The Hunt For A Small Property Trophy Buck
We purchased our Cherokee County, SC farm in January 2021, after a long search for the right property. Money was tight , so options were limited. We had hoped to find at least a 100 acre property less than a two hour drive from our home. Every property we looked at had something missing. Either it had been cutover recently, had too many pines , or was just way too expensive. On one of our viewing days, we found a 68 acre timberland property 90 minutes from the house. It wasn’t in the size range we were looking for , and it wasn’t really in the area we thought we wanted to be either. However, once we looked at it , I thought it was the perfect deer hunting property. It had an internal road system, a mixture of thick cover, open hardwoods, and some pines. It was also bordered on the front and back with two nice flowing creeks. Access for not alerting the deer to my presence appeared to be great as well. It was November, so there was plenty of buck sign on the place. We decided to make an offer, but did not expect it to be accepted as it was well below the asking price per acre. To our surprise, the landowner accepted our offer a few weeks later. I guess he decided it had been for sale long enough, and he did not live nearby. We closed shortly after in January. I had a lot of work to do before the 2021 season came around.
I brought my tractor down shortly after closing to work on clearing the first future food plot. Teresa and Ethan set out getting the property posted. After a full day, the first plot was taking shape. I have a friend with a track hoe , and he offered to bring it down and get up the stumps. Once he arrived, we decided to build a second plot on the back of the property, at the end of a long ridge. I also rented a forestry mulcher a bit later and we cleared a nice section of woods near the second plot. A 15-20 acre sanctuary bedding area was beyond the second plot, with a beaver swamp in the bottom of the draw. I avoid that area, starting in August, throughout the season. A soil test was completed and lime and fertilizer were applied per the recommendations. Durana White Clover was planted in both plots initially, along with two mineral site locations. Lots of does and some nice bucks were on my cameras all summer. Come September, the two plots were over seeded with Coker 227 oats and Abruzzi Cereal Rye Grain.
I killed the first buck on the property on October 2, 2021. It was a nice 9pt that I had gotten quite a few pictures of over the span of the summer. I had setup on the edge of a bedding area, along the back creek. Late morning a doe came running across the creek in front of me. She was being followed by three bucks, including the 9pt. I stopped it at 11 yds and placed the arrow behind the shoulder. The first buck on my own property would soon be in my hands!
Coming into 2022, I knew I had to continue to improve the property to hold deer during the season. My plots had not turned out nearly like I had hoped in 2021. There were not many deer living on the place after early October. The neighboring hunters were shooting a lot of deer it seemed. Every weekend I heard lots of shots and seeing very few, if any, deer at all. I spread another 1500lbs of lime and 500lbs of fertilizer on my clover plots, hoping to give them the boost they needed. I also frost seeded more Durana clover in February. By June, I finally had some lush clover growing! Both bucks and does were hitting the mineral sites hard as well. I was getting really nice bucks on camera on a regular basis. We overseeded the plots in September , again, with Coker 227 Oats and Abruzzi Cereal Rye Grain. This time the timing of the rain was perfect, and by October the plots were lush with clover, rye and oats. This kept the deer on the property very well, all season. I was able to see plenty of deer, especially in the late season , after the leaves were off. Our property was drawing in a lot of deer! We shot a few does and were able to pass quite a few young bucks. Hopefully they would make it until next year. The shooting from the neighbors was down tremendously from the year before. What we were doing appeared to be working! Unfortunately, I was not able to connect on any of the mature bucks that I had pictures of previously. They came through the property at night mostly. The few daytime pictures were while I was sitting at my desk at work during the week! That’s how it goes with deer hunting. Can’t be everywhere at once.
