The deer season opens here in the Lowcountry of SC in 29 days. On private land there is no bag limit on bucks. As many as you see walk by your stand in a day you can harvest.
My problem is I don't feel like hunting until the November/December time frame. I can't stand the heat, the humidity, the chiggers, the mosquitos, the ticks and I'm sure there's a few other things.
When I climb a tree and I'm wet from head to toe by the time I'm up to hunting height, I'm ready to climb back down and go home!! I don't enjoy sweat logged clothing in 90/90 weather!!
Bill
PS For those who live in Yorba Linda, that would be 90 degree/90% humidity weather.
At lease you have that nice long season and no bag limit! :) Our archery season doesn't start here in Texas until October and it is still hot here then too.
John
Hey Bill...i thought it was just me that felt that way..i'm supposed to come over Aug 23 for a hunt with a friend of mine from South Carolina, and i'm already trying to talk myself out of going so early!
It didn't seem to bother me so much when i was closer to "sunrise" than "sunset"!
when our season opens Sept 13th(NJ) I hunt near water and mostly early in the mornings & last 3 hours of the afternoon/evening... lot cooler
You can hunt early and you can hunt late in the Lowcountry, but it will still be humid and the relative cool is still in the mid to upper 70s. Add the humidity to it and I'm still wet from head to toe by the time I'm up the tree. That's not fun to me! And if it ceases to be fun, I won't be doing it.
I ride my mountain bike about 3 or 4 nights a week in my neighborhood. Depending on how windy it is and from what direction it blows, I'll ride anywhere from 30 minutes/6.65 miles to 42 minutes/9.5 miles. By the time I'm finished I'm wet from head to toe. But I know I'm going to sweat a lot before I start the bike ride and I also know that at the end of the ride I can go into the house and sit and relax under cool A/C and I can get a tall glass of ice water to help me cool down!
Bill
Wish my season started in August. You get no sympathy from me. :bigsmyl:
I have to wait till october, lucky!
I'm probably in the minority here but in Oklahoma our season runs from October 1 thru January 15. I don't enjoy hunting when its hot so I usually don't start till around Halloween. I do this for fun, so I can't justify being miserable while I'm at it. I hate ticks and chiggers. guess I'm saying that I'm with you Wildman.
Brian
Let me give an illustration on chiggers. Maybe it will help folk understand why I don't "go there".
About 22 or 23 years ago we went back home to KS to visit my parents. They rode back to SC with my family. As we were driving through TN the kids spotted blackberry bushes loaded with blackberries along the interstate.
The kids started pestering me to "Let's stop Dad and pick blackberries so Grandma can bake a cobbler when we get home." My response was there hasn't been a cobbler made that is worth me getting eaten up by chiggers.
Finally, one of them said "Dad, you stop, we'll get out and pick blackberries and you can stay in the car." That sounded reasonable to me. So I stopped and they got out and picked blackberries.
Well, guess what, when we got home one person had chiggers on him and guess who it was? ME!!! Somebody was the carrier and once they got in the car the chiggers obviously sniffed me out and said "There he is, get him!" I've never fallen for that one since. I just don't go there!!
Bill
chiggers are nothing, clear nail polish & bleach takes care of them... Lyme from ticks .... now that's bad....
No sympathy here either! I sure wish I was back down there now.
Freeze up a Camelback. Cold on the back and as it melts drink it down. Too hot for a tree... Hunt the ground. If yain't serious about shooting anything in the heat, set up where you've got visibily to watch game movement from a distance. Might just learn something to change your stand locations for later.
Ah heck... I'm just thinking out loud. Those are some of the things I would do. I never miss opening day of bow season. That's time to celebrate regardless of when it comes. Ya just gotta love it. And that country you've got down there...Wonderful!!
As for chiggers...They tore me a new you know what while I was there. Now I'm wiser for it and will be ready for them next time!!
To fully comprehend what chiggers do to me you have to appreciate the fact that I didn't get out of the car 22 years ago, or so, and when we got home I was the only one with chigger bites. Had I gone out and walked amongst the weeds and blackberry bushes I would have had literally hundreds of bite sites under each arm, down each arm, between my legs, around my waist and down each leg.
The total is usually in excess of 500 bite sites. By the time we got home it would have been too late for bleach and the finger nail polish provides only temporary relief for the itching. Believe me it is a miserable condition to be in to have that number of bite sites from chiggers.
I have friends down here that go out and hunt the early season and they tell me they have never had a chigger bite in their entire lives. I don't know that I believe that, but I'm not taking the chance because I have experienced the misery of having the bites!!
