Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
Yellow Cape Communications is a communications firm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Yellow Cape specializes in television production, multi-media for web, still photography, communications consulting, marketing communications services and all things web. You've seen Yellow Cape?s work before when you first come to the site and see the girls in camo introducing our site. You may also have seen the 2010 Central Eagles State Championship Documentary or the Chesterfield County Career and Technology Education video. I also had Jason produce a DotNetNuke SuperFan Video for me and it turned out really good!
Jason Fararooei and his team at Yellow Cape Communications create top notch multi-media communications - so if you work for an organization that may need multi-media creation, photography or communications consulting services, give Jason a shout http://www.YellowCapeCommunications.com.
Yellow Cape Communications has partnered with WeHuntSC.com on 5 quick-tip video segments to promote the basics in hunting and outdoor safety. Over the course of this deer hunting season we will be releasing the videos in this blog series. I can already tell you that the last segment in this series is by far the best! Below is the first in the series.
Regards,
Clint
There are several facets of Game Management. The first one we're going to investigate is the notion of food plots. Food plots are great resources for managing game on your land and are commonly found as a staple in any game management strategy. The core definition of a food plot is "A planted area set aside to act as a food source for wildlife" (Wikipedia). Given that definition a farmer's large field of crops such as soybeans, corn, and peas sometimes serves the same purpose that a food plot does even though that is not the intention of the farmer! Though, farmers will eventually harvest their crops whereas when hunters install food plots they are usually not as big, are of more variety, are located in different areas, and wildlife are the intended consumers of these crops.
It's important to begin by saying that food plots are not a solution to a problem, but rather a supplement that can be beneficial for the game on your land. If you do not have deer on your land, planting a food plot will not make them magically appear. Planting food plots will also not instantly create "monster bucks" on your land or instantly increase the number of deer in your herd. If you expect these kinds of miracles to occur as a result of planting food plots then you're going to be disappointed. Managing your own expectations is important when installing and maintaining food plots. After putting in a lot of work and time with food plots it's easy to feel like "I've worked hard so I should reap the benefits of my work", but this is not immediately accurate. The benefits and effects of having food plots on your land become more prevalent over the course of time. As you might imagine from this blog series, food plots are just one tenant of game management and they are probably one of the most well known in the game management matrix.
Hunters often install food plots in areas that farmers wouldn't, in areas that are deep in the woods or out in some remote location. Creating food plots in these remote locations gives deer easy access to food sources that they need and also provides hunters with ideal hunting locations. Thus, food plots offer both nutritional benefits to the deer as well as benefits to the hunter. Let's look at the nutritional benefit of creating food plots first.
Having food plots on your land during the spring, summer, and fall months ensures that the deer in your area have protein which is important during this time of the year when bucks are growing antlers and does are pregnant and lactating. Adequate nutrition helps the reproduction process, increases the birth weight of fawns, foments larger body size, & raises the likelihood of the doe having multiple fawns. The healthier the doe is the more she can lactate. A healthy adult doe directly helps the fawns out as they mature. Also, during the rut, bucks expend a lot of energy & valuable resources. The availability of nutritional resources helps reduce post-rut mortality rates of these bucks when they run themselves ragged during the rut.
During the winter months a deer's food sources are not as plentiful as Mother Nature naturally reduces the available supply of forage. During this time of year deer don't need as much protein for growing antlers or nursing, but rather they use the nutrients they consume for pure energy. Having food plots available helps deer not have to use fat they've stored up for their internal energy demands. When they can find forage to browse on during winter months it aids in keeping them healthy and decreases the amount of time spent recovering from the rut period. The sooner they can recover from the rut and winter the healthier the bucks will be when the time comes to re-grow their antlers and the more fit the does will be to carry and nurse the fawns. Keep in mind that these benefits won't be noticeable initially as it takes time for these cycles to occur.
Keeping food plots going year round is the best case scenario, but sometimes, for various reasons, we may not be able to manage food plots throughout the full year. If I had to pick one season to install food plots, I would definitely install a food plot during the winter months when the deer's food sources are minimized. Providing deer with ample food sources during this time is more critical for them and will also help you locate deer during winter months.
