Hunting Hot-Weather White-Tailed Bucks in South Carolina
How to Find Wounded Deer in the Summer
 Editor’s Note:  The State of South Carolina homes many fine hunting places and has a deer season unlike many others, since it starts in some sections of the state on August 15 and continues until January 1. This week we’ll look at hot-weather deer hunting in South Carolina and see the enjoyment of hunters there, although the weather is hot, and sometimes the hunting is tough.
Because the land around the Bostick Plantation is primarily swamp land and may often be flooded due to summer rains, and since much-more foliage is present on the plantation in August, September and October than during the colder months, recovering wounded deer can be much-more difficult. “To consistently find wounded animals, I think the hunter has to know three things,” Joe Bostick comments. “The hunter must understand where the deer wants to go when it’s hit. He has to be able to trail the animal oftentimes on instinct rather than on visually seeing a blood trail. And sometimes the hunter may have to rely on a dog to locate the deer he’s taken. For instance, if you shoot a buck in the afternoon when he’s on his way to his feeding area, 90 times out of 100, the buck will run back toward his bedding area. If you know where that bedding region is, then you can often walk a straight line from where the deer has been heading toward the bedding area and find the buck. If the buck’s hit hard, he may circle before he goes to the bedding area. So the animal may be found within the first 100 yards of the search but not necessarily heading toward where he beds. Hunters have learned the importance of knowing exactly what the buck has done when he’s hit. If the deer’s run off and hasn’t been knocked- down, then most South Carolina hunters will hunt a straight line from where the animal has been shot toward the bedding region. If the deer has been knocked-off his feet and has made a struggle before he gets up and runs off, a hunter can have success by circling the place where the deer has been shot and looking for the animal within 100 yards of the tree stand. If I can’t locate the deer within 20 to 40 minutes of hunting, I go back to the lodge and pick up a dog, bring it back to the spot where the deer has been shot and let that dog find the wounded animal. Without a good dog with a dependable nose, recovering a wounded animal in the summertime can be difficult.”
To learn more about deer hunting at Bostick Plantation, visit www.bostick-plantation.com.
Tomorrow: Warm-Weather Bucks are Some of the Biggest of the Season |
