Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
Never would I of thought that staying up late at night and sometimes early into the next morning chasing dogs through the woods would be any fun, but it was surprising how much it appealed to me. One night last week after baseball practice I got a call from some good friends of mine named Sam and
After about a 45 minute ride to Buck Horn Hunting Club in Summerville South Carolina, we finally turned the dogs loose. As soon as we turned the dogs out of the box they began to scan the hardwood bottom for any fresh coon tracks that were nearby. We just sat back and enjoyed the crisp breeze and gazed at all the stars while we waited for the dogs to locate some tracks and/or coons. Coon hunting was very relaxing, that is, until the dogs trailed and treed a coon. Daniel and Sam could pinpoint their dogs and tell me exactly
Sometimes people ask me ?What is WeHuntSC.com???so I figured I?d write a blog about it and try to give an adequate answer...
I guess the web site can be different things for different people, but it kind of depends on your perspective. Since the perception of the site can differ, I?ve tried to write from a few different lenses in case you happen to fit into one of the below vantage points.
From a Hunter?s Viewpoint WeHuntSC.com is a website geared toward the hunters of South Carolina. We are an information hub and an online location for hunters to share information, photos, videos, and stories. We are flexible and open to suggestions from our site audience and we try to adapt and accommodate as much as possible.
We promote hunting and conservation and we respect the game and land we are blessed enough to hunt. We support our governing body (SCDNR) and promote and abide by their regulations. Our site gives hunters another online area to debate and dialogue about whatever?s on our minds. Our site offers hunters in South Carolina a location to connect with other hunters who share the same interests and who are regionally close to them. By providing an avenue for information exchange, our site fosters relationships among the outdoorsmen of South Carolina and beyond.
From the metrics, it?s evident that hunters in states all over the US and from several foreign nations are also interested in seeing what we?ve got going on in SC. Hunters in other states view the pages of our site and seldom comment?they are just curious about us and what we?ve got going on. In that regard, our site is a window to the rest of the hunting world for what kind of animals we?re harvesting in South Carolina and how we go about hunting the game in our state.
Hunters come to our site to connect, to compete, and to communicate?and we try to have a good time with it!
From a Sponsor?s Viewpoint We also host various online competitions throughout the hunting seasons to give back to SC hunters. For an organization, these competitions represent opportunities to directly interface with hunters throughout the year. Organizations can donate products and sponsor competitions in exchange for publicity and marketing on our site. We monitor our site?s metrics daily and we continue to grow. If you have an organization interested in promoting via our site, just let us know and we can send you some metric reports if you?re interested in cost per impression analysis.
We also have a team of bloggers who blog about their hunts. Some organizations give us products to use/field test and blog about. This offers organizations a grass roots means to connect with hunters throughout the hunting season and the year. Our bloggers aren?t professional hunters with TV shows?we?re just normal guys who like to hunt?and write about it. We utilizemedia rich techniques of images, lightbox image galleries, and YouTube videos to document our hunts and any products that we may be field testing. When SC hunters have memorable hunts we?ll also post guest blogs that they submit. We have also done blog series when it made sense. An example of this is the Tecomate Seed Food Plot Journey where we did a year-long blog series of creating food plots.
We, our bloggers, our hunters, and fans all promote different areas of our site via social media. Organizations that partner with us receive product promotion, increased logo awareness, and greater brand recognition on our site, on YouTube, on Facebook, and Twitter. From this standpoint, we help organizations reach people in several different online locations.
From a Web Viewpoint Ah yes, the web! I am a web guy (actually a "webneck") by trade and this site offers me a place to sharpen a skill set. I keep this site up on the side with the help of a couple other individuals. Running this site helps me gain a greater knowledge about this platform, gives me a creative outlet, and helps me keep my mind turning. The challenge to innovate, keep fresh content, and keep users engaged is interesting and fun, but most importantly it forces me to learn. The push to try to be on the fringe with technology is an endless task and the struggle breeds knowledge.
