Deer season wrapping up

December has arrived and Christmas is just around the corner, which means the four-month hunting season for white-tailed deer in South Carolina is on the home stretch.

When many residents recall this autumn, they will remember the warmer-than-normal weather in November. But the state’s deer hunters will remember the coldest weather of the fall came at just the right time – during the rut for the Palmetto State’s favorite game species.

“The bottom line is definitely during the peak (of the rut) from mid-October to not quite mid-November we generally had seasonal weather,” Charles Ruth, Deer and Turkey Project Supervisor for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said earlier this week. “During that period the temperatures can be upper 70s to 80 as easily as 40s and 60s. It can be 80 degrees on Halloween and it wasn’t like that in late October. I was thinking ‘We can’t complain about this weather.’”

Then came a warm spell that brought Indian Summer-like conditions that many residents absolutely loved. The hunters? Not so much.

“The last couple weeks haven’t been good,” said Ruth. “Now we’ve got another cold front (that arrived Tuesday) and that may pick things up again.”

Cold weather or not, once the calendar reaches the holidays, the peak of the rut and thus the peak of the hunting season has passed.

“When you look at history, once you get after Thanksgiving, like it or not, the harvest falls off,” said Ruth. “We’re on the back side (of the deer harvest) and that’s based on harvest trends for years and years and years. The hunters who are willing to admit it, they just don’t harvest a lot of deer in December in general unless we get some bitter cold and rainy weather.

“We’re definitely on the back side of the rut so you’ve lost one of the motivating factors for deer to move which takes you back to one of the primary factors which is food. If it gets cold, their movement picks up because they’ve got to eat more (because of the cold). Most parts of the state have had an average to above average acorn season.”

With suitable weather during the rut, how has the season been, in the eyes of South Carolina’s No. 1 deer expert? “Anecdotal reports from hunters have been positive,” said Ruth. “Plus we have seen a few exceptional deer that could be Top 25 forever in the state of South Carolina.”

One of those deer was taken by 17-year-old Leslie Mills in Chesterfield County, which has been the hot spot for high-scoring deer this season. Mills’ deer was a 14-point expected to score in the low 160-range on the Boone and Crockett scoring scale.

“Looking at the photos, that is a special deer,” said Ruth.

Helen Chavis of Conway came up big in Horry County with a 10-point buck that should score at 135 points on the B&C scale.

The official verdict on trophy bucks will come in March when S.C. DNR conducts its annual series of antler scoring sessions to determine new additions to the state’s all-time antler records list.

“We hold (the scoring sessions) in March which allows for the 60-day drying period for deer taken late in the season,” said Ruth.