New Stand

Early October is here and it is one of my favorite times to hunt whitetails.  We?ve had some successful hunts lately and I?m excited about what the rest of the season holds.  Hopefully the momentum will keep on rolling through the remaining months of deer season.

If you can remember back to last season, I killed one of the nicest bucks I?ve ever had the privilege of harvesting in October.  This season looks to follow the same trend of having a lot of action in October!  The weather is changing and the temperature seems to be dropping lower each day.  I?m a firm believer that the colder the temperature is, the more the deer walk and that seems to hold true so far.  I try to better myself through researching and I?ve read in many magazines and internet articles that early October is the beginning of the rut phase.  In my area of South Carolina (the low-country) the research indicates the rut peeks at the end of October.  At the start of the season I would see a few does or maybe a small buck, but as soon as the cold front came through the deer action seemed to skyrocket!

We?re seeing a lot of deer and it?s always a great feeling to catch some nice bucks on camera.  Though, it?s not as exciting to only see small bucks or deer with bad genetics on your property come through the lens of your camera.  I?ve had a little of both in my past couple of hunts.  We are working on taking the deer out of the herd that have the bad genetics such as these below.  We talked to a hunter that hunts a property that is adjacent to the land we hunt and he said that we are surrounded by a few hunting clubs that can only shoot bucks 8 points or better.  These hunting clubs that surround us prohibit their hunters from shooting non-8 pointers by issuing fines for any deer shot that are less than 8 points.  For this reason, these hunters let all deer walk that are not trophies.  So, deer with bad genetics are breeding every year and spreading around their genes.  We?re going to try to thin those deer out while also trying to keep our deer un-pressured.   This will be a fine line to walk, but we?re going to do our best.  We don?t shoot unless it?s a must and we only walk in and out of the stands to hunt. If we need to take some corn out to the stand?we take it with us on our hunt.  Then after our hunt we go ahead and put the corn out while we are already there instead of leaving and coming back later. Eliminating the number of trips we make to the stand helps in reducing the spread our scent in the area.  

You may also remember my friend Nick.  We hunt together a lot and he?s been in a lot of the videos that I?ve posted here on the site.  Nick and Kevin Pye are also having great success on their hunts this season. Nick hunts on our lease, but he also hunts on his father?s club, which also happens to be close to our lease in Andrews. The first video clip below is Nick hunting at his fathers club.  As you can see, Nick filmed a vast amount of different deer! He had bucks fighting, scraping, and rubbing all over him! Unfortunately nick misses the buck in the video clip, but I say if you haven?t missed?then you haven?t hunted enough!  I?m sure he will have a chance to shoot this monster again at some point. 

Kevin, on the other hand, did not miss the buck that came by him as he sat in a swamp bottom. He had been sitting for only a few minutes and a few turkeys came to the corn pile. While he was getting the camera focused on the hens a nice 10 point came in to view. He only gets a few seconds of the buck on film before he has to make a shot.  He also gets a few other deer on film. I will let the video do the rest of the talking.  

Be sure to watch in HD

 

 

My video was filmed from a stand we just put up last Thursday.  It?s a tripod that is on a long row of pine trees.  At the end of the pines are some thick, hardwoods.  From the action I?ve seen so far I?m hoping this stand will be a good one.

 

 

 

Derek