Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
This past weekend we had a great time at our youth duck hunt give-away! If you?ve seen the home page at all then you know that we hosted a youth duck hunt give-away this season. Youth had to submit essays about why they liked duck hunting & why conservation was important for the sport of water-fowl hunting. By the end of the weekend our 2 winners, Austin Bagwell & Luke Humanik, said that the pain of writing the essays was well worth it.
I should probably back up and say that this hunt wouldn?t have been possible without some extremely generous guys from the watershed hunting club who not only donated their hunting hole, but who also donated their cabin & even cooked 2 meals for the kids and everyone involved. A big kudos and thanks to them as well as WinnTuck who donated some really neat prizes to our winners. We should also thank Darryl & Blake Hodge for coming by and giving some calling demos & pointers to our winners.
Friday afternoon we all arrived to the cabin & hung out overlooking the lake. It was a very relaxed environment. Early in the afternoon Mr. Dale Knight did some work with his dog ?Shine? and it was really neat to watch the dog work. Shine is very trained and disciplined. It?s almost a work of art to see him listen & respond to all the calls and signals. Dale has definitely spent some long hours in training that dog.
After Shine put on his show we started building a fire in front of the cabin. It had been warm, but the temperature was starting to drop. The fire burned from the afternoon and kept it warm as the sun set. During the daylight we could see some ducks swimming around on the pond, but when the sun started to go down the ducks & geese really started coming in. We could hear the mallards just cackling on the water throughout the evening.
As it got dark Dale fired the grill up and started cooking. Some of the other members of the hunting club pitched in and helped cook as well. We had a big time eating and talking smack about duck hunting while we ate. One of our youth winners even brought a pecan pie that made for a great dessert. After we ate we went back outside to hang by the fire & Darryl & Blake Hodge stopped by. They did some calling demos and worked with Austin & Luke on their calling giving them some tips on making certain sounds with mallard, wood duck, & goose calls. I can tell you that Blake has some strong lungs with some of the notes he was holding on his competition calling demo set. Before it was over the guys were taking calls apart & looking at reeds & getting flashlights out to see more clearly than the light of the fire provided. After Blake & Darryl left the boys were practicing calling for a while.
It didn?t take long after that for everyone to wind down and get ready for bed. We would have an early morning & the quicker we went to sleep the quicker we would be in a swamp the next morning. Though, sleeping for some of us wasn?t as easy as we?d planned ;-) Let?s just say that we had multiple lumberjacks in the cabin sawing logs at different rates throughout the night! Eventually 5:30 came and it was time to roll out and get ready.
We all got up and got our gear on and headed to the swamp. It was cold, but not as cold as I thought it would be. We made our way into the swamp and Shine, the duck dog, was really anticipating the hunt. He was fired up and energetic to get out in the swamp (and we were too). I got situated to the right of where the hunters were in hopes of getting some footage & pictures of the hunt as it happened. Dale guided our youth hunters and their fathers deeper into the head of the swamp and got everyone set up in position. It was just a matter of time.
Mallards were already on the water when we arrived. We could hear them cackling as we walked in. For this reason we were as quiet as possible while entering. It was a little overcast and there were clouds in the sky which made it a little darker than normal. Though, as soon as I could barely see we had ducks flying all around us. There were 2 initial groups of ducks that got up and left the pond and then more groups started coming into the pond. I had hoped to get some footage of all this, but it was way too dark to get any of this on camera. The kids started firing shots and no one made a connection.
As it got lighter out the ducks continued to come in. Wood ducks were the majority of the early morning action then mallards & geese got into the mix. At one point one of the hunters hit a bird because we saw feathers come out, but it wasn?t good enough to bring it out of the sky! Shine was just itching to go retrieve something & would get worked up every time Dale started calling. We had a lot of mallards circling us and then they would land just on the other side of the area we were in. I bet there were 50 mallards over there just over a wood line. I watched piles of them come in there from all directions. That?s not to say that our boys didn?t pull the trigger on a few as they circled, but we only had a few come right down the pipe. One wood duck even slipped right down the middle of all of us while we were watching some other ducks circling behind us. It was ?Murphy?s Law? I guess.
