2026 SC Deer Hunt Day 5 - The Longest Two Hours

I was back at the Powell farm a solid hour before shooting light.  I love the magic of the morning.  I sat back and took in my last full day in South Carolina.

Nothing was on the corn as it got light, but it didn't take long before deer started to come out.  One pretty big deer came out, but I didn't think it would meet the minimum standards.  I texted Rick back and forth a few times.  We figured out it was the deer with the small G3s (in the dim light, I couldn't see them at all).  

As it got brighter, deer kept walking into and out of the area.  There was tons of activity, and the bucks were definitely moving.

A doe popped out about 50 yards in front of me.  This deer was followed by an antlered deer.  He was big.  I looked closer ... is that the funky deer from the previous evening?  He turned to go back the other way and I saw that huge spike.  It was him.

My gun was up already so I looked through the scope.  At 50 yards, it wasn't - or shouldn't have been - difficult.

Boom.

The deer ran to the right.  I split second later I saw an antlered buck run to the left.  Was that him?  Several more deer were running.  I saw more antlers go to the right.

I waited a few seconds and texted Rick.  This was followed by:  Do I gotta wait until 10:00?

Yep.  lol

I had two LLLLOOONNNGGGG hours to overthink the situation.  In my head, it got worse and worse.

Clean miss at 50 yards?

NOT the funky deer?

That other deer was NOT another deer?

Deer got smaller?

Antlers got tiny and super narrow?

It became a doe?

Wounded never to be found?

Funky deer walks out in front of me again? 

Despite my negativity and doom 'n gloom, it was still a good morning.  Surprisingly, even after shooting, there probably was less than 3 minutes that deer were not in front of me.

Time crept along but it did move.  Eventually I heard Rick's truck behind me.  We drove up to where the buck was and got out to look.  Moose found the blood first - good boy!!!!

We let Moose track and following blood (low level color blindness makes blood tracking difficult for me).  Not too far into the woods, Brandon points ahead, "There he is."  I was relieved and happy.  I was humbled to have been able to have a second chance at this mature and very unique whitetail.

We loaded up the deer and went to leave.  

At that moment, a game warden happened to be going down the highway.  He slowed to turn around and Rick backed up.  It was the first time I've had a license checked in over 30 years.  I was good.  Brandon ... was not.  His Big Game tag was expired (two days).  The fish cop was very reasonable and gave him a written warning.  Doug and I had both shot really nice deer and Brandon got a ticket.  This made the mood in the truck even funnier.

We dropped off the deer at the processor.  I'll have to do meat swap-out to be able to leave on time in the morning; this is a great service for those of us out of state.

We had breakfast at the lodge and a bit of downtime.

Soon enough it was time to head out for the afternoon hunt, my last sit in South Carolina.  I asked Rick to put me in a spot for hogs.  With a deer in the bag, I'll always choose hog meat.  Doug and I went to Nelson Green's.  I had sat at this stand previously and seen a deer with only three legs.

The stand was at a bit of an angle which didn't help comfort much.  It was also not easy to find a spot for the larger bag I'm now using.  But once situated, it was adequate.

Time passed and I thought back to the previous few days.  These kinds of trips always end up feeling longer than they are - in a good way.  Weather was warm with absolutely no wind at all.  Nothing was moving so every time I moved I felt like King Kong banging on the Empire States Building.  The blessing and curse of hunting on calm days.

I ended up seeing two bucks and two does.  Some of the deer passed right by me.  I was a bit surprised by this given that my clothes probably smell a bit like the cooking in the lodge at this point.

But there were no pigs.  I never push the darkness on my last day, so I packed up and we headed out.

(Note: the way my phone processed the pics of this deer all look like AI.  They are not - just the phone trying to be too smart for its own good.)

I still had to deal with my deer meat.  So after Lisa's amazing Taco Pie, I went into town.  The ATM would not recognize my card, so I called Rick and he arranged to have my deer processing put on his tab.  I'll pay him later and I sure do appreciate this.  I drove to the processor and got my deer meat.  It was cold but not completely frozen, so I stopped for ice on the way back to the lodge.

