Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
This past year we started hunting a new piece of land in our area and one of the things we looked forward to doing was some off-season scouting. During the season we got a good feel for where deer were traveling, what food sources they liked, and the locations we should probably put stands in. Though, we specifically wanted to wait until the leaves got off the trees to walk around and see where any deer sign is when the deer haven?t been pressured in a while. We thought that we may be able to find deer sign in places that we didn?t expect and give us better insight as to hunting strategies for next fall.
This past weekend provided a great chance to not only do all that, but to do it in the snow! Since Adam and I were both in the area we headed out to do some scouting. We walked over a large portion of the land looking for sign and checking game cameras. One thing we noted was that the location of one of our feeders wasn?t feeding anything but raccoons and black birds! Walking in the fresh snow also gave us insight as to the paths the deer were traveling. And not one track led to that feeder?so yes, we?re going to move it!
As we walked over the land we saw a couple of prominent places where the deer were frequently walking. You could easily tell that they were deer trails because of all the deer tracks that were printed in the snow. One trail showed us where the deer were crossing a creek on the land. It was also good to see that one of the trails led straight to our Tecomate Seed Food Plot! One of the heavily traveled trails led us to several rubs on trees. It?s a good sign to see buck sign in the area and I was glad that we did get out and do some scouting.
The snow definitely gave us a unique perspective of the land. We?ll probably move some stands and do some strategic thinking about our food plot placements in the upcoming Spring & Fall. If you haven?t ever taken the chance to get out and walk your land after a snow, then I encourage you to do so because it could give you some insight that may change the way you hunt your land!
Another interesting note was that Adam was scanning the woods as we drove down the road and he spotted 3 does. So, like any webneck would do?we stopped, backed up, shot some film, and then tried to make bleat and blow sounds at the does.
Regards,
Clint
One of my most favorite parts of working on the web site is to be able to give the competition winners their prizes! One of the winners quoted this past weekend ?Shooting the deer was good enough, now this is just the icing on the cake!? and that?s what it?s all about! Seeing the winners smile while they get their prizes makes us feel good and is rewarding for us too!
Again our winners were (See pics of the winner's deer):
The winners received some great prizes from our sponsors and each left with a handful of goodies to play with and we hope to get some ?field test? reports from them as well. I think in total we gave out just short of $2,000 worth of prizes to the winners. This is pretty good for the site just being a little over 1 year old and we hope it will get even better in years to come.
We did get some interviews from this year?s winners so check it out in the video below. Thanks again to the sponsors and to everyone who participated. Be sure to tune in early next season to see what competitions we?re hosting, what rules we?re enforcing, and what prizes you can win.
A field of whistling wings turned into a field of chirping crickets after the last snowfall. I had hoped to get one last dove hunt in before the end of the season, but the snowfall changed my plans just a little. A snow storm rolled through on January 9th and covered the cut soybean field in about 6 inches of snow and ice. My plan was to get in one more hunt on January 15th. I was sure that the snow and ice would melt by then but I was wrong. Well, with fingers crossed I decided to give it a shot anyways.
I had taken my cousin JD on his first deer hunt this past year and thought it would be fun to take him on his first dove hunt. Leading up to the snow storm the field was full of whistling wings. I joked that there were so many doves that my 4yr. old son Riley could have gotten close to a limit with his toy shotgun. Seriously.
I knew from scanning the field earlier in the morning that we were going to have a tough go at it because of the recent snow. The morning was cool and the sun shined bright that morning, but the field was still a soggy mess. JD and I set out across the field at about 9:30 am. The ice still covered the field in the shady areas which made our trek a little slippery. I found a good spot on the shady side of the field behind some broom straw. We sat down and talked about everything besides the doves that were not flying. We traded guns and talked about that for a few minutes. JD was toting his .410 shotgun that has been passed down through the family. I was carrying my 20-gauge side by side that has also made its rounds. We talked a little more about the rabbit hunters off in the distance that seemed to be having more success than us. It?s funny how you can almost visualize a rabbit hunt from listening to the beagles run. We were both a little envious of their success. Well after awhile I decided that maybe we could jump a few doves by walking the tree line. We got close a couple of times but couldn?t quite seal the deal.
