When I think bout deer hunting, I imagine sitting in a tall gum tree overlooking an oak flat. The sky is that deep, clear blue that we only get when the weather has just enough chill to it to need a light jacket, even in the early afternoon. I can see that big buck as he strolls along the edge, looking for does.

Close my eyes a little longer and it’s a cold November morning. Frost on the ground, a light mist in the air, as the howling of distant hounds rings through the swamp. Soon I can see another big buck slipping through the cover, glancing back over his shoulder to keep an eye on the approaching hounds.

Deer season opens on Friday, Aug 15, and nobody in his or her right mind in South Carolina will be wearing a jacket, other than the bug-tamer kind. The only shaking anybody will be doing is from heat exhaustion. Instead, we will be dripping sweat, fighting red bugs, mosquitoes and deer flies and hoping that the ever-present afternoon thunderstorm will pass in the distance instead of directly overhead.

I was, for 20 years, an avid deer hunter. Opening day would find me leaving the truck in a dry set of camouflage. The walk to the stand would leave me soaking wet, so after I got in the stand, risking life and limb, I would contort like an Olympic gymnast to change into another set of dry clothes.

Thirty minutes later, those would be soaked through as well, but at least I started out dry. I would stare out over an empty soybean field, barren of any life or movement other than the occasional songbird struggling from one shady place to another. I would tell myself I was having a wonderful time, watching nature and hoping for that big buck to show himself. Ninety-nine percent of the time I would walk back to the truck empty-handed, visions of giant rattlesnakes hidden in the bushes accompanying my every step through the dark.

Occasionally I or one of my brothers would shoot a deer and then the work would begin. Shoot a deer at dusk in the month of August and you can figure on being busy until late. Deer processors were unheard of then, and even if there had been one right across the street, we would have been too broke to go there anyway. Drag a deer out, get him to the house, hang him, skin him, cut him up and then clean up the mess and midnight is a very real possibility. I can remember on more then one occasion saying I need to start hunting in the mornings or not go until the time changes in October.

Now that 50 is starting to get mighty close, I like to think that I am smarter. Maybe not a lot smarter, but at least enough so that I seldom deer hunt until October anymore. While I might not be as enthusiastic as I once was, my 16-year-old son, Wesley, has the fever every bit as bad as I once did.

Wesley shot his first deer when he was 10 and has shot several nice bucks since then, but all of them have been in stands someone else set up. This year he decided that he wanted to do it all own his on, from picking the places for his stands to putting the meat in the freezer.

He has been scouting a local wildlife management area for the last month. Stand locations are picked out and applications for youth hunts have been sent off. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the season to get here.

Wesley started saving for his own deer rifle last year and between odd jobs and money from various relatives, he managed to get his own 270 for Christmas. The problem with deer-hunting gifts for Christmas is you only have a week to use them before the season is over. We managed to fit in a few dog drives during that week, but since those are shotgun-only, Wesley’s rifle went unused except at targets. Eight months later, it’s sighted in and ready to draw first blood.

I have every kind of deer stand you can imagine. Ladder stands, climbing stands and lock-on stands, more stands than I can use, but Wesley decided that he needed his own. It took most of the summer, but he finally saved enough to get a climbing stand to go along with his new rifle. We were both happy to see that it came with a safety harness instead of just a strap, since one of the rules he agreed to was that he would get a good safety harness. It looks like it will work pretty well for dragging a deer out of the woods as well. Knowing Wesley, it won’t take long to find out.

The wildlife management areas near home don’t open their seasons until later in the year, but we belong to a hunting club in Colleton County that opens on the 15th. Wesley already has plans for being there as soon as school lets out for the day. It just so happens that I have the day off from work as well, so maybe I’ll join him and hope for cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 90s.

T&D Correspondent Wes Murphy can be reached by e-mail at wesnyou@hotmail.com. Murphy is an Orangeburg native and outdoorsman who now resides in Sumter.

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