I was ready to be home.  I packed the truck, said goodbyes and called it a day.

2026 SC Deer Hunt Day 4 - Missed Loophole

The day started a little warmer than the previous and with much lower winds forecast.  After the previous night's activity, I assumed I was going to the same spot, but Rick took me to the Powell farm instead.  This was fine.  I've hunted it before and really like it.

I almost got turned around walking in the pitch black to the stand but found it easily enough.  It still took a minute to get situated in the darkness.

I really like the stand, but there is considerable road noise from the nearby highway.  The amount of cars which hit the warning strips on the road is shocking.  Stay in your lane, People!

Daylight came with a buck on the corn.  It was almost a shooter and I had to have a quick conversation with Rick to be sure I wasn't misjudging it.  It went on its way to live another day.

As it got light, more deer started popping out all over the place.  Many didn't even go down to the corn, but just meandered or went across the road.  A few of the deer popped out right in front of the blind, but didn't seem to display any care.  This included a doe with a spotted fawn.  Seeing a small yearling is not unusual.  Seeing a deer that still had bright spots did seem a bit unusual so late in the year.

Deer kept popping in and out until the morning ended with two big does and 5 yearlings on the corn.  They looked nervous enough that I was hoping something else was in the area.  Hope increased when they high-tailed it away.  But that was how the morning ended as Rick picked me up a short time later.

We fed several other stands in the area before heading back to the lodge.  I had just enough time to take Moose for a walk down to the river.  Walking a puppy Labrador is a different experience than walking a beagle who walks miles almost every day.  But Moose did well for such a young dog.

After a bit of time in the lodge, it was time to head out.  Doug had come in from Georgia and Brandon from West Virginia.  Rick had a lot of people to put into stands, so Will took me back to the Powell farm stand.

It didn't take long in the blind until deer started coming out.  For the first 90 minutes, deer were constantly coming into and going out of the area.  There were no big bucks, but the activity was fun to watch.

At one point a huge bodied deer came out I brought my gun up only to see that while his left antler was a decent 8-point, his right side was just a huge spike.  I kind of wanted to shoot him anyway, but he didn't meet minimum requirements.

With that much activity, I was hopeful the evening would be really bonkers.  But the opposite happened as activity died down quickly.

There was still activity through the evening, but it was slower.  A few times the does on the corn looked nervous and took off.  I was, once again, hopeful.  Once again, those hopes were dashed.

The sun eventually set (it always does), and it got dark.  I met Will for the ride home.  I told him about the big deer with the funky rack - apparently they've been wanting to drop him.  So I could have shot him.  But that moment had passed; so it goes.

Back at the lodge Aaron and Evan decided to leave which made the situation much more comfortable for those of us still there for the night.

2026 SC Deer Hunt Day 3 - Mockingbird

Up at my normal time, my head was still pounding.  I had a bit too much coffee, which finally did the trick.  I felt almost human as we went out for deer.  

Rick dropped me off at the same stand as the previous evening.  I methodically made my way to the stand and got settled.  I had about an hour before shooting light.  I thought back to my first year or two of hunting.  It's crazy how much has changed since those college days.  I recall making a ground blind on public land for opening day of gun season.  I ended up not using it since I got access to private land.  My neighbor ended up using it (or tried to), but some jack-wad had taken dump in my blind.  I'm not sure why I thought about that.  Sometimes I'm not in charge of my brain.  People suck.  I enjoy coming down to South Carolina.

Weather was between cool and cold.  I was treated to a pretty sunrise.

Even with a nice start, it was a slow morning.  Almost nothing was moving.

Right towards the end of the morning, a doe came out half-way between myself and the corn.  

A small buck, I think the same 4-point from the previous evening, came out for a short time.  And my morning hunt ended.

I had enough down time at the lodge to take a walk to the river.  I thought about asking Rick if Moose needed a walk.  Walking with a dog is (almost) always better.

