Coolest hunt ever! Blackbeard Island

[KentuckyTJ]

First week of December, 9 of us from PBS and TradGang joined Matt Schuster from an open invite to hunt on the majestical Blackbeard Island WMA deer/hog hunt off the coast of Georgia.  The pictures and stories to come from 9 of some of the best guys and gals to have in a camp, will show what a great time it was for all of us.

The islands history and its iconic hunters from our past make this trip very interesting to us all. Its deer (which are a subspecies of our whitetail  and are VERY small) also added a new twist for most of us on this adventure.

     

     

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!  Let the tales begin...

[DanielB89]

Man, do i hate catching these threads when only 1 post has been posted.. ahh!!! Some how I always manage to miss the end of it.  

I can't wait to hear it though!!

[paleFace]

Well the Black Beard Hunt has come and gone. We had an absolutely awesome time and a successful hunt. I think we may have even recruited a few new members. Some quick statistics: Black Beard Island host 2 hunts a year, one in October and one in December. On the October hunt they had 147 bowhunters and harvested 87 deer and 7 hogs. For the December hunt there were 155 bowhunters (10 PBS brothers) and there were 39 deer killed and only 3 hogs (piglets). We had some weather issues as well as a full moon to contend with. We had a white out fog two days in a row that was thick as pea soup. I will be posting pictures and adding my part to the story later this evening as I get a chance to post. For now just know there was blood drawn from the PBS Gang!

[paleFace]

This would be my first hunt in the state of Georgia, but for sure not my last. I pulled out of my driveway last Tuesday around 3:00 pm headed to Statesville N.C. to meet up with Jeff then on to Georgia to rendezvous with Tim at the Holiday Inn Express. We arrived at the hotel about 2:00 am. Tim, I'm sure you hated to let us in so late, but thanks a ton for letting us crash in your room long enough to catch a few winks. For some unknown reason I always have a really hard time getting to sleep just prior to a hunt. As usual I had just found sleep when the alarm sounded. Splashed some cold water in my face and scrubbed the pearly whites and we headed out to meet up with the rest of the gang to mooch off of Joe's breakfast buffet. At least the coffee was good  :lol:.

After the meet and greet it was time to head to camp. The drive to Shellman's Bluff brief and the fog had rolled in.
   

Word had it that there would be some pretty elaborate camps set up and that we could bring just about anything we wanted. Pulling up to the dock the entire gang pitched in to unload each vehicle of all it's contents. Some how I ended up with my jumper cables and other assorted road hazard gear bag  :D . We had chartered 2 boats to carry all the equipment and hopefully the hunters that went with it.
     
     
   

[Whip]

This trip fulfilled a long time dream of mine. I remember reading about adventures on Blackbeard Island years ago and it has stuck in my mind as a place I hope to visit ever since.  When Matt took the initiative to put this trip together as a PBS membership hunt I knew I had to find a way to make it happen. As a Wisconsin boy, a trip to hunt an island along ocean beaches in December was too much to resist.  Blackbeard was every bit as exotic and beautiful as I had imagined it to be.

PBS is a great organization that I have really enjoyed being a part of.  Membership hunts like this are held in all parts of the country for a wide variety of species but this was the first one that I had participated in.  I can tell you it won't be the last!  

The group that assembled for this hunt were some of the finest people I've had the pleasure of sharing a camp with and I would love to do so again with each and every one of them.  But I guess that should come as no surprise since that is just the type of people who you meet at any PBS function.  

I am currently in the middle of another trip and all of my pictures are on my home computer.  So I will have to wait to add my small share of this story.  But rest assured, you are in for a good read.  The rest of the group are some great story tellers and even better photographers.  I will try to chime in when I can.

[Whip]

Double post

[jonsimoneau]

This is going to be outstanding!

[Jwilliam]

Glad to see this being posted on Tradgang as well.     This would have been an awesome hunt to be a part of.


Bill

This is gonna be goooooooood!

Bisch

[randy grider]

Yeah, I want to hear stories, and see pictures ! Git busy fellers !

[Lin Rhea]

[Tim]

Very cool Tom....looking forward to the story.  Timmy Antoine and I grew up not far from each other.  Small world.    

[Terry Green]

Matt?  Matt?

You got to hunt with MATT???

Dang...I sure miss him in camp.  Matt, lets try to hook up sometime next year please....somehow sometime, somewhere.

Looking forward to this hunt.  I always enjoyed Matt's company.  Great guy folks.

(Matt, I text you about 3 weeks ago, but I got 3 numbers for you, must have sent it to the wrong one)

I'll be looking forward to reading about this one....would have loved to have been there for sure.

[NoCams]

Tap, tap, tap...... Uncle Robbie.....  

[medic77]

This is going to be great

[KentuckyTJ]

I'll make my intro short and sweet as Rob will cover it well with his great pics and story telling skillz. The boats were quit full to say the least, but we quickly had them loaded and off on our adventure. Everyone pitched in and helped load all the gear not just their own. Right then I knew this was going to be a special trip.

   

   

 

After a moist boat ride we had arrived at the island dock.

   

At the island and for a second time, everyone pitched in and it didn't take long to gather our pile for the transition to the camp.

   

[mark land]

Terry he's in our club, y'all need to get together and actually hunt it sometime.  There was hog sign all over the place last weekend, got into a good group of hogs in the cutover but got busted 3 times trying to stalk them.

[Mudd]

 

 

[Terry Green]

Thanks Mark...I hear ya...I just gotta get down there soon.  Just so dang busy....I might need the directions and info again....I'll see...had to delete a wad of emails due to reaching my limit and I don't know if yours got caught up in it or not.

I'm liking this thread already....any hunt that starts with a boat ride HAS to be good!!!

[CoachBGriff]

Man, this gets me excited to do a hunt with a group of people!  This is what it's really all about!