Blog Entries from the WeHuntSC.com blogging crew
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