This weekend marks the first and only weekend of primitive-weapons season in both Game Zones 1 and 2.

With summer starting to loosen its grip on the Upstate and outdoorsmen split between chasing deer in the woods and following college football, the lakes around the Upstate are really starting to empty out.

Amidst all the melee surrounding Hurricane Florence last weekend, many bow hunters who were planning on getting started deer hunting last Saturday found themselves delayed.

Much of this week has been spent keeping one eye on the daily tasks at hand, with the other eye squarely on the forecast ahead of Hurricane Florence

Any time a deer hunter mentions that they carry a smartphone into the woods, the news is received with mixed reactions.

On the eve of the whitetail deer season, deer hunters have been spending the preseason in the woods scouting for deer, preparing stand sites and working on food plots.

Whitetail deer hunters in the Upstate are busily preparing for the upcoming deer season.

Quite often on Saturdays during my weekly radio program, “Upstate Outdoors,” we get calls and texts from Upstate residents asking where the best places to fish from the bank are.

For the first time, the official youth days of the whitetail deer season will be held before the regular season in each game zone on private lands. For hunters in zones 3 and 4 — from the Midlands to the coast — that means today is opening day.

If you think about it, August is like February in reverse for outdoors fans.

You can learn a lot about the native wildlife of an area by what you see on the side of the road, including long, unsavory glances at roadkill.

A recent report by the National Wildlife Federation, the American Fisheries Society and the Wildlife Society estimates that one-third of America’s wildlife species are threatened.