Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
The 2016 Predator Challenge was another successful event. We continue to grow as this year’s competition had 85 teams and 260 hunters registered on the website. It’s great to see the growth in the competition, but the awareness of the sport is what we’re really pleased to see. Ultimately we are outdoorsman who love to hunt and we host this competition to help raise awareness for what coyotes are doing to other game populations around the state (as the below video denotes). The more people we can get hunting coyotes, the better off our deer, turkey, ducks, and other game species are.
Coyote Only For The First Time This year we implemented a request that hunters had voiced in post-competition-surveys for some time. The majority of our participants demanded a “Coyote Only” hunt and so this year that’s what we delivered. We knew that cutting out foxes and bobcats would lessen the number of people that could win, but our main purpose is to hunt coyotes as they are the true predators affecting deer, turkey, farm animals, and other wild game populations around the state. We didn’t know what to expect making this change, but in retrospect I think it was good and everyone still seemed to enjoy themselves.
The Sponsors It should go without saying that we cannot hold a competition without sponsorship. We are very fortunate to have some great sponsors. If you are predator hunters please check out our sponsor organizations and their products as they are the true ones who support you and us!
The Weather As everyone knows, the weather this weekend was not the best for hunting. It was particularly difficult for us upstate hunters and for NC teams. The snow, sleet, and ice made travel difficult and it made the coyote hunker down for a good portion of the weekend.
We received some criticism via email, text, Facebook, Twitter, etc. about the competition weekend. People were saying we should reschedule, pick a different weekend, or have some alternative. For those who were criticizing understand a few things… we plan the competition months in advance and aim for a full moon, we don’t control the weather any more than you do, and several hunters take Friday off work to hunt while others line up specific land to hunt for this weekend. If we were to reschedule at the last minute it would inconvenience a lot of other people as well. It’s just difficult to please everyone with rules, scheduling, the weather, and timelines we have to operate under in order to host the competition. It’s very similar to a bass tournament where they fish regardless of the weather. Also, keep in mind that this is a FREE competition and we’re doing the best we can to serve all the hunters in our state and beyond. We do not make any money from the weekend. We actually lose money to host it. So we acknowledge the weather and your complaints and we take them with a grain of salt :-)
Team Members: Tyler Logan, Erica Catoe, Jacob Gainey Counties Hunted: Lee, Darlington, Sumter Coyote Total: 8
2nd Place: Carolina Dawg Killers Team Members: Cody Ahlstrom, Trent McWhorter, Simmty McWhorter, Cambel Cox Counties Hunted: Chesterfield, Union (NC) Coyote Total: 7
3rd Place: McKenzie Outdoors Team Members: Eddie McKenzie, Barret Griggs, Scottie Hoffman, Patrick Griggs Counties Hunted: Chesterfield Coyote Total: 2
Big Dawg: Carolina Dawg Killers Team Members: Cody Ahlstrom, Trent McWhorter, Simmty McWhorter, Cambel Cox Counties Hunted: Chesterfield, Union (NC) Big Dawg Weight: 43.9
Congratulations again to the winners and thanks again to everyone who hunted in this year’s Predator Challenge. If you participated in the event you will receive an email sometime in the near future asking for feedback, concerns, thoughts, and snide remarks!
See you again next year!
Often time’s people ask “What kind of gear do I need to go coyote hunting?” This video is designed to give you a general understanding of some of the gear we use when we go coyote hunting. Outside of the gun & calls, most of the gear is related to scent, wind, and concealment. Robbie Boone gives an overview of the gear used when coyote hunting.
REGISTER FOR THE COYOTE HUNTING COMPETITION
Today’s video is all about calling coyotes. If you’ve never called for coyotes then the point of this video is to give you a high level understanding of sounds coyotes react to and make. It is true that most hunters use electronic calls to call coyotes, but in this video I’m using mouth calls as demonstrations. Typically when we hunt we’ll use a mix of electronic and mouth calls. Ultimately though it’s whatever works for you. Some of my favorite electronic calls are ICOtec & Primos
REGISTER FOR THE COYOTE COMPETITION
We’re continuing our video series on Coyote hunting with today’s video “Coyotes 101”. This video was part of our introduction section at Sportsman’s Classic Coyote Hunting Information Session.
The purpose of this video is to help you get a general understanding of coyotes and coyote hunting. We often hear people say that they don’t know the first thing about coyotes. They ask us what to look for, what to listen for, when they should hunt, and how to set up for coyote hunting. And that’s exactly why we made this video, to help you get a broad understanding of coyotes and coyote hunting.
The Coyote Hunting Competition is next week. We are excited and getting ready for it! As we lead up to the competition we are going to share some videos that we used as part of our presentation last year at SCDNR's annual expo, The Sportsman's Classic. These videos were used throughout the presentation and were accompanied by a thorough PowerPoint slide deck. If you're interested in us giving the same presentation to your group, just give us a shout, we'll be glad to.
In this first video we set the stage for why we need to hunt coyotes. We interviewed a local hunter and a local farmer, both of which are being affected by coyotes. These individuals are an example of what's happening in our local community, but there are people just like this in every area of South Carolina.
As you can see it's important for us to hunt coyotes! So join us in raising awareness for the Coyote Hunting Competition!