Eventually we called it a day and started out of the swamp. As soon as the kids unloaded their guns, you guessed it, another group came circling in. The kids loaded up their guns, but it was too late. Everyone then re-unloaded and headed out. I got the guys to stop on the edge of the swamp for a picture & then we headed out. As we walked along the edge of the swamp we saw those coots out there again and were almost about to let them have it, but decided not to go after them as they were headed the other direction.
We then returned to the cabin for another great breakfast and more hunting stories. Nothing like having a hot breakfast waiting on you as soon as you get off the water. We all sat around for a bit and talked about the morning?s hunt. As we finished eating the youth hunters were back outside practicing their calling. We cleaned up the cabin as much as possible and then we all said our goodbyes.
Even though the youth hunters weren?t able to get any ducks it was still a great overall experience. We met some new friends and shared some great times out by the pond, by the fire, eating some good meals, and in the cabin. Dale & the guys from the watershed hunting club were kind enough to donate their resource to help put this hunt on in hopes of helping to pass on the love of the outdoors & the importance of wildlife conservation to younger generations. Hopefully these youth hunters that won the hunting trip and joined us will continue to value these principles as they grow and become adults. I also encourage you to do the same and find ways to help pass the love of the outdoors on to younger generations.
Thanks again to everyone who helped put this hunt on and to our 2 youth winners Austin & Luke!
Regards,
Clint
This past weekend I was blessed to be able to sit a few times in the woods. The weather was pretty nice. The mornings and evenings were nice and cool, just the way I like it. Most of the weekend I sat in an old wooden stand my dad and I built a few years ago. It overlooks about a 5 acre field that is usually planted in corn. This year however, it was not planted and is pretty grown up. I didn't end up getting to bed until about 3 a.m Friday night/Saturday morning and "attempted" to get up around 5:30 a.m. I awoke with rays of sunlight peaking through my blinds. Once I was fully conscious, I jumped out of bed in a panic. I looked on my phone and it was 8:30 a.m. Now at this point I could've easily just went back to sleep and just hunted in the evening, but I love hunting too much to do that. So I unplugged my Mckenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag, grabbed my clothes out (which was washed in Atsko's scent free detergent), and started getting dressed. Luckily, the hunting land is just across the road so I was dressed and in the stand by 9:15 a.m.
After spraying down with Atsko's scent spray, I headed for my stand. I was skeptical about hunting the old wooden stand since there was no corn planted, but decided to try it out anyways. Once I got in the stand, I suddenly was annoyed. Two branches had grown substantially since last year, one on each side. The one to my left wasn't that bad because I could still see the majority of the areas I needed to see. The branch to my right blocked a major inside corner of the field. The majority of the deer travel comes from my right, so I was definitely disappointed.
After about 45 minutes of sitting in silence, I decided I would try my hand at a little rattling. As I got ready to bang the rattle pack together for a third time, I saw ears sticking up in the middle of the field. I didn't see any horns, but I still looked in the binoculars to see if it was a big doe. If it was a big doe, then I was going to try to get on the board. When I peered in the binoculars, I actually found out that it was a little button buck. At this point I knew I'm wasn?t shooting the deer so I grabbed the video camera and just filmed. When I first saw the deer, it was straight ahead out in the field (it had been bedded down there). He browsed as he headed for the woods to my right. I filmed him until he got behind the tree branch and then forgot about him. I figured he just kept going into the woods. About 10 minutes later, I caught a glimpse of something about 15 yards to my right through the branch. The button buck had circled back toward me and entered the woods just to my right and kept circling until he got right behind my stand. This wasn't good because the wind was blowing directly in my face straight to him. However, he never knew I was there because of the dual threat of Mckenzie and Atsko. I sat until about a quarter to 12 and then got down for some lunch.
