Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
One day while I was at Hickory Hills Smoked Products in Van Wyck, SC I saw something that caught my eye. One of the tables off to the side had some taxidermy displays and I saw something I?d never seen before among the displays. There was a skull mount with the skull painted in a really neat looking camo design. I walked over and looked at some of the samples, felt how slick they were, took some pics with my phone, and looked at the info about the guy who was doing it. The business card in front said ?Chris Melvin, Pin Oak Taxidermy, Great Falls, SC?. I was pretty impressed as I looked at the designs available and the samples that were on display. I made a mental note to myself about it and went on about my business.
The next day was when I shot the 8 pointer right at daylight. This deer was a nice deer, but he wasn?t big enough for me to mount in the style of a normal mount and since it was fresh in my mind I figured I?d give this camo skull mount a whirl?after all it looked pretty neat. I called back up to Hickory Hills and got the phone number for Pin Oak taxidermy and gave Chris Melvin a call. I told Chris that not only did I want my skull mounted with this neat new camo design, but that I also wanted to meet with him and talk to him about it and post something about it here on the site.
A couple of days ago I did just that? I went down and met Chris and got some more information from him about the camo skull mounts and saw some more examples. Chris was a real nice, easy going guy and I have to tell you that this camo skull stuff is pretty neat! I asked Chris some questions about the camo skull mounts and he told me a little about the process etc.
One thing I found interesting was the Chris has a very unique way of getting the skulls clean. He mentioned that many people boil a skull to get it clean, but that boiling it makes it brittle and more likely to crack. In order to get the skulls clean and let them maintain their strength, Chris uses something very unique. He uses a specific type of beetles and they eat everything, but the skull! Yes, you may find that rare, but I have to tell you that these things really get the job done. They also get the job done fast. Chris said that in a matter of days the beetles will have the skull as clean as a whistle. (If you want to see a pic of the beetles cleaning a skull, click here). After the skulls are clean he lets them air dry out for a while and then he prepares the skulls for painting.
While I was at Angelus Deer Processing getting my deer processed I showed some of the camo skull pics on my phone to the guys down there and they really liked this style of skull mount too. I?m writing this blog entry because you may be like me (and the guys down at Angelus Deer Processing) and have never heard or seen this style before. Hopefully I can help spread the word about this new technique in skull mounts and give Chris a little publicity!
Chris said that with all things normal the turn-around time with a camo skull is around 3 months. If he gets really busy then that can affect the turn-around time, but generally that?s about how long it takes. The camo skull mounts go for $165 and you can choose from a wide variety of designs and man I?m telling you they look good. I saw several designs on different skulls and they all looked different and were shining from the glossiness of the finish. I?d definitely recommend this style at least for one of your mounts and I?m going to post the pic of mine here on the site when I get it back.
Another note that is worth mentioning is that Chris can still give you a camo skull mount if you have the horns from a deer you harvested many years ago. Chris can get a fake skull and attach your horns to it. He showed me a camo skull mount that had real horns, but with a fake skull on it and it wasn?t easy to tell so they still look good.
Below is a quick video I made with a few different variations of the camo mounts
So if you have an old set of horns or if you want a neat new type of mount then give Chris Melvin at Pin Oak Taxidermy a call or email. Chris?s info is below:
Chris Melvin [email protected] Pin Oak Taxidermy Great Falls, South Carolina 803.519.6203
Regards, Clint
Last night the wife and I went down to the Lancaster County Ducks Unlimited banquet. We had a really good time and hung out with fellow WeHuntSC.com blogger Gavin Jackson and his wife and some other friends from around the Pageland area. The event was packed with waterfowl hunters and there were tons of prizes on hand being auctioned off, won, and bided on.
We arrived to the event and walked around looking at all the items that were on display. There were some nice paintings, decoys, a corn-hole set, clocks, mail-boxes, and a really nice shotgun too. Everyone was mingling and looking at the items on the tables trying to figure out what they wanted to bid on during the auction. Fellow WeHuntSC.com blogger and world champion duck caller Blake Hodge was scheduled to do some demo calling at the banquet as well.
Around 7:15 the guy emceeing the event got on the microphone and said that it was time for Blake to do some calling for the crowd. The emcee told the crowd about all the awards that Blake?s been winning and Blake made believers out of everyone there. He really made those calls sing! Everyone in the room went quiet while Blake was calling and after he finished everyone gave him a big round of applause. While Blake was calling you could see people in the audience shaking their heads and looking at each other as if to say ?I can?t believe how good he is?. The emcee tried to lure Blake into coming hunting with him so that he could use his calling abilities to draw some birds in, but Blake gave him a quick no and the crowd laughed at his quick response. Imagine being 14 and getting up in front of a crowd of grown-ups who?ve been hunting way longer than you and showing them how to call. I imagine it could be a little intimidating knowing that everyone in the room was going to critique your style. Though it didn?t faze Blake and he did really well.
