- By Tommy Braswell Special to The Post and Courier
- 12 hrs ago
- South Carolina deer hunting season set to begin Aug. 15
It’s August and hot as blazes, and that’s a signal to South Carolina deer hunters that one of the longest seasons for hunting white-tailed deer is about to begin. Deer season on private lands opens Aug. 15 in Game Zones 3 and 4, which includes most of the lower half of the state. And the season doesn’t end until Jan. 1.
For complete information including open and closed dates, hunters should check the Rules and Regulations at dnr.sc.gov.
While many deer hunters will wait for cooler weather, there is a bonus for hunters willing to battle the heat. The early start affords hunters a unique opportunity not found in other parts of the white-tailed deer’s range — the opportunity to harvest a buck in velvet.
Male deer, or bucks, shed their antlers each year in late winter and begin to grow new ones during the summer. The new antlers contain nerves and blood vessels, and the hairy skin looks much like velvet. But once the antlers reach their full growth, the blood vessels begin to dry up and the deer begin to rub their antlers against trees to rid themselves of the annoying velvet. The opportunity usually lasts for only a couple of weeks.
If you harvest a deer in velvet and want to have a mount done, you need to be extremely careful with the deer. Taxidermists say you should treat the antlers with the same care you would use for meat — get it cool quickly and don’t leave it in the sun. Avoid grabbing the deer by the antlers when you remove it from the woods. And get it to the taxidermist as quickly as possible.
One change for deer hunters in South Carolina is the potential to harvest one more deer than in seasons past.
Lee Kennamer is South Carolina’s Big Game Coordinator, replacing Charles Ruth, who retired at the first of the year.
Kennamer reminds hunters that all harvested deer must be tagged and reported. The base set of tags for the last several years for those who don’t purchase bonus tags was three tags for antlered deer and two antlerless tags. But the number of antlerless tags is now three.
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“Theoretically, the general hunters can kill up to five bucks, two of which are antler-restricted, and up to nine antlerless deer, so a total of 14 deer,” Kennamer said.
“We always talk about antlerless harvest as being an important part of good deer management, and we want to make sure we emphasize that,” Kennamer said of the increase. “We felt like the antlered tags being a bigger number than the antlerless tags was against the message that antlerless harvest is an important part of that process.”
Kennamer said South Carolina’s antlered and antlerless harvest has not changed proportionally for a long time. He said South Carolina’s deer population has been relatively stable for the last 10 to 15 years.
“Overall, it’s pretty balanced, but in some areas there’s a need for more (antlerless harvest),” he said. “It gives everybody another tool and emphasized the message we want when you’re looking at managing a deer herd. You can shoot bucks all you want, but when you look at how many does you have, that’s what really affects your population up or down.”
Carolina Kingfish Classic
The Carolina Kingfish Classic will be held Aug. 7-8 out of Charleston Harbor Marina. Registration will take place from 4-8 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Reel Bar, with a kick-off party from 5-9 p.m. with live music and a captain’s meeting at 7 p.m. Fishing will be Aug. 8 with lines in at 6:30 a.m. and check-in by 5 p.m.