If you read my blog "Shed Crazy" you would have seen a shed that we found this past year of a buck that we later named the Brow Tine Buck.  This deer had unusually long brow tines that measured approximately 9 inches.  For that reason, this deer was on the top of the hit list for the 2011 season.  Fast forward to October 29th.

When the alarm clock sounded at 5:30 a.m. on October 29th the sound of rain was tapping steady on the window by my bed.  Without much thought I quickly turned it off and drifted back into oblivion.  What only seemed like a minute later, alarm number two sounded off on my Timex Ironman watch.  It was now 6:30 a.m.  As I lay there for a few seconds a couple thoughts drifted through my mind.  The first was the rain and the second was the rut.  After a few more seconds went by I figured that I better get up and check the weather.  After checking weatherchannel.com and taking a peek outside I decided that my thoughts of the rut outweighed the rain that seemed to be on its way out of town.  It was time to go hunting.

One thing I've enjoyed about this season has been using the Mckenzie Scent Fan Duffle.  It has allowed me to store all of my gear in one spot and has kept my Crossover Camo suit ready at a moments notice.  Because I was running a little behind on this morning it was important that I have all of my gear ready to go in order to get ready quicker and get in the stand faster.  Did I mention that it's nice not to have to worry about cover scents.  The bag takes care of all that for me.  There's nothing like a good mixture of fresh earth and pine.  

As I made my way to my stand I thought that with the storm moving out the deer should be on the move.  I had a good wind as I walked in and I had a good feeling about the hunt.  Since I was late walking in I didn't have to sit long before the sky started to lighten up.  At about 7:30 a.m. I caught a glimpse of a deer moving through the cotton field.  I quickly turned to get my rifle ready.  The first deer was a doe.  I knew this could get good quick.  The doe was moving at a steady pace through the field so I scanned back across the field and there he was.  My first thought was what the heck is that.  I immediately knew the deer had a big body, but his rack was very unusual.  As the deer moved through the field I knew my window was closing fast.  I had to make a decision quick.  The deer then stopped and looked my direction.  That's when it hit me.  This was the Brow Tine Buck.  I quickly clicked off the safety and put the crosshairs behind his shoulder.  A loud crack and the buck jolted out of sight.  I couldn't see him crash but I could tell he didn't go too far.  What a feeling!  The Brow Tine Buck was down!  

As I sat in my stand after making the shot I thought to myself this must be the Year of the Brow Tine.  First we found his shed antler in March.  Then I picked up an awesome knife from CRKT.  Coincidently the knife is called the Kommer "Brow Tine".  And then it all comes together on October 29th with the "Brow Tine Buck" on the ground.  Awesome!  

The buck was definitely a good one to get out of the herd.  He ended up being a 187 # 7 point and a trophy in my book.  This year his brow tines measured close to 12 inches.  Crazy is all I can say!

Due to the rain I left my video camera at the house, but once the buck was on the ground a made the quick trip back to the house and got the camera.  Check out some of the footage.

If you've noticed that I haven't been blogging as much and my activity with the site has been a little slower lately... it's because I've been doing a lot of updating behind the scenes that will hopefully serve everyone better in the long run.  As you can probably tell, I've updated the site. I wanted to post a quick update to key you in to some of the new features. The site now has:

• Enhanced profile
• A wall where users can post updates
• An internal messaging system
• The ability to friend/follow other users (there will be more updates to the friend section soon)
• A member directory
• Social Groups (you can create a group for any reason/purpose)
• Updated message board (making it easier to add hyperlinks now)
• And a new site design

I hope that you will enjoy these new updates and I hope they make it easier for everyone to communicate. I'm going to continue to update the site with enhancements in the weeks/months to come. This update has taken me a lot of time and because of that the competitions have suffered a little, but I'm about to get on them here shortly as well. If something is a little off or doesn't seem right to you, please send me an email so that I can look into your issues as they arise.

I tried to clean up the design of the site and make it less "busy" so that it's easier to focus on collaboration and information exchange. As part of the update we lost a few message board posts, comments, etc.  If one of your posts was lost I apologize and ask you to re-post.

Thanks again for your patience as I continue to work to serve SC outdoors better! Look for some more really great stuff coming in the future. We're not done yet.

Regards,

Clint