It is probably safe to assume that the archery harvest at Fant's Grove has been fairly consistent over the years. Recognizing that the Fant's Grove deer herd could withstand additional harvest opportunity, especially on antlerless deer, Morton recommended instituting a rifle-only draw deer hunt to take place after the archery season.

"The objective in introducing the rifle-only hunts was to improve the deer herd," Morton said. "We hoped to harvest more antlerless deer, which would improve the buck-to-doe ratio.

"Fant's Grove has traditionally been known as an area that has produced quality deer and nice bucks. If we could improve the deer herd dynamics, the area would produce even nicer deer, including better bucks."

The first drawing for the rifle-only season was held in December 2000. The hunt consisted of four two-day hunts. SCDNR drew 70 hunters for each hunt, for a total of 280 hunters for the season.

Since that first series of hunts in 2000, Morton has tinkered with the process further. They began offering three 1 1/2-day hunts in 2001 and now select 75 hunters for each hunt period. Morton stated that about 350 hunters apply annually for the 225 slots.

Success of hunters during the rifle-only hunts is good, but because the hunts are held in December, which is normally during the rut in this region, hunters are at the whims of winter weather.

"The weather has always played a part in the harvest," Morton said. "The first season we held these hunts there was snow or sleet or cold winds on every hunt. Despite the weather, hunters did kill 56 deer (54 does, two bucks) that year. During the December 2001 hunts, weather wiped us out every day." The harvest that year was 25 deer (23 does, two bucks).

"In 2002, it rained during the first two hunt periods, but the two biggest bucks up to that time were killed then, and the total harvest for the season was 24 deer (22 does, two bucks)."

Several factors came together during the December 2003 hunts to produce a record harvest of bucks.

"The poor acorn crop that season combined with perfect weather and great timing of the rut resulted in a large number of bucks being harvested," Morton said. "They killed 41 deer that season, including eight antlered bucks. All eight bucks that year scored between 95 and 115 Boone and Crocket points.

"The weather this past season was good about half of the time," Morton recalled. "It was rainy and windy, but hunters still managed to harvest 34 deer (26 does, eight bucks) in what amounted to about three good days of hunting." Three of those bucks, a 10-pointer, an 8-pointer and 7-pointer, were killed in one morning, with the 10-pointer scoring in the 130s and the other two in the 115-plus range.

Morton's advice for hunters who are drawn for the hunts is to scout early.

"The area is open for scouting all year, yet many hunters wait until the morning of the day of the first hunt to scout," Morton said. "It has been my perception that the hunters who do better are the ones who scout ahead of time rather than at the last minute.

"Overall, I have been very pleased with the results of the rifle-only draw hunts," Morton said. "All of the hunters are happy with the changes. They are harvesting more does, which was our goal, and the hunters agree that the management is working because they are seeing and killing larger deer."