Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
I had a pretty busy weekend over this past Thanksgiving Holiday. I spent a lot of time in the woods and swamps and don?t have much to show for it, but then again that?s why they call it hunting rather than shooting! Though, I don?t mind getting out in nature and not shooting anything?it?s a whole lot better than being at work!
We knocked off early at work on Wednesday and I headed down to Pageland. I wasn?t able to hunt that evening because I gave the devotion at football practice that night. After that we had the Turkey Bowl draft and then I headed down to the in-laws! We stayed up pretty late talking and I got to bed around 12:30.
During the day on Wednesday I gave Mr. Bruce Puette a call to see if he wanted to go hunting Thursday morning. Just like clock-work Mr. Puette assured me that he was going. I should have known he was going because if the sun rises, Mr. Puette is usually in a stand somewhere! I woke up at 4:15 in order to get ready and meet Mr. Puette at his hunting club. Though on Thursday morning he put me in a nice stand overlooking a gas line and he hunted a different stand. I had the perfect setup and a good stand, but nothing came through. I could hear the duck hunters wearing some ducks out in the distance though. Those guys were shooting every couple of minutes. There are obviously some ducks flying down around the Pee Dee River!
After the hunt with Mr. Puette I ate a very nice Thanksgiving lunch with my in-laws. I ate enough to hold me over, but I didn?t over-eat because a big game was up next on the schedule. That?s right?the Turkey Bowl was scheduled for 3 o?clock and I needed to be there and ready to play! You may be wondering what the Turkey Bowl is?well if that?s the case then please refer to the blog entry I wrote for 2MinuutinVaroitus.com where I describe the Turkey Bowl in full. Some of my Finnish friends asked me to write a blog for their web site so they sent me a shirt and I gave it a whirl.
Thursday evening we ate yet another Thanksgiving meal and this one was at my parent?s house. If you know my mama, then you know she can cook and she puts on a big spread every Thanksgiving. We ate until we almost couldn?t move. I was so tired from the Turkey Bowl that I had to go and lay down at a decent hour. I think I got to bed that night around 11.
I was up early Friday morning to go duck hunting with Gavin Jackson and his duck hunting crew. I got all layered up and stepped outside. As soon as I got outside I knew something was off. It wasn?t cold at all. I started getting hot after a few steps. When I got into my car I noticed that it was only 60 degrees whereas the day before it was 38 degrees. Some kind of warm front had come through the area and I didn?t even wear my jacket in the swamp!
We made our way into the swamp and got everybody set up. We had 3 hunters and me and I set up on the beaver dam to try to video the event. It started to get light and we anticipated birds flying in from everywhere, but for whatever reason, nothing much was flying. We had 4 birds come in real low very early and they got out of there quick, but it was too early to shoot plus they were in and out very quickly. After that we only saw a handful of ducks in the distance and before too long the hunt was over. We had our own little ?lame duck session? in the swamp. Though, the lack of birds flying didn?t stop me from filming and taking pics. I got some good footage of the setup and guys walking through the swamp. Videoing while duck hunting adds another factor into the mix that is somewhat scary?water. I was scared of dropping my camera in the water, but what can you do right? The tripod also got introduced to swamp mud on this trip. Even though we didn?t get any birds much less a shot at a bird, we still had a good time.
I had to be at Central at 12 because the bus was leaving for Woodruff at 12:30. We made our way over to Woodruff and I thought the bus we were on was going to break down before we got there. We did end up making it and I have to say that our game this past weekend vs. Woodruff was one of the best high school games I?ve ever been a part of?coaching, playing, or watching. Woodruff had a nice stadium and it was jam packed, music everywhere?it was the electric, Friday Night Lights environment that you read about and only experience every now and then. The game was full of big hits, big plays, momentum swings, and it was down to the wire. In the end we won the game and everyone was on edge until the clock struck zero. Woodruff had a really good team and be on the lookout for their Qb next year. He was running the show and doing a good job with it. Now we?ve got Dillon again and I hope we can break our recent trend with them!