I hope this entry has helped communicate what WeHuntSC.com is about from whatever perspective you find yourself. The site may change in time, well, it will have to change in order to survive, so stay tuned as we keep pushing to find ways to connect and engage online.
Regards,
Clint
Over the course of the Food Plot Journey we?ve been demoing the GroundHog MAX as well as planting a lot of Tecomate Seed. We?ve demonstrated that average Joes (and rookie food plot web people like myself) can even use these products and get a decent food plot to come up. All of the products that we?ve used can be purchased online, but recently a new outdoor store right across the NC line opened up that carries these products and more!
The Springs Wild Game Center is located in Mineral Springs, NC and is run by Bryan McCarver. The Wild Game Center is a sister company to the local Feed and Seed company in Mineral Springs. It takes about 25 minutes to get there from Pageland and is also not a bad ride from Buford or Lancaster. It sits right off of highway 75 just across the train tracks. The store is relatively new and is really nice. From cities like Pageland?s perspective, it beats driving an hour to Rock Hill or to a store in the Greater Charlotte area and it?s a nice ?country? drive along the way (Google Map to Springs Wild Game Center).
The Wild Game Center carries both fishing and hunting products and is also going to carry guns in the near future. As I mentioned, the store hasn?t been open too long and has some plans for some really neat things such as an archery course and even a 3d archery course?so it?s good now and will only get better in time. The Wild Game Center is also one of the few places where you can find another emerging product in ?BuckYum?.
We had some WeHuntSC.com decals up there earlier, but they?re out now. We?re working to get some vinyl decals offered permanently in the store as well. Best of all you can go there and pick up a GroundHog MAX or a McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag and even some TrueTimber camo! You can give it a look and touch/feel it before you buy if you want. Bryan and the guys at the store can also get any flavor of Tecomate Seed that you want.
If you?re on the NC/SC border then you ought to give the Springs Wild Game Center a look at some point. We like to use our site to promote good places and good people and this place definitely meets both of those criteria! If you go, be sure to tell them that you heard about them from WeHuntSC.com! Once the 3d range gets set up I?m going to go back and shoot some video of the place to give you a feel for what it?s like too!
Over Christmas break I traveled a lot spending time with family?probably similar to what you may experience during the holiday season. Since I got married a couple months back this year was the first year of incorporating another family into the schedule. Since my schedule was a little more filled, I was unable to hunt during the snow that fell the day after Christmas, but I was able to hunt the day after the snow fell when some snow was still on the ground. I?ve always wanted to deer hunt in the snow, but I also didn?t want to mess up the schedule on the first year with the in-laws either!
Though, the first chance I got I rushed back to the house to get my stuff together and slipped down to one of our stands in a nearby field. Since I was late and rushed this stand was a good fit because it?s relatively easy to get to, I can be quiet on the way in and it?s a box stand so it wouldn?t be too cold. I finally got situated in the stand and I sat in the box overlooking a field covered in snow. It was a unique site and one that we don?t get to see too much during deer hunting season in SC.
One of the gifts I received during Christmas was a book titled ?The Christmas Sweater? by Glenn Beck. Early in my life I hated to read, but as the years go by I?m finding myself reading a little bit more and not hating it so much. During the free time I had in between visiting family, opening presents, eating, and traveling I started reading the book that I had received. Reading a book about a Christmas sweater didn?t really seem to appealing to me, but I had some free time so why not check it out. I would have been scolded if I had pulled the computer out in front of the wife!
I read about 2/3 the way through the book during the Christmas break and I brought the book with me in my bag in case I decided to read some more. I sat in the box looking at the field and snow and in between looking out the windows I read the rest of the book. The book actually turned out to be very good! As I mentioned, I wasn?t too pumped about reading it at the site of the title, but once you get into the book then you understand why the title is what it is.
In case you like to read I won?t ruin it for you, but the book tells a vivid story that?s symbolic of Beck?s life and childhood. He changed some names and locations around and combined some concepts for symbolism to embolden the meaning of figures in his life. The Christmas sweater was a gift from his mom that symbolized a lot for Beck and throughout the story he uses a lot of allegory to talk about life, relationships, faith, and hope. I really like the conversations that Beck had with his Grandfather in the story because I feel like I?ve had some of those same conversations with people in various times of my life.
