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Thread: Last day WMA Success

  1. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by BigBrother View Post
    I remember when I was the only one hunting by boat. Cant swing a dead cat without hitting another turkey hunter anymore. I wish turkey hunting was "[still] gay" -PBiz.
    It can be frustratingly high for turkeys, especially the first half of the season. By the last week things have calmed down a bit and there are less people around.

    All I can say is thank God we aren't known for outstanding public land hunting for any species. The last thing we need is THP, Seek1, and all the likes filming YouTube videos on SC WMAs and attracting thousands of people all trying to be the next internet superstar "public land killa". Pressure is bad enough as it is. As much as I do get frustrated at times, part of me is glad I don't still live in Tennessee. Those WMAs are unbearable the last few years.

    Even what used to be a very secret Walleye fishing spot seems to have more and more boats/kayaks in there every Summer when I visit and go there with some friends at night. Sadly there are videos all over YouTube telling the exact location of where they are, catching Walleye. So the solitude is ruined.

  2. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by JimmyD714 View Post
    It can be frustratingly high for turkeys, especially the first half of the season. By the last week things have calmed down a bit and there are less people around.

    All I can say is thank God we aren't known for outstanding public land hunting for any species. The last thing we need is THP, Seek1, and all the likes filming YouTube videos on SC WMAs and attracting thousands of people all trying to be the next internet superstar "public land killa". Pressure is bad enough as it is. As much as I do get frustrated at times, part of me is glad I don't still live in Tennessee. Those WMAs are unbearable the last few years.

    Even what used to be a very secret Walleye fishing spot seems to have more and more boats/kayaks in there every Summer when I visit and go there with some friends at night. Sadly there are videos all over YouTube telling the exact location of where they are, catching Walleye. So the solitude is ruined.
    But I thought Dave Owen's is good for turkey hunting. That's what he tells everyone.

  3. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by M2Field View Post
    But I thought Dave Owen's is good for turkey hunting. That's what he tells everyone.
    Haha my friend recently showed me a video where those guys had a confrontation with some folks on public land in Florida over "their spot". Got a bit heated and they (Pinhoti crew) decided to just leave them alone. I don't blame them, all it takes is an argument with the wrong idiot over a spot and someone could get shot.

    But it's just ironic that the guys who incessantly advertise other state's public land hunting are now frustrated with the increase in pressure on those state's public lands. Just hunt, enjoy it, and shut up about it.

    If public land hunting was that good in any particular area, the absolute last thing I'd want to do is put it on YouTube and advertise it to millions of people.

  4. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by JimmyD714 View Post
    Heck we already have a shortened WMA season and can't hunt Sundays. With that much opportunity taken from me, I'm not about to eat all my tags.....
    Sorry Jimmy, but was that opportunity ever really TAKEN from you?????Hunting WMA on sunday in SC has never been a thing. And the season in the upstate remains the same as it was before they dropped the limit to three and changed the dates: The month of April.

    Really, I see no substantial loss, or TAKE, of opportunity in this situation.
    "Hunt today to kill tomorrow." - Ron Jolly

  5. #45
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    So was 2020 an odd year then? Because it went until May 5th in 2020 on WMA, that was my first Spring here. Still a week less than private land gets but better than we've got today.

    I was more so just making a statement that we have very little opportunity to hunt WMA as opposed to most states, honestly not really trying to turn the discussion into a debate on Sunday WMA hunting.

    I'll start up another thread for that soon as the current bill (H 3991) hopefully makes some progress to end the ban.

  6. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by JimmyD714 View Post
    So was 2020 an odd year then? Because it went until May 5th in 2020 on WMA, that was my first Spring here. Still a week less than private land gets but better than we've got today.

    I was more so just making a statement that we have very little opportunity to hunt WMA as opposed to most states, honestly not really trying to turn the discussion into a debate on Sunday WMA hunting.

    I'll start up another thread for that soon as the current bill (H 3991) hopefully makes some progress to end the ban.
    It could be worse, all of the WMA's in my county are Thursday-Saturday only. So next season with April 1st falling on a Monday, the WMA's here won't open until the 4th.