Food plots also offer hunters some benefits.From a hunting perspective food plots normally increase the number of deer you see during the hunting season, that is as long as you don't disturb them too much. I have friends who want to go and "check on' their food plots all the time & go switch game camera cards out at their food plots way too often. Going out to food plots repeatedly only counters the desired goal and the reason you put them in! I've put in a lot of hard work on our food plots and I still have to remind myself not to overdo it when hunting and checking game cams. Mature deer pick up on these disturbances really easily. I try to be mindful of the pressure I put on our food plots and I don't shoot at every deer I see in our food plots.
On a side note, if you're a turkey hunter, food plots also benefit turkeys. Turkeys will come out and pick at the crops (depending on what you've planted) and also get bugs from around them. I got video just this past weekend of a turkey browsing a food plot. In this respect food plots can serve a dual purpose for hunters if you hunt both deer & turkeys.
From what I've read (and heard) it seems that general ratio is to have 5 - 10% of forested land as food plots. There are tons of different crops you can plant and there is a whole industry ready to sell you any kind of food plot seed and gimmick imaginable. I try to keep in mind the end reason of why I'm creating and maintaining food plots because it's easy to get overwhelmed with options. I try to remember that legumes such as clover, peas, & soybeans are all rich in protein and are great for deer.
We've chosen to work with Tecomate Seed for our food plots because they make quality seed that grows well in our area. Tecomate Seed is coated with a coating called "Yellow Jacket" that helps absorb a large amount of water so the seed can germinate. Tecomate Seed has a trusted brand that's built on years of research and testing. If you've ever seen the TV show "Bucks of Tecomate" then you know what I'm talking about. Hopefully in time we'll have some good deer like that around the areas we hunt, but the same rule applies patience is the key.
We are installing food plots on some areas of our land this year and I'm going to be posting some brief blog entries with videos and pictures of our food plots to keep you posted on our successes & failures with regards to our 2011 food plots. We're planting Tecomate's Max Attract in all locations. Regards,
CROSS Outdoor Exchange of Boiling Springs, SC is a multi-faceted organization that truly embraces the outdoors. One side of the organization is a non-profit youth ministry that uses the outdoors as a means to share with, mentor to, and help guide children and youth ages 7-15. CROSS Outdoor Exchange has monthly and seasonal outings to keep kids involved. As part of the program CROSS Outdoor Exchange offers individual hunts/fishing trips to youth that are part of the program. This year CROSS Outdoor Exchange has added a youth deer hunt. The hunt is a fund raiser for the youth injured in the Cleveland Park train wreck earlier this year. This will be an annual event and will help these families in the future.
The other side of CROSS Outdoor Exchange is a for-profit Archery and tackle shop. The store is used not only for sales, but to be a place in the community where folks can find the CROSS ministry. The store carries bows by Bowtech, Strother, and Elite. The archery and tackle shop is also set up as dealers for Bass Pro, Lone Wolf, Lucky Buck, and Rhino. With a full line of fishing tackle and live bait, they also offer a consignment area as a way for outdoorsmen to change some of their older gear for newer models. The consignment area also helps the kids in the ministry get the gear they need at a lower price.
This past weekend I checked my game camera on Friday to see if I was getting any action at one of my stands. When I got back to a computer and checked I had 885 pics within a one week time span. Needless to say, this was a good sign. The pics had some bucks, does, fawns, and squirrels in the mix. With the cool front moving in over the weekend I felt like it should be a good weekend to hunt. Though my weekend schedule would only allow me to hunt in this specific stand on Sunday afternoon. I looked forward to the hunt all weekend.
Let me back up and say that I hunted this same stand two weekends ago and had a deer bust me. I had been in a hurry to get to the stand, didn?t have time to spray down or use my scent control products, and I rushed out to the stand. I was sitting in the stand when all of a sudden I heard a deer blow at me from behind my stand. The deer was alone & bounded away into the woods. I never saw it, but only heard it as it fled my area of the woods. The fact that it was alone makes me think it was one of the bucks I?ve got on camera. I was not a happy camper.
This stand sits back in some dense woods and early in the year it?s really tough to see due to all the leaves on the trees. It?s a good stand for later in the season when visibility is better, but with so much activity on the game camera I figured I should try my luck. Though, knowing that a deer would be in really close to me before I would see it meant I should take better care of my scent or else I?d get busted again. This time I would be prepared.
