Tag: Carolina deer hunting

CWD detected in Edgecombe County deer

A preliminary case of CWD has been detected in Edgecombe County.

Secondary testing being performed

The NCWRC has reported the first presumptive case of Chronic Wasting Disease in Edgecombe County, NC. Secondary testing is being performed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory to verify the results.

The positive result of CWD appeared in a 3.5-year-old male deer that was harvested by a hunter a few miles from the Pitt-Martin County line, in the eastern corner of Edgecombe County.

If confirmed as positive, this would mark the first case in Edgecombe County, and the 35th overall in the state of North Carolina. The first in the state was detected in 2022.

“We’re certainly not happy to learn that we may have a new CWD-infected area in the northeastern part of the state,” said Chris Kreh, the NCWRC’s assistant chief of the Game and Furbearer Program. “However, this is what our surveillance plan is designed to do – find areas where CWD is occurring, as early as possible, so we can minimize its impact.”

Transmissible to other deer through saliva, urine and feces, CWD is a fatal disease, and the movement of deer carcasses and carcass parts can also spread the disease.

There is no cure for CWD, and it’s also impossible to detect the presence of the disease in live deer. Deer usually appear healthy during the early stages of the disease, and hunters who have killed deer that later tested CWD-positive said they noticed nothing out-of-the-ordinary about those deer.

NCWRC urges hunters to have their harvested deer tested. Click here to find out how to have yours tested.

Martin County hunter kills 13-point cactus buck

Jeff Hurst killed a 13-point cactus buck in Martin County, NC.

Jeff Hurst of Robersonville, NC killed a very unique buck on Nov. 3, 2025. The 13-point cactus buck had a 19-inch spread and weighed 183 pounds. The rack is still in velvet and is covered in numerous bumps.

This is one of those deer that is a trophy for many reasons, mainly because it is so unique and so different from what hunters normally see. We’re sure Jeff has a special place picked out on the wall to put a mount of this buck.

Update on SC’s new electronic harvest reporting requirements

Here’s the real deal on SC’s new electronic deer harvest reporting requirements.

As of the 2024 deer hunting season, hunters in South Carolina are now required to electronically report their deer harvests, as well as place a physical tag on them.

This new requirement has caused some controversy throughout the hunting world, but most hunters understand that it’s simply South Carolina catching up with the rest of the United States in how the wild game population is managed. North Carolina hunters, for instance, have reported their harvests electronically for years.

Among the complaints: Electronic reporting will allow SCDNR to track hunters’ locations. There’s no cell service where I hunt. It’s another gun grab. It’s just one step in forcing us to eat fake meat. They will tax us on the meat we report killing ourselves. It’s another way for the government to control every part of our lives. And on and on. It’s all rubbish.

More rubbish

“Well how come they said we gotta tell them what we are planting in our gardens in the same law?” is another one we’ve heard. More rubbish. Nothing in this law mentions gardens at all.

The true reason for the new electronic reporting requirement is simply to help SCDNR get a more accurate measurement of how many deer are harvested in the state each year, which is one step in helping to manage the population of the state’s deer herd.

Years ago, South Carolina had numerous Big Game Check Stations throughout the state. When you killed a deer, you went to one of those check stations. That was done away with years ago, and for a long time, deer hunters in South Carolina had no tagging or reporting requirements at all. Then in recent years, South Carolina came up with the tagging system, whereby hunters place a physical, paper tag on each deer they kill.

At the beginning of each deer season, hunters are issued a set of tags with their name on them. These are the tags they must use to tag their deer. When you run out of tags, you are not legally allowed to kill any more deer, unless you purchased additional tags.

No data from tags

The problem with physically tagging deer, at least from a game management perspective, is that SCDNR never knew how many tags were actually being used. A survey would go out to a percentage of hunters at the end of the season, and some of those hunters would fill them out. But many never received surveys at all, and many that did never returned them. That left SCDNR guessing at how many deer were actually killed that season.

This is solved by electronic reporting. With each kill reported, the SCDNR gets updated numbers every day of the season. This gives them a highly accurate count of how many deer are killed in a season, and that’s what helps them understand trends in the population. If the harvest numbers noticeably decrease one year (or in a string of years), either throughout the state or in certain counties, SCDNR will know it. And this will be the first step in determining why that happened, and what can be done to fix it.

Likewise, if harvest numbers noticeably increase one year, or in a string of years, SCDNR will know it, and can take steps to understand why, and increase seasonal limits, vary hunting dates, issue more tags for hunters, etc.

