This is what it looks like

I went hunting this morning and it was my first time wearing my new Coast Headlamp and I have to tell you that this thing literally lit up the forest. It is awesome!  I?ve never seen a headlamp as bright as this before.  Will works at Lowes and since they sell them he bought one to try out.  He was wearing one the other day when we were hunting and he looked at me to talk to me and he momentarily blinded me?seriously.  That?s how bright this thing is.  So I told him to pick me one up from Lowes.  It operates off 3 AAA batteries and you will be amazed to see much more visibility you have with this than others.  The company is not paying me to market for them either!  So if you?re in the market for a new headlamp, I encourage you to try one of these out.  They even have the package where you can click the button to test it out before you buy it.  Go into Lowes, pick it up, turn it on and see if you can look at it without being blinded.  After you regain your vision, you may want to try it out.

As for the hunting, I had a 4 point come through the woods right at 8:30.  I was just about to get out of the stand and he cut through the woods.  He was moving relatively quickly too.  I had hoped to get some good footage, but he was gone before I could get the gun-cam up.  Going to check out some corn piles today and then will be back in the woods tomorrow morning.
 

This past weekend we were excited to hunt because we had our video guy down with the HD camera rig and we hoped to get some good footage to post here on the site.  The Solunar Forecast said that the whole weekend would be ?average? hunting and it was about right. 

On Friday morning we sat in a ground blind near a creek which is situated in a low, flat area of the woods.  The creek and the valley surrounding it kind of makes a natural funnel for deer to come through.  This is the location where many of the game camera pictures that we have posted on the site came from.  At about 6:45 a deer either smelled us or saw us because it bolted down the hill to the right of the ground blind blowing at us from about 50 yards away.  I only saw it for 1 second because the ground blind is situated behind a big tree and the tree obstructed my view.  So I knew the deer were moving, but yet something alerted this deer that something was wrong and thus no camera action for this one.  I believe it was a doe because I did not see any antlers. 

We sat and sat and at about 8:40 we were ready to leave.  As we unzipped the back corner of the ground blind a big white tail bounding away was all we could see.  A doe was literally about 10 yards behind us and if we had sat in the blind for 10 ? 15 more minutes, we would have had the closest HD footage ever, but of course unzipping the blind spooked this deer.  So hunt #1 was unsuccessful.

Since I?m assistant coach at the high school we were unable to hunt on Friday night.  Saturday morning we went out to the soybean field and watched it as the sun rose.  In this field you can literally see from as far right as you can see to as far left as you can see and it?s nothing but soybeans.  The wind was blowing pretty well as a new front was coming in.  The breeze was nice and those little black birds kept circling the field and making a lot of noise.  After sitting for around 2 hours, we had seen nothing and headed out.  Walking over and around soybeans is a good workout for your hip-flexor muscles.  Since our stand is under a tree in the dead middle of the field, my hip flexors were burning by the time we made it back to the truck!

We left Pageland and headed to Columbia to watch the USC vs Kentucky game.  It was a good game and USC prevailed in the end.  We?ve got a former player playing there and he started so it was good to see him in the game.  The game was a TV game which made it a long one and we headed out of Columbia around 4:15.  The stadium traffic wasn?t too bad.  We got home at 5:30, changed, and went straight into the woods.  As we walked quietly through the woods we began to approach the deer stand.  Three white tails bounded off the corn pile and back down into the woods.  There were already 3 does eating the corn before we got there!  Murphy?s Law here again.  Jason took the camera rig up in the stand and I sat on the ground.  Still, nothing to write home about. After the hunt I was exhausted and had to go to sleep early as I had burned the candle at both ends and was worn out!  Too much fun for one day and I went to sleep.

Sunday morning Jason went with Will back to the ground blind and I went to the ?buddy stand?.  Perfect weather conditions and Will said they saw 6 eating acorns in the middle of the old road on the way in. Though on the hunt we, again, saw nothing on either the buddy stand or ground blind.

Sunday afternoon came and we traveled to Kershaw County to a different plot of land over near Lynches River.  There are coyotes out on this land and we hoped to see one of them as well.  We had 2 different people in 2 different stands.  Will was in a climbing stand in some planted pines and Jason was sitting in a tree-house stand watching over some planted peas.  Weather seemed perfect and the scene was just like it ought to be, but nothing moving again.  A lot of hunting without any good video footage or anything to write home about.

So all in all, the weekend was good, but we were not able to capture any good video to post to the site.  We hunted in 4 ? 5 different stands in different types of terrain and either went in too late or left too early.  Maybe I should change the name of the site to ?WeSpookDeerInSC.com? to give a more accurate representation of our hunting so far! 

We?ll get the HD camera back out there soon enough and maybe we?ll get lucky.  Until next weekend?