Bill
I love it when its hot and the tick and mosquitos are swarming . No other fool in the woods but me ! Deer are still in the summer feeding patterns and very calm . I see more Deer in Sept. than I do at any other time in the year so i'll be there on opening day for sure in my net bug suit and underware (lol) . Great time to get a buck in velvet also .
Mike
QuoteOriginally posted by WildmanSC:
The total is usually in excess of 500 bite sites. By the time we got home it would have been too late for bleach and the finger nail polish provides only temporary relief for the itching. Believe me it is a miserable condition to be in to have that number of bite sites from chiggers.
Bill
HOLY SMOKES!!! I had probably 50 or 60 and I'm still itchin' some of them three weeks later. You get a pass Bill... You definitely get a pass!!!!!
I'm a chigger noob - what about bug repellent? Does deet or anything like that work?
As for the heat - I have two words for you...
Plaid Speedo.
:-D
Bill, get a therma-cell and put on some camo shorts and get lots of cork. Burn it and smudge your whole buddy, ya should not sweat to bad that way!! :biglaugh: Shawn
Bill, spend more time in the heat and less in the AC and it wont bother you so much. :D Permanone will eliminate the chiggers, and a thermacell will take care of the skeeters. Hunt early and late cause its cooler and thats when they move. They're still in summer patterns and predictable, its a perfect time to bowhunt. Daybreak on 8-15 I'llbe in a stand between some planted pines and a beanield in Williamsburg county waiting on the 8 Ive been watching to make an appearance.
I love hunting in the heat. Skeeters chiggers, ticks, snakes, and every other critter you can think of is out during the early season. I grew up in the low country of NC and I love it. I see more deer in September than any other month. I guess I am just used to it. I went to ILL one year in October for a deer hunt and nearly and froze my butt off. I'll take the heat any day over the freezing cold.
Im the opposite of slayer1I was born in NH and when its 0degrees (F) I like it.Our season opens Sept 15th and although it can be a little warm like mid to high 70's by the time October rolls around northern NH has seen its first hard frost and its getting cold.Last season I booked a hunt with Mountain Camp and we slept in canvas wall tents without heat,the first three days it never got over 5 degrees (F)It was a tree stand hunt.If I cant see my breath when I exhale its not cold enough for me.
Don't you guys know that only hot pink fingernail polish works on chiggers!!LOL
Season in NY starts in mid -October but it's short. I generally don't get ou til late October and the ticks are still active even though it can be very cool and damp. My favorite time though is those first two weeks of November
Wild Bill you have just got to prepare better, get a pop up camper paint it camo or if you are alittle more traditional paint it plaid pattern. get a portable gen that will run the air, pull it up 2 weeks before season so they get used to it, shoot through the screens, I,m telling you the older you get all these bright ideas get brighter, Really its about having a good time so go when you want, as for me I still go give me something to do.
Our season starts the 3 week of September , and I can not wait
QuoteOriginally posted by Lee in S.C.:
Bill, spend more time in the heat and less in the AC and it wont bother you so much. :D Permanone will eliminate the chiggers, and a thermacell will take care of the skeeters. Hunt early and late cause its cooler and thats when they move. They're still in summer patterns and predictable, its a perfect time to bowhunt. Daybreak on 8-15 I'llbe in a stand between some planted pines and a beanield in Williamsburg county waiting on the 8 Ive been watching to make an appearance.
Lee,
I grew up in a home in KS that didn't have A/C. I would go inside a gym to play basketball that had A/C and by the time practice, or a game, was over, I would be wet from head to toe. My body is by nature a generator of heat and therefore, sweat!
People didn't want to guard me when I played basketball because when they tried to lean on me they quickly got wet as my sweat was transferred from my uniform to theirs and through to their skin! ;) That was my little secret weapon! The generator has become even more efficient as I've grown older. If there was a category for Sweat Hogs in P&Y, I'd have to be very careful going to and from my stand during hunting seasons! :biglaugh:
Bill
Bill, I know what chiggers and seed ticks are!! we are blessed with them here big time! But if the season is open and I am off work, I am huntin! I have killed deer with no shirt on, because it was so wet from sweat, I had taken it off to try and dry it out! our season opend Oct 1 and the bugs are still out for several weeks, and I try and hunt out of state where the season opens earlier.. Man, I live all year for this, not gonna miss it for anything.....but I do work in a non AC warehouse with quite a bit of manual labor so maybe the heat isnt as hard as it could be... see ya Dave
It sucks for sure, but I'll be deer hunting in Mid Sept in the south Ga heat. Why, because it will be cooler than it is now. I will probably go hog hunting this week end! :)
I guess 4 years ago Missouri moved it's Archery season opener from October 1st back to September 15th. I had NEVER bowhunted in 95 degree heat until then. Guys that love heat are a bit "different"..LOL
Something had to "give"!! Way to dam* hot to bowhunt. I started sneaking in way early in the cool of dark. I would wear a short sleaved T-shirt and walk slow into my stand. If I went slow enough I would not get sweaty. Three years ago I shot a doe at appx 7:30 opening morning. The hit was a bit back but in the liver I was sure. I gave her two hours to lay down and get stiff. When I found her at 10am (92 degree heat)she was covered in blow fly eggs. I had never seen that before. These eggs hosed right off but they seemed to be getting bigger as I dragged her to a place where I could get her loaded into the Gator. Crazy heat.