It’s quick and easy

Aside from giving SCDNR accurate harvest numbers, electronic reporting is easier for hunters. No need to worry about forgetting or losing your tags, or them getting lost in the mail before you hunt. Now for 2024, hunters will still need to phyiscally tag their deer, so that’s not going to help in the first season. But from what we understand, this is simply to ease hunters into the new way of reporting, and beginning in 2025, South Carolina hunters will do electronic reporting only.

The way electronic reporting works is easy, and if you don’t have cell service at your hunting land, it’s not a problem. You can report your harvest four different ways:

Go online to dnr.sc.gov/scgamecheck.

Text the word “harvest” to 1-833-4SC-GAME (1-833-472-4263)

Call it in at 1-833-4SC-GAME (1-833-472-4263)

Use the GoOutdoorsSC app

And you aren’t required to report the kill immediately. You have until midnight of the day of your harvest, or before you leave it with a processor. When you electronically report your harvest, the system will issue you a verification number. The processor will need that verification number in order to accept your deer.

Time for South Carolina to catch up

We’ve also heard complaints that this system isn’t fair to old people, because they aren’t used to having a phone in their hand 24 hours a day. The few hunters out there who don’t own a cell phone have plenty of time to get to a phone, and chances are, anyone at their processing facility will be happy to lend them their phone to make the toll-free call.

Electronic reporting has been the norm in dozens of states for decades, and South Carolina hunters often complain about how much better the hunting is in those states than it is in South Carolina. Plus, it’s much easier than driving to a designated check station, and it is a big step in helping the state have a healthier herd of deer.

Poachers busted for killing 15 deer at night

Two North Carolina men have been found guilty of night hunting after killing 15 deer in one night.

Two North Carolina men have been found guilty of illegally killing deer at night. The two were charged back in November, and the case finally went to court in late May.

Dylan Scott of New Hanover County, NC, along with Nicholas Rackley of Duplin County, NC were ordered to pay $9030 in replacement costs for killing 15 deer while spotlighting on the night of Nov. 27, 2023.

NCWRC received a tip about the illegal activity after Rackley reportedly sent texts to multiple people of himself posing with the 15 antlerless deer.

Scott was fined an additional $1500 and had his hunting license revoked for 10 years. Rackley owes an addtional $750. His hunting license has been revoked for 5 years.

When NCWRC officials interviewed Rackley in November, he admitted that he and Scott shot 15 deer on the night of Nov. 27. He told the officials they took the deer to a friend in Pender County, who processed the deer for them. When NCWRC searched that individual’s home, they found four coolers full of deer meat, and the resident admitted to processing the deer for Rackley.

Dead body found by hunters is identified

Authorities have identified the victim found by Sumter County hunters.

The human remains found by hunters in Sumter County, SC on Nov. 26 have been identified. Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker said the victim was 34-year-old Frederick Ricardo Nelson Jr. of Sumter.

Testing also determined the man was killed by multiple gunshot wounds.

“It is definitely a homicide with multiple gunshots,” said Baker.

The investigation continues. Mark Bordeaux with the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office said they are still trying to determine who shot the man before wrapping him in a tarp and leaving his body in the woods off of Cimmaron Road in the small town of Borden between Rembert and Pisgah.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division performed forensic testing on the remains, which resulted in them identifying Nelson. Family members then confirmed his identity. Several unique and unmistakable tattoos helped to identify him. Dental records, DNA and fingerprints also helped.

24-year-old dies in NC mountains hunting accident

An accidental gunshot lead to the death of Ethan Hahn on Nov. 20, 2023.

Ethan Hahn, a 24-year-old hunter from Hildebran, NC died on Nov. 20, 2023 when he accidentally fired a shot from his own gun into his upper right arm. The incident took place in the mountainous region of Burke County, about 75 miles northwest of Charlotte in the Pisgah National Forest.

NCWRC and the Burke County Sheriff’s Office have ruled the death an accident and said no foul play is suspected.

Hahn was deer hunting with his dad, Mark Hahn, and apparently slipped while walking along a trail that was littered with piles of leaves. The two were walking some distance away from each other when the elder Hahn found his son on a steep hill with leaves on the ground, which seemingly created slick footing and resulted in Hahn falling and accidentally firing his CVA Scout .243.

Mark Hahn performed first aid and CPR on his son and called 911. When officials arrived, the 24-yard-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ethan was the valedictorian of East Burke High School’s class of 2017, and graduated from Appalachian State University in Boone. He was working for a software company, was deeply religious, and had recently written a devotional. He wanted to travel across the country, spreading his faith to others.