Through this short story of a kid?s Christmas experience one can gain knowledge, insight, and wisdom about life in general. If you?re into reading I would give it a look. Very rarely do I finish a book in 2 days, but I did with this one. The story was good and kept me engaged the whole time.
Do any of you read while hunting or am I the only nerd out there?
Just wanted to drop a quick blog and let everyone know that soon you will be reading the outdoor stories of a new blogger! Chester area hunter, Tommy Darby, is going to join the WeHuntSC.com blog crew and we?re glad to have him on the team. Tommy hunts a little bit of everything and also is into fishing and may post some fishing blogs in the off-season. We?re excited to add a new blogger and see what goes on in the Chester area of SC!
Josh & Troy after the game Photo courtesy Casey Outen Disclaimer: This blog has nothing to do with hunting or the outdoors.
Every now and then you get to be a part of something special?
In 1991 I stopped playing football in the dirt track around the field during games and started being a water boy for the Eagles. I enjoyed being a part of the team, being around the field, the players & coaches, and learning the game. Back then we had a small water tank on wheels that I had to pull out to the guys during time outs and all over the field throughout practice. I can remember having the water tank turn over on me and not being strong enough to pull it and the guys laughing at me! It didn?t matter to me though because as long as I got out of school early in the playoffs to ride with the team and wear a jersey, I would keep on pumping the pump to give water pressure for the hoses and bringing the guys water. I can remember the guys seeming like giants when I was that young. Fridays were special because we got to make Gatorade. We always had contests in between the managers to see who could make the best tasting Gatorade. Some of the players were always on me to put extra packets of the mix in the water to make it sweeter. I remember small things like that plus riding the bus, being at practice, and being on the sidelines like it was yesterday.
By 1997 I had worked my way through the system until I was finally a senior. I was the Qb for our team and we had a ?Cinderella? season. I was blessed to play on the team that won the 2nd state championship in the school?s history. I can remember many moments from that season like it was yesterday as well. We beat Barnwell 21-19 and we were the underdogs all season long. It felt good to finally see and feel what it was like to win a state championship. The medal and jersey are still on the wall.
The Eagles won another championship in 2003, the year of my first season in Europe. The Qb for this team was Trent Usher who was the head coach?s son and also ball boy when I played back in 1997. After playing in college and Europe for a couple of seasons, I tore my shoulder up and had to get into ?real life?. When I got back I started helping out with the team at practice and on Friday nights. I even had a short stint as a long-term sub at Central. In time I got a job in Charlotte and wasn?t able to be in Pageland throughout the week, but I continued to come on Friday nights and help out on top of the box. Even though years had passed the same coaches were still at Central and the program was still rolling. Transitioning from playing to helping coach was a little challenging because I had to (and still am) trying to train my eyes to watch different aspects of the game.
Coach Mangum & Son (JR) Photo courtesy Jason Fararooei Yellow Cape Communications
The past two seasons (2008 & 2009) we had really good squads and we met Dillon each year in the state championship. We lost two years in a row by 1 point to Dillon and each loss was tough to swallow. We just couldn?t seem to pull it out for one reason or the other, but we keep on coming back for more.
This year things kind of got shaken up earlier in the year when the district cut our head coach?s salary to around 10k as part of the budget cuts. Coach Mangum was a ?working retiree? and wasn?t offered a job at his previous level of compensation. The district?s decision lead many working retirees in the district to leave their post and retire. Everyone wasn?t sure what would happen, but Coach Mangum stayed on to coach for a small fraction of what he deserves. His unselfish decision to stay and coach is one of the best examples of servant leadership that I can think of and pretty much set the tone for the whole season. Coach Mangum stayed on to lead the program that he and so many others have spent 30 + years making for several reasons, but one of the biggest reasons was because his son plays on the team.