The gun of the year
Shortly thereafter it was time to eat and everyone munched down on some Jo Jo?s BBQ which was really good. Then came the auction where the prizes get bided on and sold. All of the money gets donated to Ducks Unlimited so the hunters don?t mind spending their money on the products plus it?s a tax write-off. When the emcee got going I couldn?t believe how fast he was talking. He was rolling his tongue and speaking faster than Bone Thugs n Harmony can rap! It was pretty impressive to hear.
The clock started inching toward 10 and the wife looked at me and I knew what that look meant. We had to leave and get back to Rock Hill. We left as the last product was being auctioned off. It was a really neat experience and if you?ve never been to a DU banquet you should check one out. I believe Gavin said that Chesterfield County may be having one in the future too. The Ducks Unlimited organization runs deep and has roots everywhere so most likely there?s an event happening near you sooner than later.
Regards,
Clint
This past Christmas I was fortunate enough to get two Moultrie game cameras. The cameras also came with the Game Spy Connect feature which allows the game camera to upload images directly into a database that can be viewed online via Moultrie?s Game Management web site. Speak of the convergence of technology and hunting.
On a site note for you ?web-necks? out there, the online application is very neat. It has a slick, user friendly interface built with J-Query integrated into the app offering modal/light-box windows for easy photo viewing. The application allows users to view photos online, delete them, store them in galleries, change all the settings on the game camera right from your computer, check the battery levels on both the camera and GPS module, as well as integrating GPS functionality with Google maps so that you can pin-point exactly where your camera is located.
The system allows hunters to instantly see what game is coming by and when they are coming by?as in? I get an email a few minutes after it happens. I even check mine from my I-Phone throughout the day. On occasion I?ve been sitting in one stand and received an email letting me know that something got its picture taken at the location of the camera. With this level of functionality you don?t have to continuously return to the woods to check your game cameras, but rather only return to check on them when you need to change the batteries. This reduces the scent that you spread in the woods. All of this is really neat, but it does come at a cost. There is a monthly fee for this service. The rate you are charged differs depending on which level you choose. See the Game Management Packages.
Just as you would imagine, the gadget freak in me was excited to hook all this up and get it out and on a tree. I waited to start the photo-uploading service until we got some of our food plots up and growing well. I got the camera out and turned everything on just like the manual said. I waived my hand in front of the camera and 2 minutes later I had an email sitting in my inbox saying ?You?ve got deer? even though it was just a picture of my hand. Neat stuff! I was pumped about the fact that I would be able to be anywhere and see anything that passed in front of the camera! For about a month the camera did just as it was supposed to, but then I noticed I wasn?t getting any more pictures. I got back out to the woods the first chance I got and checked on the camera. I kept getting an error message saying that there was a file upload error. The error message read something like ?File upload error, Wait srvr response?. I didn?t know what was wrong with the unit. I put brand new batteries in it and everything, but still no dice.
Since the cameras are pretty expensive and I?m paying for their service, I figured the product should work. I called the Moultrie Game Management support line and the lady on the other end of the phone walked me through a couple of steps. In just a few minutes the information we gathered while on the phone was enough for her to have me send the camera in to be fixed. I went to the post office and put the camera in a box (if it fits it ships) and sent it on its way to Alabama. A couple days later I started getting pictures again in my inbox except this time they were of someone?s hands counting 1, 2, and 3. I knew it was back working again. A day or two later the camera arrived back to me and it came back with a new GPS module. I emailed in again and asked about the payment for the time in between when my camera quit working and when I got it back again. I got a quick response denoting that my payment had been suspended for one month. They fixed the product and made the situation right?like they should do.
I write all this to say that there still are some cases of good customer service out there. I would like to to promote Moultrie?s organization and customer service because they made the situation right. The steps taken to correct the situation are obvious ones to consumers, but ones that some organizations don?t take. In a competitive market consumers must look for more than just the product when we buy. Business processes that keep the customer in mind are the ones that help organizations thrive and prosper in the long run. So thanks to Moultrie for having cutting edge products and great customer service! After this experience I won?t have any hesitation about buying any more Moultrie products in the future. Moultrie?s customer service gets an A+.
Now let me run? I?ve got some new pics to look at here?
