Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
In June of 2010 I wrote a blog titled “The Convergence of Technology & Hunting” that elaborated on the emergence of technology in the hunting industry and discussed how technology can give hunters advantages. A lot has happened in the technology world since I posted that blog and the evolution of technology continues to advance. Though, the one thing I didn’t anticipate is that I would be participating in the evolution in a way related to physical products.
The “Tech-Turkey” is a project I’ve been working on for a little while now. If you’ve noticed that it’s been kind of quiet around WeHuntSC.com lately, a large part of that is due to me investing so much time learning and building what you see in this blog post, an automated, internet controlled turkey decoy. The process has been both fun and challenging!
This decoy system gives you the ability to control your decoy from your cell phone, tablet, computer, or anything connected to the internet. This project is a work in progress and currently in prototype phase as I continue to enhance the solution. The roadmap for the project has some slick enhancements already lined up as well.
You may be reading this and wonder “Why would I want to control my decoy from a cell phone?” Well there are a few advantages to having your decoy be controlled through the internet ie: your smart phone:
To best communicate what the turkey can do, check out this video that we made of the decoy in action
I am excited about this project and am indeed looking for a few field testers for the upcoming spring. I want to get the technology out in the field on some live hunts and get feedback from actual hunting scenarios. I definitely won’t be able to give everyone a decoy to test with, but I would like to work with a few of you to get your thoughts and opinions of the decoy. It is definitely helpful if you can provide me with a YouTube link of some of your hunting videos as I will want to get some quality footage of the decoy in action in live hunting scenarios.
If you’re interested in field testing the Tech-Turkey just submit the form on the “Tech Turkey” page.
If you’ve been a member of WeHuntSC.com for any amount of time then you know that change is somewhat constant. As technology evolves and new functionality becomes available I’m constantly working on and tweaking something with the site. Well the time came again where the site needed to be upgraded, updated, and leverage some new functionality.
Updated Platform In order to stay current the software that runs the site needs to be updated. I’ve updated the software to the latest version which should give us some speed & security improvements.
Spam User Blocking We were getting hit with some spam account creation towards the end of last year. I’ve taken some steps to block the spam users from creating accounts. If you ever get friend requested from a spam user, please let me know.
Photo & Video Galleries Users like the “Activity Stream” on the home page + Photo Galleries so I’ve updated the site with a photo gallery that will update the Activity Stream whenever images are posted. Going forward, whenever you want to post a picture you will no longer do it in the home page activity stream, but rather in the Pics section. When you post a picture in the Pics section it will automatically update the Activity Stream with a reference to your photo. Pictures can also be rated and each picture has comments available too. I also added a few “Recent” pics areas to the right of the home page activity stream to make it easy & quick to see recent visuals uploaded by users. Also, video continues to become popular among hunters. Each year more and more hunters carry video cameras into the woods. Once posted to YouTube the videos can easily be added to the site on the “Videos” page. I look forward to seeing some of your videos from this year.
With this update I’ve migrated all blog data to a new integrated blogging system. This system provides more flexibility for authors and previous blog entries should be a little easier to find within the blogging section of the site.
Fixed Data Corruption Affecting Search Until I started the upgrade process I didn’t know there was any data corruption within the site. Soon though it became apparent that several blog entries and other site content was not being returned in the site search. I dug around the database and found the issues and have corrected them in this release of the site. Now all site content should be accurately returned in search.
All hunting resources and competitions still remain as well.
So What Was Removed? In the last update both Group functionality and Gaming Mechanics were provided but neither were widely adopted and leveraged by site members. So I’ve removed those to reduce clutter and focus on the things that site members really like such as the visual aspects of the site – Photos, Videos, & Blogs and of course the competitions.
Still to Come There are still some things that need to be updated and I’ll continue to work on that. I’m still working on a Q/A or Message Board functionality, but at this point I needed to turn the new site on. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks/months. In the meantime, hope you enjoy the new functionality.
Regards,
Clint
Coming in first place was Jimmy Bradley of Pageland, SC with a nice 4-bearded gobbler
2nd place went to Bruce Puett of Marlboro County
And 3rd place went to Tony Pope of Kershaw County
If you were a winner please contact me here through the site and we'll get you your prizes shortly!
Thanks again everyone..
Turkey hunting season is just about here for most of the state. I, and many of you, are itching for Spring to turn the corner and to get out there and chase some gobblers. And with turkey season comes our turkey competition! We're excited to be hosting our 2013 Turkey Competition this year courtesy Columbia River Knife & Tool.
