Opening Weekend in South Carolina I arrived on the property just before sundown.
No time to spare I grabbed my rifle and headed to old faithful 95
hottest stand on the property.
Sat there until sundown (30 min) no deer but 500 yards away at the Hilton 6 deer in the field huh!
Next evening hunt go to Hilton 7:30 No deer 7:40 2 deer come out right on top of 95 2-3 more min 2 more deer 2-3 more min 2 more deer until 8 deer in front of 95 . and the two in the center are nice bucks
Cannot let this happen so I come out of my stand run into the woods and then down 400 yards pop out and glass the field.
All the deer are gone except the two bucks in the center.
So I get down on my hands and knees and crawl over to the creek but from running my heart is at full throttle.
I make it to a dirt pile on the edge of creek and rest my rifle while I lay out prone for a steady shot. I look thru my scope and both are 8 points one with real tall tines and the other more typical for a two year old buck. Well they start moving towards the woods at first it look like the bigger buck would be the one to take but as soon as I am about to squeeze the trigger my scope is behind weeds. Reach up pull weeds he has move to edge and the other 8 point is standing there broad sided. Just as I start to pull the trigger on him I feel something on my left arm.... look over and I am covered with fire ants just feasting away (ouch) Do the quick mind block thing look thru the scope pull the trigger and see the buck fall (ouch) stand up (ouch) start the fire ant shuffle (ouch)
Finally get all the ants off (ouch) and walk over to my buck
Wish I had some pics to post but my camera took all dark photos
But the hunt was fun and I have all the memories and ant bites to remind me.

I'm in South Carolina, down in Hampton County. If you go back and check out my posts, I also killed an 8 point on the first Saturday, August 20th. I killed #2 the following Sat. the 27th, and #3 the next Thursday, Sept. 1st. The second 8 point was killed on Monday, Oct. 3rd, and then the big doe was Friday, Oct. 7th.

The first one was killed on a dog drive down in the swamp, the second, fourth, and fifth were all killed out of the same stand while rifle hunting on my property behind my house. The third one was killed on property several miles from home, and in a garden for some elderly blakc ladies who were having problems with the deer eating their pumpkins.

So, where in SC, are you?

Hey Geecheeboy I am in sumter just off hwy 15
It has been a good year so far. the 8 posted here and a 7 point and one doe as well.
not bad for just 3 hunts.
Have you seen signs of the rut?

Yep, bucks are chasin', hocks are getting stained, and rubs and scrapes are showing up everywhere.

I used to live in Santee, and then Elloree. My first wife and I used to go to Sumter to buy groceries at Kroger, eat at Big Jim's and shop at the Jasemine Mall. We'd make it a day and see a movie on top of everything else.