Below are some screenshots of Moultrie?s Game Management System application interface
The Moultrie Game Management System Photo Viewing Interface
Moultrie Game Management System Camera Status View
Moultrie Game Management System Settings View
This past weekend we were able to get out and do the final work-related step on the food plots. To this point we've taken soil samples, sprayed and disked up the ground, limed and seeded the soil, and now the last step is to put down some fertilizer. It's been really dry in the past few months, but this last week we got some good, much needed, rain. The rain has helped the food plot products (Teomcate's Max Attract, Ultra Forage, and Monster Mix) germinate and start to take root.
We aimed to put the fertilizer down when the forecast called for rain a couple of days after we spread the fertilizer. We did this so that the fertilizer wouldn't sit on top of the ground and burn up the plants that had already started growing, but would rather be broken down by the rain and absorbed into the soil and eventually reach the plant's roots. We also chose Weaver's 13-13-13 for the same precautionary reason of protecting the plants. The plants are growing and we're trying to help them grow rather than killing them! We're taking a lot precaution with the strength of the fertilizer that's why we're putting out 13-13-13 instead of 17-17-17.
The fertilizer we put out on the first remote food plot back in the spring really had a great effect on the growth of the plants. We put it out and I came back about 2 -3 weeks later and the plants had really "jumped" as they call it. The plants drastically increased their size within a matter of weeks. I'm hoping the same will hold true with these plots as well.
In the power line plot we've planted Max Attract with Ultra-Forage and to this point we've got a good, green looking carpet on the plot. The plants are growing and because they're just starting to break the surface they give the plot a green tint on top of the soil. From what I can tell everything is going well with this plot and I think it's going to be just like we want it, time will tell though. There are also a couple of spots in the power line plot where we spilled some seed by hitting bumps when we were driving. This leaves the surface with a dark green spots where more seed is growing.
In the smaller plot we planted Monster Mix and I think it must grow a little slower or something because we could tell that it's growing, but the plants wasn't as high up off the ground yet. You'll see the picture in the video of what it looks like. You can definitely see the plant growing, but you had to look for the bright green dots of the little leaves coming through. I think this one will do well too, but I think it may take a little bit longer than the power line plot. Both areas receive good sunlight so I don't think that will be a factor.
I created a video where you can see the growth of the two plots and also the fertilizer.
Hopefully before too long we'll be posting some pics of the food plot growing taller and with luck, some pics with deer in it.
This is a guest blog entry by Ben Sullivan
Ben Sullivan has been one of my life-long friends and in the past few hunting seasons he?s started getting into hunting. Ben hunts in the Coastal area of South Carolina down around Georgetown. Last weekend Ben got his first deer and it was a very nice buck! Since this was his first deer, a huge buck, and a good story, I asked Ben to give us some info about his hunt and I would post it here on the blog. Ben gave me a brief summary of his first hunt and how it went down.
Last week we had a large tropical storm move up the eastern seaboard and it got really wet here on the coastal region. Wednesday night my buddy Luke and I were planning on bow hunting the next morning since the tropical storm was moving up north. We thought the bucks would be up and moving after three days of heavy rain.
We hunt on roughly 2000 acres in Georgetown, SC and after the tropical storm about 1200 acres of the land was under water. We woke up on Thursday and saw that the rain had stopped and there was a nice breeze (for Georgetown) in the air. Luke texted me around 6 am and said that the weather was perfect and we needed to get in the woods. My favorite bow stand was under water so we decided to sit in the tower stand instead (one of the highest spots on the facility). This was the first time I sat in the tower stand. I had pics on 9 other stands and we didn?t expect this spot to be much of a producer; therefore we didn?t put much effort into it other than putting out corn.
We were sitting in the tower stand just looking and at exactly 9:15 a huge buck walked out. It took him about 4 seconds to get broad sided and give me a clear shot. I didn?t waste any time taking the shot and the deer fell on the spot. Luke?s inclination to go out that morning was dead on the money! We got down out of the tower stand and took the pics that you see below.
We saw 4 other decent size bucks moving that day while we put out corn at the other stands on our property. I?m excited that we have let them walk for 2 years in a row and our management practices are proving beneficial. Another interesting note is that we get a lot of game-cam pics, but the deer I shot had never been captured on camera. It appears that we will have quite a few shooters this year.
Congratulations to Ben on his first deer...a very nice buck! I don?t know if I?ve ever seen on that big in the woods before, but I hope to!
New Stand Early October is here and it is one of my favorite times to hunt whitetails. We?ve had some successful hunts lately and I?m excited about what the rest of the season holds. Hopefully the momentum will keep on rolling through the remaining months of deer season.
