Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
Are you passionate about the outdoors? Do you think it?s your natural right to hunt and fish in the great state of South Carolina? If so, then let your passion motivate you to take action this coming November 2nd.
There is some legislation on the upcoming ballot concerning our right to hunt and fish. The ballot will have a question, Amendment One, asking South Carolinians to vote Yes or No to whether it should be written into the state constitution that it?s our natural right to hunt and fish. It?s important that we get this amendment written into the state constitution before any opposition to hunting and fishing arises.
I?ve created a page that will house information on The Right to Hunt and Fish Campaign here on WeHuntSC.com. We encourage you to forward it around to your hunting buddies so that everyone is aware of this important upcoming vote!
Find out more information and actual text of the amendment here: www.WeHuntSC.com/Vote
Spread the word to guarantee that your children and other future hunters will be able to hunt and fish in our great state!
Regards,
Clint
I?ve got some good news and some bad news. Starting with the bad news, a private group of duck hunters bought out the rights to the land my hunting club was ?currently? leasing. This caused my father and me to be out of a place to hunt for about 3 weeks. Though, instead of joining another hunting club, we decided to lease our own land down in Andrews SC. For readers not familiar with South Carolina, Andrews is in the lower part of the state. I really believe that leasing our own land is going to work out best. By leasing our own land we?ll be able to do what we want? when we want to. In our previous club we had to battle for good stand locations etc...I?m sure those of you who have been in hunting clubs before have had similar experiences. The other bad news is that I broke a bone in my hand last Friday night in our football game against Bishop England. With it being my senior year, I was really bummed about being out for the next few games.... but I can still shoot my rifle! There?s always some positive in something negative?you just have to find it!
The title of this blog entry is appropriate because at my previous hunting club, the opening day was August 15th as our first club was located in game zone 6, but the location of our new lease in Andrews falls in game zone 5 and the opening day for this game zone was this past Wednesday, September 1st. Since we had a new lease, we needed to do some more work that we would have normally done in the pre-season. So last weekend we went out and set up stands, put out corn, and some game cameras. We also sat in the stands and saw 2 does, a small 6 point, and even a few turkeys. I think it will get better as time goes on, as we learn more about the land, and as the deer find the corn.
Now that we?ve got our lease together and some stands up, it?s time to start hunting. At this time of year it?s still very warm and so it?s easy to get winded by a deer. In my opinion, scent control is really crucial this early in the season. I?m a strong believer in scent control when hunting. This year, we?re using the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag (www.McKScent.com) to help control and cover our scent. You tell me what you think... I went to the local sports authority and picked up a few pine scent wafers. I put the scent wafers, along with pine needles, in the bag and let it run for a few hours the night before I hunted. The next morning when I pulled my hunting clothes out of the duffle bag they had a heavy pine fragrance and the smell filled the room. Well that happened to be the same morning that I saw deer, and the same held true for that evening. Sunday I didn?t use the bag and I didn?t see a single deer. I think the bag had, and will continue to have, a big effect on how I hunt. I think the success of my hunts will be directly related to how I manage my scent. So far the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle bag is the ticket. Along with the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle bag, I was representing the SC Camo company by rocking my True Timber hat?and yes, it smelled like pine straw too!
Derek
We initially covered the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag at the Pee Dee Deer Classic and since then McKenzie Outdoors has sponsored every competition that we?re having on the site this deer hunting season! I am also going to use a McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag this deer hunting season to see how it affects my hunting and scent control.
If you didn?t read the blog entry that reviewed the Pee Dee Deer Classic, then you may not be aware of what the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag is all about or how it works. Essentially it?s a duffle bag that has a fan on one end and a place to put any kind of scent on the other end. You plug the bag in and the fan pulls the scent through the bag scenting everything in the bag along the way. I think the bag is a really neat concept and I can tell you that within just 1 hour of running the bag my clothes/gear is already smelling like dirt!
When I first got the bag, it smelled like something new?you know what I mean?the smell of new material. I can?t really describe what it smelled like, but it wasn?t pine, dirt, or any scent in nature. So I needed to ?get the new? off and get my clothes scented. To achieve this I left the bag open for a while outside letting the air blow through it. This helped knock off the ?new smell? that it initially had. After that I placed all my gear in the bag and most importantly, I put my boots on the end of the fan. This helps the bag stay upright and gives the fan the maximum area to pull air from. I stuck everything I would take hunting in the bag (the bag is pretty big too) and I do mean everything. I even stuck my Thermacell in there as well. I don?t think the plastic in a Thermacell has any odor, but hey why not you know? So I put all my articles of clothing and hunting gear in the bag and turned it on.
The McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag comes ready with everything that you need. The flaps on the end have Velcro on them so you can easily roll it back and pen it up to allow for maximum flow. Also, the bag is geared with a cigarette light plug and also has a converter to let you plug the adapter into a regular electrical outlet. This allows you to plug it into your truck, ATV, or at your house. The fan in the bag runs on low voltage (12v) for safety.
I?ve had it running for a while now and will probably let it run for a couple more hours for good measure. I?m scenting it with the ?Fresh Earth? scent and I can smell dirt just when I get in that area. From playing with the bag some, I think what I?ll probably do is keep the bag in my truck or here at my house and turn it on either the night before I go hunting or around mid-day if I?m going hunting in the afternoon.
If you?re like me and sweat a lot or if you?re a bow hunter and must get the game really close, then you should definitely give the McKenzie Scent Fan Bag a shot. I don?t think you?ll be disappointed.
The below video is me showing you what I did this morning with the bag.
With anything that you put a lot of time into, I think it?s important to stop every now and then and look at the big picture to see where we?re going and where we?ve been. So at the 1 year mark, I think it?s a good time to look at the progression of the site.
I?d like to say thanks to the site visitors, registered members, the WeHuntSC.com team, and our sponsors. We couldn?t do it without all these groups coming together. It?s neat to meet hunters across the state and beyond and to discuss hunting via the blog, message board, pic/video pags, etc. I?m glad that we are able to host an environment that facilitates sharing of information for hunters in South Carolina. We also enjoy delivering the prizes to the competition winners. It?s neat to see the winners get their prizes, especially the kids. The kids really eat it up and make a lot of the work worthwhile.
When we first started the site, I really wasn?t sure what to expect and didn?t know how it would go over with everyone. Since then there has been a lot of enthusiasm, excitement, and synergy around the site. I?m glad everyone was upbeat about it or I probably wouldn?t have continued to make edits and update the site. Throughout the year, I?ve learned a lot about this platform (the web application that our site runs on) simply from running this site. So, just as I enjoy seeing what?s going on around the state, I also enjoy figuring more out about web design and learning the ins and outs of the framework. I?ve got some more functionality that I?m trying to dream up and add to the site, but there just aren?t enough hours in the day for me to get it all done, but hopefully I will be able to make it happen at some point in the future. So it?s a constant learning process for me?and I enjoy the challenge.
As far as the site goes, in less than a year we?ve noticed considerable growth in interest from sponsors. Hunters are a tough group to reach and I think this is why sponsors are open to working with us in hopes of reaching you all! So the more you come, the better the sponsors will be, and the more prizes you?ll be able to win! We?re starting to look at some duck hunting competitions and will be adding some new bloggers soon. Hopefully we?ll continue to reach out to hunters from all ends of the hunting spectrum and be able to host more competitions. All we need is a couple sponsors and we?ll put a competition together. So if you?re reading this and want some exposure for any kind of product or service you have, just let us know. From the standpoint of metrics, we?ve been gradually rising in hits. Over the course of a year (Sept 9, 09 ? Sep 9, 10) we?ve observed the following data:
I anticipate that the hits will go up some here as deer hunting season approaches especially with the competition prizes being very nice this year! The images below demonstrate the hits from SC, NC, & the US. We only lack 2 more states before we have had a visit from every state.
So thanks again to everyone who has been part of the site whether you?re on the WeHuntSC.com team or are a registered member of the site, or simply someone who comes and reads, but never comments. We?re going to keep pushing and try to find ways to make the site better in 2010 ? 2011. (Send us your suggestions if you have any and I?ll get with my web buddies and see if we can code something up)
And don?t forget? if you?re entering a competition READ THE RULES and PUT THE DATE IN THE PICTURE!
If you've been reading along, then you know we are on the second half of our year-long, Tecomate Seed, Food Plot Journey. We learned a lot during the past summer about food plots and even had some food plots that came up pretty well. Though, we did have one weed infested food plot that didn't turn out as well as we hoped, but it served as a good learning experience for us. We've been getting some good game cam pics of deer in the plots (mostly does on camera though) and for the past few weeks we've been working on our fall plots.
We're putting our fall plots in some different locations and we are carrying out the same processes of taking a soil sample, preparing the soil, liming, planting, and adding fertilizer (if needed) in all these locations. The main difference between the summer and fall plots is that we're planting plants that can grow in cold weather for our fall plots. Over time the frost and cold will end up killing what we planted for our summer plots. I will note that so far throughout the process with the fall plots everything has been really dry. I mean every time we do anything there is dust flying everywhere. After riding the GroundHog MAX last weekend for a few hours I was covered in dirt and my eyes were burning. I looked in the mirror and my whole face was covered in orange dust. I say all that to say if we don't get some rain soon, I'm not sure what is going to grow in such dry soil. Again, I'm a web guy and don't claim to know much about farming and/or food plots so I may be surprised, but for now I?m still hoping we get some rain to have some kind of moisture in the soil.