I spent some time with my Atsko Scent & UV Control System 4-pack over the weekend. I washed my clothes in the Sport Wash, then applied the UV Killer, took the soap to the shower, and mixed the activator with the N-O-dor spray to get it ready for spraying down before entering the woods. After washing the clothes and ridding them of my scent I dropped them in the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag and let them marinate in the earth scent wafers that I had in the bag. Before hunting I took a shower with the Atsko Sport Wash, got dressed, and sprayed the rest of my gear down. Even if I didn?t see a deer I was going to have my scent better under control on this hunt.
I got into the stand a little early because I didn?t want to be rushed & because I had pics with deer over the corn pile early in the afternoon. I got set up with my Irwin Quick Grip Redneck Engineered Camera Arm and was ready to rock. I still wish Irwin would come out with a camouflage quick grip, but I?d settle for a black one? if they don?t I guess I?ll have to spray paint my current one. I had quietly clamped the camera to the right side of my stand and had it in position. The camera wouldn?t be falling off this time!
As I sat in the stand the squirrels were driving me crazy. They were everywhere and as they raced around the woods I thought back to Andy Hahn?s blog and wished he would have had them cleared out back there because they were getting my heart rate up every now and then! I sat for a long time without moving. I tried to be as still as possible because, like I said, a deer can get in on you at this stand (early in the season) without you even knowing it. I didn?t want to get busted again. I sent some text messages to other friends who were hunting and sent a few tweets on Twitter as I scanned and listened to the woods around me.
It got to be ?the time? right before dark when you feel like you should see something. I was starting to think I was going to be unsuccessful again and I couldn?t figure out why with all the pics I?d been getting at this location. Then I heard leaves cracking at a slow and steady pace. My first reaction was to cut the camera on. I slowly moved my hand to the camera and hit the power button. I could hear something walking, but couldn?t see it. It was getting closer to me and my heart starting going. It kept on walking through the woods at a slow pace and I finally saw movement. When I saw the movement and was sure it was a deer I hit the record button. Right after I hit the record button I slid my safety off, but left my gun lying in my lap. I had the camera pointing toward the corn in front of me, but the deer was to the right of me. I wasn?t going to swirl the camera and risk getting busted so I just recorded the whole time until the deer got close enough to the viewport of the camera.
With the deer?s next step I saw its leg through some leaves. There was still plenty of light to see, but it was just so thick I couldn?t see well. Finally I saw the outline of the deer and it was only about 25 yards from me. The deer stood still and ate some acorns and while it stood still I heard even more leaves cracking behind it. There were more deer.
It didn?t take long before I could tell that the lead deer was a doe and a good sized one. I watched it as it got closer to me. This deer crossed in front of me at about 15 yards, broad-sided and I could have probably knocked it down with a football?well maybe a couple of years back I could have, but it was really close. I didn?t want to shoot a doe if it had fawns with it and I also wanted to see if the deer trailing behind were any decent bucks. The doe crossed in front of me and I filmed it as much as I could. At one point the barrel of my 243 got in the way of the lens and blurred the video shot, but I wasn?t going to move it just for the sake of the camera. I filmed as best as I could while l kept looking to the right to see what kind of deer the other sound I heard was.
The lead doe had worked her way across the front of me and was over to my left. She didn?t seem interested in the corn I had only 10 ? 20 yards to her right. I was finally able to see the other deer that was making the cracking of the leaves behind the lead doe. It was another doe, a little bit smaller, but not a fawn. It seemed there were as another deer off in the distance, but the sound of it was getting smaller as it got further away. At this point I had all the information I needed in order to make the decision to take the lead doe if I got a good shot.
With where the doe had walked there were now leaves and a few small trees in between us, but to my surprise the doe turned back to the right and headed toward the corn pile. It was only a matter of time. This doe ate corn for what seemed like forever?though it was probably only a couple of minutes. The good part was that she had her butt facing toward me while she ate. This gave me the opportunity to lift my gun up and get it situated. I had her in the crosshairs and was waiting on her to turn and give me a good angle. As she ate corn I waited and waited and eventually pulled my face back from the gun for a moment because I got tired of squinting for so long. I was glad I did because the barrel of the gun was right under the viewfinder of the video camera and had I shot it would have probably jumped up and hit the camera. I slid the gun over and leaned back in. The doe ate and finally popped her head up to the side. I guess she saw me because she perked up real quick and stomped her foot at me. I didn?t have a good angle with her first stomp, but when she looked at me harder she turned the rest of her body and it gave me a good angle. I took the shot and saw her back legs jump up in the air. I knew I had made a hit. I heard her run about 40 yards and crash.