After I woke up I headed back down to the in-laws and hung out for a while. We even did some painting for my mother-in-law! It never hurts to keep the in-laws on the good side I guess. Later that evening I hunted near their house from my climbing stand. I?m not a big fan of climbing stands, but every now and then I?ll break bad and use mine. And it took me more time to get situated because of my use of the safety harness, but I always use it when in the climber. It can be aggravating, but the downside would be a whole lot worse than if I wasn?t wearing it.
In this setting I was overlooking a swamp behind me and a fire break in between some planted pines and oaks in front of me. I had some corn out beneath me and also on the fire break. I had been putting corn out there for a while, but had never hunted there and I figured it would be the perfect set up. I thought that I wouldn?t be able to film out of the climber, but after using it I think I could use my Irwin Grip and make it work. We shall see in future attempts!
On this hunt I saw everything but a deer. I had some wood ducks fly over me and then came the geese. Throughout the whole afternoon I had 2 squirrels running around below me. Sitting in the stand I had my back to the swamp and I figured that if something was walking through the swamp that I would hear it and be able to turn around in time. Well I was sitting there in the quiet when all of a sudden I hear something slurping water behind me. I was frozen. I knew there was no way a deer could have walked through there that quiet enough to get close to me and drink water. I slowly turned around and 2 huge raccoons were quietly walking through the edge of the swamp. I tried to get them on film, but by the time I turned around they had gotten behind some brush and I couldn?t get the camera focused on them. I guess they came down from one of those trees or something. I have no idea how they got that close to me. Right before dark I had, what I thought to be a chipmunk, come out of some thick brush to my right. It was getting dark and was difficult to see, but after looking at the bird it was plainly a quail. I haven?t seen them around much, but I definitely knew what it was. I watched it walk around for a bit and then it flew off. It was a neat afternoon in the woods with the exception of not seeing any deer!
Below is a video with visuals from the weekend...no ducks or deer harvested, just scenery!
By the time Sunday morning came around I had to sleep in. The weekend was wearing me out and I didn?t want to fall asleep in church! No hunting on Sunday afternoon as we watched film at the coaches meeting and then I spent some time with the wife!
Overall it was a good, long, weekend. Thanksgiving, good food, the Turkey Bowl, an exciting football game and road trip, duck hunting, and deer hunting made up my whole weekend. I didn?t bring anything home other than myself, but it sure was fun. I was actually glad when Monday came around because with this kind of scheduling, I have to go to work just to rest.
Regards,
Clint
I recently went hunting with one of our duck bloggers, Gavin Jackson, and when we were hunting I noticed something unique on his gun. Gavin had a put a very small vinyl WeHuntSC.com decal on the barrel of his gun! Creativity. Of course I liked the innovation and took some pics of his setup.
Pic of Gavin?s gun
Turns out that Gavin had Josh Johnson of J-Graphix to create this for him. Josh works with us a lot on graphics and can also help you out if you would like some vinyl WeHuntSC.com decals for your gun barrel too!
Below is a quick video of the images of the decals on Gavin?s Gun
If you would like to put some of these on your gun, just contact Josh Johnson and he can assist you!
We are excited to announce that we are hosting the first annual WeHuntSC.com predator competition! South Carolina?s first predator competition is made possible due to some great sponsor donations and enthusiasm from some local predator hunters. We continue to push to accommodate all hunters and species and this is another step in that direction.
The winner of the predator competition will receive some great prizes from our sponsors:
In the first year of this competition we are only going to have 1 winner who will take home all prizes, but in future years we are working to have first, second, third, and ?big dog? winners. In short, as we grow we will continue to expand the prize levels.
Since there is no exact season for hunting coyotes, this competition is structured somewhat differently than our other competitions. This competition will take place over one weekend and will culminate in a ?check-in? at the Sportsman?s Warehouse in Columbia, SC. The competition will not require any posting of pictures to the web site. Hunters can hunt in teams of 3 or less and the winner will be chosen based on a scoring system where coyotes, bobcats, and foxes bring in different amounts of points. See the competition rules & regulations for more info.
Also, YOU MUST SIGN UP BEFORE THE COMPETITION STARTS TO BE ELIGIBL E TO PARTICIPATE! So be sure to register your team! If you have any questions regarding participating or sponsoring this competition, please contact Chip Humphries at [email protected].
We hope to see you at the check-in!