At this point we've taken the soil samples and are now preparing the soil. By preparing the soil I mean we have sprayed the envisioned plot with RoundUp to get the weeds out and gave them time to die. The weeds died and the video will demonstrate this as you can easily see the stark contrast between the dead brown weeds and the dark green weeds on the other side of the hill. I was actually surprised at how well the RoundUp did with only spraying it once. Initially I thought we'd have to spray it a little bit more to get it all to die since there were a ton of weeds, but I was wrong in that assumption. We waited about a week and a half and then came back to get the weeds out by disking up the soil. Thus far, we have been disking up the soil by using the GroundHog MAX, but for this large area we brought in a tractor to assist.
We're trying to put in this particular plot in an area that was an old power line. The power line is long and narrow and we're trying to install the plot at the lower end that leads down to a creek. This place hasn't been touched in about 2 - 3 years so the dirt there is hard and dry. The lower area of the power line has steep hills and rough terrain. These hills, rough terrain, and narrowness of the old power line combine to present a difficult situation for the tractor with regards to plowing. Parts of the power line are more flat and in those areas the tractor did well, but the other areas near the bottom presented more of a challenge for the tractor. So, as you would imagine, we brought in the GroundHog MAX and it got the job done again! The GroundHog MAX greatly helped us out in those hard to plow locations. Ultimately the soil in this plot was plowed by a combination of the tractor and GroundHog MAX with the tractor handling the flatter, upper end and the GroundHog MAX on the more rugged, lower end.
Before/After Pic of the Remote Food Plot on the Powerline
It took a lot of time to get the soil the way we wanted, but in the end I think it looks pretty good given what we started out with. Again, this dirt was very hard and very dry so I think we made some good progress. We'll try to continue to install food plots in these areas year after year and over time we think it will get a little easier if we stay on top of it.
I'm praying for some rain so keep your fingers crossed. Now we'll give the power line food plot a week or two to see if anything germinates, that is we'll wait to see if any more weeds start growing back. In our first go round with our summer plots, we sprayed a field and got a good kill on the weeds then we disked the field up and planted. The field ended up being full of weeds because the plowing covered some of the dormant seeds with dirt and moisture and then they germinated which lead to a mess by the time it was all said and done. So we'll see if any weeds start to come up and if they do, then we'll spray it again to kill them, then we'll wait a little while and put the seed out. We'll probably also put down some lime and fertilizer, but we're still waiting to get the soil samples back before we assess that situation.
I made the below video to show you what the area looked like after the spray and to give you an idea of how we worked both the tractor and the GroundHog MAX together to get the soil the way we wanted it.
And the journey continues...
We?re excited to announce that Wac?em Archery Products is getting on board to sponsor the 2010 WeHuntSC.com Deer Competitions. Wac?Em Archery products is based out of Utah and has donated 4 packs of 100 grain broad heads + 2 vertical seatpacks to the competition winners. I?m sitting here looking at these broad heads and seat packs and I know that all you bow hunters are going to love some Wac?em Archery products.
A little bit about Wac?em broadheads from the Wac?em Archery Products web site (www.WacemArchery.com) ?The flight of the Triton is like no other fixed blade broadhead; it truly is unbelievable. With its cut on impact head, just the right cutting diameter, and no mechanical blades to deflect, the Triton is at the head of its class in every penetration test available. The Triton, with its resharpenable head and replaceable blades, is in a class by itself. And it definitely has the ?look.?
Also, the vertical seatpacks are really neat. If you ever have an issue with stowing your bow in your vehicle, then look no further because these seatpacks can solve your problem. You simply strap these around the seats of your vehicle and store your bow right up next to the backside of the seat.
A big thanks to Wac?em Archery Products for working with us to offer the hunters of South Carolina some really great prize packages. If you?d like more info on Wac?em Archery Products just venture on over to www.WacemArchery.com.
Throughout the past year we?ve had some vinyl decals and bumper stickers printed up, but the demand for the stickers has outpaced our ability to come up with them. Fortunately, an organization out of the Charleston area has added our vinyl, site address decals into their arsenal of vinyl decals.
If you?ve ever gone into convenience stores around SC and seen a stand of vinyl decals near the counter then you?ve probably seen the display where WeHuntSC.com decals will now start appearing. These stands usually spin around and have several SC based vinyl decals on their racks. We?re pumped to have this medium to spread the word about the site.
The stickers will be available in more stores in the future, but for now you can find them in the following locations:
Should you desire a larger version of the WeHuntSC.com logo, please contact Josh Johnson of Johnson Graphics in Pageland, SC
It seems the competition prize packages just keep getting better week by week! This week we received products from Atsko that some lucky competition winners will win in the coming months. Atsko is based out of Orangburg, SC and makes wide variety of hunter friendly products. As you know, we like to promote our sponsors and we really like to promote sponsors from South Carolina!