If you can remember back to last season, I killed one of the nicest bucks I?ve ever had the privilege of harvesting in October. This season looks to follow the same trend of having a lot of action in October! The weather is changing and the temperature seems to be dropping lower each day. I?m a firm believer that the colder the temperature is, the more the deer walk and that seems to hold true so far. I try to better myself through researching and I?ve read in many magazines and internet articles that early October is the beginning of the rut phase. In my area of South Carolina (the low-country) the research indicates the rut peeks at the end of October. At the start of the season I would see a few does or maybe a small buck, but as soon as the cold front came through the deer action seemed to skyrocket!
We?re seeing a lot of deer and it?s always a great feeling to catch some nice bucks on camera. Though, it?s not as exciting to only see small bucks or deer with bad genetics on your property come through the lens of your camera. I?ve had a little of both in my past couple of hunts. We are working on taking the deer out of the herd that have the bad genetics such as these below. We talked to a hunter that hunts a property that is adjacent to the land we hunt and he said that we are surrounded by a few hunting clubs that can only shoot bucks 8 points or better. These hunting clubs that surround us prohibit their hunters from shooting non-8 pointers by issuing fines for any deer shot that are less than 8 points. For this reason, these hunters let all deer walk that are not trophies. So, deer with bad genetics are breeding every year and spreading around their genes. We?re going to try to thin those deer out while also trying to keep our deer un-pressured. This will be a fine line to walk, but we?re going to do our best. We don?t shoot unless it?s a must and we only walk in and out of the stands to hunt. If we need to take some corn out to the stand?we take it with us on our hunt. Then after our hunt we go ahead and put the corn out while we are already there instead of leaving and coming back later. Eliminating the number of trips we make to the stand helps in reducing the spread our scent in the area.
You may also remember my friend Nick. We hunt together a lot and he?s been in a lot of the videos that I?ve posted here on the site. Nick and Kevin Pye are also having great success on their hunts this season. Nick hunts on our lease, but he also hunts on his father?s club, which also happens to be close to our lease in Andrews. The first video clip below is Nick hunting at his fathers club. As you can see, Nick filmed a vast amount of different deer! He had bucks fighting, scraping, and rubbing all over him! Unfortunately nick misses the buck in the video clip, but I say if you haven?t missed?then you haven?t hunted enough! I?m sure he will have a chance to shoot this monster again at some point.
Kevin, on the other hand, did not miss the buck that came by him as he sat in a swamp bottom. He had been sitting for only a few minutes and a few turkeys came to the corn pile. While he was getting the camera focused on the hens a nice 10 point came in to view. He only gets a few seconds of the buck on film before he has to make a shot. He also gets a few other deer on film. I will let the video do the rest of the talking.
Be sure to watch in HD
My video was filmed from a stand we just put up last Thursday. It?s a tripod that is on a long row of pine trees. At the end of the pines are some thick, hardwoods. From the action I?ve seen so far I?m hoping this stand will be a good one.
Derek
Last Spring Mr. Bruce Puette took me on my first turkey hunt. After the hunt I posted a blog entry titled ?The Day I Learned How to Turkey Hunt?. I got all fired up about turkey hunting and went and bought all kinds of turkey calls, camo, etc. Well, Mr. Puette also deer hunts and we just had another successful hunt.
Two weeks ago I gave Mr. Puette a call to see if he wanted to go deer hunting at some point. I told him that I didn?t plan on bringing a gun and that I just wanted to video one of his hunts again. It seemed to work out well the first time with turkeys, so I figured it would probably hold true with deer, plus I had gotten a better camera since turkey season! Mr. Puette and I got a date on the calendar and I was looking forward to it.
So this past Saturday I crossed the Pee Dee River into Marlboro County and met Mr. Puette at 4:30 in the afternoon. It had rained a lot in the previous week (we really needed the rain) and a cool front had started to moved in. It was still warm, but nothing like it has been. The conditions seemed just right for seeing some deer.
When I arrived we talked around the trucks for a bit and put on our camo. Mr. Puette said he wanted to hunt with his muzzle loader to see if he could get one with it. Mr. Puette was shooting a Traditions Pursuit XLT, Black Powder, 50 caliber. I?ve never even seen a muzzle loader so I really didn?t know much about it. While we talked, Mr. Puette loaded his gun. Me, being slack, didn?t even think about videoing how he did it. After the hunt, I was kind of mad at myself for not getting it on film. Anyway, I think he put in the black powder and then the bullet. I know that he took a rod out from beneath the barrel of the gun and pushed the bullet and powder down the barrel. He really had to put some muscle into it to get it down the barrel too. It didn?t just drop easily. After he got the load down the barrel he dropped the rod down on it and it bounced. He said when the rod bounces then the load is ?set? correctly. I have never I seen anyone load their gun like that, so it was pretty neat to see.