As 2023 rolled around, I had been doing a ton of research on how to improve the hunting even more. It seems to be a continuous process! I finally decided to rent a skid steer and clear one additional food plot. This would give me three plots, about a half acre each. This plot turned out great and curious deer started showing up within a few days of finishing up. They like the smell of fresh dirt it seems. I followed the same process with refreshing the mineral sites and frost seeding clover again in February. By July, I was getting pictures of a bachelor group of really nice bucks. It was shaping up to be the best year so far on the farm. Once buck in particular really had my attention. He was a wide 8pt I had estimated to be a 4.5 year old. He had good mass and tine length. I really hoped to get a chance at him this fall! With very little rain in September and early October, I was really concerned my plots would not green up in time for the late October rut. Peak breeding in my area of South Carolina has been determined to occur from October 25-November 7 each year. However, does get bred in our state all the way into late December it seems. Fortunately, the rain came for a day or so the second week of October. The plots were starting to look good, with multiple does hitting them in daylight hours regularly. However, all the mature bucks with still very nocturnal. I was only seeing small bucks and does on the few times I had a chance to hunt. One evening , at last light, the big mature 8pt came into my newest plot following a doe. Unfortunately, I was not in that stand at the time. I had decided to try another area of the farm that day. Sometimes cameras can be a very big downer! Then, the morning of October 19th, one of the other nice bucks on the farm showed up an hour after daylight! Things were looking up. My buddy Jeff had also came in to hunt a 3 day weekend with me. We were looking forward to seeing a lot of rutting deer action!
The weekend hunt did not turn out as we had hoped. The deer activity skidded to a halt it appeared. I went from getting 50-60 pictures a day on my cellular cameras to less than 10 for several days in a row. I think the bucks were starting to lock down with the first does to come into estrus. I guess the remaining does decided to limit their activity on the farm too. This was the dreaded “October Lull” as it has came to be referred to. Jeff had to fly home on the 23rd with no success for either of us. It was back to work for me too.
On the night of the 24th, I got a picture of the mature 8 in one of my plots. It was late at night, but at least he was still alive. Then , on the 25th , a new mature 8 showed up overnight in my newest plot. I could tell the bigger bucks were on the hunt for does again.
continued--
We purchased our Cherokee County, SC farm in January 2021, after a long search for the right property. Money was tight , so options were limited. We had hoped to find at least a 100 acre property less than a two hour drive from our home. Every property we looked at had something missing. Either it had been cutover recently, had too many pines , or was just way too expensive. On one of our viewing days, we found a 68 acre timberland property 90 minutes from the house. It wasn’t in the size range we were looking for , and it wasn’t really in the area we thought we wanted to be either. However, once we looked at it , I thought it was the perfect deer hunting property. It had an internal road system, a mixture of thick cover, open hardwoods, and some pines. It was also bordered on the front and back with two nice flowing creeks. Access for not alerting the deer to my presence appeared to be great as well. It was November, so there was plenty of buck sign on the place. We decided to make an offer, but did not expect it to be accepted as it was well below the asking price per acre. To our surprise, the landowner accepted our offer a few weeks later. I guess he decided it had been for sale long enough, and he did not live nearby. We closed shortly after in January. I had a lot of work to do before the 2021 season came around.
I brought my tractor down shortly after closing to work on clearing the first future food plot. Teresa and Ethan set out getting the property posted. After a full day, the first plot was taking shape. I have a friend with a track hoe , and he offered to bring it down and get up the stumps. Once he arrived, we decided to build a second plot on the back of the property, at the end of a long ridge. I also rented a forestry mulcher a bit later and we cleared a nice section of woods near the second plot. A 15-20 acre sanctuary bedding area was beyond the second plot, with a beaver swamp in the bottom of the draw. I avoid that area, starting in August, throughout the season. A soil test was completed and lime and fertilizer were applied per the recommendations. Durana White Clover was planted in both plots initially, along with two mineral site locations. Lots of does and some nice bucks were on my cameras all summer. Come September, the two plots were over seeded with Coker 227 oats and Abruzzi Cereal Rye Grain.