Saturday afternoon I decided to try my luck in a new ground blind I put out a week before. I like the setup I got going there, but unfortunately I didn't see any deer. When I was exiting the blind, I bumped a few deer that were trying to make their way to the deer feed but didn't get there before dark. Sunday morning, I decided to sit in the old wooden stand again. I have been choosing stands on the outskirts of the woods or just inside the woods because it has been too dry to walk deep in the woods. I would scare every deer in a country mile. About 8:30 a.m., I heard deer coming to the field on the same trail the button buck exited. When they popped out into the field, I could tell right away there were not shooters. When I zoomed in with the video camera, I noticed that it was a pair of button bucks. I filmed them for a while. They kept bedding down and then about 10 minutes later stand up and browse some more. They never were further than about 80 yards away. I looked at my phone and it was 10:30 a.m. and these deer still hadn't left. They both finally bedded down and didn't get back up. So I slipped out the stand and quietly headed to the truck. Sunday evening, I sat in a two-man stand that is about 30 yards inside the woods at the inside corner of the field. There has been a lot of deer travel there, but it just wasn't in the cards for me to see one that moment in time.
Even though I didn't see a shooter, I still had a productive weekend. Anytime I can have the privilege to sit out in the woods and enjoy God's beauty, then I consider myself thankful. Seeing deer was just icing on the cake. If you notice, the deer I did see this weekend were all pretty close encounters. There are several factors that helped me achieve this interaction. Paying attention to wind is a big one. I know a lot of guys that will just go to a stand no matter what the wind is doing. A deer relies on its sense of smell, hearing, and eyesight to survive. Do what you can to fool these and you'll have a better chance at seeing deer. I washed my clothes in Atsko scent free detergent, stored my clothes in my Mckenzie bag (it ran all night), and then sprayed down with the Atsko scent spray. So when that deer got downwind of me, I was pretty confident I would not get winded. Like I said early, I have been picking stands that I can get to without having to step on a lot of dry leaves. Deceiving their eyesight is a little easier. I have a lot of back drop behind me to break up my outline. I also have another arsenal.....I have a camo made for the Carolinas! I wear my True Timber Southern Pine camo and just blend in with my surroundings.
I hope you guys are enjoying this hunting season as much as I am. Remember to cherish every moment you get to spend out in the outdoors because you never know when it will be your last. Also, spread the fun and show others how fun hunting can be. There is nothing any better than getting in the woods well before daylight and listening and seeing the woods wake up. That's a scene I will never get tired of!!!
Good luck, be safe, and God bless!
Adam
After our football game last Friday night, Ryan (wide receiver/safety on our team), Katie (my girlfriend), and I headed out towards camp. After driving for about an hour or so we arrived and were eagerly awaiting the next day?s hunt. Early that next morning, five o'clock to be exact, we made our way to the stands. Katie and I went to a two-man stand on a row of pines surrounded by hard woods and Ryan went out to the stand overlooking the cut-down / cut-over. We were optimistic about the hunts and hoped to see some big bucks. Katie and I got to our stand early and we kept dozing off and waking up until the sunlight started to shine throughout the woods. After sitting for about an hour, a 6 point walked out. Katie, shaking from excitement, grabbed the camera from my hand and began to film! I thought to myself, I think I have found my new camera operator! After filming the buck for a few minutes, Katie put the camera down to enjoy the sight of the deer. Before this point Katie had only seen two little fawns sitting with me during the pre-season. Getting to watch someone see their first deer in the stand and to watch their reaction is one of my favorite hunting experiences. About ten minutes passed and the deer moved out of our shooting lane to a small track of hard woods to our left. Katie asked, "Why didn't you shoot the buck?" I explained to her that we were managing our property and trying to shoot mature bucks with 8 points or better and a spread of at least outside their ears. It was a neat experience and a good day in the stand! Ryan was sitting in a stand that Nick and I had put up a few weeks earlier. This was also the same stand that I harvested the cow horn from in my pervious blog. Ryan also had a good hunt as he saw 3 does and a 4 point on the corn pile. Having not hunted for a while, Ryan said that he had the "trigger happy fever", but he never did shoot any of the deer, he just enjoyed watching them.
