Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
I’m always excited to announce the winners and give out the prizes for our Buck of the Year Competition. This year we had some really good entries and we also adjusted the voting rules so that voters had to be site members and could only vote once a day. This reduced any possible “gaming” of the voting system which was a request from many site members.
So let’s cut to the chase… this year’s winners were:
1st Place: BHolliday’s “The Buck That Wouldn’t Give Up” – Chesterfield County
2nd Place: Rick Currence’s “Muzzleloader Buck” – York County
3rd Place: BRiv89’S “8 Point” – Chesterfield County
Congratulations to our winners and thanks for participating in this year’s competition! Now, we have some prizes to get delivered. So winners… contact me at [email protected] and we’ll line up some logistics.
Regards,
Clint
Hello everyone! It's been a while since I have posted and just this past week something hit very close to home. The article below happened right across the river from our hunting land in Laurens County. We have killed a few hogs on our own land so this was very scary. My Dad called the Laurens County Department Health Department to confirm this and called our Game Warden we are friends with who said this type of disease 'brucellosis' is all over the state of South Carolina with hogs. I highly recommend you all read it and take the necessary precautions when hog hunting. What are your thoughts?
Man Hospitalized With Illness After Hog Hunting Trip
In the woods behind me, I heard the unmistakable sound of a deer approaching. The leaves on the forest floor crunched with every step that he took, and I wondered how close he would get before sensing my presence. It didn't take long. The deer snorted twice and bounded away with the sound of his hooves pounding out a rhythm as he ran. I threw another log in my backyard firepit and grinned in the darkness, surprised that the deer had gotten as close to me as he had. He would have had to have smelled the smoke from my fire, and I hadn't been particularly quiet whenever I poked at the logs in the pit. I took a sip of wine and turned my attention inwards. I was in a reflective mood tonight and wanted to take the time to "recover from the past and store up for the future," as Robert Ruark's Old Man once put it.
A month and a half into deer season, and I've only gotten one doe so far. That's a little unusual, but the season has been a busy one for me and I haven't gotten in the woods as often as I normally do. My job, more than anything else, has kept me busy with more work and longer hours than I've had to do in years. I've had to do a good bit of traveling, which is fairly unusual in my computer programming job. I've also been seeing less deer than usual this year. I had some good bucks on camera back in September, but they vanished when rifle season opened on October 1. A couple of days ago I saw a two and a half year old eight pointer, but he was a good bit smaller than what we've been looking for.
I'm also trying to write two books at one time, which is probably a mistake. I had hoped to finish "Daily Bread for Deer Hunters" in time for Christmas, but it looks like I'm not going to make that self-imposed deadline. In that new devotional, I'm reading through each book of the Bible and am relating it to the outdoors. That's pretty difficult, and I've only gotten twenty-some chapters done so far. There are at least forty more to go. The second book, a novel called "The Cabin", is the more important one as it deals with spiritual warfare and will reach a wider audience than the devotional. Hunting plays a background role in "The Cabin", but is still an important part of the story.
My son Paul is approaching his first birthday, and it's a great joy to watch him grow. We bought him some camouflage clothes a few weeks ago at Bass Pro Shops and has his picture taken in them. He says three words right now... "Mama", "Dada", and "Deer". Whenever I hold him up to one of the whitetails on my wall, he says "deer!" When we take him to someone's house who is not a hunter, he'll give the walls a puzzled look and ask "deer?", wondering where the heads are at.
Although he can't say anything else at this point, if I ask him "where is the turkey?", he'll turn his head and look at the gobbler that we have mounted in one of our upstairs rooms. He also knows who "Mr. Kudu" is, but has not yet attempted to pronounce that exotic word. It's difficult to want to take him hunting so badly, and yet know that there are several more years in front of us before he'll be ready to go. I certainly don't want to rush through his babyhood, but I am really excited about his first hunt, whenever that will be.
We're in the process of moving him from his smaller bedroom to a larger one, which is also taking up a good bit of time. We'll be painting it in the next few days and having some furniture delivered. We just finished up with all of the repair work from the spring hailstorms, so at least we've got that behind us.
In our club, around a dozen deer have been killed so far. While most of these have been does, one of the guys got a nice eight-pointer this past Saturday. He said that there was a smallish ten point with the bigger buck, and that they were trailing after some does. That's exciting to hear, and I look forward to see some action in the coming weeks.
I found some big buck tracks in my side yard the other day, and I've got my backyard feeder full of corn, hoping to get a look at what comes in. We don't shoot them in the yard, but they sure are fun to watch. I'll have to stick a trail camera back there sometime this week to see how many deer are coming in each night.
There are so many things to think about during this, the best time of the year, that it's often worthwhile to walk out to the firepit in the cool of the evening after work and just take some time to relax. And look forward to the next opportunity to get into the deer woods, of course.