Here's an I-Phone pic of the HD camera in the ground blind

A shot from the outside

A shot from the last hunt in Kershaw County

I?m almost embarrassed to write this blog posting, but if I?m going to keep it real then I must.  This past Sunday evening I went hunting.  WeHuntSC.com team member, Will List also went with me.  I dropped him off at his ground blind and continued deeper into woods back to my stand.  I went back to the same stand where I?d been seeing deer.  I got in the stand about 5:30.

On the way in, Will and I both had talked about the Solunar Forecast and discussed how we hoped that it was a positive sign for the evening hunt.  It was a bit cooler today, but still not cool enough to keep mosquitoes away.  I sat down and put my mask on.  Even though it was cool, I got warm on the way in.  I was sweating a little bit and didn?t want to put the mask on, but when you don?t, your face looks like a light bulb to a deer?s eyes.  So I put the mask on and having my head covered only made me hotter.  It?s a battle that many hunters (especially the ones who wear snake chaps) face early in the season.  When you?re hot, the mosquitoes can find you more easily.  Thus, I was fighting off mosquitoes for about an hour until I cooled down.  This was not fun and is an aggravating aspect to early season hunting.

Usually it's tough to hear deer when they walk, but today was different.  I was sitting in my stand around 6:20 when I heard some leaves ruffling behind me to left.  I turned slowly and looked and saw movement.  I knew it was a deer when I saw brown move into the scene of the green leaves.  Here again, the heavy cover offered by the trees made it difficult to see a good distance from my stand.  1?2?3?4?5 does were traveling together coming up the hill.  They were in the oaks heading towards the pines that I was sitting in.  They were muzzling their noses in the ground eating acorns and they were in no hurry at all.  I could hear them as they moved slowly through the trees.  One of them was headed straight for the corn pile. 

When I saw all the does my heart started pounding.  The crazy part is that I had time to get nervous and calm down before I actually pulled the trigger.  I watched them for about 10 minutes before one got close enough to shoot.  One deer was way ahead of the pack and came straight to the corn pile. The corn pile is only about 25 ? 30 yards away from my stand.  As the deer was heading to me, I adjusted my position and took the safety off.  It was the perfect setup and I was waiting with my gun up, looking through the scope when the leading doe got to the corn pile.  I waited for the perfect shot.  The deer looked up at me and froze and I pulled the trigger quickly.  The deer jumped immediately and then bounded off.  The shot was so loud that it jarred the other deer, but they were unsure of where the shot came from. 

I figured I hit the doe and I chambered another shell and waited again.   Immediately Will started texting me.  The other does still moseyed around as if nothing had really happened, but I think their senses were heightened as the loudness of the shot had them on edge.  Though, after 20 more minutes they were heading in the other direction.  They may have headed the other way as they heard my phone vibrating every 5 minutes as Will continued to text message me. 

Eventually I put my orange on and got out of my stand to go and start tracking the doe.  I went to the corn pile and didn?t find any drops of blood.  I knew this was not a good sign.  Since I shot at the deer farily early, some day light remained and I could see pretty well.  I then began fanning out and walked in circles towards the direction the deer headed.   I was looking for blood or slides where a deer would ?fall-step? while running injured.  I didn?t find anything but a hill that had been completely scavenged for acorns by the deer.  My dad came to help us look for the deer and he picked Will up on his way.  We managed all this via text message and as time went on, hope grew smaller.  Dad and Will arrived and we covered more ground and still no sign of a doe.  It was getting dark and after 20 more minutes of looking we called the search off.

Long story short, I missed a doe broad-sided at 25 yards.  The only explanation I have to offer for how or why is that I must have flinched right as I pulled the trigger and shot under the deer.  I think the images and feeling from this happening will haunt me for some time to come.  And I call myself a hunter?

In the upstate of South Carolina, we receive the Charlotte Observer which is the #1 newspaper coming out of Charlotte.  Today, they had an article showing statistics of wrecks that were due to deer.  Last year proved to have the most wrecks associated with deer in years.

It seems that the more the city grows, the less places deer have to live, thus causing more wrecks with deer.  The NC Wildlife Commission biologist for Mecklenburg County quoted ?We have to figure out a way to allow hunting in more populated areas?.  This could be good news down the road for bow hunters who live near populated areas regardless of whether it?s NC or SC.  The report cited that nearly 1 in 10 wrecks last year in NC involved deer with Wake County NC being the #1 county with 1,084 wrecks with deer. 

So, when someone you are talking to may not like deer hunting or hunters just tell them that you?re trying to help keep their car safe!

You can see the article online here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/topstories/story/985500.html

We recently held the video shoot for the video spokeswomen for our WeHuntSC.com.  The shoot was a neat experience and I think the footage will turn out well on the site.  Jason Fararooei of Yellow Cape Communications ran the show and he did a very professional job. 

The footage was shot in HD with a blue-screen background.  Normally this would have been shot with a green-screen background, but due to the hues of green in the camouflage shirts, we could not use the green-screen. 