  7. #47
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    Prior to 2016, there was 5 tags and the season was the month of April - private and public. Starting in 2016, they started playing with the dates and reduced the tags to 3.
    "Hunt today to kill tomorrow." - Ron Jolly

  8. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Coastal Woodie View Post
    It could be worse, all of the WMA's in my county are Thursday-Saturday only. So next season with April 1st falling on a Monday, the WMA's here won't open until the 4th.
    Wow that would infuriate me. It's unreal that most SC hunters even tolerate being treated so poorly. I've seen so many apathetic views on it. Hey it could also be better too if we would voice our opinions to DNR and show half the enthusiasm about it that people are showing about a boater safety course. There is no logical reason why public land should get such a season reduction compared to private land. Very few states do such things, ZERO states do it and can show any positive results in game populations as a result of it.

    Quote Originally Posted by tman View Post
    Prior to 2016, there was 5 tags and the season was the month of April - private and public. Starting in 2016, they started playing with the dates and reduced the tags to 3.
    Wait, so it used to be only the month of April for everyone with 5 tags. Then DNR dropped it to 3 tags and gave private land 2 extra weeks to hunt? lol this is so silly if I didn't live here I wouldn't believe it.

  9. #49
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    http://www.northcarolinasportsman.co..._mag_12554.htm

    South Carolina hunters will have a lower bag limit but an expanded season for turkeys starting in 2016 because of a bill that passed both houses of the S.C. General Assembly and was signed into law by Gov. Nikki Haley earlier this month. But deer hunters won’t see any changes to their seasons or bag limits for at least another year, as a bill that passed the Senate was bottled up in the House.

    “The (turkey hunting) legislation establishes a statewide private-land season from March 20 through May 5, with a three- bird per person season bag limit,” said Charles Ruth, the turkey project supervisor for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. “It also changed the annual Youth Hunt Day to a two-day Youth Hunt Weekend on the Saturday and Sunday prior to March 20.”
    "Hunt today to kill tomorrow." - Ron Jolly

  10. #50
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    April 1st - May 1st and 5 tags was the old season except for the Lowcountry was March 15th - May 1st. Then they changed it to March 20th - May 5th and 3 tags for the Lowcountry and included game zone 4 (Horry, Georgetown, Marion etc) in with the Lowcountry season dates in 2016. Then I think it was 2020 we went to March 22nd - April 30th.

    2012 they also changed the deer season dates for game zone 4. We used to be Sept 1st with a bow and Sept 15th was gun season. They switched it to Aug 15th with a bow and Sept 1st gun. I can’t complain about the deer season change. Also 2017 was the first year we got buck tags.

  11. #51
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    I'm positive 2020 went into the first few days of May on WMA because I remember May 2nd was the dreadful afternoon that I missed a bird I'd been after for 5 consecutive hunts. Then after that it was just the month of April.

    I don't mean to be negative or seem like the guy always complaining, so I was trying to avoid this topic. But shafting WMA hunters as much as this DNR does is not something I'll ever be ok with. My opinion is that seasons and limits should be the same for private land and WMA like almost every state does.

    There probably isn't another state that reduces only WMA hunting opportunity to the degree that SC does.

    That being said, I have a lot to be grateful for over the last couple seasons of hunting here. I've killed a late season turkey on WMA the last 2 seasons and managed to kill 4 deer last season. Nothing groundbreaking or probably even that impressive to some of the more seasoned SC hunters on here but substantially better results than the first 2 seasons I was here.

    I'm extremely happy with this last 12 months or so and believe me I freakin earned every scrap of wild game we've eaten over that period.

    Now someone just needs to help me catch a flounder.

  12. #52
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    Good grief, Jimmy. You pay $50 to hunt tens of thousands of acres. You aren't getting shafted.

  13. #53
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    "snort"
    "Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration" -Izaak Walton

  14. #54
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    Quote Originally Posted by w33kender View Post
    Good grief, Jimmy. You pay $50 to hunt tens of thousands of acres. You aren't getting shafted.
    I said I didn't want to turn the thread into this and I meant it. Feel free to PM if you want to discuss.

    For now I'm still rejoicing in my joy of killing that beautiful gobbler.

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