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South Carolina Hunters Only

Schemeecho

Schemeecho

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2020
Messages
313
Location
Gaston, SC.
Hello fellow South Carolina hunters. I was wondering if any Hunters from South Carolina is familiar with hunting The up state. Mostly interested in the Sumter National Forest, Around the Newberry and surrounding areas. I'm not looking for your exact hunting location but rather Some info on deer density within parts for the forest and maybe a few suggestions on some sections to try my luck in this season. Its been six long years for me with no success and I'd really like to put some meat on the table this year. Sumter Forest is a huge area and there is no way possible way I could scout the entire thing. I was just hoping That maybe some of you more seasoned hunters might be able to help put fairly new hunter onto some spots where the deer may actually be this year.
 
Well I've jumped deer in sumter near brazzlemans Bridge rd, but I've never gotten close to a shot on one. It's big, monotonous, habitat without much to differentiate one acre from the next and ive had a lot of trouble figuring out how they move through there. I've probably seen a half dozen deer though, over 3 or 4 days of hunting. Unfortunately mostly from my truck.

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ThereWillBeSpuds said:
Well I've jumped deer in sumter near brazzlemans Bridge rd, but I've never gotten close to a shot on one. It's big, monotonous, habitat without much to differentiate one acre from the next and ive had a lot of trouble figuring out how they move through there. I've probably seen a half dozen deer though, over 3 or 4 days of hunting. Unfortunately mostly from my truck.

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Yeah that's what I was worried about. I have a spot that I found. I followed a small creek and found where some tracks showed where they were crossing. I walked the creek for about 200 yards and there were high walls where the creek flowed and it was blocked off by a few down trees. So I went back to the crossing and it seems like it might be a good pinch point. Just beyond that I jumped a few doe bedding down about 60 yards away from the crossing. The wind usually is a south or south west wind. The creek is just west of the tree I have picked out and the bedding is to the north. So if the wind holds constant I'm going to try my luck there next weekend.
 
I've never deer hunted any of the forest but I've spent a lot of time small game and turkey hunting that area. I'd look at the topo maps and aerial photos find a clear cut and walk the edge. There are tons of couple-year-old clear cuts on those properties that should make for great bedding and browsing. They do a lot of timber management in that unit, cutting, burning. In my experience the farther you get from I-26 the better....


Edited to add: For most of my life I've deer hunted in the vicinity of the forest land. I'd think the deer density would be good.
 
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carolinaslayer said:
I've never deer hunted any of the forest but I've spent a lot of time small game and turkey hunting that area. I'd look at the topo maps and aerial photos find a clear cut and walk the edge. There are tons of couple-year-old clear cuts on those properties that should make for great bedding and browsing. They do a lot of timber management in that unit, cutting, burning. In my experience the farther you get from I-26 the better....


Edited to add: For most of my life I've deer hunted in the vicinity of the forest land. I'd think the deer density would be good.
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I would like to find some clear cuts and walk the edge but the issue is with aerial photos. Most of the photos you cant rely on because there is no way that i know of to search for specific dates when a photo was taken verses when it was cut, if i worded that correctly
 
Schemeecho said:
I would like to find some clear cuts and walk the edge but the issue is with aerial photos. Most of the photos you cant rely on because there is no way that i know of to search for specific dates when a photo was taken verses when it was cut, if i worded that correctly
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I live on the SE corner of the SNF and I can tell from the changes Ive made on my land that the aerial pic is less than a year old. Assuming the entire area was updated. The clear cuts are there you just have to burn some gas. Also look at the properties adjacent to the public to see if they've been cut. Set up on the public and catch them coming out of the bedding. My suggestion would be to find a large clear cut. Set up on an active exit route(fresh looking tracks), sit till dark. If you don't see any deer move to next exit. If your new and your just learning what fresh deer sign is.. it may tough to determine what sign is super fresh until you start seeing some deer and can actually look at the fresh tracks or whatever sign they leave. Be in a tree at primetime for sure.
 
CarolinaDog said:
I live on the SE corner of the SNF and I can tell from the changes Ive made on my land that the aerial pic is less than a year old. Assuming the entire area was updated. The clear cuts are there you just have to burn some gas. Also look at the properties adjacent to the public to see if they've been cut. Set up on the public and catch them coming out of the bedding. My suggestion would be to find a large clear cut. Set up on an active exit route(fresh looking tracks), sit till dark. If you don't see any deer move to next exit. If your new and your just learning what fresh deer sign is.. it may tough to determine what sign is super fresh until you start seeing some deer and can actually look at the fresh tracks or whatever sign they leave. Be in a tree at primetime for sure.
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yeah I'm still new to all this. I'm not sure of how much of the SNF I cant hunt. Finding the clear cuts are the issue I'm having.
 
Just almost killed a deer in SNF this evening. Red line is how I walked in, green line is how the deer were moving. I think they were headed for a small corn field just north of this screenshot that still has standing corn.

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Here is the screenshot.
473da820fde546e9c2d18405925dbeaf.jpg


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Nope no luck, Didn't even see anything Except watched another hunter set up a climber and make lots of noise. God it's so much more quiet using a saddle. I waited until he was down before I came down and thats when he finally saw me. He did apologize , so that was good. I didnt realize Jalapa Rd had so much traffic. It wasn't like that last year.
 
Schemeecho said:
Nope no luck, Didn't even see anything Except watched another hunter set up a climber and make lots of noise. God it's so much more quiet using a saddle. I waited until he was down before I came down and thats when he finally saw me. He did apologize , so that was good. I didnt realize Jalapa Rd had so much traffic. It wasn't like that last year.
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I mostly hunt in the week so I haven't ever had another hunter set up close to me, but looking at the map, jalapa rd may just be too close to I-26.

Edit: too close to i-26 to avoid other hunters.
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ThereWillBeSpuds said:
I mostly hunt in the week so I haven't ever had another hunter set up close to me, but looking at the map, jalapa rd may just be too close to I-26.

Edit: too close to i-26 to avoid other hunters.
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I'm going to have to put in a lot more work in SNF next year/ There is just so much land to hunt up there so picking a spot to start scouting isn't easy
 
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