We met Dillon again this year in the state title and it was a tough game. It was a ?nail-biter? and it didn?t look good for us with 3 minutes remaining as we were down 17-7. Dillon was about to have a ?3-pete? with all 3 victories coming against us and I was numb in the press box looking down to the field. Then, things got interesting. Dillon?s players seemed to relax a little and we drove the field and scored. 17-14. Dillon got the ball back with around 1:45 left and threw a pass on 2nd down and we picked it off and the rest was history. We scored with about 37 seconds left in the game to go ahead 20-17 and we held on for the victory. Our guys were down, but not out.
I?ve been a part of and seen a lot of things happen on the football field over the years, but what I saw happen last Saturday in Columbia is what I believe to be destiny. It was our year to win and God had a plan for our team. For our guys, the game played out in the perfect way and in the perfect time. The victory felt really good since we?d been beaten by Dillon the past 2 years in a row. It was also sweet because Coach Mangum?s son was able to be on the winning team?the first undefeated state championship team in our school?s history combined with the fact that Coach Mangum took a severe salary cut and stayed on anyways. Coach Mangum has always wanted his son to be on a state championship team and it finally happened. We were happy for them, the whole team, and the community overall. Everyone on the team played a part in the win and now I know 3 former ball boys who all have rings because ironically Coach Mangum?s son was the ball boy when Trent?s team won the state in 2003!
It?s been a long time since I was mixing Gatorade and running footballs out to the refs, but the thrill of victory is still the same. Whether I was taking a towel to the guys, throwing Td?s, or sitting on top of the box it still feels good to win. We had many opportunities to give up in the past 3 weeks, but we never did. Our guys bent, but never broke and always believed we could win. Now another trophy is in the trophy case because of the dedication and commitment of everyone associated with this year?s team and the program overall.
Below is a video made by Casey Outen from the state championship weekend
Every now and then in life you get to be a part of something special. This past season was another one of those special times in my life.
As you read from my previous blog entries, I?ve been duck hunting in a couple different swamps the past few weekends. I took my camera to record the hunts and I also took my tripod to steady the camera for various shots. After looking at my videos and pics, I realized that I need to camouflage my tripod a little because it was sticking out like a sore thumb. When I?m deer hunting, I usually have my camera behind some burlap, camo cloth, or clamped to a piece of wood. In those settings it usually works out well, but in more open settings like duck hunting it would be better if I could camouflage the tripod some.
The legs of the tripod go inside each other so I don?t want to bother the lower sections for fear that they would not extend smoothly or become tough to deal with. Many times I?m sitting on the ground or in a low spot and don?t need to extend the tripod out the whole way anyway. My first thought was to spray paint the top section of the tripod with black, green, brown, and grey paint which I guess could work, but I?m not sure if it would hold up over time with as many scratches and wear & tear that I?ll undoubtedly put it through. Would it be sticky, smell, rub off on clothing or my hands??? These questions were running through my mind when I thought about painting the tripod. It could work, but I didn?t want to risk messing the tripod legs up so I held off.
Later in the week I went to Dick?s Sporting Goods and found something that was the perfect fit. I picked up two rolls of camouflage tape. I used both kinds, but it was obvious that Hunter?s Specialties camo tape product called No-Mar Camo Gun & Bow Tape was the one to go with. I?d never tried any camo tape on anything before, but this stuff got the job done. I used both kinds of tape, but the No-Mar tape holds a lot better than the other (which I can?t remember the name of now), is more durable, and tears better. One roll cost $7 and I came home and covered the non-moving parts of the tripod and it looks really good. I went in circles on the first leg then realized that going vertical gave a better, smoother presentation. So on two legs it looks really good and not as good one the other! Though, I was really pleased with the overall outcome. I shot a short video and sent it to a couple people and some of them thought that I had bought a tripod that was painted camouflage! Obviously that is a good sign as it had them fooled! Hopefully it will also confuse any deer/ducks in the woods or swamps in the hunts to come.
Below is a video of the tripod after applying the Hunter?s Specialties No-Mar tape
Get you some Hunter?s Specialties camo NO-Mar tape and cover whatever you?ve got that?s making you stick out!
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.
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!
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