Hunt

2023 Fall Hunting Season Underway

Here is the CPHC team on opening weekend of the fall deer season. We had a great opening day harvest with nine deer. You can see photos in the album.

Conditions were just about perfect. Sunny, cool and dry. We saw more than one buck following does and harvested a mix. So, there is venison in the coolers and we enjoyed spending time in the woods and camp. It was relaxing but there is also quite a bit of work that goes with it. We skin/de-bone the deer and put the meat in coolers with salt and ice. As that melts we drain them and add more salt and ice. It’s a good brine and we usually keep it in there for a week or more before cutting up for packing and processing. That’s my next job this week!

So, there are lots more opportunities for the CPHC this season. Hope to see you from there again soon.

2023-24 Deer Season Photo Album

2022 Hunt Success

The only time I got to hunt during the 2022-23 season was opening weekend and a couple days. However, it was successful. This was a late day buck I harvested from a ground blind. He was a big body, making me think he was not young. However, he did have a nice rack and it had a lot of red color in it, although that doesn’t show well in the photo.

We not more deer on this first hunt and when other team members were on site. We’re preparing for the 2023-24 season already and hoping for an another great and safe time in the woods on the Pig.

Here are some photos from our hunt: 2022-23 CPHC Photo Album

Opening Weekend 2022

It’s a new season, deer season that is. The founders of the Crystal Pig Hunt Club have been hunting together continuously for over 30 years. We’ve used a wide variety of vehicles to work on the property and camps to get ready each year as well as getting to our stands and bringing our harvest back to camp. That’s what we have put this loaner from Can-Am to work with on opening weekend of deer season.

It was a very successful hunt. We harvested three does and two bucks between the five of us who were able to be there last weekend. We’ll be back soon though since the annual rut for deer is at its peak during the first couple weeks of November.

The Can-Am Defender made the whole experience even more enjoyable. This unit has a cab with ac/heat, automatic windows and more great features. I’ll be writing about our experience on AgWired soon. Thank you Can-Am.

Here’s how the Defender looks in the woods: 2022 Hunting with a Can-Am Photo Album

2021 Opening Weekend Was Fantastic

The opening days of the 2021 deer season were beautiful and successful. Eli bagged a monster buck on opening day. This is the best rack we’ve brought to camp yet.

We harvested a few more deer including some does and a large body spike.

Most of the team was on hand for all or part of our first hunt of the season. We spent more time cleaning up our camp area, fixing and filling feeders and the continuous job of mowing trails and roads. The Pig is in good shape and we’ll be back out at the next opportunity.

2021-22 CPHC Photo Album

Opening Weekend Success

We had the best weather for opening days of the season at the Crystal Pig Hunt Club that we’ve had yet and took advantage of it to harvest a few deer. Paul and I got these bucks on the same afternoon. We have seen some much larger racks and will be back, hopefully during the rut.

We saw a lot of deer and mostly does. I had a spike buck walk up underneath me while sitting in my stand. He literally sniffed the foot of the ladder. I let him go since we have lots of better choices and maybe he’ll be back nest year.

A couple of us were on site before opening day and glad we did that. Basically, all our feeders were not working for different reasons. We had to change motors, batteries, re-program and refill. Of course, it’s a good workout. But the property is in the best shape for hunting since we leased it.

One of the most significant improvements to our camp is the installation of electricity. We’re run a lot of hours on generators over the years and now everything is quiet and we have lots of outlets to handle everything we need electricity for.

Big thanks go out to John Deere for the use of a new Gator which we’re test driving, making notes and will be writing about soon.

I’ve got updated photos from our hunt. 2020 Crystal Pig Hunt Club Photo Album

2019 Season off to Productive Start

Opening day for the 2019 Georgia firearms deer season was wet. I mean it rained all day. But the southeast needed that rain in a big way and it did not stop deer activity. The next day we had sunshine as you can see in this photo of our Can-Am Defender from my stand. Right after that I harvested a spike buck. Opening day I harvested two does. So I’ve got a lot of venison I’ll be freezing this week while taking a large portion to a local processor for summer sausage and hamburger.

Now let’s talk feral hogs. I am happy to report that my brother Paul deleted their number by seven on opening day. Here’s a Can-Am Defender load of five of them. It sounds like a lot but we’ve got one group of them numbering almost forty and another that it is a little less. For the first time in the years I’ve been hunting in Georgia I’m seeing hogs on the sides of the roads that have been hit by cars. I counted five in just one hour long drive one morning. They are a serious problem. We’re doing our part but it’s not enough.

Georgia’s season continues through mid-January so the Crystal Pig Hunt Club members will be out several times trying to reduce hog numbers and hopefully seeing some of the large bucks which are showing up on our cameras. If you hunt deer let me know how things are going for you. I’ve seen some great photos on social media already which include children who are getting their first opportunity to hunt with Mom or Dad.

Photos from this year’s season, including pre-season work days are here: 2019 CPHC Photo Album

Retrieving a Buck From the Thickets with a Can-Am

Although the 2018 deer season in central Georgia was not the best we’ve ever had it was not the worst. We harvested deer. Saw more deer and got a lot of work done to make a growing pine forest easier to hunt in.

This is my last post from the season since I had to show what one of the most important benefits of having a good utility vehicle with the right accessories is. Besides getting you to and from your deer stand there’s the issue of bringing a large animal out of some of the worst conditions possible. In our case that was a buck in 6 to 10 feet high pricker vine thickets that are covering a hillside and across a creek bed. My bother Paul got the deer down the hill to the creek somehow. I got the Can-Am Defender we had the honor to be using as close to the creek bed as I could. From there we let the WARN winch do the rest. That last 40 yards may not have been possible without it!

I had hoped to shoot a lot more video this season but conditions were mostly rainy, windy, muddy and filled with scratches and learning how the pine growth and intense weed growth has changed patterns and paths for the deer. We learned a lot and have some very high hopes for the next season and sure hope we can do it with a Can-Am!

Photos from Crystal Pig Hunt Club 2018 Hunt

Hunting with a Gator Part Three

Hello and welcome to episode number three of a series of videos and posts with other members of our Crystal Pig Hunt Club (CPHC), from the 2017/18 Georgia deer hunting season. The season is over but work on our property never stops.

On our last day during the season, Paul and I talked about the John Deere Gator XUV825i we test drove. The Gator is just a solid machine and we put it through its paces in different weather and ground conditions.

You can see photos of the Gator in the wild here: 2017 Deer Hunt – John Deere Gator Photo Album

John Deere Gator Episode 3

Time to debut episode 3 of Chuck Zimmerman's review of the John Deere 825i Crossover Utility Vehicle.

Posted by AgWired on Monday, January 29, 2018