made it really easy to carry the parts back down into the woods since there was already an old road there. We drove the stand there in pieces and then put them together and got it up on the tree. The stand is higher than I would normally like (around 17 feet) because I don?t like heights, but it?s pretty sturdy so I think I?ll make it. It seemed that the biting flies back in these woods particularly liked me for some reason. I had several encounters with biting flies and on some occasions they won and on some occasions I did. Putting up a deer stand while being harassed by biting flies is not one of my favorite past times! We took some extra straps to go around the tree and up the tree as I moved up the ladder to ensure safety. After getting to the top I winched the stand as tight as I could to the tree. The stand had two wenches and I got both of them really snug and then we put the roof on which I also winched really tightly. After everything was set up I put the skirt on and unzipped the windows to look out and see the new perspective on the scenery. It looked good!
I sat in the stand and as I looked out I thought to myself that if I ever got a deer out of this stand that I would remember this day and all the sweat, time, help from others, and fly bites that were necessary to get all this accomplished. A lot of energy was put into getting that stand up in that tree. Hopefully I?ll be able to get some good footage and maybe even a good buck out of the stand this season.
In case you were wondering how I go that much free time on a Saturday let me back up and say that earlier that day my wife and her mother went shopping. Yes, that explains it all right. When they were leaving they asked if we needed them to pick us up anything. Sarcastically I responded and said ?Pick me up some deer corn? because I knew they weren?t going shopping anywhere that I would have deer corn. After all of our work we returned from putting up the deer stand and they had returned and my wife said ?I?ve got your deer corn in the back? and I almost couldn?t believe it. Yes, I?ve got a good wife! She had picked me up a bag of corn. I was still dirty and sweaty and figured I might as well go put it out while I was there and able to. I didn?t give her a hug at the moment because she wouldn?t have it, but I did thank her and grabbed the bag and headed back to the woods. As I turned I noticed that my father-in-law had an old large PVC pipe leaning on a building. It could potentially make a great feeder if he wasn?t going to use it. I asked him if he had plans for it and he said no?10 minutes later I had a skill-saw out cutting it at the bottom and smoothing the top off. The only problem was that this thing is white and stands out like a sore thumb. I?m going to paint it at some point, but for now it will just have to suffice. So I headed back down into the woods and had me a homemade feeder and a bag of corn. I strapped it to a tree and filled it with corn. I?ve had a salt block down there now for a couple of months and they are definitely licking on it. It?s starting to get smoothed out. The corn feeder is right beside of the salt-block and they are both about 30 yards in front of my stand. Hopefully all this hard work, some feed, and a salt-block out there for the deer will keep them coming in regular. If I get lucky then you?ll probably read about it on a future blog sometime.
All in all it was a very productive Saturday even though the tractor quit working half-way through our work at the first location. I was dead tired by the end of the day and I downed 3 gatorades in a row when I got back to the house. My body was hurting?literally. My eyes were burning from the sweat getting in them, my back was aching, and the sweat had dried on me making me feel just sticky and grimy. Combine all that with the sting of the biting fly bites and you?ve got how I was feeling. Needless to say it didn?t take me long to get to sleep that night.
I think about all of this hard work, time we put in, and energy we hunters spend in preparation for hunting season and wonder if it?s worth it. I can remember hunts where I?ve harvested deer and know that it?s very worth it when you?re able to have that experience in the woods.
I?m looking forward to this coming hunting season and guess what?s going on this coming Saturday as well? another work day!
The Preseason - A Chapter from Deer Hunter's Devotional
?The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.? Psalm 121:7-8
As August arrives, the heart of the Sportsman begins to stir. He knows that fall will not be far behind, and with it comes the opening of the hunting seasons. There is much work to be done before the fields and forests are ready for opening day. Food plots will have been planted and tended throughout the summer, but there are still many other things left to do.
The grass along the sides of logging roads will need to be bush-hogged, and the summer rains may have eroded the roads themselves, cutting deep channels into the soft red clay. Growing trees may have pushed some of the permanent ladder stands out of position, causing them to tilt in uncomfortable directions. Some of the trails will have been blocked by fallen trees, and there is always brush that needs to be trimmed.
With so much physical labor to be accomplished, it's easy to forget that we should do some work in the spiritual world as well. The Lord has given us this incredible wilderness to enjoy, and it's important that we remember to thank Him for it and to offer prayers for a safe and successful year in the deer woods. Mixing prayer and deer hunting ? or even pre-deer hunting activities ? is a wonderful thing, and this year I intend to do more of that than ever before.
I can remember one season a few years back when I went down to my lease in late August. I drove to every stand on the property and prayed over them all, asking that the men who hunted from each one would remain safe, that they would enjoy their time in the woods, and that they would see the hand of God as they spent time in His creation.
Stopping at every single stand that I could find, I asked that the men's thoughts would turn to God as they sat silently in the woods waiting for deer. I asked that each stand be productive and that the men who hunted from them would use wisdom as they saw deer and decided whether or not to make the shot. Though I am telling you about this now, I did the whole thing in secret, praying ?in my closet? as Scripture instructs us to do. I did this not only because it seemed like a good idea, but because I saw it as a way of getting closer to God.
We have thirty or forty permanent stands on our lease, so you can imagine that praying over each one was an all day job. And so it was, but it also gave me the opportunity to get rid of any wasp nests that had been built into the corners of our box blinds, and to mark each stand on my GPS. This year I'm going to pray over my stands again, and as I do that I will take time to notice the direction that each stand is facing and will make a chart that will help me choose which stand to hunt according to which way the wind is blowing on a given day. I see no issue with being productive both spiritually and physically at the same time.
Some of our deer stands are starting to get old, and many of the wooden ladders are weakening. As I visit each stand during the preseason, I'll inspect the ladders for loose nails, hammering them back into place or adding new nails if necessary. Prayers for safety are particularly important at the older stands, and I will be diligent in asking God that no one get hurt in one of them. We haven't had an accident on the lease yet, and I don't want this year to be any different in that respect.
As I finish my day of prayer on the lease, I will stop at the main gate and ask for God's blessing upon the land as a whole. I'll ask that we continue to have access to this beautiful piece of property, and that we would use it in such a way as to glorify Him. I'll ask that He guard our coming and going on the property this year, and that He protect us from harm. There are dangers like rattlesnakes, coyotes and bears on this property, not to mention the occasional trespasser. I'll ask that God protect us in our encounters with any of them.
I'll close by asking that He bless even the animals themselves, growing majestic racks on the bucks and good size and health on the does. I'll ask that the turkeys have a successful breeding season, and that the birds and squirrels are plentiful. I'll even pray for the eagles that have nested in the pines across the road from the lake.
All of this is a way of connecting with both the Lord and the environment. Remembering God in our hunting endeavors draws us closer to Him. Paul instructs us to pray without ceasing, and praying over your stands and your deer woods are a good way to implement this. Walk with God not only in your daily life, but in all of your activities. You?ll be glad that you did.
ACTION POINT: Pray over the stands on your deer lease this year. Pray specifically for safety during your hunts and for a bountiful year. Pray for men to come to Christ as they see His hand at work in the incredible world of the outdoors that surrounds them.