After lunch we found our way outside to play a little football. Riley, JD, and myself tossed the football around a little while when the whistling wings of several doves flew overhead. I immediately looked at JD and could tell that he was thinking the same thing I was. I went back inside and grabbed his .410. The doves had flown into a set of pines next to my house and I figured we maybe could get a shot. As we entered the woods the odds were stacked against us. Thick briars, crunchy ice, and my little sidekick were all on my mind. Well, I let JD take the lead and Riley and I sat back and were his eyes and ears. After what seemed an eternity we spotted the doves. Two of them flew off without giving a shot and now we were down to one lonesome dove. JD made a couple of slick moves through the thick stuff that would?ve made those cottontails we heard being chased earlier envious and he got into position. One swift shot and the lonesome dove was down. JD?s first shot at a dove was a success.
We were all extremely excited. We cleaned the dove and I sent it home with JD. I told him he would probably have to wait till next year for his first dove meal, but it might make a good snack. It?s funny how sometimes when plans change the best memories are made. Does anyone have a good story of their first dove or first dove hunt? Please share.
*If you are one of the competition winners we will contact you via email soon!
You voted and now here are your winners:
In a couple of days we?ll have some happy hunters in South Carolina when we deliver the competition winners their prizes! I?ll take some pics/videos and will post a blog about the prize delivery too! If you?re interested in seeing the results of the voting, go back to the vote page to see the results.
Thanks again to all who participated and to our many sponsors who have donated the prizes for our competition winners.
Be sure to tune in early next season to get the updated rules for next year?s competitions!
It was around this time last year when we got the green-light and started the Tecomate Seed Food Plot Journey. The first blog entry aired last January and I didn't know what to expect, but I knew I had a lot to learn. Around 25 blog entries and a year later, we've had some successes, some failures, some lessons learned, some memorable hunts, and some really good looking food plots.
I?ve posted some pictures below of the spring/summer and fall/winter food plots.
Spring
Fall
I'm no guru by far, but even from my little bit of experience over the last year I can tell you that the soil was one of the most important factors in our Food Plot Journey mix. We planted food plots in several different areas and the areas where the soil was best fit for the food plot were the areas where we had the best food plots. Of course rain is crucial, but rainfall is something we can't control. Essentially the soil acts as the "transfer agent" through which your plants will get the nutrients they need to thrive. One of my takeaways will be the quality of the soil. You can get a high quality seed or a low quality seed, but it's all moot if you don't have fertile soil.
If you've been following along then you've seen everything that we've done via video, pictures, and the text in blog entries. I created one last video of some of the before/after shots that happened along the way.
I've had a great time learning, creating, and documenting the food plots in our Food Plot Journey and hopefully I haven?t bored you with it all. A big thanks to Tecomate Seed & the GroundHog MAX for working with us to sponsor the Food Plot Journey.
And if you are on your own "Food Plot Journey" then it won't be long before it's time to start the soil samples again. I know that we're already making plans for the upcoming spring/summer and next fall/winter plots?
I was pumped to see the second season come in and for good reason. The last few weeks have been pretty awesome for me and my gang. We?ve been hunting lakes, swamps, ponds, and beaver holes. We?ve seen ducks in every spot we?ve been to. I want to tell you about a few hunts we?ve had over the past few weeks.
One hunt, that really sticks out in my mind, is the morning my buddy, Cole Lowery, put the smack down on a few geese. It was a COLD morning. The water was frozen, but we were determined to hunt either way. We headed out to a little pond- this pond holds a lot of ducks to be such a small pond. Justin Gainey, Cole, and I decided to break a section of the ice and throw out the decoys. We worked and worked to break up the ice but it would freeze back up as soon as we would get back to the bank. Getting ready for the ducks to fly in, we took a break to talk about how cold it was and how we really had no sense to be out in such cold weather. The birds started chirping and then the ducks started flying in. We busted a few wood ducks. We were pretty pumped about it. The ducks were scattered around us, so Justin and I decided to start picking them up. We laid our guns down and took off into the water to get them. While Justin and I were out in the water gathering the ducks, Cole stood on the bank and guided us in the right direction. I glanced across the field, and all I could see were geese coming right toward us. I was too far from my gun to take off to get it and so was Justin. I started yelling at Cole to get ready because the geese were coming in. All I could do was stand there and watch. Man, that made me sick. They came in pretty as could be, all but landing on the end of Cole?s gun barrel because they were so close. Cole started firing and geese started falling. After the first shot, two geese fell to the ice. Then, he shot two more times and two more geese fell. He reloaded, shot again, and another one dropped. He had reached his limit. We were all so excited. We jumped up and down like we were kids again. All three of us were pumped up about our great morning. Not to mention, it is Cole?s first year of duck hunting and he was very excited. We had so much fun that morning. I can still play it back in my mind like it was yesterday. That was definitely a morning to remember.
