Thought I would share about my experience going on this unique bowhunt this year... This is the oldest federally managed hunt in the US, two annual bowhunts have been held since 1946 with a few exceptions for hurricanes and government shutdowns. The island is named for Blackbeard the pirate and has a storied history. No one lives on the island and the only way over is by private boat or chartered boat. It is located South of Savannah Georgia and is managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The hunt started with very cold temps for the area(30's) and ended with torrential downpours and high winds with temps in the 70's. LOTS of deer inhabit this island, so, I figured it wouldn't be to much trouble to get one or three, especially since I have decent experience hunting a nearby coastal island. I was dead wrong about that! Blackbeard is very different. Everything is super super thick for the most part.
My plan was to key in on the beach area, as I knew this is where most palm berries would be. I was right about that and deer sign was insane, but it was way thick to walk from the beach to the dunes. I literally had to crawl part of that while being stuck with cactus and everything else. I ended up having to walk parallel dunes in deep sand for 0.7 miles, after having walked the daily 3 miles from camp, just to get to the area I was hunting. Then I couldn't find a tree to get in to save my life, even with wild edge stepps and a hang on stand.
Anyway, I didn't locate a decent tree until the last evening of the hunt, yes it's that bad in the beach/dune/marsh area. I ended up
averaging about 12 miles of walking per day just getting out there and looking for a tree. I saw about 15 deer and 2 hogs, all out of range with the exception of one 7 point that I shot right over on the last evening. To end it, we got hit with 6 inches of rain and 30 mph winds with several boats getting stranded on sand bars.
All in all, I loved the challenge even though my body still hurts and I actually lost weight.
I will go back and I feel that I can do much better next time since I located a tree(though I do need to find more). The USFWS that run the hunt were excellent and do a great job making sensible rules to ensure a quality hunt. The success rate ended up at 28%, which I know TN would drool over but that's actually very low for this hunt. I feel like if I had hunted the interior of the island, I may have gotten a deer but probably wouldn't have seen so much game.
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The hunt started with very cold temps for the area(30's) and ended with torrential downpours and high winds with temps in the 70's. LOTS of deer inhabit this island, so, I figured it wouldn't be to much trouble to get one or three, especially since I have decent experience hunting a nearby coastal island. I was dead wrong about that! Blackbeard is very different. Everything is super super thick for the most part.
My plan was to key in on the beach area, as I knew this is where most palm berries would be. I was right about that and deer sign was insane, but it was way thick to walk from the beach to the dunes. I literally had to crawl part of that while being stuck with cactus and everything else. I ended up having to walk parallel dunes in deep sand for 0.7 miles, after having walked the daily 3 miles from camp, just to get to the area I was hunting. Then I couldn't find a tree to get in to save my life, even with wild edge stepps and a hang on stand.
Anyway, I didn't locate a decent tree until the last evening of the hunt, yes it's that bad in the beach/dune/marsh area. I ended up
averaging about 12 miles of walking per day just getting out there and looking for a tree. I saw about 15 deer and 2 hogs, all out of range with the exception of one 7 point that I shot right over on the last evening. To end it, we got hit with 6 inches of rain and 30 mph winds with several boats getting stranded on sand bars.
All in all, I loved the challenge even though my body still hurts and I actually lost weight.
I will go back and I feel that I can do much better next time since I located a tree(though I do need to find more). The USFWS that run the hunt were excellent and do a great job making sensible rules to ensure a quality hunt. The success rate ended up at 28%, which I know TN would drool over but that's actually very low for this hunt. I feel like if I had hunted the interior of the island, I may have gotten a deer but probably wouldn't have seen so much game.
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