Atsko also has another neat product that I?m using?their UV Killer spray. After arriving to my stand, I took my camo out of the McKenzie Scent fan duffle bag and sprayed it down with the UV killer. I used the UV killer spray to lessen any reflection that may be coming from my camo or gear. Regular commercial detergents have brightener dyes in them that, when hit by light, are visible to deer. Just in case my clothing came with any reflective dye or material on them or had any on them from previous washings, I wasn?t taking any chances.
I truly believe that these products had (and are having) a great impact on my hunts. We had deer walk underneath the stand and not even know that we were there! I?ve been close to deer before, but not as much and as frequent as this year! If you want an adrenaline filled hunt, try having deer walk right underneath your feet! Getting that adrenaline rush is what hunting is all about and scent control can make it happen.
Thanks to Dennis Coblentz For Some Of The Footage
Derek
Just as in my previous blog, we are still concentrating on getting our property right for the upcoming years. By ?getting our property right? I mean we are working on food plots, shooting lanes, and game management. October 10th was a very foggy Saturday morning and I was running late to get in the stand. So instead of sitting in the ?honey-hole stand? as we call it, I choose to sit in a stand closer to camp for sake of time. This stand is also in a good location so I was optimistic about seeing some deer. Three deer have been killed out of it since the start of the season so it has been getting some action. Nick and I have also filmed a good amount of deer from this stand. It?s a two-man stand set up on a logging road and the view from the back of the stand overlooks a cut-over.
Just as you would imagine?a buck came out behind the stand in the cut-over. As I mentioned, it was a very foggy morning and it was really difficult to see out of my scope! I thought to myself that it was just my luck that a deer walk out behind me and then I could barely see him for the fog in my scope. I didn't have my camera tripod that morning so I pulled my camera out of my bag and tried to free hand a little short segment of footage. With the light being low, the deer coming from behind me, and the fog making it difficult to see?I really couldn't tell how big the buck was. At first I thought it was a spike from a distance, but I finally got the camera focused on him. It turned out to be one of the deer we have been looking to harvest for genetics sake. Before I picked up my rifle, I checked and double checked to make sure this was the buck we?d been looking to cull before I made the shot. After I finalized my decision with the help of my camera, I had to stand up and turn around in the stand to make the shot. It wasn?t going to be the best body position to be in for a good shot, but I was able to as I used the back rest to steady my rifle as I placed my crosshairs right in his kitchen. I made the shot at 7:34 and he dropped right on the corn pile. After I got down and made it over to the deer I can tell you that this deer was one of the biggest cow horns I have ever seen! I usually do not shoot small racked bucks but this was interesting because of how big he was and how his horns didn't show that! The deer turned out to be around a four year old buck according to the processor.
That afternoon I went to a climber that I placed on another logging road about 800 yards away from the stand I hunted in that morning. I didn?t see any deer that evening but I did experience something awesome that I have never experienced in deer season. I had about 25-30 hens walk under my stand in a uniform line calling to each other! It was amazing to watch how they act out of turkey season and how much the call. I couldn?t believe what was happening, but I just sat there and watched it all take place beneath me. It was a pretty neat thing to experience and see.
So far in my life, I?ve always hunted with guns. This past Sunday afternoon I attempted my first bow hunt. I ended up perched on a wooden platform about 25 Feet up in the air on the edge of some hard woods. After a little while of sitting I had a small doe walk out. Having never killed a deer with a bow I was going to shoot a doe if it walked out, but once again my camera helped me! I zoomed in on the small deer and noticed that it had little bumps on his head and I knew it was a ?Button Buck?. I thought to myself in three to four years he could be a nice shooter. So I practiced restraint, and didn?t hit the release and let the arrow fly. It was a very close encounter with this deer. He was so close to the stand that I could hear the corn as he mashed it with his teeth. Crunch! Crunch! Even though it was a small deer, that hunt has to been one of the best experiences in my book.
Being so close to the deer and he not even knowing I was there was really neat. Again, I think one of the reasons for that is the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag. I put my hunting clothes and gear in it for 2 hours before every hunt and it is really working. I even put my gloves and face-mask in it just to be safe. I know that my scent control must be on point if I want to be close to my game and without this bag I may have been winded by this deer. This deer had no clue I was in the woods because I smelled like strong pine and because of this close encounter I got to experience a great first bow hunt.