Hello all! Just a short entry before I take off for the weekend festivities. Well, the weather is getting cooler (and almost down-right cold today in the Upstate) and I can feel fall! Bow season officially came in yesterday for me but I will not have a chance to go this weekend. How many of you have been and have you had any luck? I'm excited to get the season off to a start! College football is in full swing and deer season has arrived. This is the most wonderful time of the year!
I am also excited to announce that I was one of the girls all over the country who got selected for the 'Field Staff' position for the women's outdoor company: Babes, Bulletts, and Broadheads. This awesome company represents/encourages women in the outdoors and our goal is to educate and get more women and children involved in the great outdoors. I'm so excited for this opportunity (and all the free gear I get too!). If you get a chance check out the webiste and if you have a Facebook account 'Like' the page to support us! We appreciate it!
Wish you all the best this season!
Hey folks, my name is Sean Jeffries, and I'm glad to be a part of WeHuntSC.com! I want to thank Clint for giving me a chance to write for the site, and I'm looking forward to sharing my outdoor experiences with you. In this first entry I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself and what you can expect in my writings.
I'm 44 years old and live in Clover,SC. My wife and I have been married since 1998, and last year we had our first child on the day after Thanksgiving. We named our son Paul after the Apostle, whose writings I have always loved. I'm a computer programmer for a living, and have been with the same company since 1992, although our company name has changed a couple of times over the years due to various mergers and acquisitions.
I've been hunting deer since 1985, but got my start with birds and small game a few years before that first deer hunt. I grew up in a small neighborhood outside of Charlotte in what was then pretty far out in the country. My street bordered the Rea farm, and a few of us neighborhood boys used to sneak out into their fields and woods to shoot at birds with our BB guns. It was obvious from an early age that I was into guns and hunting, so my dad gave me a little H&R 20 gauge shotgun for my 13th birthday.
That gun sat in the closet for close to a year. It was mine, but we only went out and shot it a handful of times. Then, one September afternoon, the phone rang. On the other end was a friend whose back yard sat perpendicular to my own. He was my age, and of all of the kids in the neighborhood, the two of us were the ones that liked hunting more than just about anything else, and we had previously spent a lot of time together in the woods with our BB guns. This young fellow shared a name with a famed Scottish poet: Robert Burns.
When I answered the phone that day, Robert asked me if I wanted to go hunting. "Sure," I answered, "but I don't have any BBs." "No," said Robert. "With shotguns." I paused for a second, excited. "Let me ask my mom," I said.
Mom and I had a conversation which ended with her calling my dad to get his permission for me to go hunting with Robert. Dad gave it, and thus started my first real hunt. Robert and I hunted squirrles that day on a little seven acre tract of land that his father owned. I don't remember whether or not we got anything, but man, I was hooked.
My first deer hunt took place during my Christmas break from college in 1985. Robert and I went to a tract of land in Weddington, NC that he had permission to hunt on. We didn't see any deer that day, but I saw plenty of tracks, and I knew that this was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I went back to college when the break ended, and Robert went on to start his own business selling tree stands. He's still in that business today, and in addition to my day job as a computer programmer, my passion is writing books about hunting.
In the mid-90s, I started a website called "Sean's Outdoor Almanac". There weren't many websites around in those days, and mine was one of the first personal hunting sites on the net. Over the years it morphed into a site called "Wingshooters.net", and on that site I have documented every one of my hunts going back to the year 2000.
I'm also a Christian, and you'll be hearing a lot about that in this blog. For many years now I've felt like my calling has been to minister to Sportsmen in one way or another. That calling has led me to begin writing a series of books that fall under the title of "Hunting for the Heart of God". The first book, Deer Hunter's Devotional, was published late last year just before my son was born. My two other books are secular in nature, but both deal with hunting.
In 2007, I went on my first safari to Africa. That safari was documented from start to finish in a book called Eight Days in Africa. My other book is a collection of stoies and essays on hunting, and is called Always Take Your Rifle. All three of my books are available in print and on all major eBook platforms. You can also order signed copies directly from my website at the Wingshooters Store.
In addition to the three books that I've already published, I'm currently working on the next two entries in the "Hunting for the Heart of God" series. The first is a novel called The Cabin, which is set in the world of the outdoors and deals with spiritual warfare. The second is another devotional entitled Daily Bread for Deer Hunters. From time to time I'll be posting excerpts from my books here in this blog.
My first hunting experience is one for the books. My dad and I, along with several of our friends and family, were glad to be out on my first deer hunt. The eager young man that I was, climbed into the multi-person deer stand, which my papa built for us, with my dad. It was a luxury stand- ten by ten with a couch and cup holders, which I didn?t see the huge importance of at this stage in life. I not so patiently waited for what seemed like an eternity to have my chance to get my first kill. After thirty or forty-five minutes, it finally broke daylight. We were scanning the field below looking for the monster buck! My dad quietly whispers to me, ?I see one.? ?Where? Where? Where? Where? I don?t see it!? I didn?t quite whisper back to him.
