North American Whitetail's Gordon Whittington shot this nice velvet buck in a Jasper County bean field last August. The hunt will be shown on an upcoming episode of North American Whitetail TV on the Outdoor Channel. Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

The opening of deer season means different things to different deer hunters across different parts of South Carolina in terms of pre-season preparation. The structure of the South Carolina deer season is designed to offer several different "opening days" for deer hunting, depending on the portion of the state you hunt. While it's essential to your deer hunting success that you be actively preparing right now, the type of preparation will vary depending on the area in which you plan to hunt.

For example, a 15-county area consisting of game zones 3 and 6 will open for gun season on Aug. 15. These hunters will currently be in a much different stage of their preparation for hunting than will gun hunters in the Piedmont and Upstate portion of South Carolina in game zones 1 and 2 for their Oct. 11 gun season opener. Plus there are 'in-between' gun season opening dates of Sept. 1 for Game Zone 5 and on Sept. 15 for Game Zone 4.

When you add in bowhunting season openings in the various game zones, as well as muzzleloaders in game zones 1 and 2, a lot of different strategies are being implemented by deer hunters right now.

Let's take a look at what hunters need to be doing in the different portions of the state, based on when your specific hunting season opens.

For the purpose of consistency, we'll be discussing gun season opening dates and associated preparations. By checking the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Rules and Regulations booklet, you can determine the opening dates for archery tackle or muzzleloading weapons and plan for those specific openers as you desire.

We'll begin in game zones 3 and 6, where the actual gun hunting season opened August 15.

The counties in Game Zone 3 include Aiken, Lexington and Richland. Game Zone 6 includes Orangeburg, Hampton, Colleton, Bamberg, Allendale, Berkeley, Charleston, Barnwell, Calhoun, Jasper, Dorchester and Beaufort counties. If you're hunting any of these areas, get your rifle sighted in now.

While it's never too late to begin preparation, most hunters in this sector of the state have pretty much finished with the season preparation grunt work. In most cases, serious deer hunters in these counties will have their stands already built, repaired or moved and ready for hunting. We're down to scouting, and for those using bait (legal in this section of the state), ensuring that the deer have plenty to eat.

Most veteran Lowcountry deer hunters know that the first few days of the season can mean a golden opportunity to take a big buck. At this early point in the season, only bucks can be harvested, so obviously figuring out what the bucks are doing an essential part of the hunting strategy. It's not just about where you locate deer: The key is locating bucks. Plus, after the first few days of hunting pressure, the early season hunting success can slow for a few weeks until the pre-rut phase begin to crank up.