We'll continue to add sponsors throughout the month so the prize packages should get better in time. Be sure to take some good pics of your turkeys and BE SURE TO HAVE THE DATE IN THE PICTURE!
You need to be registered to the site to post pictures in the competition.
Last year I attended the Kelleytown Baptist Church Wild Game Dinner and it was a real treat. You may remember the blog I posted about the event. If you’ve never been you should check it out. There were several activities that were fun for the youth and competitions for everyone. I’m talking about archery competitions, skeet-shooting competitions, a BB gun range and even competitions for kids. The guys at Kelleytown do a real good job at putting this event on and the attendance of the event is a reflection of the quality of the event.
When the afternoon activities get over then everyone goes inside for a great meal (last year they had some good alligator on hand). Next up will be a duck calling demo by fellow WeHuntSC.com blogger Blake Hodge and then Hank Parker Jr. will be the featured guest speaker. So if you’re in the Hartsville area this coming weekend and want to attend a quality outdoor event then be sure to check it out.
I've attached the flyer for the event here in case you want to download it.
Activities:
Event Schedule:
Tickets
Location
If anybody ever told you that predator hunting was easy… they were lying. Anybody who hunted in this year’s Predator Competition will tell you the same. We looked forward to the competition and planned for several months and when it finally got here the rain and fog made things tough on everyone. From talking to everyone at the check-in it seemed that the coyotes just hunkered down for the majority of the weekend due to the weather. Many of the hunters I spoke with said they saved their “best spots”, “honey holes”, and “go-to locations” for the weekend of the competition and still came out empty handed. The more I chase coyotes the more I respect the guys who are successful… and we did have some hunters who got it done rain or shine so let’s talk about the guys who came through no matter the conditions.
Help us make the competition better by giving us your feedback
1st Place & Big Dog This year our 1st place team was “Team Warner” out of Aynor, SC. Adam Davis, Josh Allen, & Dustin Paananen of Team Warner not only won 1st place, but they also won the “Big Dog” award. These guys brought in 2 coyotes totaling 68lbs. The big dog was 38lbs and it was a big one. Congrats to the guys for getting it done all weekend. Having the double-win they did not leave empty handed.
Click the below image to see a gallery of pics from the event
On behalf of the WeHuntSC.com team we’d like to say thanks again to the Sportsman’s Warehouse of Columbia, SC for letting us hold the check-in at their facility, to our gracious sponsors, and to all hunters that participated. We look forward to next year’s competition… see you at the check-in!
Attached is a video of our season and I hope you enjoy it, because "it's who we are" and "what we live for"!
Click Here for the Video
One of my favorite parts about running the website is meeting our competition winners and giving out their prizes to them. Over the course of last weekend and this past week I met all 3 of our competition winners. I traveled to the Cheraw, SC area and the Rock Hill, SC area to meet our winners. These upstate guys are really harvesting some nice bucks and running the gamut on our competitions. Low-country boys where are ya’ll at?
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s competitions and especially our sponsors. Without the sponsors our competitions wouldn’t be possible. The winners walked away with some great prizes courtesy of some very generous sponsors.
Next up… the 2013 Predator Competition – SIGN UP HERE
Our top 3 winners were
Below are some pictures of the guys receiving their prizes.
I’m always excited to announce the winners and give out the prizes for our Buck of the Year Competition. This year we had some really good entries and we also adjusted the voting rules so that voters had to be site members and could only vote once a day. This reduced any possible “gaming” of the voting system which was a request from many site members.
So let’s cut to the chase… this year’s winners were:
1st Place: BHolliday’s “The Buck That Wouldn’t Give Up” – Chesterfield County
2nd Place: Rick Currence’s “Muzzleloader Buck” – York County
3rd Place: BRiv89’S “8 Point” – Chesterfield County
Congratulations to our winners and thanks for participating in this year’s competition! Now, we have some prizes to get delivered. So winners… contact me at [email protected] and we’ll line up some logistics.
Could you use $50 extra dollars right around Thanksgiving? If so, then get as many of your friends and fellow hunters to register to WeHuntSC.com in the month of October and you could win. Here are the competition rules:
How do you refer somebody or what does that mean? A “referral” means that you tell someone about the site and as a result they register to the site. When someone registers to the site they see a “Welcome Screen” and on this welcome screen they can indicate the person who referred them to the site. This is where they would put your name.
It doesn't take much to share the link on Facebook or Twitter or to get some of your hunting club members to register to the site. Spread the word and be rewarded!