Regards, Clint
A while back I told Daryl Hodge of Wrecking Crew Guide Service that if he ever had an open spot on a trip that I?d love to go with them and get some video of one of their hunts. Well, Daryl contacted me and said he had room so I told him that I still wanted to go. Daryl said that he would let me know what time I needed to meet them sometime on Friday. We were on the way to play Strom Thurmond and Daryl texted me and said that I needed to meet them at 4am Saturday morning. As I was on the bus I started doing some figuring and it didn?t look good for the amount of sleep that I would be getting Friday night. The Eagles won again and we ended up getting home at 2am in the morning. Since I had to drive a little ways to meet Daryl and the rest of the Wrecking Crew I had to get up at 3:15. I set my clock and took an hour nap and then got up and hit the road. Needless to say I was struggling, but I was still kind of pumped from the game so I was able to make it, plus it was opening day so I had to soldier up.
We were obviously in some kind of a valley and there were creeks at the bottom with some flooded areas as well. We had 6 people in the bottom and we got there in plenty of time so that we wouldn?t be rushed. I didn?t have any waders so I stayed on the side of the creek closest to the trucks and the rest of the crew crossed the small creek and set up on a small island. They scattered out to cover more ground and we had about 80 yards worth of swamp covered with shooters. We hoped to keep the ducks on their toes from both ends of the creek! There were trees everywhere and it was pretty thick. It wasn?t like the open scenario over water that you might anticipate, but rather was more like hard woods with creeks running through the bottom.
Before it was daylight we could hear them coming in already. I tried and tried to get some footage of them coming through, but I?m not quick enough and the lighting was too low to get birds on camera. Blake did some calling and the birds periodically came in around us. You could even hear the wood ducks splashing the water when they landed in various parts of the creeks. The sound of them landing was louder than I imagined it would be, but I think it was because of the angle they had to take to get to the water since the trees made them come from a more vertical angle.
Every couple of minutes I heard a ?BOOM? coming from one end or the other. Where I was setup gave me the closet view of Blake. I kept trying to get him on film, but he kept hiding behind trees and made it tough on me! Though, I was able to get a few shots of him throughout the morning. And yes, as you would imagine, Blake did the calling for the team throughout the morning! I guess it doesn?t hurt to have a world champion duck caller in the swamp with you.
After a while of shooting the action slowed down and it was time to go find some birds. In total, Daryl said that they shot 7, but we were only able to find 4. Sometimes it?s just tough to find those birds and I mean we searched high and low! I think one of them went under water and grabbed a root. After the birds were all rounded up it was picture time. Daryl, Blake, Robbie & his daughter posed for some pics in the swamp and then we headed back out. Daryl and Blake had to be down at Schofields in Florence for a show that morning so we didn?t have time to stay in and wait on any mallards.
It was a good trip and a great opening day in the swamp. I was dragging by the time I made it home, but I?d do it again if I could! So a big thanks to Daryl Hodge and the Wrecking Crew for letting me get in the swamp with them.
Below is a video collage of the trip
The below blog is a guest entry by J.D. Bonnette
The wind was slightly blowing in various directions, the rut was in full swing, and daylight was burning fast. I had just gotten permission the day before to take my brother-in-law, Jamie, to a new honey hole. Jamie and I have been hunting a lot this year and he was determined to take a deer with his rifle. He had taken deer while dog hunting with a shotgun, but never with a rifle. We had a big buck run some does by us a week or so prior to this hunt. Also, the Saturday prior to this, Jamie shot at a big doe while dog hunting and missed. All of that was enough to make him lose some sleep for a few days.
I picked him up at 3 that afternoon and we were on our way. Got to the stand about 3:30 and spread some doe urine around to spice up the place a bit. The setting had us sitting in cleared pines with head high dog fennel all over with a small food plot with corn scattered about 40 yards from the stand. 15 minutes into the hunt the wind stopped completely?you could hear a pin drop a mile away. For the next hour and a half nothing except birds moved in the area. The sun soon dropped behind the trees at 5:15 and that?s when the pace picked up a bit. We started to hear shuffling and the occasional stick breaking. Finally, I saw a tail flicker in the tall brush. We had already agreed that Jamie would shoot a mature doe or a decent buck. We sat there for a little while, but nothing popped out. I started to wonder if the flicker was a bird or some other little critter. My initial instinct was right?it was a deer. It started coming towards the corn through the dog fennel and I could tell it was past mature doe/small buck size. Jamie got the .243 up on the rail and aimed. The deer popped out just past a small pine and looked straight at us. CLICK!!! I almost passed out when I realized that he still had the safety switch on the little single shot rifle on safe! I reached out and flipped it over, popped the hammer back again and??BOOM! The deer turned and bolted for cover. ?Were you on him?? I said. ?Right behind the shoulder, I know I hit him good.? Jamie replied. ?You better have hit him good, I don?t feel like trailing one all night!? I said with a slap on his shoulder.