The next hunt that sticks out is another morning to remember. It was the cold morning of December 18th. The boys got together and headed down the long, muddy, bumpy road that leads us to the honey hole. We got our gear together and headed on into the beaver hole. We got set up, and it was just a matter of time until we would be seeing some ducks. In no time, the ducks started diving in and we started shooting as fast as we could shoot. At one time, I couldn?t keep my gun loaded. I dry fired more than I fired successfully. It is a rush that I can?t put into words. We shot close to ten minutes straight. I was keeping up with the number of ducks we hit. I yelled out to the boys that we could only kill two more ducks before we reached our limit. The last shots were fired and reaching the limits was taken care of. We had reached six limits of wood ducks. All we could do was sit back and admire them as they flew. We had EIGHTEEN wood ducks and THIRTEEN of them were drakes. We were hyped about our great hunt, but also glad we had reached our limits because between the six of us, we probably didn?t have a full box of shells left. Ducks were laying everywhere. It was such a great hunt and the first time of the season that we all reached our limit. I had to go out of town that morning for a Christmas gathering so I left the cleaning to the other guys. I?m sure they had a few choice names for me that morning.
Another impressive memory is when some friends of mine gave me a call one evening to ask if I wanted to go to Lake Wateree to hunt. Of course, I was ready to be in on the lake action, so I gathered up my lake gear that night. I arrived at their house at 4:00 AM. By 4:15, we, with our gear, were packed into the Trailblazer like a pack of sardines. We finally arrived at the boat landing and started loading all of the gear into the boat. The excitement in the air felt like Christmas morning. The boat's throttle is bad about freezing up when it is that cold. Thankfully, we were prepared for it. We had two clothes hangers ready to rig up to get us to the hole. We were determined to make the best of it and shoot some ducks. We took off across the lake with P-Nut driving the boat... with the clothes hangers. (It was worth the trip just to see this!) We arrived to the lucky log, got the decoys out, and hid away the boat. We were ready to hunt. I had my usual "break time". The set up looked good and the sun was rising quickly. We could see ducks flying above and all around us. We decided to take out a few of those ducks. We killed a few drake woodies. We sat back and were waiting on the mallards to fly in. All of a sudden, P-Nut yelled to Doug to "Call 'em in, man!" P-Nut had spotted three malley birds in the distance. Doug started calling, and the ducks started turning toward us. At first, they came in a little out of shooting range but Doug wasn't going to let them get away. He called them back in. This time they were within shooting range. Everybody sat as still as the tree we were perched on, and it was paying off. When the ducks came into land in the decoy spread, we rose up and fired. All I could see was three ducks hit the water. My heart was pounding. We had dropped all three ducks. We started yelling, dancing, and hooting across the lake. We didn't care if we saw another duck because we accomplished what we came to do. We gathered the ducks and the decoys, and began taking pictures immediately. We started our journey back across the lake so we could get our feet warmed up. We had a good time that morning. I think Doug's head may have grown a little that day, but he called them in so two thumbs up to him!
The last few mornings have been depressing in comparison to the start of the season. I can count on both hands the amount of ducks I have seen. Hopefully, whatever element has changed will go back to normal soon, and we can have a few more good hunts this season. This also proves that it?s not about duck killing. It?s about the hunt. Not every hunt will be as successful, but the time shared during the hunt makes the good hunts even better.
This past Friday morning was New Year?s Eve and a handful of the WeHuntSC.com crew and some other local hunters got together to go rabbit hunting. We all met up near McBee, SC and Chip was even nice enough to have cooked sausage for everyone. We munched on sausage and hung around for a little bit before starting out on the hunt. There were probably 12 ? 15 people there and I met some nice guys from River Bottom Kennels in the Rock Hill area there too!
While everyone was talking and eating, ?Hoot? (the internet phenom who grunts up rabbits) showed me the new addition to his dog box. He created a piece of metal that reads ?Hoot?s Holdaline Hounds? and mounted it on his dog box. So, if you are in SC and see a dog box with "Hoot's HoldALine Hounds" on it, then you?re riding behind Hoot.
Since we were over by Hoot?s truck I grabbed Hoot and did a quick pre-hunt interview. We had to cut the first interview short as someone cranked a truck up in my ear and messed up the audio. We did a second interview, but since the camera loves Hoot so much I?m posting both below for your viewing pleasure. Shortly after the interview it was time to chase some rabbits.
