First of all, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  I have been on the road for work, so I am just now getting to my weekend blog.  I hunted Thursday through Sunday and wasn?t all that successful.  However, I did get some video to share with you guys.  And even though there was not many deer sightings, I did get to spend time in the woods and that is a gift in itself.

Thursday morning I sat in the stand across from my house and right next to my uncle?s house.  Walking into the woods I spooked some deer and felt the aftershock.  I sat from 6 a.m. until 11 a.m. and all I saw was squirrels.  I got in the stand around 2 p.m. that evening.  My dad sat in the wooden stand that overlooks a 2 acre plot of Biologic.  I sat in a 20-ft metal buddy stand overlooking a half acre of Biologic.  Again, no luck.  When am I going to see some deer!

Friday morning was no better.  I got situated in the wooden stand, in the field, about 6 a.m.  When the sun rose, all I saw was FOG!  I sat until about 10 a.m. and decided to get out because the fog was not any better.  Friday evening I did not end up going hunting because I fell asleep from 12 p.m. til 4 p.m.  So I just got ready to go watch them Eagles beat down Abbeville for the Upper State Championship.  On that note, good luck to you guys this Saturday for the State Championship. 

Saturday morning I faired a little better.   I did not see multiple deer, but at least I saw A DEER.  I went back to the lock-on stand across from my house.  When I stepped into the woods, I was praying I would not hear deer running away.  Luckily I didn?t.  It was about 5:50 a.m. when I got situated into the stand.  Around 8:30 a.m., I had all but given up on seeing a deer when I spotted a body coming out of the thicket in front of me.  As it approached the corn pile, I thought it was a doe.  I pushed the safety off of my .44 Mag because I had made up my mind that I was going to shoot a doe if I saw one.  Just to make sure the deer was a doe, I picked up the binoculars.  Good thing I did because I spotted inch long horns on top of the deer?s head.  So I put the safety back on and just enjoyed watching the deer.  I really wish I would have had a camera because it was very neat watching him eat the corn on the cob.  He would eat all the corn on one section of the cob and then roll it with his nose and eat another section.  Something I did not understand was why he was being picky on which cobs he would eat.  He literally sifted through all the corn to eat certain pieces.   At one point his nose was itching, so he used his right back leg to scratch it.  When he finished scratching, he must have irritated his nose because he sneezed.  When his belly was full, the deer started moving toward my stand headed to the road behind me.  Soon as he started my way, I reached for my phone because he was going to walk within 5 yds of me and that would be close enough for my phone to pick him up.   He passes really close to me and heads across the road.  I sat until around 11 a.m. and then got down.  Before getting down, I shot a 360° view of from my stand so you guys could see just how close it is to the road and my uncle?s house.  I am not sure if you can?t distinguish my the house, but you definitely can see the road.  The clips of the deer and the scenery from the stand are below.

Saturday evening I went hunting with the rest of the WeHuntSC Team on Will?s property.  But first, I had to watch them Gamecocks own the Tigers.  GO GAMECOCKS!!!  Even though none of us had any luck, it was cool to have a change in scenery.  Will and his dad really have a nice setup out there.  Hopefully the next time I get down, we will have a little more luck.

Sunday morning, I again suffered from the disease called laziness.  I had my alarm set for 5 a.m., but I must have turned it off and went back to sleep.  I didn?t end up waking up until close to 10 a.m.  At least I got caught up on my sleep!  Sunday evening, I went and sat in the wooden stand in the field.  I didn?t have any luck, but I did get some good footage from the stand.  Check out the video below.

If I get to hunt this coming weekend, hopefully I will have some footage of deer.  Not scenery!!!

Have a nice week and good luck hunting!

Adam

 

This weekend turned out to be a pretty good weekend of hunting.  I didn't see a lot of deer, but I did have an interesting encounter.