Rick pushed me to tell him where I was going to sit.  I don't play that game well - don't guide the guide.  Although in this situation, it is a bit different.  We did talk about it and I went back to the same stand which I was 100% OK with.

There was a small buck on the corn when I got out there.  I made it into the stand without spooking him, which I was slightly proud of.

Weather was hot and breezy.  I had a hard time getting comfortable.  My butt was getting tired from sitting so much.  A headache behind my eye was starting to come back.  But it was still a really nice afternoon so I was making the best of it.

A few deer came in throughout the afternoon.  Oddly, all of them were bucks.  At one point I had crows, turkeys and deer all on the pile at the same time.  The turkeys were harassing the crows which was funny to watch.

Late in the afternoon a really large 6-point came out.  He as big enough that I wanted to send a bullet at him, but he would be under the Rick legal limit.  He kept looking towards the right and stayed behind the brush off to the right for some of the time until he and another deer made a raucous and raced off to the left with one of the few does I saw.

A short time later I saw more deer to the left as several bucks and at least a couple does milled around the clear-cut area.  Through the binos, one of the bucks looked really nice - probably the target buck Rick had showed me.  Setting the binos down, I found him in the scope ... wait ... that was a small buck.  Where'd he go????

This set off a very confusing 15 minutes when deer were milling around, but I could never get a clear view of what I knew was the big deer and not have his vitals obscured by brush.  It was both exciting and frustrating until the deer simply vanished.  One doe did walk across the 2-track.  I was hoping the other deer would as well which would make it a game-over, but that didn't happen.

At dark-dark, I got out and made my way to the gate.  Rick and I compared notes on the late part of the hunt.  What I saw was distinctly different than we he saw.  The time stamps on these pics is three minutes apart.

Me:

Rick's Cell Camera:

Perspective is everything.  In deer hunting and in life.

2026 SC Deer Hunt Day 2 - Lots of (the wrong) Deer

I woke up with a headache (of course).  A shower and some coffee helped but only so much.

The weather was spitting rain and would keep doing so through the morning.  It was muggy and kind of gross.  Evan was staying in and Aaron was driving himself, so Rick dropped me off at the Ray Road Front Stand.  At least I had a shooting house to keep me clear from the light rain.

I had about an hour until shooting light.  Sitting in the box blind, it was pretty nice.  Right at daylight, I could see a few does come in.  They milled around a bit before a small buck came in.

I had to get a new phone when I cooked my old one in my dry bag while kayaking.  The new phone is pretty good, but the pictures of the deer weren't as good as the pixel, whether through the binos or not.  I'll have a chance to try later in the week when there is more light.

The deer spent the morning milling around.  The does were really being harassed by the bucks, at least at first.  Eventually they seemed to give up and just feed.

All the deer left about an hour before the end of the morning hunt.  One small spike did come in far off down the 2-track, but he never came into the corn.

Eventually I texted Rick and he said to meet back by the gate.  Don had shot a boar hog, but he wasn't confident in the shot and they hadn't looked for it yet.

Back at the lodge we had breakfast.  Don and Rick went to look for Don's hog and found it about 60 yards into the woods.  The shot may have been a bit far back, but it did work.

We had some down time at the lodge before going out for the afternoon.  Rain was over, but it was still muggy and somewhat uncomfortable.

Afternoon came and Rick took most of us out while Aaron drove himself to his spot.  I'm not exactly sure where I was, but it was a big comfortable tripod stand overlooking a low spot.  I wasn't in the stand too long when a small 4-point came out.  It fed for a while before running away; I was hoping something else was coming out, but nothing else did.  A crow screamed nearby.

I spent the time letting my mind wander.  Temperatures were nice, but it was still muggy and there was a bit of mist from time to time.  As it got dark, deer started to come in and go out.  First it was a doe, followed by a small buck.  Then came several does and a few more bucks.  None of the bucks were huge, but they were headed in the right direction size-wise.