The shoot took about 3 hours in total and we had 3 different females come in for the shoot.  When the footage posts to the site, you will see these three ?video-spokeswomen? on random site pages.  Mostly they will be giving short intro messages to the pages.  The video will be flash-based, transparent, waist-up shots.

Also, if you need some high quality video work, be it for the web , TV, or DVD?Yellow Cape Communications can do the job.  Check out what they?ve got going on at www.YellowCapeCommunications.com or contact Jason at [email protected]

Below are some visuals to give you an idea of what went on at the shoot.

This week our high school football team had a Thursday night game and on the way back from the game we saw about 6 deer in various places along the road.  I thought this was a good sign since the deer were moving, but I had hoped they wouldn?t move all night and thus not be out in the morning. 

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I think I stepped on and broke every stick possible on the way into the woods.  I hate to make a lot of noise on the way in, but today I wasn?t too successful at the quiet entry that I hoped for.  I headed back to the same stand from last week where I saw the does.  I had taken some corn out there and nobody had been back since.  I finally got situated in my stand and waited on the sun to rise.  While waiting, I sent a few text messages to friends who were also up early.  The old man gives me a hard time about texting while hunting, but it does help to pass time. 

Soon it was light enough to see well in the woods.  I noticed some movement over my right shoulder to the corn pile that is at my 5 o?clock.  A deer?  This early?  Yep, that's exactly what it was.  The white?ish-grey ring around this deer?s eyes really stood out to me for some reason.  Maybe it was the contrast from the dark that surrounded everything in the forest with the light color around the deer?s eyes.  I slowly began to turn to get into better position.  As I turned I could see the deer moving its head up and down.  I got to where I was in a semi-comfortable position and then I saw antlers on the deer?s head.  Because of the lighting, it was difficult to see exactly how many points were on the rack, but I knew that it was a buck.  The rush started to come over me as the deer continued to eat corn.  Soon enough I was able to make out how many points were on the rack and it was a 6 point with an extremely high rack.  It had a good body too.  I?ve seen some 6 points that were measly looking characters, but this one was thick for his size.  I?m guessing he would have gone around 140 lbs.  Maybe he?s been eating enough corn around there to keep him healthy!   

On this track of land, we are not shooting any bucks unless they meet certain criteria.  This buck did not meet the criteria because it wasn?t old enough and the rack wasn't big enough.  So, I knew I wasn?t going to shoot this one, but I didn?t know if he was by himself.  After holding in this semi-comfortable position for a while, it started to become not-so-comfortable.  I?m sure all hunters know what it?s like to be locked frozen in an awkward position and trying to hold it for a long period of time.  With the deer 20 ? 30 yards away, I didn?t want to spook him even though I knew I wasn?t going to shoot him.  So, I slowly started to move when he had his head down.  There were also a few trees that were between him and me.  I rotated and moved until I got into a relaxed position.  Once I got back comfortable and just sat quietly. 

The squirrels had started to move about the forrest.  They say the "woods wake up" when all the birds, animals, and random sounds you hear in the woods start to come out and move.  The woods was definitely awake by this point!  Nearly 20 minutes had gone by and I turned slowly back around and the buck was still there!  I then reached for my camera and got it out of my pocket and turned it on. ( I should mention here that I love the zipper pockets in these pants that are made for easy access once you sit down.)  If I wasn?t going to shoot him, I might as well take a picture to post here on the blog.  I turned and got the camera ready and he had no clue.  Though, I could barely see him because of the trees.  I could clearly see his hind end and legs, but his head was behind a large pine tree.  I held and held with the camera up.  I waited on him to take a step, but he never did.  The squirrels were getting closer to me.  The buck heard the squirrels and started peeping around?.up and down he went with his head...up and down...several times at random intervals.  He was staring dead at me, but heard the squirrel that was in the tree beside me.  The squirrels didn?t spook him though.  Sidenote: I?m always amazed at how loud squirrels are in the woods in contrast to how quiet deer are.  Many times I hear a noise and think it?s a deer, but it?ll turn out to be a squirrel.  Deer are stealth creatures!  So, I held the camera for about 5 minutes and even took a picture, but it was too blurry to post.  You couldn?t really make anything out about the picture other than leaves.  So the deer eventually walked back into the woods.

I sat there for about an hour after that hoping to see him again or hoping to see some does come through.  Nothing happened though and that was it.  There was still some corn left out there, so I?ll be back in the near future hoping to cross paths with a big one.

Also, I wanted to make note that the Solunar Forecast said that these few days were good days for deer hunting and, as you just read, I did see a deer today.  I?m not sure how much stock I place in the Solunar forecast, but I?m going to watch it closely on the site this year and compare when I see deer in contrast to the phases of the moon.  More to come on that later.

To give you some visuals, I took a few pictures before leaving the stand so as to help you picture what I?m seeing in the woods.
 

Here's my vantage point

The inverted view...that's a good looking pine tree there!

The stand in the woods