One of my rules that I use after I shoot a deer is to sit in the stand and for a little while and calm down and collect myself. I don?t want to pressure the deer and I don?t want to do anything dumb by being in a rush. I sat there and took some deep breathes and tried to get my heart rate down some. As I sat I could still hear the other deer over in the woods. It didn?t scatter off like you might imagine a deer to do. For a moment I thought I might be able to get 2, but then I decided against it as it was starting to get darker. I put my gun on safety and started taking the camera down from the stand. I turned my light on and climbed down.
Even though I saw the deer jump & heard it crash I still wanted to go to the point of contact to make sure I saw blood because stranger things have happened before when trailing deer. I saw a drop of blood and knew I had contact. I sent some text messages to friends saying I would need help shortly. I walked in the direction that I heard the deer run in and shined the light up ahead and saw a white belly. It didn?t take me but about 5 minutes to find it. Help arrived soon thereafter and we got the deer out of the woods and to the processor.
* Had a problem with my camera & was unable to get any pics off the camera :-(
It was a great early season hunt and I?m glad that I took care of my scent before going in this time because those deer got really close to me. The doe weighed 120lbs and was a good sized doe by South Carolinian standards. I will probably return to this stand at some point and try to get one of the bucks I?ve been getting on camera back there.
Do you self film your hunts? If not you should give it a try?it is challenging, but pretty rewarding to be able to re-live the hunts.
The below entry is a guest blog from a friend of mine from Nova Scotia, Mr. Gifford Watkins
When I was a seminary student at Southwestern Baptist Theological School (Fort Worth) I took at job as an intern at Park Cities Baptist Church. After working there a few weeks I got to know the mailman, who said due to his recent divorce he had extra room in his house. I thought since most of my life was in North Dallas it would be a good idea so I moved in. My fiance at the time thought it would be ideal for us to spend Thanksgiving at their ranch in South Texas. As I packed a weekend bag, I heard the door slam and the footfalls of my new housemate. I really didn't know that much about him at the time, but after I mentioned heading to a ranch for the weekend, he asked if I was going hunting. I said I was not planning to, I didn't have a gun, or bullets, or a license to hunt in Texas, to which he said, "Puh, you don't need a license, do you want to borrow a gun?" I asked what sort of gun and that was when the fun began. His name was Troy. Troy led me to a wall in the living room where he pushed and out came a door; the door to his cache. A huge steel cabinet with decals I cannot describe (Death from Above might ring a bell with some) was unlocked and inside, was well, the inside. I chose a Smith and Wesson .41 caliber hand cannon with a scope and 6 bullets; three hollow points and three full metal jackets. I loaded these into a stainless steel carrying case and headed out the door.
The below blog entry is a guest blog entry by Andy Hahn:
Some folks say they hunt squirrels because it hones their stalking and shooting skills, making them better big-game hunters. Other guys tell me they only hunt squirrels because their kids enjoy it. Well, I need no such excuses. I go squirrel hunting because I love to hunt squirrels.
As a teenager in Pennsylvania I used to rush home from school, grab my single-shot 20 gauge and orange vest, and head for nearby woodlots in search of bushytails. When I was in my mid-20s, I lived in Philadelphia. Every Saturday in October and November I?d wake up at 3:30, drive to State Game Lands in south central Pennsylvania and greet the dawn on a hardwood ridge overlooking the Susquehanna River, squirrel gun in hand. My pulse always got to racing at the glimpse of a tail flicking among the branches or the sound of a small critter shuffling through fallen leaves?and it still does!
In 2006 I was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig?s disease), a neurological condition that has put me in a wheelchair and rendered my arms nearly useless. Now I hunt with the help of friends and adaptive shooting equipment. While a ?point man? handles the rifle, we watch the sight picture via a special video camera and monitor that show with a scope?s-eye view, crosshairs and all. When things look right, I squeeze the trigger with a cable release.