All in all, it was a great weekend of hunting. I hope to have many more to come.
Derek,
I?ve got some good news and some bad news. Starting with the bad news, a private group of duck hunters bought out the rights to the land my hunting club was ?currently? leasing. This caused my father and me to be out of a place to hunt for about 3 weeks. Though, instead of joining another hunting club, we decided to lease our own land down in Andrews SC. For readers not familiar with South Carolina, Andrews is in the lower part of the state. I really believe that leasing our own land is going to work out best. By leasing our own land we?ll be able to do what we want? when we want to. In our previous club we had to battle for good stand locations etc...I?m sure those of you who have been in hunting clubs before have had similar experiences. The other bad news is that I broke a bone in my hand last Friday night in our football game against Bishop England. With it being my senior year, I was really bummed about being out for the next few games.... but I can still shoot my rifle! There?s always some positive in something negative?you just have to find it!
The title of this blog entry is appropriate because at my previous hunting club, the opening day was August 15th as our first club was located in game zone 6, but the location of our new lease in Andrews falls in game zone 5 and the opening day for this game zone was this past Wednesday, September 1st. Since we had a new lease, we needed to do some more work that we would have normally done in the pre-season. So last weekend we went out and set up stands, put out corn, and some game cameras. We also sat in the stands and saw 2 does, a small 6 point, and even a few turkeys. I think it will get better as time goes on, as we learn more about the land, and as the deer find the corn.
Now that we?ve got our lease together and some stands up, it?s time to start hunting. At this time of year it?s still very warm and so it?s easy to get winded by a deer. In my opinion, scent control is really crucial this early in the season. I?m a strong believer in scent control when hunting. This year, we?re using the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle Bag (www.McKScent.com) to help control and cover our scent. You tell me what you think... I went to the local sports authority and picked up a few pine scent wafers. I put the scent wafers, along with pine needles, in the bag and let it run for a few hours the night before I hunted. The next morning when I pulled my hunting clothes out of the duffle bag they had a heavy pine fragrance and the smell filled the room. Well that happened to be the same morning that I saw deer, and the same held true for that evening. Sunday I didn?t use the bag and I didn?t see a single deer. I think the bag had, and will continue to have, a big effect on how I hunt. I think the success of my hunts will be directly related to how I manage my scent. So far the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle bag is the ticket. Along with the McKenzie Scent Fan Duffle bag, I was representing the SC Camo company by rocking my True Timber hat?and yes, it smelled like pine straw too!
First of all, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I have been on the road for work, so I am just now getting to my weekend blog. I hunted Thursday through Sunday and wasn?t all that successful. However, I did get some video to share with you guys. And even though there was not many deer sightings, I did get to spend time in the woods and that is a gift in itself.
Thursday morning I sat in the stand across from my house and right next to my uncle?s house. Walking into the woods I spooked some deer and felt the aftershock. I sat from 6 a.m. until 11 a.m. and all I saw was squirrels. I got in the stand around 2 p.m. that evening. My dad sat in the wooden stand that overlooks a 2 acre plot of Biologic. I sat in a 20-ft metal buddy stand overlooking a half acre of Biologic. Again, no luck. When am I going to see some deer!
Friday morning was no better. I got situated in the wooden stand, in the field, about 6 a.m. When the sun rose, all I saw was FOG! I sat until about 10 a.m. and decided to get out because the fog was not any better. Friday evening I did not end up going hunting because I fell asleep from 12 p.m. til 4 p.m. So I just got ready to go watch them Eagles beat down Abbeville for the Upper State Championship. On that note, good luck to you guys this Saturday for the State Championship.