Well, I decided it was best for me to climb out of the sixteen foot home away from home into the five foot tall weeds to get a closer look at this supposed deer. My dad recalls me creeping through the weeds like Rambo. Finally, I saw the deer. He was about twenty yards from where I was standing. I pulled up my twenty gauge single shot youth model?BOOM! I got him!
Words can not express the adrenaline and excitement I felt at that moment. Something happened, the deer didn?t move. I knew I had shot him but he didn?t budge! As I examined this massive beast in front of me, I could see the hole in his shoulder. Then I could see the styrofoam coming out of this hole. Then I noticed the plastic horns.
?It?s a dog gone fake deer!? I yelled up to my dad. Then I kicked him! At least then he fell over.
My dad climbed down to have a look for himself. He walked his distraught son, whose first buck was a 6-point piece of styrofoam, back to the truck. Once he disarmed me, he let me in on his secret. He had set me up.
I don?t remember if I was mad or sad, probably both. But it?s a story I will never forget. I look forward to one day telling this same story to my son, after I get him too!
All hunters have a story to tell. Those stories bond us together.
The WeHuntSC.com team is excited to announce that Thermacell is sponsoring this year?s ?Turkey Video Hunt of the Year Competition?. If you hunt turkeys in South Carolina and don?t know about Thermacell, then you need to be introduced? that is unless you just like to get bitten by mosquitoes. Thermacells are a must have to hunt in any warm weather period of the year. We use them during turkey season and early parts of deer season.
This year Thermacell is releasing a new product called the Thermacell lantern which is what the competition will get along with a thermacell! Here is an excerpt from Thermacell?s web site about their newly released lantern:
The Outdoor Lantern has many updated features: eight LEDs offer twice as much light as earlier ThermaCELL models; the easy-grip handle makes the lantern easy to carry or hang, and the lantern weight, at under a pound, makes transport a breeze. In addition, the lantern and mosquito repellent can be used separately or together. ?We have created a more rugged lantern for outdoor enthusiasts who want a portable, light-weight solution to mosquitoes. By offering customers a dual function lantern that has a highly effective repellent as well as illumination options, we are making outdoor activities safer and more enjoyable,? said Bill Schawbel, president of The Schawbel Corporation. The ThermaCELL Outdoor Lantern operates on a single butane cartridge, which heats a mat releasing allethrin, a synthetic copy of a natural insecticide found in pyrethrum flowers, creating a 15 x 15 foot comfort zone. Each repellent mat provides up to four hours of protection and each butane cartridge provides up to 12 hours of operation. The new ThermaCELL Outdoor Lantern features:
Eight LED lights, with two illumination settings
Twice as much light as previous ThermaCELL lanterns
Up to 98% protection from mosquitoes, black flies and no-see-ums
15 x 15 foot comfort zone
Easy grip handle
Rugged outdoor structure
Lightweight - 13oz
Mosquito repellent operates on a single butane cartridge
Light operates on four AA batteries (not included)
Available February 2010
MSRP: $29.99
If you follow the site, then you know that Thermacell has been with us since day one and we?re happy that they are sponsoring this year?s Turkey Video Competition. To learn more about Thermacell, just jump on over to their web site at www.mosquitorepellent.com.
We are excited to announce that GearFrenzy has partnered with us to sponsor this year?s ?Turkey of the Year Competition?! GearFrenzy is an up and coming online marketplace for all things hunting gear. GearFrenzy has a lot of video from some of the outdoor pros on their site and they specifically talk about the products they use within the site. If you haven?t checked out their site, you should give it a look at www.GearFrenzy.com An excerpt from the GearFrenzy web page:
At Gear Frenzy, we believe choosing the right gear shouldn?t be hard, but with so many options, it can be difficult to know exactly what to buy!
To help you get ready for your next trip, we are teaming up with the best hunters in the industry, bringing you expert advice straight from the people you know and trust. Not only can you see the gear they use, but you can also see firsthand how and why they use it. It?s an experience like no other.
Get invited into Michael Waddell?s hunting shed, sit in the stand next to Tiffany Lakosky and do laundry with Mark Kayser! These are just some of the experiences you will have while at Gear Frenzy. And the best thing about it? We are just getting started!
So now that you know a little bit about them, feel free buy products from their web site and tell them that WeHuntSC.com sent you!
It seems I?ve been hunting a lot so far this year, but don?t have anything to show for it. Missing a doe, letting small does & fawns walk, and letting a few young bucks stroll through makes for exciting times in the woods, but doesn?t help my freezer out. Can anybody else feel my pain?