We headed out to the deer stand not too long after that. We rode a 4-wheeler to get there and I?m glad we did because it was a pretty good distance from where we parked the trucks. The rain really did get the road wet and we rode through some big puddles on the way. You?ll see it in the video, but it was pretty scene on the way in as we rode deep into the forest back to the stand.
We arrived to the stand and headed up the ladder. Mr. Puette had us hunting in style in a nice condo-like stand that he had previously built. The stand was situated on the edge of some woods overlooking a cut-over. From our vantage point the cut-over was to the right and the hardwoods were on the left. Mr. Puette sat on the left side with the best angle on the shooting lane and I sat on the right. Mr. Puette had a shooting lane cut out to the left and had some corn down on the shooting lane.
We had been sitting in the stand for about 5 minutes and Mr. Puette said that one of the branches down the shooting lane was bothering him, so he climbed down out of the stand and walked over there and broke the branch off! Mr. Puette returned to the stand and we sat for a little while and observed the scene looking for movement. Not too long after that we heard a shot off in the distance that was really early. Mr. Puette looked at me and said ?That?s a good sign?the deer are moving?. Shortly thereafter Mr. Puette got his grunt call out and grunted a little bit, but nothing responded. We continued looking over the cut-over and shooting lanes for a while and then we heard the sound of stick breaking behind us to our left. If you?re a hunter then you?ve probably heard a sound like this before. It sounded like an old limb lying on the ground that got stepped on and snapped. It?s a distinct sound and it got our attention. For the next little while we were scanning back to our left really hard to see if anything was coming. We kept looking, but nothing ever showed from that side.
I was hopeful to see some deer, but pretty soon the sun would start setting and go behind the trees. When the light gets low it?s hard to film so I was keeping my fingers crossed that something would move sooner than later. Since we heard the sound from the left, I kept glancing over that way thinking I would spot something, but I never did. The cut-over was so thick, I never thought anything would come from that side, but just when I least expected it?I saw a flicker of white out the corner of my eye.
.
Anyway, the does came out of the cut-over on the right and headed towards the woods. Mr. Puette said ?They?re headed to the corn? and he got his gun up. He had a little better line-of-sight than I did because of where he was sitting and he whispered ?Here they come?. I zoomed out for a quick view of him and his gun and then zoomed right back in on the corn pile. I saw the first one pop its head out and I knew it wasn?t the largest one. Mr. Puette was saying ?Is that the big one? ?you can hear it in the video. We were waiting on the largest doe to get there and it didn?t take long. Three does stepped out before the bigger came into vision. I told him that the last one was the biggest out of the group. When she stepped into the shooting lane she was broad-sided and Mr. Puette had the perfect angle. Mr. Puette clicked his safety off (which you?ll hear in the video too) and the doe perked her head up?she knew something was wrong?and then BOOOOOM?Mr. Puette had shot and smoke went everywhere.
There were some others hunting in the area so we waited until it got dark before we left so as to not mess up their hunts. While we were waiting we heard another shot. After it got too dark to hunt, we headed back out to the trucks. Turned out that one of the guy?s in the group had brought his wife and she got her first deer that night as well. It seems the deer were moving!
Below is the video of the hunt? sorry for the low-level production, but I?m still figuring all this video stuff out
It was a great hunt and I got some good footage. Looks like Mr. Puette can get it done with turkeys and deer and the type of firearm doesn?t seem to matter either! Next time I?ll be sure to video and document how he puts the load into the Muzzle loader. We had a great time and Mr. Puette told me that I brought him good luck, but I?m not too sure about that?I think he?s just a good hunter.
Also, I got a feeling we?ll be filming a bow hunt before too long because Mr. Puette is also a bow hunter! I bet he?s good at that too?
We?ve received some feedback from various individuals here on the NC line and we are listening and adjusting! We are changing the ?You must be from SC? rule to ?You must have a valid SC hunting license?. Now all the NC hunters across the line can quit giving us a hard time!
Initially we decided to say that winners should reside in SC, but after hearing some other perspectives, it makes sense to change this rule. As you may or may not know, Pageland is up here right on the NC line and we border-hop a lot?and so do some of our neighbors from NC. We go there for the benefits of the city and they come down for the benefits of the country. If you head north from Pageland you start to see less trees and begin to see more concrete as you near the sprawling greater Charlotte area. There are many hunters who live in NC who come down south to hunt. I imagine this may be the case for hunters from other states traveling to SC to hunt! Now all the out-of-state hunters can compete in the competitions?just be prepared to show your SC license, should you win anything!
AND REMEMBER? PUT THE DATE IN THE PIC!