Saturday morning I faired a little better. I did not see multiple deer, but at least I saw A DEER. I went back to the lock-on stand across from my house. When I stepped into the woods, I was praying I would not hear deer running away. Luckily I didn?t. It was about 5:50 a.m. when I got situated into the stand. Around 8:30 a.m., I had all but given up on seeing a deer when I spotted a body coming out of the thicket in front of me. As it approached the corn pile, I thought it was a doe. I pushed the safety off of my .44 Mag because I had made up my mind that I was going to shoot a doe if I saw one. Just to make sure the deer was a doe, I picked up the binoculars. Good thing I did because I spotted inch long horns on top of the deer?s head. So I put the safety back on and just enjoyed watching the deer. I really wish I would have had a camera because it was very neat watching him eat the corn on the cob. He would eat all the corn on one section of the cob and then roll it with his nose and eat another section. Something I did not understand was why he was being picky on which cobs he would eat. He literally sifted through all the corn to eat certain pieces. At one point his nose was itching, so he used his right back leg to scratch it. When he finished scratching, he must have irritated his nose because he sneezed. When his belly was full, the deer started moving toward my stand headed to the road behind me. Soon as he started my way, I reached for my phone because he was going to walk within 5 yds of me and that would be close enough for my phone to pick him up. He passes really close to me and heads across the road. I sat until around 11 a.m. and then got down. Before getting down, I shot a 360° view of from my stand so you guys could see just how close it is to the road and my uncle?s house. I am not sure if you can?t distinguish my the house, but you definitely can see the road. The clips of the deer and the scenery from the stand are below.
Saturday evening I went hunting with the rest of the WeHuntSC Team on Will?s property. But first, I had to watch them Gamecocks own the Tigers. GO GAMECOCKS!!! Even though none of us had any luck, it was cool to have a change in scenery. Will and his dad really have a nice setup out there. Hopefully the next time I get down, we will have a little more luck.
Sunday morning, I again suffered from the disease called laziness. I had my alarm set for 5 a.m., but I must have turned it off and went back to sleep. I didn?t end up waking up until close to 10 a.m. At least I got caught up on my sleep! Sunday evening, I went and sat in the wooden stand in the field. I didn?t have any luck, but I did get some good footage from the stand. Check out the video below.
If I get to hunt this coming weekend, hopefully I will have some footage of deer. Not scenery!!!
Have a nice week and good luck hunting!
Well first of all, I would like to apologize for my tardiness. It?s the middle of the week and I?m just now writing my weekend recap. I have been traveling a lot for work and haven?t been around a computer. The rain helped me stay in the office today, so let?s make good use with our time.
This past weekend was just bad all around. I didn?t get a chance to put my trail cameras out so I didn?t have any pictures to share on the site, nor did I gain any knowledge of what was roaming in the woods I hunt. And this weather, man it is terrible. Where is the cold weather? I hate when you get in the stand in the morning and it?s like 40°, but by mid-morning it?s 75°. Not only am I sweating profusely because I have too many clothes on, now I have freaking mosquitoes attacking me like crazy.
Saturday morning I got into the stand about 40 minutes before daylight. This particular stand is with-in walking distance of my house, so it doesn?t take me long to get there. However, since it is within walking distance I have to chain my dog or she will be right behind me. I get situated in the stand and within a few minutes I can hear the deer moving around me. I?m thinking, "Man this is going to be a good morning. The wind is right in my face and the deer are up and moving. This is perfect!" Wrong. Shortly after daybreak, the wind started swirling. One minute it?s blowing in my face and the next it?s blowing on my back toward the bedding area. Luckily, I had brought a Tink?s Doe Estrous bomb. So I dispersed it to hopefully mask my scent and attract any curious bucks. About 30 minutes after the bomb had finished dispersing, I decided to do a sequence of calling. Not even five minutes after calling I heard something coming from my right down the deer trail. As I was turning to get in position, I caught a flash of brown. Now my heart is pumping!! All I could do was imagine how big this buck was going to be. It was the size of my dog because it was my dog. Here came Daisy with her nose in the air, winding the doe estrous that I had recently put out. She didn't stay long, so I figured something could still happen during the rest of the morning. Oh no. Daisy ended up coming back down several more times. My hunt was shot.