We left and ended up at a cut-over within a couple of minutes. Everyone got ready to walk through the brush of the cut-over. I think the dogs could sense that we were getting close because you could hear their anticipation building in the dog boxes. Some of us parked on the side of the road and the others drove up the dirt road that went to the cut-over. Once we all got there Hoot did something that I thought was neat?he opened the hunt up with a prayer. We all stopped and paused while he lead us in prayer and then about 5 minutes after the ?amen? dogs were hitting the ground.
I?m not an avid rabbit hunter, but once the dogs got on the ground it reminded me of when we went rabbit hunting last year. Within minutes the dogs were all fertilizing the soil and a strong stench filled the air! Hoot says that?s just part of the fun though!
I wasn?t able to stay too long because I still had some family holiday functions to attend so I had to jet early in the hunt. I would have loved to stay and get some more footage though. I believe the guys ended up getting about 5 rabbits in total. Hoot was kind enough to send me a pic of two rabbits on the tailgate.
It was neat to get out and meet up with some of the crew plus to meet some new faces. I hope we can do it again sometime soon! Thanks to Chip for cooking and all the other guys for making it a good time.
It?s going to be like a second Christmas pretty soon for the winners of our competitions?but first someone has to win! Last year we selected the winners, but this year we?ve narrowed it down to 3 entries per competition and are letting the site audience vote on our winners. Voting will be live for 7 days and run through Jan 10th. On Jan 11th the winners will be announced and the prizes will be delivered shortly thereafter. Stay tuned for the winner?s blog when we post pics/videos of the winners receiving their prizes.
As you know, this year we implemented the ?have the date in the pic rule? and that made many pics ineligible for the competition. We had to enforce this rule because site users were uploading pics of deer shot in previous years. Forcing hunters to put the date in the pic removes the question as to when the deer was harvested. In this year?s GroundHog MAX Buck of the Year Competition we had to make a ruling on a pic that was a tough decision.
Ryan Lyle posted a game cam pic of a deer (with the date in it) then posted a pic of the harvested deer right beside of it. It was a great deer! It seems Ryan found out about the competition after he harvested the buck so he created a side by side pic showing the game cam pic of the deer and then the pic of him and the deer after he shot it. While the rack in both pics looks very similar, we threw this pic out from judging because we want to abide by our own rules, we want to be fair to the entries that did have the date in the picture of the harvested deer, and we also don?t want to have to compare any racks with game cam pics in future entries. It?s just too fine of a line to walk and could lead to unfair decisions and future scrutiny. While this deer is one of the biggest deer I?ve ever seen shot in SC, we?re sorry that we can?t accept the photo as an entry. Feel free to complain in the comment section below.
With all of that said, thanks to everyone for participating and thanks to our sponsors for donating such great products to WeHuntSC.com & to our winners.
Go and Cast Your Vote
As the sun sets on another year, it's time to reflect on the 2010 season. One thing that I always like to think about is what happened during the season that has never happened before. These "firsts" are the things that keep me motivated, inspired, and excited about future hunts. For me it always seems like my deer seasons are full of "first" time events. I've been hunting for about 19 years and every year something happens during a hunt that makes me say, "I haven't seen that before.", or "That's the first time I've ever...".
Early on it was easy to accumulate "firsts", like the first deer stand that Dad and I built. At the time we didn't know that this "first" built stand would become a stand that led to the "first" buck for three hunters, including myself. My "first" buck was a four point that I shot when I was 13. It was an October day and I had just settled into my deer stand. Earlier that day I bought my "first" grunt call and pulled it out to see how it worked. After blowing on the thing for about an hour (I had no clue), I saw a buck coming straight at me. It stopped at about 30 yards and I shot. The buck bolted and then hit a pine tree at full throttle and broke off both sides of its antlers. That was probably a "first" for the pine tree.
This year hasn't been short on "firsts". I had an opportunity to take my "first" "Wall Hanger", which was an eight point buck for another "first". I also took my cousin on his "first" deer hunt and he saw his "first" deer while hunting. We will have to work on his "first" kill next year. We also saw a little snow which for me was a "first" as far as hunting in it. My year was also filled with the not so usual "firsts". I got buzzed (within inches) by a red tail hawk at sunset that nearly scared me to death. I also saw a possum while hunting. That was one that I had to think about for awhile.
What "firsts" did your year of hunts have? Hopefully, your year and past years are filled with as many "firsts" as mine.