Hopefully, you're familiar with the woods and have already selected stand sites. If you're hunting from permanent stands, you need to get them up early in the month. Any type of human activity, such as building a deer stand, will have an impact on the deer, but it doesn't always have to be a negative one in terms of hunting.

Often, once all the work is finished on a deer stand and we're gone from the woods, deer will walk all around the new "facility" and check it out. Many times, I've returned to a newly constructed stand a day or two after it was built, usually during the midday, and seen many deer tracks around it. If I'm careful to leave no scent and stay out of the area, by the time the season opens, it seems to simply be a part of the landscape and they pay it no heed. That is, of course, unless you make major sounds or movements once you climb into that stand opening morning. No amount of preparation can overcome noise, movement or scent at the wrong time.

Most Piedmont and Upstate hunters love to hunt in hardwood areas during the early part of the season. If there's a good mast crop and acorns are falling, then by all means this will be the primary area to hunt. Whether you set up a bow stand or a place to gun hunt, a good hardwood bottom will be hard to beat during the early part of the season. Find one with a good thicket meandering along the creek bottom and you will be on to something potentially outstanding.

In areas that open in October, you've got ample time, but I'd get into the stand building and placing stage now. The earlier you can get the disturbance over with, the better. You may even be placing stands based on historical knowledge; there may not be a lot of sign there right now. And, of course, you may have to make subtle adjustments to the stand location later on.

Based on numerous conversations with deer biologists in South Carolina, the mast is even more of a crucial factor in the mountain area. There is often less diversity of food sources here than is sometimes found in the Lowcountry and Piedmont. Acorns are such a critical part of the nutritional needs of deer in these regions that once the acorns start falling, the mast will be a focal point for deer and for hunters.

Of course, food plots planted by hunters can be another deer magnet and are always a source for good stand sites. Regardless of where you're at, you can get the ground worked up in August and September, and usually by late September or early October, plant some wheat and rye. By late season, the succulent green tidbits will be almost irresistible to deer and hunting in these areas will improve your odds of success.

Whatever your plan of attack this season, don't overlook the month of August in terms of preparation for deer-hunting season. Whether you begin the actual hunt, or make detailed preparations, the sweat you spend in August will likely have a profound positive impact on your entire season of deer hunting.