Saturday morning I decided to get in the stand right across the road from my house.  Let me take a second to describe the location and setup of this stand.  The stand is a lock-on that is 16 feet high, but on the edge of a little ridge.  The road to my house is literally about 60 yards behind the stand.  I can watch the cars go by while in the stand.  If that wasn't enough, my uncle's house is maybe 80 yards to the back right of the stand.  So as I watch cars go by, I can also watch what's going on at my uncle's house.  Before leaving to go get in my stand, I chained my dog up (more on her in a moment).  I got in the stand right at 6 a.m.  Not long after getting in the stand, I thought I heard some deer blowing at me off in the distance.  I thought to myself, "There is no way these deer are winding me".  The only way I hunt in that stand is if there is a Northern wind, which means the wind is blowing in my face toward the road.  Around 6:30 a.m. I hear deer blowing, only this time they are not far in front of me down the ridge.  I thought my hunt was over, which sucked because I expected the rut was on.  After hearing the deer blow a few times, I remembered something I read in a book called 101 Deer Hunting Tips:  Practical Advice from a Master Hunter (Peter Fiduccia).  In the book, Peter talks about what to do if a deer starts blowing at you.  He says you can blow back at the deer.  If I knew where my book was I would quote the actual sequence.  The gist is that you let the deer blow twice and you blow back once, something to that effect.  I blew back at the deer after it blew several times.  I traded a few more blows and the deer finally quit.  Shortly after, I heard a deer grunting and caught a glimpse of a deer moving through and opening in front of me.  I peered through the binoculars and could see horns on the deer's head, but couldn't tell how big it was because it was standing broadside.  While maintaining visual of the deer with the binoculars, I reached in my pocket, pulled out a primos estruous can, and let out at few bleats.  The buck did nothing.  I tried the grunt call, still nothing.  He just stood there broadside and eventually walked behind some trees and I thought he had left the scene.  Soon as he disappeared behind the trees I saw a doe cross the opening.  Right after she left, the buck crossed on her trail trotting and grunting.  That was the coolest thing I have ever seen.  As much as I have hunted, I had never seen a buck chasing a doe and grunting.  Unfortunately, that was my only encounter with deer for the rest of the morning.  When I got out of the stand, I quietly went and grabbed my camera that was down by the little ridge.  I check my camera and found that my dog, Daisy, has been going down to my corn pile pretty much on a daily basis.  On top of the corn, I poured a couple of bags of Buck Grub and apparently Daisy likes it as much as the deer.  However, her visits to the corn pile didn't deter the deer from visiting it as well.  I got a lot of pictures of yearling bucks with does coming out between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., which is a positive sign for hunting the middle of the day.  I only had one picture of a decent size buck, but it was taken at night time.  Let me take a minute to say that even though I only had one picture of a bigger buck at night, it doesn't mean he wasn't out there with the other deer during the middle of the day.  It just means that the bigger buck didn't happen to walk by the camera. 

Saturday evening, I went and sat in the stand overlooking the 2 acre food plot of Biologic.  I had a deer wind me right before stepping out into the plot and ran off.  That was the only deer for the evening.  That night, I met up with Clint and Will to do some brainstorming.  While we chatted, Clint and I drank us a Wild Life Energy Drink.  I thought it tasted good and it definitely gives you some energy.  I think I drank it around 9 p.m. and couldn't get wound down until close to 1 a.m.

Sunday was just a wash, literally.  I sat in the rain and cold all evening and didn't see anything.  My mom and dad think I'm crazy for sitting out in the rain like that, but you can't see the deer if you ain't out there.  So it doesn't matter what kind of weather it is, I'm going to be in the stand!  Even though I didn't see but two deer, I had a blast hunting.  Anytime I can spend out in the woods is a blessing to me, deer or no deer.  I hope to get a lot of hunting done between this coming Thursday and Sunday.  Hopefully my next blog will be me telling you about the monster buck I killed, but we'll see.  One can only hope.  I did get my camera back out and I still have my other camera out that I haven't checked.  Maybe I will have some pictures I think are worth sharing next time.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Adam      

Well first of all, I would like to apologize for my tardiness. It?s the middle of the week and I?m just now writing my weekend recap. I have been traveling a lot for work and haven?t been around a computer. The rain helped me stay in the office today, so let?s make good use with our time.

This past weekend was just bad all around. I didn?t get a chance to put my trail cameras out so I didn?t have any pictures to share on the site, nor did I gain any knowledge of what was roaming in the woods I hunt. And this weather, man it is terrible. Where is the cold weather? I hate when you get in the stand in the morning and it?s like 40°, but by mid-morning it?s 75°. Not only am I sweating profusely because I have too many clothes on, now I have freaking mosquitoes attacking me like crazy.