We climbed down and commenced the fun part of deer hunting, trailing blood. I was certain the deer hadn?t run far after finding a good splatter of blood right where he shot him. Good blood here, little here, good blood there. You never realize how tough deer really are until you trail one for 70 yards pouring blood from a double-lung shot. While we?re looking for this deer, Jamie loses a boot sole. Now he?s got one boot and one moccasin on his feet and I got a good laugh at his expense. Shortly thereafter I found him! A nice 5 point buck weighing about 120 pounds! It might as well have been a 10 point that weighed 250 pounds for all I cared. I was happy as a pig in slop! This was the 7th hunt we had been on and finally success! On the way out, we stopped by the landowner?s house to show him the deer. He told us that Jamie could hunt that stand for the rest of the year if he wanted. The land-owner quoted ?Hunt it like it?s yours.? So guess where we are going to be every chance we get now?!?!
Many of you are probably wondering why two grown men shooting a young buck is such an awesome event, so allow me to explain. Jamie ?Stickman? Cornwell was an up and coming horse trainer and jockey for almost 10 years. He had won a few big races in Maryland and was becoming known as a very persistent and tough horse jockey. He was traveling up and down the East coast and ?Stickman? was well on his way to becoming a very successful jockey. Jamie was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March of 2009. Tumors were found in his lungs at the same time and there was no possibility for surgery. He has undergone chemotherapy for a little over a year now and there have been no decreases in the size of the tumors. There are other treatment options that are going to be put in place now to try and fight off the cancer. God will take Jamie when he is ready for him, until then, he?s gonna be dropping the hammer a couple more times! It?s sharing hunts like these that make it that much more special.
JD
As you know we?ve been videoing many of our hunts this year. This is my first year attempting to hunt and video at the same time and it?s a lot to manage at once if you have a deer come out on you, but it?s very fun! The reward is worth it if you can pull it all off. I?ve yet to scare a deer away by bumping the camera or making noise while trying to video, but I think it?s inevitable. At some point?I?m going to spook a deer by moving around too much trying to video, but I?ll keep taking my chances with it though because it?s fun to watch and talk about with friends after the hunt.
Probably like most hunters, we have a couple different stands in the woods?some are box stands, some tower stands, some climbers, some ladder stands, etc. (I try not to get in lock-ons because I?m scared of them and heights) With a couple of different stands it seems like we should be getting some good footage from different viewpoints. Though, I got to thinking about that and noticed a trend in my hunts. I am most frequently going hunting in the stands that I can film from easily. Sure this may make for good footage, but what about the other stands that are in good locations, but are just difficult to film from? I have been opting not to hunt in them and electing to hunt in the more spacious stands because I can fit my tripod in them. Well this will no longer be a problem!
Last week I went to Lowes with my wife and her parents and while the ladies looked at paint my father-in-law and I walked around the store looking to devise a way or find a product that would allow me to mount my camera to the stand. Since my tripod will let me take out the center piece of it and turn it into a monopod (just one rod extending from the camera instead of 3) I had some room to get creative. Essentially I needed something to get this small pole attached to the railing around my stand, but it needed to be quiet, small, not get in my way when hunting, easy to carry in, and strong enough to hold the weight of the camera. After we walked a few circles around the store we finally found just the thing we needed.