As denoted by the Atsko web site ?Atsko is dedicated to maximizing the performance of your clothing, footwear, sporting goods, and even your skin. We bring you the best products available for a fraction of what you pay for "ordinary" products. Many of our products are based on original research and embrace concepts ignored by regular brands.?
Atsko is sponsoring the 2010 Buck of the Year Competition and the Archery Buck of the Year Competition. The winners will receive the following Atsko products:
Buck of the Year Competition
Archery Buck of the Year Competition
Again we?re excited to see another organization with SC links getting involved with WeHuntSC.com and we look forward to delivering the prizes to the 2010 Competition winners. Also, a few of the WeHuntSC.com team members will be testing out some of Atsko?s products and blogging about them throughout the year. More to come?
This is just a quick blog entry to let you know that I?ve embedded some additional functionality in the site to make searching easier. If it?s aggravating you, then I?ll take it out, but if you like it (or don?t care) then I?ll leave it in.
It's simple, you just highlight some text and immediately after highlighting the text you?ll see a search button appear. It will look like this
After you click the search button you will see a small window open up in the top right-hand corner of the site giving you information about the term you searched for. The search is divided up into 3 sections Explore, Videos, & Images? which you can click on to get images or videos. The Explore view is the default view and gives you information in the form of text and links. It looks like this
So this is just another little something I?ve added to make the site more user friendly. Let me know if you do or don?t like it and we?ll progress accordingly.
Hoot, it may help you find rabbits online, but not in the field! I?m still working on that app :)
This past weekend I spent a couple of hours out in the woods with my main objective being to get the soil for the fall, remote food plot disked up and prepared to be seeded. I set out with the GroundHog MAX and a 4-wheeler to get the job done and I had a blast riding this thing around the envisioned food plot.
The area where we are trying to install the fall, remote food plot is back deep in the woods, but it has had crops on it before?though none in recent years. So the soil was not extremely dense, but it wasn?t ready like we wanted it to be. The area had grass and weeds on it and when we came in last weekend we took the soil sample for the area and then sprayed some Roundup as seen in the previous videos. When I returned back to the food plot you could tell that the Roundup was going to work as many of the weeds had started turning darker colors already. This was a good sign as we are trying to get the weeds out!
I got the 4-wheeler off the truck and then had to ?attach the MAX?. To do this, I simply carried a wooden block and drove up on it and locked the brakes once I get on top of the block. The 4-wheeler was then elevated a little off the ground and provided just enough clearance to attach the GroundHog MAX to the ATV. I pulled out the pen, slid the GroundHog MAX into place, put the pen back and then got ready to roll.
Normally we go out in groups working on the land, but on this day I had to soldier up by myself and get it done as my counterparts were unable to assist. So, I did the work and documentation both (which took me a little bit longer than normal). I got the cameras and tripod ready and shot some different angles and videos. By the end, the video camera and tripod were extremely dirty not to mention how dirty I got. I had dirt everywhere on me! We haven?t had much rain recently so the dirt, especially on one end of the plot, was really dry. This resulted in a lot of dust being thrown up in the air while I was riding. You can easily see it in the video below. When I got through working I went to the truck and saw where my face was covered in orange from the dust of the clay-like soil. I washed my face in some watered-down, diet coke that I had leftover from earlier that morning. It was not the best feeling, but it got the job done and helped me regain sight! My face, shirt, and pants were just as orange as the soil was. Though, it does feel good to get out and work when often times I?m sitting behind a computer, so I didn?t mind it too much.
I rode the 4-wheeler in circles, figure-8?s, diagonally, and in straight lines trying to churn up the dirt in every way possible. It seems that the GroundHog Max churns up the ground a little better when riding in circles or figure-8?s, but then again that could be because the 4-wheeler I was using is a 2 wheel drive ATV. When you have a 4x4 ATV you have the muscle to put the MAX a little bit deeper in the ground, but since the ATV I was using didn?t have the cc?s necessary to pull through deeper dirt, I just made a few more passes and it still worked fine.
I probably rode the GroundHog MAX for around 1.5 to 2 hours and I?d say that I rode it way longer than I really needed to simply because I was having so much fun! After a while I had the top-soil so loosened up that I began sliding around and it felt as if I was playing bumper cars at the beach or something. It was really fun to get out there and ride.
All in all, I got the job done, had a lot of fun, got extremely dirty, and got the soil disked up and ready. We?ll now wait a week or so and go back in to see if any weeds have germinated from being disked under the dirt. If this is the case, we?ll spray again and then we should be ready to plant.
Again, I was very impressed with how the GroundHog MAX performed. The winner of the Big Buck Competition is going to be one happy camper!
See the video of me riding the GroundHog MAX in circles and attempting to talk over music below