Mount Pleasant Magazine Sept-Oct 2018

55 www.VoteBestOfMP.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ClemsonCarolinaTickets.com feature Photo courtesy of Pearsall Smith. motionless silence? What force could draw us back to the woods week after week, hoping to catch that wily old buck just once in our crosshairs? Every hunter’s motivation is different. Some seek a trophy and entry in the record books. Some want food for the table, while others bask in the serenity of the woods. Regardless of the motivation, hunters share a common bond that status and station in life cannot affect. The draw of the deer camp pulls from all ages, backgrounds and levels of skill. The draw cannot be explained, only experienced. Two Lowcountry residents who have experienced that pull are Ben Moise and Pearsall Smith. BEN MCCUTCHEN MOISE Ben Moise considers himself “an occasional deer hunter.” A retired South Carolina Department of Natural Resources conservation officer, Moise served the Palmetto State as a game warden for almost 25 years. An avid outdoorsman and accomplished outdoor writer, it was surprising to find that his first deer harvest came later in life, while in his 50s. “I had been big-game hunting in Africa before my first whitetail,” said Moise. When asked what style of deer hunting he preferred, Moise stated that he enjoys the old “spot-and-stalk” method, or hunting with dogs and their drivers on horseback. “It’s exciting to hear the dogs running,” he said. “Hearing them in full cry, knowing that the deer is with them coming at you.” When asked about still hunting from a tree with a rifle, he relayed that he had done that only once. “Climbing up in that tree, I was petrified,” he explained, adding that he doesn’t even own a rifle. Moise hunts mainly on private land with a group that is four- to five-generations deep. He enjoys the old traditions that have not changed in over 100 years. The draw for Moise is the entire scope of the hunt: the traditions and unchanged rules; the dog drivers on horseback; the sound of the dogs pursuing their quarry through the woods; the post-hunt gathering and barbecue meal; and “sharing the proceeds of the hunt on the dinner table.” These are the things that draw the “occasional deer hunter” to the woods. PEARSALL SMITH East Cooper resident Pearsall Smith is a lifelong outdoorsman and white-tailed deer hunter. “I’ve been obsessed with the woods and the outdoors in general for as long as I can remember,” he said. Smith, unlike Moise and myself, began deer hunting in his early years. “I started deer hunting at age 14. My older sister dated a fellow at the time who had access to about 8,000 acres along the Okefenokee Swamp in South Georgia. I guess you could say that he was my ‘gateway’ to the whitetail.” Today, some 39 years later, his passion for pursuing the whitetail is as strong as ever. Smith’s career as a business-development manager takes him across the country on a consistent basis. Photo courtesy of Ben Moise.