We were in the hardware section and picked up some different types of clamps and looked at them. It turned out that Irwin made a product that was the perfect fit! I ended up getting a two-pack Irwin Quick Grip Bar Clamp and I?m glad that I did. Of course we had to test it out in the store first to make sure it would work, so we grabbed a flag pole and clamped it to a bracket on the metal of one of the isles in the store to simulate our task and ?voila? we were in business. Since the grips have rubber padding on them they are very quiet and you only have to squeeze the grip to make it tighten up so the whole process is very stealth. The grip is small and fits in my bag easily, is very lightweight, and can hold way more pounds of weight than my camera weighs. I was excited about it in the store, but still wanted to ?field-test? it and make sure that it would work. Oh and from the guy in the hardware section?s reaction to my explanation of what we were trying to do?I think we may have been one of the few who?ve ever bought clamps in hopes of using them to video deer hunts!
The next morning I went into a stand that I haven?t hunt out of much and took my new ?camera-arm? setup and was eager to try it out. I sat down in the stand and within 5 minutes I had my camera mounted on the railing around my stand and had done so quietly and the camera had full swivel and tilt. What I did wrong on my first trip in was that I clamped it down to where the slider was on the inside of my stand. This lessened the space I had to move my gun around a little bit, but I got it right on the second trip in and have been pleased with setup ever since!
Every time I go hunting someone usually asks ?Did you see anything? and I?m sure the same probably happens to you. Videoing your hunts allows you to them what you saw instead of trying to describe it to them in words. You may be thinking about trying it?and if so, I encourage you to give it a shot. This is my first year filming and we?ve been having a lot of fun with it. If you decide to try to film, there are a lot of decisions that you have to factor into videoing a hunt and one of them is the ?camera-arm? situation. If you can?t take a tripod to all of your stands then you?ll have to think about it at some point. Unless you only hunt out of lock-ons (that don?t have railing going around them, then I suggest you spend $15 at Lowes and give a clamp a try. It is cheap, gets the job done, and will save you from spending more than you should on a camera arm.
A quick view of the set from my I-phone
The next day I gave Adam the other clamp from my two-pack and he?s already used it once and is going to be able to film more of his hunts now!
Now I?m glad that my in-laws wanted to go look at paint after all :-)
Lowe?s ? Let?s Build Something Together
I just wanted to drop a quick blog entry to let the waterfowlers on the site know that Schofield?s Hardware in Florence, SC is hosting another outdoor sales event on November 20th, from 10 ? 4pm. The event will feature Echo Pro-Staffer and professional South African hunter, Trevor Lake along with Blake Hodge representing WinnTuck and Daryl Hodge representing Drake Waterfowl. If this event is anything like the last one, then you?ll want to be there and be in the mix!
Once Daryl and Blake get out of the swamp they?ll be there in no time to help with this day of huge store sales, calling demos, and even a turkey cooking seminar! If you?re into duck and/or goose hunting and want to get in on some good deals and meet others in the waterfowl industry (or if you want to learn how to cook a turkey), this would be a good event to attend!
If you are able to come by, be sure to stop by and say hey to Blake and Daryl!
After the Eagles game Friday night I knew it was going to be cold the next morning, so I put some extra layers of clothing in my McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag and let that baby roll all night long. In retrospect I was glad that I did because it was pretty chilly out there the next morning?and yes, I smelled like dirt! With the cold weather, all the scrapes, rubs, and rut activity going on, I was excited about going and sitting over one of our fall, Tecomate Seed food plots the next morning.
If you?ve been following any of the Tecomate Seed Food Plot Journey over the course of this past year, then you know that we?ve been working hard putting in food plots in various locations. I went out to the ?power line plot? this past Saturday morning and had a pretty neat hunt. The power line plot has Tecomate?s Max Attract & Ultra Forage in it. It sure is coming along nice by my rookie food plot creator standards.
We?ve got a tower stand placed about 1/3 the way down this plot. We put it here so that we could easily see to the bottom of the food plot. I like this stand because it?s in a good location and it?s provide a spacious setup from which it?s easy to film. Oh, and there just happens to be a nice scrape about 20 yards down from the stand as well.
I arrived very early so that I could get in the stand and give myself time to get situated and ready for the sun to rise. As I walked through our food plot to the stand it was easy to see that the Tecomate Seed Ultra-Forage & Max Attract was growing well. This stuff was higher than my ankles in many places. With the low-levels of rain that we?ve had this year I was pretty pleased with the growth. I opted to walk through the plot versus around it because there were dry leaves all on the side of the plot and I was trying to be quiet. Walking through the plot rather than the edge helped reduce the amount of noise I made entering and I wasn?t worried about spreading a lot of scent in the plot because of McKenzie?s Scent Fan Bag + Atsko?s odor elimination products that we?re using this year.
