If you spend a good portion of your summer counting the days until fall deer hunting, here’s some good news. In the South Carolina Lowcountry, rifle season has already started!
South Carolina rifle season started August 15. Yes, it’s a tad on the warm side, but not much more than the rest of the eastern U.S. And what’s a little heat, humidity and a few mosquitoes for the chance to tag a nice whitetail buck?
To test the water before advising anyone to give it a try, I travelled to the Lowcountry this past weekend to see for myself. Friday afternoon, I arrived at Deerfield Plantation in St. George, South Carolina, about an hour from Charleston. The Deerfield main lodge is a plantation house built in the 1850s, and it still has much of the original structure and charm, but with all the modern amenities and comforts.
After sighting in my .280 and tossing my stuff in a bedroom, I met the other fellows I’d be hunting with: Kevin Thompson from Mississippi and Mike Downs and Mark Andreyko from Pennsylvania. Mike’s been coming down for 18 years and says the early deer hunting outweighs any concerns about heat and bugs.
Deerfield owner Hugh Walters makes sure everyone is comfortable, well-fed and placed on stands that offer the best chances for a shooter buck. As a bonus, early hunters have a shot at a deer in velvet. There are also wild hogs in the swamps, and they’re apt to show up at the food plots in the evening hours.
Each morning and afternoon, our guide, Marshall Taylor, drove us out to covered, elevated stands and shooting houses. During my three hunts – Saturday morning and afternoon and Sunday morning, I saw plenty of deer. It was Sunday when I caught a glimpse of a really nice velvet-antlered buck. A shooter for sure. But I never got a shot.
Kevin was far luckier, killing a pretty seven-pointer in velvet Saturday evening. He and the other two from PA are on a 3-day hunt, so I’m waiting for more good news.
Nonetheless, each sitting was enjoyable. Yes, there was some heat and humidity. And a rainstorm Saturday evening. But we were in roomy, comfy, high and dry blinds, so we all just enjoyed the show– “show” being the numerous critters that you’re liable to see down in that part of the country. Along with deer and hogs, you may see Eastern wild turkeys, black fox squirrels, armadillos, bobcats, an array of birds and coyotes (which you’re encouraged to shoot).
If you do make it down to the early season hunt, here are a few things you should bring along: a Thermacell, binoculars, lightweight clothing and boots that can handle some mud and rain. Other than that, just the usual stuff – flashlight, rifle, ammo, and did I mention a Thermacell?
But you can leave the food at home. You’ll be fed a filling breakfast after the morning hunt, plus country lunch and dinner prepared by Miss Julia May. She’s been cooking there for 30 years and knows how to put the style in southern.
If you’d like to come down for some deer hunting before your home season begins, visit the Deerfield Plantations website. Or you can come down later if you like. The rifle season runs through January 1. To find out about rules and regs, visit the SCDNR website.
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