Learning to hunt public land whitetail - South Carolina

[MikeM-SC]

Last Saturday on Sumter national Forest WMA. In the middle of a two year old clear cut

 

[jimh406]

If it has a lot of pressure, I'd look for the thickest places you can find in between roads, go into it, and get high enough that you can shoot down into it. That way when people walk off the road, they'll push the deer to you. In very thick areas, a lot of times deer will kind of mill around and feed, or bed down during the day.

We used to call it patterning the people. Don't be fooled by lots of sign. When the people move in, the deer don't use the same places. Also, deer pushed by people will move all times of the day. If there are dead leaves, listen for them coming your way.

This might be dead simple. YMMV.

 

[MikeM-SC]

I 100% agree with the "patterning the people" theory, especially around the fants area. It can be difficult at times to get where two or three other hunters aren't going to walk right by you though. When you get a little further down the state (McCormick), this will not work nearly as well as it did 20 years ago. The deer hunter numbers have dropped significantly, on opening week you might see 8 or 10 trucks sitting at Forest service gates around the area. It used to be a running joke down there that you had to bring your own tree to climb for opening week of gun season. That's just simply not the case anymore

 

[Jaegerr]

I hunt quite a bit from the foothills of the mountains in oconee to the McCormick/Abbeville/Edgefield area. I've been very fortunate over the years to kill some pretty good deer off wma. I would agree with above post about fants, I've seen a lot of good bucks come out of there, but can be a lot of pressure depending on where you go. For me personally, around the McCormick area, it's a whole different ball game than the upstate. I seem to find some good deer there on fairly new clear cuts. Which there are plenty of this year, I don't believe I've ever seen so much logging/clear cutting around that area as I've seen this year. Also probably the most acorns this year that I've ever seen. So ideally if you can find a hardwood draw running up to a clear cut edge, you should be golden. Also don't be afraid to do some walking, seems like most WMA hunters are within a couple hundred yards of their truck

Yeah I walked the mountain yesterday on a clear cut, came up on a steep bottom that dead ended into a clear cut and bumped some deer in the bottom I think so that tracks.