You all can KEEP the heat down south. Give me 30-40 degree days everday!!! I hunted southeast Kansas the week after Christmas last year-- 16 degree with 6" of snow.. The only word to describe it--Awesome!
The heat doesn't stop me from hunting, but I sure like to complain about it. LOL
I have a good freind who takes a drink of vinegar every night to keep chiggars and such off of him. He swears it works.
He says just be a man and slug it down. Maybe 2 or 3 ounces of it.
They don't bother me that bad yet. But if and when they do, I'll go the vinegar route.
All this talk about finger nail polish for chiggers. Those bugs are very small. How the heck can you see their little finger nails to put the polish on them?
I grew up in Columbia, S.C. and couldn't wait till August 15 to come. One good thing about it no one makes you go. Mike
wow must be a rough life a season that starts that early and no bag limit on bucks and your complaining about a lil bit of heat
QuoteOriginally posted by Dutchman:
I have a good freind who takes a drink of vinegar every night to keep chiggars and such off of him. He swears it works.
He says just be a man and slug it down. Maybe 2 or 3 ounces of it.
They don't bother me that bad yet. But if and when they do, I'll go the vinegar route.
:eek:
Yuck!
If you go that route, though, I saw in one of the Foxfire books what may be an alternative that you would rather consider.
They called the stuff "switchell" and you mixed half a cup of sourwood honey with half a cup of cider vinegar. Other honeys might work but sourwood is the best honey God ever taught the bees to make - so you may as well use that. :-)
Anyway you add about four teaspoons of that mixture to a glass (or dipper, if you really want to stick to the Foxfire book) of water. It's not nearly as bad as it sounds (or as a straight shot of vinegar sounds).
Yow - I'm still cringing at the notion of a 3 oz shot of straight vinegar.
I guess it just depends on how bad you want to go. :) I can hunting in a pair of shorts and as long as I am in the shade it is not to bad.I hate hunting in the cold however so do my hunting early and only pick the best days later in the season.Bowhunting with a bunch of clothe :D s on sucks.
It's hotter than 40 hells down here when season opens, but I usually average around 50 hunts during our 4 week bowseason. I absolutely cannot wait for Sept. 13th. Plan on hitting the WMA for hogs starting Aug. 15th.
I regularly drink vinegar and honey mixed with hot water in the winter months. Not bad at all. Just get the mix right where you want it. If it'll stop Chiggers, I'll drink it next time I'm down there fo' sho!!
Bill, I'm a sweathog too. I work in it every day and I still sweat like crazy! I'll go through 2-3 shirts a day. Some of us are just blessed I guess. If it gets below 65 my teeth chatter.
I hate the heat!
Never miss an opening day tho,unless I'm on the road working.
Plan on being sick opening day this season.......sitting in the tree sweating.
I hunted pigs on the Wateree River last weekend and boy was it hot and humid but cold when we got in the truck with the AC on in our wet sweaty clothes. Mike
Permanone = no chiggers
QuoteOriginally posted by David M. Mathis:
I grew up in Columbia, S.C. and couldn't wait till August 15 to come. One good thing about it no one makes you go. Mike
Mike,
I don't go and no one could make me go. ;) :D
Bill
QuoteOriginally posted by Lee in S.C.:
Bill, I'm a sweathog too. I work in it every day and I still sweat like crazy! I'll go through 2-3 shirts a day. Some of us are just blessed I guess. If it gets below 65 my teeth chatter.
Lee,
When I was growing up in KS I was acclimated to the cold weather. I used to put long sleeve shirts on when the temperature hit 45! Now that my joints and bones are aching, I put a long sleeve shirt on over insulated underwear long before 45! ;) :D
Bill
QuoteOriginally posted by varmint:
I hate the heat!
Never miss an opening day tho,unless I'm on the road working.
Plan on being sick opening day this season.......sitting in the tree sweating.
Mike,
Sweat a few hundred drops for me while you're out there! :scared: :eek: :D
Bill
The deer season opner can be hot but opening day in a dove field is brutal. Hot as it is I cant stand to miss either.
Open Bow early season starts here in AZ in AUGUST! Heck I wish it would only be 90 degrees!!! Good hunting to ya!