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Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew


Catching Up on Pre-Season Work
    WeHuntSC.com - Putting the deer stand together
  Putting the deer stand together

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.

WeHuntSC.com - The rack rock has definitely  been licked    
The "Rack Rock" has definitely been licked  

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.  

    WeHuntSC.com - The stand assembled
  The stand assembled

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.

WeHuntSC.com - The bottom of the PVC corn feeder    
The bottom of the PVC corn feeder  

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!

Regards,

 

Clint


Wrap Up

It has been a while since my last blog. I have been busy with school, and baseball season starting. I have a couple good hunts to discuss that have video included with them. 

I will start with the deer hunts from the last part of the season. This first hunt was during Christmas break. Our good friend Griffin Crane is in the armed forces and is stationed in Alaska. He had the opportunity to come home for Christmas and visit his family and do a little hunting. Of coarse he was excited about the opportunity to hunt whitetail. He said in Alaska there is phenomenal duck hunting, bear and moose. But whitetail do not reside in the area where he was stationed . Griffin and Rodger Pye were sitting in a box stand looking down a cut road with pine trees on both sides at "Walters" hunt club in Andrews. Ill let the video explain the outcome to the hunt.

Watch In HD (especially the duck video, difficult to make out some of the ducks) 

 After that successful hunt. Rodger decided to take the rifle in hope they got another chance at a doe for the freezer. Luck would have it, about 5-10 minutes later 3 does came out behind the stand, and he got his chance to take a shot at a doe.

 

 

 Nick also had the chance to harvest a doe a few days later. Nick climbed in the stand before day break. He didn't see any movement until  8:00-8:30AM. 4 does wondered out to the corn pile. As nick was setting the camera up and the right angle, and preparing his rifle to take the deer 3 of the does lined up. nick attempted to take 2 with one shot. He dropped one and bloodied the next.

 

 

 

 After nick took a doe for the freezer he wanted his girlfriend to harvest her first deer before the season ended. This was an interesting hunt. Snow is rare here in the low country. Well it began to snow so nick thought with it being so cold the deer would be moving trying to keep warm. Well he was right! Everything was walking that afternoon. Turkeys and deer.

 

 

 Duck Hunting this season was a blast! Well before the season began I purchased a camera mount to fit on the end of my shotgun. I soon figured out how difficult it was going to be to film my hunts. A few problems I had consisted of having to turn the camera on and off record mode according to the birds flying over. Every time I went to throw the gun up I had to make sure the camera was recording to conserve hard drive space on the camera.  Also pointing my gun up to the birds to early was a problem. I would try to film the ducks while they were flying in, but obviously the ducks would flare when I would throw the gun up.

 

 

 

All in all I had a good time filming these hunts to share with y'all. I learned a lot about filming and will use that knowledge for filming next season.

 

 


All Quacked Up

The first day of duck season is just around the corner. There are many emotions that come along with the few weeks prior to opening day.

   
   

Excitement and anticipation are on the top of the list. There always seems to be that feeling of ?unfinished business? as this day approaches also. I have spent the last few weeks preparing for the second best day of the year. (The first being my anniversary, of course.) I have been planting the swamps and building the blinds, but there is still that feeling in the back of my mind that I?m not quite ready. But ready or not, the season is almost here- and I can?t wait. Time for me and the ducks to have a little fun!

From the scouting time I have spent in the swamps, I hope the birds continue to fly like they have been. If so, we will be wading into a good season. I hope to have some great stories to tell after next week. Hopefully all our hard work will pay off. I want to give a special thank you shout out to all the eager beavers who have kept our swamps full- you have helped make this season possible and keep up the good work.

Grab your waders, decoys, calls and guns and be ready to rock and roll. Read the rules and abide by them. Be safe and have fun. Don?t forget to enter the Waterfowl Competition. There are lots of cool prizes to win!
 


The South Carolina Deer Hunting Message Board is Getting Heated Up
  WeHuntSC.com - SC Deer Hunting Message Board
   

The air is getting a little cooler, football season is in full swing, and deer hunting season is upon us.  If you?re like me you can smell the seasons changing to fall in the air? and it just does something to you.  Sensing the temperature starting to drop and smelling the grass of the football field just makes me feel good inside!  

Others are sensing it and ?getting the itch? (at least the hunting part) too!  This can be noted as the activity on the message board is picking up.  I imagine we?ll get some good conversations on the board this fall as well as some good pics/videos posted to the site.  I look forward to seeing what everyone brings to the site this season!

Maybe we should give a prize for the first user to 300 posts or something? if we do, you boys would have to catch up to Hoot because I think he?s currently in the lead!

Remember: If you?re posting a pic in the competitions PUT THE DATE IN THE PIC!

Regards,

Clint

 


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