Three years ago my buddy Ron Wagner and I were hunting the last week of deer season at Bang?s Paradise Valley Hunting Club in Ehrhardt, SC. We commented that many of the stand sites seemed overrun by swarms of grey squirrels. ?No wonder my corn bill is so darn high!? joked the lodge owner, Bang Collins. ?Maybe you guys can help me by thinning out the rodent population.?
We needed no further encouragement. Bang lent us a Ruger 10/22 and the following day we started collecting the main ingredients for a big pot of Brunswick stew. That evening as we talked about our ?rodent-control project? I noticed a youngster listening with wide-eyed attention. Nine-year-old Klay Elixson had come to Ehrhardt with his grandfather Rick Hires, another regular visitor at the lodge with whom we?d become good friends. I asked Rick, and when he gave his permission I invited Klay to join Ron and me for a tree-rat safari.
The next dawn found the three of us in a pop-up blind, anxiously waiting for some squirrels to appear. We didn?t have to wait long. We used the Ruger and my shooting equipment, which kept everyone involved in the hunt. Ron aimed while Klay and I took turns using the cable control to squeeze the trigger. Klay displayed fine hunting skills by keeping still, spotting bushy-tails and patiently waiting for high-percentage shots. The scope camera proved an excellent teaching tool as we followed squirrels on the monitor and discussed why different situations and angles made for good or bad shot selections. Our apprentice soon earned the title of No-Playin? Outa-the-Wayin? Lead-Sprayin? Squirrel-Slayin? Machine.
Sharing our knowledge and watching a young hunter enjoy himself, Ron and I probably had more fun than Klay that morning. Time in the woods with an enthusiastic kid also showed me that despite having special needs, disabled hunters can and must take responsibility for helping pass on our outdoor heritage to the next generation.
The following season I bought a Marlin Model 917 VSCF .17 HMR, added an Alpen Kodiak 6-24x50 scope and dubbed it ?The Squirrel Eraser.? Ron, Klay and I now get together at Bang?s once a year for a tree-rat roundup.
Last year a deer hunter scoffed at our small-game pursuits: ?I don?t waste time hunting squirrels.?
?Me neither,? I replied. ?I enjoy every minute of it.?
As you are most likely aware, Tecomate Seed & BuckYum have partnered with us on a blog series we've dubbed "Intro to Game Management". We want to go ahead and throw down the disclaimer NO WE'RE NOT PROS, WE'RE NOT BIOLOGISTS, OR ANYTHING CLOSE TO IT! We're just some good ol' country boys and we hope to learn more about game management through our field trials, research, interviews, and these blog entries.
We're calling the series "Intro to Game Management" because it's an introduction of the concept of game management and it's just as much as an introduction to us as it is to anyone else. We're not trying to teach game management, but rather through this series we're journaling what we're learning about game management as we try to take the right steps in managing game on our land. We don't have tons of money to throw around, but we do have some elbow grease and sweat equity that we'll put in and hopefully it will pay off. Again, we're on a learning mission here and are merely documenting what we learn.
Throughout the series we hope to interview some people who do really know what they're talking about to give some pointers on game management so that we can derive some take-aways or best practices for managing game. Hopefully this information will be valuable to you just as we hope to gain knowledge as well.
We feel that raising awareness for Game Management in South Carolina will help out the future generations of hunters and potentially the overall quality of deer in our state. We all want a quality deer herd in our state and to reach that goal there must be a shift in the culture of hunters and the way we view hunting and game management. This blog series is just one step in the cultural shift.
Thanks for joining along and if you have some information or even want to write a guest blog along the way feel free to chime in. After all this is a resource for everyone so if you want to contribute you are more than welcome to!
This past Saturday we set out to do some work on our deer lease. We met early and headed out with a tractor, two 4-wheelers, a spreader, and several other tools to get the job done. I?m going to be blogging about a lot of this in an upcoming series, so I won?t get into too much detail, but I did want to post this to share a portion of the story.