When I arrived to the tower stand I put out some doe estrus and then left the bottle open at the base of the stand. The power line acts as kind of a ?wind-tunnel? and with all the recent talk and signs of rut I wanted this estrus scent to blow down the plot in hopes of luring a buck into the area. I was hopeful that a buck would come through to eat and then smell the scent and work his way up the plot?at least that was my mental picture of what would be neat to happen and get on film!
I sat there in the dark for a little while and tried to get everything situated. Carrying a camera, tripod, gun, bag, etc makes for a little extra work and requires some extra time to set up. I finally had everything up and was ready to watch the sun rise. I sat for a little while when I noticed a deer enter the food plot at the very bottom left. I could tell the deer had a decent size, but yet wasn?t huge. It was still kind of dark and it made it a little difficult to see?and even more difficult to film (so sorry for the initially dark footage at the beginning of the video below). The whole time I was watching this deer I thought it was a doe. It wasn?t until after reviewing the film that I learned that it was actually a small buck. The raw footage isn?t quite as dark as the footage in the video below?when YouTube encodes the video there is a little bit of quality lost in the encoding. As I sat in the stand thinking this deer was a doe I was pretty pumped because I thought there was a good chance that a buck may be coming behind shortly thereafter.
This first deer stayed in the plot for a little bit and I zoomed in and out trying to get more light in the camera. I even moved the camera once trying to get it closer to me (you?ll see the bump(s) in the video). The deer was just browsing and poking its head up and down. I could see the deer ?winding? as some call it. He was putting his nose up in the air and seemingly inhaling so as to smell what?s in the air. I felt sure that the estrus scent I put out was making its way down the power line. Though, thinking this deer was a doe, I didn?t really care that it smelled the estrus. Either way I was pretty pumped because a deer came in the plot early and that signaled to me that deer were moving in my area.
After seeing this deer my heart was pumping a little so I was very focused looking for anything that might be trailing shortly thereafter. Sure enough about 15 minutes later I saw another deer enter the plot from the same direction?this one had a bigger body. I zoomed in with the camera and got the deer in the video screen. When I saw the rack I knew it was a good deer, but I knew that I wasn?t going to shoot it. I wanted to, as the saying goes; let him go so he could grow. I was sitting there with my rifle in my lap with the barrel leaning against the railing of the stand and with the tripod and video camera just to the right of me. It may not sound like it, but in those few seconds it?s a lot to manage in between operating the video camera, getting the gun up, and paying attention to deer in front of you (without spooking him). I?m trying to learn the art of managing this all at once.
Seeing these deer come through made me realize just how quick I?ve got to be ready to get my gun up if I want to shoot. If the deer don?t stop, eat, or spend any time in the plot, then there are only a few seconds that you have to react. If I would have wanted to, I could have probably got a shot off at this larger deer, but the shot would have been rushed a little and I don?t like taking shots in a hurry if I can help it. He?ll be bigger next year!
Hoot, I did some commentating in this video for ya!
Ultimately, it was a good trip in the woods for me. You don?t always get to see deer, but I was fortunate enough to see some on this hunt. It also felt good to see some bucks in the area and to have them browsing on the food plot that we spent a lot of time installing. Hopefully these two will make it for a couple of years and will hang around to walk in front of the camera again.
Thank you and congratulations to everyone who got out and voted YES to amendment one yesterday! South Carolinians spoke loud and clear when asked if the right to hunt and fish should be written into our state?s constitution?and the answer was a very loud YES!
This vote is a big win for hunters and fisherman around the state and even more so for outdoorsmen of future generations. Because of this vote, the right to hunt and fish will be written into our state?s constitution and will legally be our natural right as South Carolinians.
The results were in strong contrast with 89% (1,094, 522 votes) voting YES and 11% (136,186 votes) voting No.
Below is a graphic from CNN demonstrating the results. You can also go to CNN?s page to see the breakdown by county.