For the afternoon hunt, I decided to try something a little different. The stand I chose to hunt overlooks a two acre plot of a mixture of Biologic products. I placed a decoy in the edge of the food plot right in front of me. I lit a Rut Smoking Stick by Tink's and placed it upwind of the decoy. That way, any human scent left on the decoy would be masked by the scent from the smoking stick. I was in the stand less than 30 minutes when I caught something coming out of the woods right beside my stand. It was a bobcat. I went from hunting deer to bobcats within a matter of seconds. One bobcat down, but no deer. Since I shot the bobcat so early, I decided I would sit the rest of the evening out. Who knows, anything can happen! It was getting pretty dark and I was getting ready to leave, but I decided to scan the field one last time with the binoculalrs. I spotted what I thought was a deer walking away from me on the left edge of the plot. So while I was watching the deer in the binoculars, I was reaching for my grunt call. Before I could reach the call, I realized the deer was actually walking toward me. Not only that, it was a Nice Buck!!! Now my heart is pumping for the right reason, not because of my lovely dog. The buck spotted the decoy and I thought he was going to head straight to it. So I dropped the binoculars to grab my gun. When I looked up, I couldn't find the buck! He walked into the high grass and I don't know if he laid down or what, but I had no clue where he went. Now it is getting dark and it's time to get out of the stand, but I DO NOT want to show my presence to this buck. He would never come back if he saw me getting out the stand. So I sat until pitch black, then I called my Dad to come drive his truck into the hayfield adjacent to the plot. That way the buck would be spooked away by his truck, not me. I don't know if that was the smartest thing to do, but I guess will find out.
Sunday morning I went back to the same stand as Saturday morning. No luck. I didn't even hear anything moving. The evening wasn't any better. I went back to the 2 acre food plot stand and guess what I saw, another freaking dog! So as you can see, I had some bad luck all around this past weekend. On the bright side, I did see a nice buck. So I know they are out there, just need a little luck. I did get my trail cameras out this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some good pics for you guys soon. I don't know if I will get to check it this weekend because I'm headed to Charleston to see my wonderful girlfriend.
Let's move on to college football. If the Tigers can take care of the Cavaliers this weekend, they will face the Yellow Jackets in the ACC championship. Unfortunately, my Gamecocks let another one slip away. See I'm what you would call a hybrid. I grew up a die hard Gamecocks fan, but decided to go to college at Clemson because of the engineering. Now I pull for both teams. So who will I pull for Saturday November 28th, them Gamecocks! I got to give quick shout outs to Sadat Chambers and Justice Cunningham representing them Eagles.
Good Luck Hunting, Be Safe, and God Bless,
I always look forward to the start of hunting season. Though, I wasn?t able to get in the woods until the weekend of the opening week of deer season. We hunted over a corn pile out of ground blind, I hunted out of a box stand in a soy bean field, and out of 12 foot ladder stand in the woods this morning. The first two days I didn?t see anything but mosquitoes, but this morning was different!
I got up in the stand well before daylight and on the way in I spooked a turkey that was roosting in a tree above me. The sound of the turkey flying off seemed magnified because, as you most likely know, when it?s pitch black and quiet in the woods, everything will startle you a little bit. It was slightly raining early on, but eventually is stopped. The two previous days had been hot and humid, but today it was cool and just right with a little breeze. The stand I was hunting out of is positioned in the break of the woods and by break I mean it?s right on the edge of where some planted pines meet a tree line of oak trees. From looking at the signs, it appears that a buck has a scrape-line along this break in the woods as well.
Hunting in the woods in early season is always a challenge as the leaves provide so much cover. It?s just difficult to see far. In this scenario, I was going to have to have a deer within 30 ? 40 yards before I could see it. I?ve often been in this scenario and had a deer sneak in on me and get right on top of me before I could even get my gun up. So I knew it was important to keep my head on a swivel. We had put out 2 corn piles and from where I was sitting one pile was at my 5 o?clock and the other at my 10 o?clock.