At one point the mosquitoes started to come in.  It reminded me of my bear hunt a few weeks previous where my Thermacell quit while I was watching my bear.  With such a short amount of time left in the evening, I didn't bother turning it on.  Exactly what is the evolutionary need for mosquitoes?

As it started to get dark there were several deer on the corn.  While I was in an open field, the hole the deer were in got dark quickly.  I didn't run out of shooting light so much as I ran out of enough light to judge antlers.

I was also nursing an increasingly throbbing headache.  My 50s have not been kind to me.

I got out of the stand and worked my way back to the gate.  Rick was there almost immediately.  Don had shot a pretty decent buck which was on the back.

Rick immediately started in about getting out of the stand too early and too noisily.  I just wanted a bit of food and sleep.  Don was all cleaned up back at the lodge playing cards with his wife.  Lisa was just finishing cooking.  I nursed my head.

Once food was ready I quickly ate and turned in.  I had seen a zillion deer on my first day of hunting.  There were no shooters, but I still had a few days.  Despite the still pounding headache, I was hopeful.

2026 SC Deer Hunt Day 1 - Drive Day

My big plan was to do minimal work Saturday so I could have some down time.  It was not to be; the lawn NEEDED to be mowed.  S/O was so wonderful to help, so it only took a few hours.

But while packing up, I could not find my light hunting jacket.  I searched and searched and searched some more.  I must conclude I left it up in Canada somehow.  Is it in Carter's truck?  Based on pictures I don't think so.  In a boat?  Highly unlikely.  Did I leave it in the treestand or nearby?  That would not be like me.  But losing something like a jacket is not like me.  This thought plagues me as I packed and drove south.  Neither the jacket (nor a flashlight which I also lost) is a high dollar item, but that isn't the point.  I know I can obsess about small things; this did not feel like a small thing.

Regardless if I'm losing it or not, Sunday came bright and early.  I took care of the dogs, got ready and hit the road around 3:30.  It was dark, cool and dry.  It was a beautiful morning to be on the road.

For the first time in my life I stopped at a Buc-ees.  I figured early morning was relatively safe.  I don't get the allure and the coffee was only adequate.  I would not want to stop on a busy afternoon.  At least I can say I've tried to experience this cultural milestone.

Traffic stayed light in the darkness.  I made my way south, getting off the interstate to avoid the mayhem that is Knoxville.

I was listening to What the Bears Know by Steve Searles.  It was either phenomenally good, or it was the right book at the right time.  Or it was both.  I might quibble with a bit of what he said.  If nothing else, he is wrong on what he says about bear meat (I had a bear burger the previous night).  He admits to anthropomorphizing bears a bit too much - at least that is how I interpret what he says about it.  But I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  Parts of it were extremely funny.  Parts were very hard to listen to.  Much of it was introspective in a way I could really appreciate.  Now I have to decide if I should recommend it to anyone?

Once back on Interstate 40, traffic was very heavy for a Sunday.  It stayed this way for much of the rest of the drive.  But leaving early, I was in no hurry, so I continued on at my own pace.

I continued to make my way, getting to Rick's in the early afternoon.  Aaron and Evan, who I hunted with the previous year were there.  We talked a bit, but I was somewhat foggy from the trip.

Rick came back and we all told lies for a bit.  Evan and I took a quick trip to the river, but instead of my usual walk, we took Rick's 3-wheelers.

Moose made me miss my dogs back home.

There was no dinner, but I was stuffed from eating the whole trip down.  I turned in as soon as I thought it would be acceptable.  I went to sleep, still wondering if I'm losing it.  I'll have plenty of time over the next few days to ponder this.

2026 Bear Hunt Day 9&10 - Home

 I woke a few minutes before my alarm was set for, allowing me a bit extra to get ready and triple check everything before heading to meet Dave (who graciously agreed to meet at 4:30) to get my bear.  We had a bit of a challenge finding my backstraps; once in the cooler, I hit the road.

