The bumper crop of acorns, all the full moons, the sun, feeding times, the weather - all reasons I?ve heard given by hunters as to why we aren?t seeing more deer this year.  I went to our local processor this past weekend and he said things had been extremely slow in the past few days/weeks and from reading the article in the state paper, it seems that it?s a little slow everywhere.  Don?t get me wrong, deer are being harvested, but it seems that the numbers of deer harvested are not at the level that they have been in the past.  I do not take this stance from my own understanding of hunting, but rather from what I?m hearing/reading/experiencing all combined together.  Does it seem slow where you are?

Thursday morning I went hunting back out on the ridge again, but I did not see anything.  After the hunt I decided to go walk through a different section of woods that I had not scouted yet this year.  As I rode the 4-wheeler across the creek, I noticed how high the creek level was due to all the recent rains.  I stopped and took a video of the 4-wheeler and creek to give you a look at the water flowing pretty quickly.  This creek is usually very slow moving. 

After going through the creek and riding over a bunch of muddy areas, I rode up the old logging road a ways and found a place to park that looked decent.  I walked around on both sides of the old logging road for about an hour.  I saw a few rubs here and there and it was really thick in some of those places.  I finally walked into an area where the woods started opening up.  I was about 75 yards in the woods when I heard some commotion.  I looked up and 9 does where all jogging away from me through the woods.  They were all good sized does too.  It was weird because usually when this happens to me, the deer immediately dart away into the forest.  Though, this time they went away, but it wasn?t like they were in a real big hurry.  That?s how I was able to count them all.  If I would have had my rifle with me (instead of lying on the 4-wheeler) I could have shot one of them, but I probably wouldn?t have.  So, I obviously knew that deer were in this area of the woods and I continued walking around a little to see what I could see.  I saw about 7 rubs within a 30 yard radius.  On the way out from the location I also found a scrape.  I pulled out the I-Phone and dropped a pin on the Google map to mark the location.  I know, I know? technology and hunting meet each other and I ought to do it the old fashioned way right?  I hear enough of that already.  Anyway, I knew I was going to get a stand up in this location and a few hours later Jason had arrived and he helped me get the stand up.  We winched it down and put out some corn.

Thus, our camera man was in the building!  So far the trend is that whenever the camera goes in the woods, the deer don?t move too much!  (Murphy?s law at its finest).  We went hunting on Friday morning and didn?t see anything, but did see a lot of squirrels.  After the hunt we shot some short films on 4-wheelers & climbing stands.  Hopefully you?ll see those up on the site in the weeks to come.  I also got a short film of the camera guy (Jason) from my I-Phone.  See it below:
 

Then of course we went and got some good old Bojangles and then returned to the house.  We then went out to Central and started the state championship weekend.  It was a good time and too much to type here, but in the end we lost the state to Dillon by 1 point? again!  Man it was a tough pill to swallow and a few plays could have changed the course of the game tremendously.  I will say that this season was a good example of what quality coaching can do for a team.   You can see some of Jason?s pics from the game here

Sunday morning we were back out in the woods at the stand that we put up on Thursday.  The deer had eaten some of the corn that we put out as well.  Man it was cold Sunday morning and the thoughts, images, & replays of the game the day before lingered in my mind during the hunt?we were so close!  As the sun rose, the squirrels woke up and started running throughout the forest.  Squirrels really have no fear of heights and don?t mind being extremely loud either.  We didn?t see anything at all and about 7:45 we heard a deer blowing somewhere off in the distance.  This deer blew about 9 times, which is the most I?ve ever heard a deer blow before in the woods.  I don?t think it was blowing at us because the sounds were originating from far off.  I hoped that something had alerted the deer in another area and that it would push them towards us, but it didn?t happen. 

After some engagement pictures, I went back hunting in the afternoon.  My dad went with me this time and I put him in the stand that we had just put up and I went back to my climber.  J.E. was hunting in the soy bean field.  Right about dark-thirty I heard a shot.  I got down from my climber and went back to the truck where I had dropped off my dad.  He said he didn?t shoot and said he thought it was J.E.  I called Mr. J.E. and he said that he shot at a nice doe, but couldn?t find it.  It was so dark that he couldn?t search anymore and was going to return in the morning to see if he could find the deer. 

So that was a lot of hunting by me without seeing a deer.  Maybe I?m doing something wrong!  What about you and your area of the state?  Is it slow there?
 

Regards,
 

CBP