Soon the sun started to rise and the visibility got better. I sat in the stand for a good while and then I noticed a flash of brown moving down the hill past the corn pile that was at my 10 o?clock side. I saw enough movement that I knew it was more than 1 deer. I took this opportunity to turn my body in my stand to get in better position. A few moments later I took my safety off and put my gun up on the railing that surrounds the stand. At this point, I knew there were deer back there, but didn?t know how many or if they were bucks or does. The heart started beating fast again! That rush that every hunter understands came on me. I started looking through the scope and out came 4 deer. There were two fawns and 2 does. I believe one of them was the mama doe, but the other I wasn?t too sure about. The other doe had a much darker tone to it than the other three. I watched them eat acorns and corn for about 15 minutes through my scope. I wasn?t satisfied with the size of the does, so I decided not to pull the trigger on either one. I?m guessing they were around 80 lbs or so and I say that because I could see their ribs when they would take deep breathes. I put the safety back on and lowered my gun when they all either weren?t looking or were behind a tree. The fawns weren?t that attentive so it wasn?t too hard. At one point, one of the larger does raised and charged for about 2 ? 3 steps at one of the fawns making the fawn move away. I?m not sure why, but I think it didn?t like the fawn eating the same thing it was trying to eat. So that was neat to see.
After 15 minutes I traded my gun for my camera phone. Since I wasn?t going to shoot the deer, I figured I?d at least try to get some pictures. Though, I knew with the camera phone the clarity wouldn?t be that great. By this point, the mama doe had worked her way behind me and I could no longer see her. She was headed to the other corn pile that was at my 5 o?clock. The two fawns and other doe were still on the first pile of corn to my left. The fawns followed their mom next, but they came extremely close to me as they were passing. I could have spit on one of the fawns it got so close to my stand. It got right up under my stand, but yet was directly behind me, and just stood there for about 10 minutes. I was sitting sideways in the stand and was holding the camera and was locked in for the whole 10 minutes in hopes of not scaring the fawn. It was difficult to hold still that long without moving an inch! Eventually it went by me. So now the mama doe and two fawns were walking behind me and the odd doe out was starting to head that way. Then, all of a sudden, that shrieking sound came. Yes, you know the one I?m talking about. The mama deer either saw me move or smelled me and she blew as loud as she could. Though, she didn?t run, but rather blew about 4 ? 5 times. Then 2 other deer blew back at her. It was kind of funny because I was hearing them all going back and forth and it was coming from different spots in the forest. They were alarmed and on edge now. The odd doe out was now eating at the corn pile behind me to my right at my 5 o?clock. It started stomping its feet like deer do when something isn?t right. The sounds of the does shrieking blows continued for a little while longer. I swiveled all the way around in the stand to look at it from an easier position. I watched the doe for about 5 minutes. The mama doe had obviously circled back around closer to where I first saw them, but she must have done it from a distance where I couldn?t see her because she blew again and was in front of me. I never saw her, but she blew and finally ran away. She blew the whole time she was running and with every bound I could hear the sound fading away. This also alarmed the doe that was eating behind me and she slowly went into the forest behind me. It was now 8:30.
These does and fawns had me occupied for over an hour. I wanted to give them some time to clear the area so that I could leave. I waited 15 more minutes and was ready to start heading out when I hear another shrieking blow sound from behind me. This time the deer must have smelled me because I wasn?t moving and the tree the stand is on was in between me and the deer + she was further away this time. So I waited another 15 minutes and it was pushing 9 o?clock. I bolted the shell out of the chamber, stood up, put my orange vest on, clipped my bag around my waist and stretched for a few seconds. I figured the deer must have left the area because I didn?t hear any response movement to the sounds I was making. I turned around and started going down the ladder. When my first foot hit the highest step, you got it, another shrieking blow from deep in the woods. This time the last doe bounded away and I here again, I could hear the sound growing faint with every bound she took. I really didn?t want to spook the does away by any means, but I couldn?t get them away from me far enough to let me get out of the stand! What a problem to have right.
Here are some pictures that I took of the deer from my I-Phone below. You may have to squint to see them in some! The deer are the red "blurs" that you see
And fawn #2 when she walked behind my stand
I also saw a nice little rub on the way out too. The buck is continuing to work that scrape-line. From the size of this rub, I?d say he?s a little 6 point.