There was a bit of fog on the road as I left.  It was never blinding for long, but I was concerned with the potential for animals on the road.  I took the gravel road route as the most direct route.  One of the turns always trips me up and it did again.  The Maverick’s traction control is not very intrusive, which is a good thing.  But this time it definitely helped.  A few minutes later I saw a large sow bear with a cub on the road.  These combined to serve as a reminder to be careful, especially in the dark, even if the cub did make me laugh a little as it bumbled down the road.

I was listening to The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything by Peter Brannen.  I had previously listened to his book The Ends of the World which was exceedingly good and made me feel blissfully small at the end.  CO2 was not quite as good, but it definitely did give me some new ways to think about energy and the timescales we should really think about when considering the situation we are in with rapidly increasing carbon dioxide amounts in the atmosphere.  I loved some of the geochemistry he laid out with practical implications.

I hit the border near daybreak.  The border guard seemed more concerned that I have the paperwork for a future bear hunting adventure than any concern with my current border cross, “That way you won’t even have to come in next time.”  After breezing through, I was back in the US.  I will miss Canada.

I continued making my way, listening to my book and occasionally letting my mind wander.  Google Maps routed me a slightly different way that got me off the interstate near my sister's house for a stretch.  I guess it wasn’t terrible, but was somehow nagged that it was adding time.  After traveling thousands of miles safely on the trip, I was oddly surrounded by a small set of Crazies who actively tried to kill me near the exit to my sister’s house.  Usually Madison is more chill than anything…

It was great getting a chance to catch up with my sister.  I wish it was for longer, but the time spent was well worth it. 

________
Early the next morning, I once again headed out for the final leg.
The drive was uneventful until I got near home and realized one of the major roads was still closed in several spots due to flooding and subsequent road destruction.  Google Maps routed me through some roads that would have been wonderful to bicycle on, but the slowdown was frustrating when I was in get-home-mode.  I knew the list of things to do was going to be long and I did have to work the next day.
In reality, the rather odd route close to home probably only added 5 minutes, certainly less than 10.

Once home, it was a scramble to unpack and get the bear meat in the freezer.  S/O was incredibly helpful even though she doesn’t like the bear meat.
And while I was exhausted by the time I was finally able to get ready for the next day at work, I was filled with infinite gratitude for the time I was able to spend in Manitoba.  I went to sleep, thinking about bears and pike, both past and future.
 

2026 Bear Hunt Day 8 - The Great Pike Hunt

I allowed myself some extra coffee in the morning as I got ready for the day.  With the pressure of bears off, I was able to be a bit more relaxed.

As daylight brightened, we all met at the lodge for a final breakfast.  The plan was to go upriver to fish, have a true shore lunch on the shore, then fish some more while Casey hunted.  It sounded like a very good plan to me.

I was the only one who wanted to fish for pike, so Dave took me and after a quick supply drop-off at Kendall, we went fishing.

On one of the first bays we went to, we hooked into several good pike, the largest being a 40" fish which was also very fat.  It was exciting to bring in such a big river monster (in all deference to the truth, it was a team effort).  I had never caught a pike larger than 39 inches with or without an asterisk .

Immediately after, I brought in a 35 inch pike which was equally fat.

We fished several more bays throughout the morning.  Some were more productive than others, but the morning was a ton of fun.  We met the other two boats at a lunch spot where we had a true shore lunch of potatoes 'n onions and fried fish right form the river.  Lunch ended with Allie's excellent chocolate chip cookies; I ate way too many.

While food was cooking I walked around and out to the point.  It was fun to do even if my feet got quite wet.  At least I was wearing my water shoes.

After lunch Dave and I fished several more bays, bringing in lots more fish and a few more big ones.  Dave also caught me several walleye to bring home.  It was a really good day on the water.

I had some time in camp which allowed me to clean up and pack up.

Casey came in early with a whopper of a beautiful black bear, meaning everyone in camp tagged out - and with minimal tracking (this makes the guides happy).

We had one final dinner before ending the week.  Unquestionably it has been an amazing week with a group of new friends and old.