We had worked all day long. My shirt was soaked, my eyes were burning from the sweat getting in them, swarms of gnats seemed to love my eyes and ears, and I was as hot as I could be. We were closing out our work for the day with cutting some shooting lanes near a small food plot we?re working on. We were all spread out and were cutting lanes back towards a central point where we envisioned putting a ground blind. I was cutting with a machete and was slowly throwing the briar laced branches to the side. I took a step towards a small pine and took a swing at the branch. I felt the small dirt hill beneath my boot (yes they were snake boots) kind of collapse. I didn?t think anything of the dirt packing down beneath my foot?it just seemed like a soft spot in the sand that we?ve all stepped on at some point or another.
About a millisecond later, I realized that the seemingly ?soft? sand hill that had just collapsed beneath my foot wasn?t loosely packed for no reason. I had a sharp burning sensation on my left index finger. I looked down I saw a yellow jacket just digging in on my finger. I took a swipe at it and then started feeling a sharp burning pain on my right knee followed by a burning on my right cheek. I realized what was happening and started high-stepping it out of there. I was yelling and moving faster than I have moved in a long time! I began taking my shirt off when I felt the burn coming from my elbow, but I still hadn?t gotten the yellow jacket out of my left index finger yet, but I ripped it out as fast as I could. I started swinging my shirt in circles over my head I was running toward the trucks.
I guess I should back up and say that I?m allergic to stings. I found this out years ago when a bee stung me. That was back in the early 90?s and we had to rush to the doctor because I started swelling up and was having trouble breathing. Since that time I?ve been stung once here and there with nothing really coming from it. I guess over time I outgrew it or maybe being bigger and older allowed me to handle it better?at least from one sting. It became apparent this past Saturday that having 6 stings quickly brought back that very same allergic experience. Mr. JE was working with us and he knew that I was allergic to being stung and quickly followed me up the hill. Afterwards he told me that he saw the yellow jackets coming out of the ground and chasing me. I had stepped directly on the yellow jackets? hive.
We jumped in the truck and headed directly to CVS to get some Benadryl because this is what I typically take after I get stung. It normally does the job. As we rode to CVS I could feel the cold chills running through my body. While sitting in the CVS parking lot waiting on Mr. JE to return I felt a stinging on my left leg. I knew what was happening and shortly thereafter the people in the CVS parking lot saw me shimmying out of my pants into nothing but my undies. I?m sure it was funny from an outside perspective, but by this time I was burning from the stings and could feel my skin getting tight around all the stings on my body and there wasn?t too much funny about it on my end.
When Mr. JE returned he noticed I had lost some clothing since he?d entered the store and I told him that I still had one yellow jacket in my pants. I drank as much Benadryl as the directions allowed and we left heading to his house. About half-way through town my tongue started feeling fat and numb. A few blocks later I felt my throat getting tight. Shortly thereafter we arrived to Mr. JE?s house and we had decided to redirect to the Urgent Care in Monroe. I knew I?d have to put my pants back on if I wanted to enter the Urgent Care with any dignity and so I put my pants back on. When I stuck my leg into the left pants leg of my britches a yellow jacket flew out in the truck! I opened the door and shooed it outside and it kept ramming the window trying to get back in. Yes it was still mad, but luckily I got it out without suffering another sting.
Mr. JE turned the caution lights on his truck and we made it to Monroe in record time. I walked into urgent care barefooted, but with my pants on and just hoped there wasn?t another yellow jacket hidden away in some cuff of the pants. I was quickly admitted and got a shot within minutes. All in all I had about 6 stings and my finger was so fat I couldn?t bend it any more. The doctor wrote me a prescription for an Epi-pen and we headed back to Pageland. My stings have been stiff and swollen for several days after.
Needless to say my day turned out to have a different ending than I anticipated and the swelling and irritated skin is just now returning to normal (5 days later). I never expected to encounter a whole yellow jacket hive and end up in an emergency so if you?re allergic to stings like I am let me be the guinea pig on this one and save you from embarrassment and a possible emergency! I?ll be sure to have my epi-pen with me on future outings in case I happen to find another hive unexpectedly. Luckily for me I had help with close by and we wasted no time in getting to some help, but as we know this always isn?t the scenario. There?s no denying that seeing me running and yelling like a wild man in the woods was a comical scene as well as me being in the CVS parking lot in my underwear and boots. However, the situation could have not ended up funny if a couple variables in my situation had swung the other way. Next time I?ll be prepared because snake boots don?t stop yellow jackets!