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Click here to read about another Carolina hunting accident in November, which led to the death of 6-year-old Avery Davis.

6-year-old killed in SC hunting accident

Avery Davis was an accomplished sportsman

Six-year-old Avery Davis was killed in a hunting accident in Orangeburg County, SC on Friday Nov. 24, 2023, according to the SC Dept. of Natural Resources.

Officials said the young hunter was sitting in an elevated stand when a stray shotgun pellet from another hunter on the ground hit and killed him. They have rules the death an accident.

“We continue to investigate the death of a 6-year-old boy killed in a hunting accident Friday morning in Orangeburg County. Though the investigation is still active, we have determined that this was an accident. The boy was in an elevated stand and appears to have been struck by a stray shotgun pellet from a shooter on the ground. Investigators are awaiting more information from the coroner’s report. Our sympathy remains with the child’s family and loved ones,” said SCDNR through their social media pages.

An honor walk on Avery’s behalf was conducted at Prisma Children’s Hospital on Monday.

Jeremy Davis, Avery’s dad, said his son was an organ donor, and the family is praying this will result in saving as many lives of other children as possible. 

“Avery is an organ donor and we are praying that he can save as many children as possible and I’m honored that his legacy can live on through others,” said his dad. “I couldn’t be prouder of my son and rest assured he will never be forgotten.”

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Click here to read of another Carolina November hunting accident, which resulted in the death of 24-year-old Ethan Hahn.

Sumter County hunters find dead body

Body was wrapped in a tarp

The sleepy town of Borden, SC, located near the Sumter County/Lee County border, was abuzz this past Sunday morning, Nov. 26, after a group of deer hunters found human remains wrapped in a tarp in a wooded area just off of Cimmaron Road.

According to Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker, the hunters noticed a strong odor, then discovered the tarp. When they pulled the tarp back, they saw what they believed to be the remains of a human body, so they called the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials confirmed the discovery was, in fact, a dead body. Baker said an autopsy will be performed Tuesday to determine the sex, approximate age and race of the person.

The hunters were walking along a trail they had apparently not used in two or three weeks. Baker said it appears the remains had been there for at least a week, and possibly two weeks.

It’s being treated as a suspicious death.

“It’s not normal to find a body wrapped in a tarp in a wooded area,” Baker said. “Somebody took that body and put it in that wooded area.”

Authorities are asking anyone with information about the case to call the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office at 803-436-2000.

SC hunter kills wide-racked, 181-pound buck

Samuel John Goins of McColl, SC killed a big 6-point, 181-pound buck on Nov. 14, 2023.

Samuel John Goins of McColl, SC killed a big 6-point, wide-racked, 181-pound buck on Nov. 14, 2023 during an evening hunt.

Goins was plenty familiar with this buck. He’d been pursuing the deer for 3 years, finally closing the chapter on the chase at about 5:30 p.m. that day. The buck had an inside spread of 20 inches.

Throughout the 3-year hunt, the buck underwent obvious changes in the width and size of its antlers.

Blair Wiggins kills 13-point Richmond County brute

Blair Wiggins killed a unique 13-point brute in Richmond County, NC on Nov. 19, 2023.

Blair Wiggins killed a Richmond County, NC brute of a buck on Nov. 19, 2023 during a quick afternoon hunt. The deer had a unique 13-point rack, and her taxidermist estimated the buck at about 5 1/2-years-old.

“I shot this buck exactly 1 year to the day that I shot my first nice buck, and 8-pointer,” said Wiggins. “I’m still in shock myself.”

And she completed this hunt the old-fashioned way.

“Good ol’ Mother Nature brought him to me! No corn, no call, just him and me,” she said.

The deer was already in the field when Wiggins made it to her stand.

“I got lucky. He was in the field as I was climbing in my stand around 4 p.m. I really couldn’t do too much but keep climbing and get situated to get him in my scope,” she said. “By that time, he had walked across back into the woods.”

But it wasn’t long before the buck made another appearance.

“Around 4:30, he just happened to pop back out from the side of the woods about 60 yards in front of my stand just walking the wood line towards me,” she said.

She didn’t want to shoot the buck straight on, so she waited a few seconds, realizing that time was crucial.

“He acted like he was about to walk back into the woods, and I made a sound so he would stop. He turned his body and looked towards me, so I fired. He ran about 50 yards or so into the woods and dropped,” she said. “It’s one of the quickest deer hunts I’ve ever had to get this big boy!”

Wiggins has only been hunting for 3 years, and said she appreciates this hunt, and this buck.

“I feel so blessed to have harvested this deer in my third year of deer hunting!” she said.