Deer hunting in the Mountain Hunt unit of South Carolina is unlike any other area of the state.

It’s said men are hard to buy for, and you can double the degree of difficulty if that man — or woman — loves to spend their free time outdoors.

I would like to propose a new trend among deer hunters heading to the woods this month.

The first segment of the two-part 2017-18 waterfowl season open at sunrise last Saturday, and early reports indicate cold temperatures to the north have already started pushing a few birds south to mix with resident populations of waterfowl.

As an Oconee County sheriff’s deputy, Roy Mckenzie has long been associated with neighborhood watch programs where residents keep an eye out for criminal activity.

Wildlife management is not an exact science, and in a lot of ways, it’s like growing roses.

Earlier this week, local media outlets flocked to BB&T in Seneca after a six-point whitetail deer crashed through a plate-glass window and created havoc in the bank for nearly half an hour.

Wedding announcements rarely find their way into the outdoors section of the newspaper, but after much debate, I decided to post this one. The debate was over privacy, but also because I loathe writing in first person.

The earliest and most vocal supporters of conservation, hunters and anglers recognized that rapid development and unregulated uses of wildlife threatened the future of many species.

For an outdoor-related sport that incorporates guns, bows, and arrows, more deer hunters are killed or injured each year from accidents related to deer stands than weapons. Such is the concern over deer stand safety that the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has launched an aggressive media campaign to educate deer hunters on the importance of deer stand and deer hunting safety.

The late-summer months of August and September usher in what some consider the “second season” of summer fishing across the state of South Carolina. Gone are the prospects of pre-spawn or spawn fishing as well as most still, shallow water fishing patterns.

On any given lake, on any given night, particularly during the summer, there are a limited number of spots where a fisherman can go, tie up the boat, and have a reasonable chance at catching a cooler full of crappie. These limited locations can be determined by counting up the number of deep water bridge crossings, then multiplying that number by the number of bays or open areas between bridge pillars.

Most sportsmen inevitably become at least proficient in preparing wild game and fish entrees for the simple fact that spending so much time hunting and collecting makes you want to eat it.

Everyone expects the roadways to be crowded during this upcoming Fourth of July holiday weekend, but if you live on, near or frequent any of our area lakes, you know that our waterways will be just as crowded too as the Fourth of July is typically the peak of boating season.