I killed the first buck on the property on October 2, 2021. It was a nice 9pt that I had gotten quite a few pictures of over the span of the summer. I had setup on the edge of a bedding area, along the back creek. Late morning a doe came running across the creek in front of me. She was being followed by three bucks, including the 9pt. I stopped it at 11 yds and placed the arrow behind the shoulder. The first buck on my own property would soon be in my hands!
Coming into 2022, I knew I had to continue to improve the property to hold deer during the season. My plots had not turned out nearly like I had hoped in 2021. There were not many deer living on the place after early October. The neighboring hunters were shooting a lot of deer it seemed. Every weekend I heard lots of shots and seeing very few, if any, deer at all. I spread another 1500lbs of lime and 500lbs of fertilizer on my clover plots, hoping to give them the boost they needed. I also frost seeded more Durana clover in February. By June, I finally had some lush clover growing! Both bucks and does were hitting the mineral sites hard as well. I was getting really nice bucks on camera on a regular basis. We overseeded the plots in September , again, with Coker 227 Oats and Abruzzi Cereal Rye Grain. This time the timing of the rain was perfect, and by October the plots were lush with clover, rye and oats. This kept the deer on the property very well, all season. I was able to see plenty of deer, especially in the late season , after the leaves were off. Our property was drawing in a lot of deer! We shot a few does and were able to pass quite a few young bucks. Hopefully they would make it until next year. The shooting from the neighbors was down tremendously from the year before. What we were doing appeared to be working! Unfortunately, I was not able to connect on any of the mature bucks that I had pictures of previously. They came through the property at night mostly. The few daytime pictures were while I was sitting at my desk at work during the week! That’s how it goes with deer hunting. Can’t be everywhere at once.
As 2023 rolled around, I had been doing a ton of research on how to improve the hunting even more. It seems to be a continuous process! I finally decided to rent a skid steer and clear one additional food plot. This would give me three plots, about a half acre each. This plot turned out great and curious deer started showing up within a few days of finishing up. They like the smell of fresh dirt it seems. I followed the same process with refreshing the mineral sites and frost seeding clover again in February. By July, I was getting pictures of a bachelor group of really nice bucks. It was shaping up to be the best year so far on the farm. Once buck in particular really had my attention. He was a wide 8pt I had estimated to be a 4.5 year old. He had good mass and tine length. I really hoped to get a chance at him this fall! With very little rain in September and early October, I was really concerned my plots would not green up in time for the late October rut. Peak breeding in my area of South Carolina has been determined to occur from October 25-November 7 each year. However, does get bred in our state all the way into late December it seems. Fortunately, the rain came for a day or so the second week of October. The plots were starting to look good, with multiple does hitting them in daylight hours regularly. However, all the mature bucks with still very nocturnal. I was only seeing small bucks and does on the few times I had a chance to hunt. One evening , at last light, the big mature 8pt came into my newest plot following a doe. Unfortunately, I was not in that stand at the time. I had decided to try another area of the farm that day. Sometimes cameras can be a very big downer! Then, the morning of October 19th, one of the other nice bucks on the farm showed up an hour after daylight! Things were looking up. My buddy Jeff had also came in to hunt a 3 day weekend with me. We were looking forward to seeing a lot of rutting deer action!
The weekend hunt did not turn out as we had hoped. The deer activity skidded to a halt it appeared. I went from getting 50-60 pictures a day on my cellular cameras to less than 10 for several days in a row. I think the bucks were starting to lock down with the first does to come into estrus. I guess the remaining does decided to limit their activity on the farm too. This was the dreaded “October Lull” as it has came to be referred to. Jeff had to fly home on the 23rd with no success for either of us. It was back to work for me too.
On the night of the 24th, I got a picture of the mature 8 in one of my plots. It was late at night, but at least he was still alive. Then , on the 25th , a new mature 8 showed up overnight in my newest plot. I could tell the bigger bucks were on the hunt for does again.
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