2024 Hunt
"2024 Hunting"
It's all about the Hunt, not the Kill!
by Bryan Austin
Jan 20th, 2024
The first image is of the rub I discovered in early December, and was the rub I was hunting the day the big boy came out after he was making the second rub. I could hear him rubbing and could see the whole tree shake.
The buck I heard rubbing a tree got away from me...but I did find the tree today (second image).
I'll be trying to set up a few stand locations to concentrate on a 15 acre area on the side of a mountain. It contains quite a few draws and steep slopes as well as clear areas and a few places of hard cover.
The secondary images shows the view of the area from a high steep slope overlooking the spur and draws descending from the top, where there has been a ton of rut activity.
Jan 2024
With 2023 behind us, we can try to do better in 2024. I have all year to set up for a new adventure. I learned a lot this past season when it come to hunting deer in the mountains of NC. Unlike how we hunt in the flats of South Carolina, these mountains are a lot more challenging.
I was unable to video my hunts because I was walking alot. I actually walked up on three does feeding on a steep slope. I was able to get about 50 yards from them and watch them walk off to my left. As I was trying to get some video from my phone, a buck was hot on the trial coming down from the top. I took a shot and hit him but failed to finish the job for several reason of which I would never take that kind of shot again. First, I was moving to fast and was exhausted when I took the shot, although blood was found...it was not a fatal hit for whatever reason. Lessons learned for the end of this this year's 2024 deer season to come!
Meanwhile, I got a lot of work to do for the landowner...two more coyotes to get and a bunch of groundhogs.
As far as hunting in South Carolina in 2023, I never saw a buck!!!
Stay Tuned!!