Weekend before yesterday’s weekend (if that makes sense) I took a trip to the coastal plain of South Carolina to help my fellow PhD student Clint out with his research project. He is putting out GPS radiocollars on mature bucks on a property owned privately by Norfolk Southern Railroad near Charleston, South Carolina.
Here is his house – where I bunked up for 3 nights.
Not kidding either. 4 rooms – living room, kitchen, bathroom, bunk room. Pretty simple but pretty cool at the same time.
Main objective was to help dart some deer. Only difficulty at this time of year is South Carolina bucks don’t have any antlers on their head or beginning to grow again for that matter. Makes it quite a challenge to differentiate the boys from the girls especially in low light or at night through night vision equipment. We made a big impact the first night though by darting 3 bucks.
Here was one of the perches I sat in while helping out.
This rub was easily 7″ in diameter. That is some monster buck sign anywhere in the country – let alone in South Carolina.
Second night out was kind of drizzly and no one got a shot opportunity.
Did manage to put a few more shed antlers on the tally sheet for myself this year. Free range sheds that is.
I spotted an antler sticking up in a food plot as we drove by about 40 yards away. When I went over to grab my prize, I was surprised to see its mate laying not 15 feet away. Only the second set of shed antlers I’ve ever found laying together.
I picked up another tiny 3 point side from a yearling buck but failed to get a picture of it. It was so small that it was laying in the middle of a well traveled interior road but had been overlooked for a couple months by everyone else. Just got to be paying attention.
It was a good trip to help a buddy out and they tagged 5 more last week since I drove back to Alabama and he only needs a couple more to round out his field season.
