SC Living Outdoors
Well-known member
I hunt a lot. I know that most people on here know that, but I hunt a ton at home. I get off work at 3:30 so I often go straight to the woods to chase whitetails. I then hunt on Saturdays and often Sunday afternoons after church with my wife. Deer season in the low country of SC opens Aug. 15 on private land and most of the rest of the state opens on Sept. 15. I would say I probably hunt 5 days a week on average. The last 2 years the whitetail have thoroughly kicked my rear end in terms of seeing mature bucks. I hunt probably 75% public and 25% with a buddy of mine who's family owns a few hundred acres. Last year the biggest whitetail I saw was on public land and it was a basket rack 6 point probably 2.5 years old on Nov. 30th. I was bound and determined not the let that happen again.
This season started out better. Ive seen a ton of deer and one mature buck. I killed a broken racked 8 point back in early September at my buddy's place to put meat in the freezer and a 6 point on public along with a doe or 2. By November my freezers are packed, but I shoot some deer for people I work with and I also give meat to my mom and dad and a couple of my sisters. I had passed probably 15+ bucks this year and over 80 deer waiting for a big buck. I'm not going to lie to y'all I was getting frustrated. I'd had probably 400+hrs hunting whitetail over the past 2 seasons and I'd seen one big buck and that was back during archery season at 80yds for about 15 seconds. I didnt know what else to do other then keep hunting hard. Some of my buddies thought is was humorous and I guess I kind of did too.
That brings us to this week. I was able to get permission to hunt a small piece of land for the remainder of this year. The stipulation was I would need to use archery gear. This property gets absolutely zero pressure and I was hopeful I could find a good buck. I went and scouted last Monday and found some scrapes and rubs along a thick creek on the boarder of the property. I found an area I could climb, put out a bag of corn, and hung a camera. Friday I went back and checked the camera. Virtually all the corn was gone and I had alot of pics. There was also now some fresh rubs and a scrape under my tree. I checked the camera to find 4 different bucks 2 of which were shooters. A big 7 point and a decent 8 point. The deer movement calendar pointed to Saturday and Sunday as days that should be excellent for movement.
I decided to drive up and hunt the mountains with my buddy on Saturday. We always have a good time and there are some monsters up there on public land if you can get lucky and see one. I didn't see one, lol. I sat in the stand for 11hrs and saw a dozen squirrels, some tweet birds and 2 crows. It was an exciting day. I decided Sunday morning I would go and sit on the new property with the crossbow for a few hours, then get down and go to church before coming back for the remainder of the day. Rain was scheduled to arrive around 12 so the afternoon was going to be a damp sit. I was up in the stand as the sun came up. The area below was corn free and absolutely destroyed from the deer pawing the leaves looking for more. I did some calling and rattling hoping for some late rut activity. It was a ghost town until a little after 8. I was getting ready to get down when I saw a couple does coming in from the creek. They were very cautious. They stayed around for a while staring up at me periodically but I stayed as still as I possibly could and they never spooked or blew. After about 15 minutes or so one of the does peed and they both trotted off. The does were only 15yds away so I heard her pee and I saw her through the trees. As soon as they trotted off I saw a deer coming my way through the pine trees which was the opposite direction I was expecting. I figured all the deer would come up from the creek. I as the deer came my way through the trees I could tell it was a bigger deer. It came through a gap where I could see his head and holy smokes it was a good buck. The next opening... its a big buck. Time to get everything ready because this might happen. I had ranged all the trees in my lane and he came out right behind my 20yd tree. I hit him perfect. Heart shot. The rage blew through him and I saw blood begin pouring out of him before he was even out of my 6' wide lane. He ran towards the creek. I heard him stop and stumble then go down. Finally, the big buck drought was over. He was a beautiful big heavy horned 8 point was as happy as a clam. I thought this was a buck I didn't have on camera, but when I looked back through it was the 8 point he was just a way better deer than I though he was. I texted a lady I work with to let her know I had a deer for her. She was really appreciative. I got the buck loaded up and I was even a little early to church.
I'm going to head back to the property tomorrow to see if anything else exciting decides to pay me a visit.
This season started out better. Ive seen a ton of deer and one mature buck. I killed a broken racked 8 point back in early September at my buddy's place to put meat in the freezer and a 6 point on public along with a doe or 2. By November my freezers are packed, but I shoot some deer for people I work with and I also give meat to my mom and dad and a couple of my sisters. I had passed probably 15+ bucks this year and over 80 deer waiting for a big buck. I'm not going to lie to y'all I was getting frustrated. I'd had probably 400+hrs hunting whitetail over the past 2 seasons and I'd seen one big buck and that was back during archery season at 80yds for about 15 seconds. I didnt know what else to do other then keep hunting hard. Some of my buddies thought is was humorous and I guess I kind of did too.
That brings us to this week. I was able to get permission to hunt a small piece of land for the remainder of this year. The stipulation was I would need to use archery gear. This property gets absolutely zero pressure and I was hopeful I could find a good buck. I went and scouted last Monday and found some scrapes and rubs along a thick creek on the boarder of the property. I found an area I could climb, put out a bag of corn, and hung a camera. Friday I went back and checked the camera. Virtually all the corn was gone and I had alot of pics. There was also now some fresh rubs and a scrape under my tree. I checked the camera to find 4 different bucks 2 of which were shooters. A big 7 point and a decent 8 point. The deer movement calendar pointed to Saturday and Sunday as days that should be excellent for movement.
I decided to drive up and hunt the mountains with my buddy on Saturday. We always have a good time and there are some monsters up there on public land if you can get lucky and see one. I didn't see one, lol. I sat in the stand for 11hrs and saw a dozen squirrels, some tweet birds and 2 crows. It was an exciting day. I decided Sunday morning I would go and sit on the new property with the crossbow for a few hours, then get down and go to church before coming back for the remainder of the day. Rain was scheduled to arrive around 12 so the afternoon was going to be a damp sit. I was up in the stand as the sun came up. The area below was corn free and absolutely destroyed from the deer pawing the leaves looking for more. I did some calling and rattling hoping for some late rut activity. It was a ghost town until a little after 8. I was getting ready to get down when I saw a couple does coming in from the creek. They were very cautious. They stayed around for a while staring up at me periodically but I stayed as still as I possibly could and they never spooked or blew. After about 15 minutes or so one of the does peed and they both trotted off. The does were only 15yds away so I heard her pee and I saw her through the trees. As soon as they trotted off I saw a deer coming my way through the pine trees which was the opposite direction I was expecting. I figured all the deer would come up from the creek. I as the deer came my way through the trees I could tell it was a bigger deer. It came through a gap where I could see his head and holy smokes it was a good buck. The next opening... its a big buck. Time to get everything ready because this might happen. I had ranged all the trees in my lane and he came out right behind my 20yd tree. I hit him perfect. Heart shot. The rage blew through him and I saw blood begin pouring out of him before he was even out of my 6' wide lane. He ran towards the creek. I heard him stop and stumble then go down. Finally, the big buck drought was over. He was a beautiful big heavy horned 8 point was as happy as a clam. I thought this was a buck I didn't have on camera, but when I looked back through it was the 8 point he was just a way better deer than I though he was. I texted a lady I work with to let her know I had a deer for her. She was really appreciative. I got the buck loaded up and I was even a little early to church.
I'm going to head back to the property tomorrow to see if anything else exciting decides to pay me a visit.