Saturday morning I got into the stand about 40 minutes before daylight. This particular stand is with-in walking distance of my house, so it doesn?t take me long to get there. However, since it is within walking distance I have to chain my dog or she will be right behind me. I get situated in the stand and within a few minutes I can hear the deer moving around me. I?m thinking, "Man this is going to be a good morning. The wind is right in my face and the deer are up and moving. This is perfect!" Wrong. Shortly after daybreak, the wind started swirling. One minute it?s blowing in my face and the next it?s blowing on my back toward the bedding area. Luckily, I had brought a Tink?s Doe Estrous bomb. So I dispersed it to hopefully mask my scent and attract any curious bucks. About 30 minutes after the bomb had finished dispersing, I decided to do a sequence of calling. Not even five minutes after calling I heard something coming from my right down the deer trail. As I was turning to get in position, I caught a flash of brown. Now my heart is pumping!! All I could do was imagine how big this buck was going to be. It was the size of my dog because it was my dog. Here came Daisy with her nose in the air, winding the doe estrous that I had recently put out. She didn't stay long, so I figured something could still happen during the rest of the morning. Oh no. Daisy ended up coming back down several more times. My hunt was shot.

For the afternoon hunt, I decided to try something a little different. The stand I chose to hunt overlooks a two acre plot of a mixture of Biologic products. I placed a decoy in the edge of the food plot right in front of me. I lit a Rut Smoking Stick by Tink's and placed it upwind of the decoy. That way, any human scent left on the decoy would be masked by the scent from the smoking stick. I was in the stand less than 30 minutes when I caught something coming out of the woods right beside my stand. It was a bobcat. I went from hunting deer to bobcats within a matter of seconds. One bobcat down, but no deer. Since I shot the bobcat so early, I decided I would sit the rest of the evening out. Who knows, anything can happen! It was getting pretty dark and I was getting ready to leave, but I decided to scan the field one last time with the binoculalrs. I spotted what I thought was a deer walking away from me on the left edge of the plot. So while I was watching the deer in the binoculars, I was reaching for my grunt call. Before I could reach the call, I realized the deer was actually walking toward me. Not only that, it was a Nice Buck!!! Now my heart is pumping for the right reason, not because of my lovely dog. The buck spotted the decoy and I thought he was going to head straight to it. So I dropped the binoculars to grab my gun. When I looked up, I couldn't find the buck! He walked into the high grass and I don't know if he laid down or what, but I had no clue where he went. Now it is getting dark and it's time to get out of the stand, but I DO NOT want to show my presence to this buck. He would never come back if he saw me getting out the stand. So I sat until pitch black, then I called my Dad to come drive his truck into the hayfield adjacent to the plot. That way the buck would be spooked away by his truck, not me. I don't know if that was the smartest thing to do, but I guess will find out.

Sunday morning I went back to the same stand as Saturday morning. No luck. I didn't even hear anything moving. The evening wasn't any better. I went back to the 2 acre food plot stand and guess what I saw, another freaking dog! So as you can see, I had some bad luck all around this past weekend. On the bright side, I did see a nice buck. So I know they are out there, just need a little luck. I did get my trail cameras out this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some good pics for you guys soon. I don't know if I will get to check it this weekend because I'm headed to Charleston to see my wonderful girlfriend.

Let's move on to college football. If the Tigers can take care of the Cavaliers this weekend, they will face the Yellow Jackets in the ACC championship. Unfortunately, my Gamecocks let another one slip away. See I'm what you would call a hybrid. I grew up a die hard Gamecocks fan, but decided to go to college at Clemson because of the engineering. Now I pull for both teams. So who will I pull for Saturday November 28th, them Gamecocks! I got to give quick shout outs to Sadat Chambers and Justice Cunningham representing them Eagles.

Good Luck Hunting, Be Safe, and God Bless,

Adam

It seems I?ve been hunting a lot so far this year, but don?t have anything to show for it.  Missing a doe, letting small does & fawns walk, and letting a few young bucks stroll through makes for exciting times in the woods, but doesn?t help my freezer out.  Can anybody else feel my pain?  

As this season kicks off, I wanted to write a post about getting your links and information on our site.  We?ve had inquiries from various individuals, groups, and organizations about getting their links on our site.

Aligning with the underlying principles of this site, we strive to share information for, with, and between hunters in South Carolina.  So, if you are a hunting guide, deer processor, taxidermist, or a member of a group with a just cause, we will gladly post your information on our site.  Just email it over and we?ll get it up with relative speed.  WeHuntSC.com does not endorse one service over the other, but rather aims to get information out there so hunters can have access to it.

Companies who seek to advertise their products globally on our site do not fall in this category and should visit the Sponsor FAQ page for further information.

Regards,

Clint Patterson