Visited family in Charlotte, NC between Christmas and New Years. My brother-in-law is an avid hunter and each year at this time we make it a point to hunt while the families are getting together. This year I don’t have a significant report from the hunt but I always enjoy it when others write up their experiences so I’ll do my best to return the favor by sharing mine.
Prior to my arrival this year my brother-in-law had harvested two bucks so we were going to be very selective in taking a third deer and the venison always gets distributed to many family members in the NC/SC area so harvesting a 3rd deer wouldn’t be too much meat for the extended family to use and enjoy this year.
For the first time I brought my rifle on the flight. The process was straight forward and I didn’t have any issues. The ammo needs to be in factory packaging. The hard case needs to be locked and for a rifle they specify that each end of the case must also be locked (so I had three key locks on my case). It was great that the airline had their firearm regulations posted online so I knew the process would go smoothly.
December 26th we headed out pre-dawn and I used a tree climber stand to get 30’ up near the pine canopy. This was my 2nd year using the tree climber so I am finally comfortable with the height and the way it wiggles more as the tree thins on the way up. A body harness with tie-off to the tree gives me comfort that the furthest I would fall is around 3’
It was nice hearing the Forest wake up in the Carolinas. Different sounding birds and more squirrels but otherwise a similar sound to our mountain forests waking up. Thirty minutes after sunrise two Doe slowly walked through my shooting lane. I held back my excitement and watched intently for a Buck to be in pursuit. No buck buck appeared and after about 10 minutes the Doe had wandered off. Then I heard a shot less than a mile away. I messaged my bro-in-law if he had shot? He replied that he had shot a Doe and was waiting to track her. I sort of couldn’t believe that he had fired on a Doe within the first 90 minutes of our first hunting day of the week. We found the Doe within 50 yards and were at the processor by 10:30am.
Funny story: the same thing happened last year except then I wasn’t able to get my shot setup before three Doe bounced out of my lane. My bro-in-law harvested one of them 30 minutes later. At least he always puts me in the spot the deer will pass through first, but hopefully next year the hunting will last a little longer
South Carolina changed their deer tags for out-of-state hunters this year. In years past they have always included a buck tag with the required big game permit. But this year they adopted a program where the cost of a buck tag for a non-SC resident will equal the cost a SC resident would pay for a buck tag in the state where the hunter resides. My buck tag was $85 this year. Still a good deal and I’m happy to support their hunting programs as an out-of-Stater. With their new reciprocal license program I was a little worried they would say “we don’t allow CA hunters” because CA makes it so difficult for out-of-State hunters
Doe tags stayed the same at $5 for residents and $15 for non-residents.
Prior to my arrival this year my brother-in-law had harvested two bucks so we were going to be very selective in taking a third deer and the venison always gets distributed to many family members in the NC/SC area so harvesting a 3rd deer wouldn’t be too much meat for the extended family to use and enjoy this year.
For the first time I brought my rifle on the flight. The process was straight forward and I didn’t have any issues. The ammo needs to be in factory packaging. The hard case needs to be locked and for a rifle they specify that each end of the case must also be locked (so I had three key locks on my case). It was great that the airline had their firearm regulations posted online so I knew the process would go smoothly.
December 26th we headed out pre-dawn and I used a tree climber stand to get 30’ up near the pine canopy. This was my 2nd year using the tree climber so I am finally comfortable with the height and the way it wiggles more as the tree thins on the way up. A body harness with tie-off to the tree gives me comfort that the furthest I would fall is around 3’
It was nice hearing the Forest wake up in the Carolinas. Different sounding birds and more squirrels but otherwise a similar sound to our mountain forests waking up. Thirty minutes after sunrise two Doe slowly walked through my shooting lane. I held back my excitement and watched intently for a Buck to be in pursuit. No buck buck appeared and after about 10 minutes the Doe had wandered off. Then I heard a shot less than a mile away. I messaged my bro-in-law if he had shot? He replied that he had shot a Doe and was waiting to track her. I sort of couldn’t believe that he had fired on a Doe within the first 90 minutes of our first hunting day of the week. We found the Doe within 50 yards and were at the processor by 10:30am.
Funny story: the same thing happened last year except then I wasn’t able to get my shot setup before three Doe bounced out of my lane. My bro-in-law harvested one of them 30 minutes later. At least he always puts me in the spot the deer will pass through first, but hopefully next year the hunting will last a little longer
South Carolina changed their deer tags for out-of-state hunters this year. In years past they have always included a buck tag with the required big game permit. But this year they adopted a program where the cost of a buck tag for a non-SC resident will equal the cost a SC resident would pay for a buck tag in the state where the hunter resides. My buck tag was $85 this year. Still a good deal and I’m happy to support their hunting programs as an out-of-Stater. With their new reciprocal license program I was a little worried they would say “we don’t allow CA hunters” because CA makes it so difficult for out-of-State hunters
Doe tags stayed the same at $5 for residents and $15 for non-residents.
