Carlton "Wiseguy" Anderson is an avid hunter who hunts with a Mathews Mission bow and a 45-70 single shot rifle. His family has large areas of land where he can hunt to his heart's content.
Anderson has deer plots with automatic timers to feed corn and entice the deer to hang around. He also has game cameras that he checks regularly to see what has entered the area. Bucks and does can be seen on the pictures all the time. He said he never sees anything strange on his cameras but always hopes he will.
He hunts from a ground stand in the field and tree stands in a hollow in the midst of the trees. He gets there early while it is still dark so everything can settle from his arrival. While he waits in the stand, he plays on his phone or sleeps until dawn. If he is saddle hunting, he is much more alert. Saddle hunting is a different way of hunting in the trees. You actually use a saddle like a light pole worker but with less straps. Anderson said it allows you to swing and walk around the tree for better concealment.
"If the sun is up at 5:30 a.m., I need to be there by 4:30 a.m. If things have been disturbed too recently, it can blow the whole hunt," Anderson said. "You also want to stay in the stand until after dark so the deer won't see you when you get out of the stand."
Anderson's most memorable hunting experience was an 8-point buck he took down on New Year's Eve.
Carlton Anderson poses with his buck from his most memorable hunting trip.
"I found a scrape during rut time, and I put a camera on it and watched the spot for a week," he said. "Throughout the week, I watched him coming in between the times of 7 a.m. and noon. So, on that particular day, Dec. 31, 2021, the first day of trying him, he came out about 8:15 a.m. walking to the scrape. When he first came out, he walked past me and the scrape, so I thought like 'please come back.' Not five seconds later, he came back to the scrape. He stopped, played with the scrape for five seconds and I smoked him five seconds later. Down went Frazier. I rode around with him in the truck for about three hours. It was good and cold, so I had time to make my rounds and show him off."
For non-hunters, Anderson explained that a scrape is a spot that when it becomes breeding time, the bucks scrape the ground with their paws under small branches to let the does know it's that time of the year to breed again. The breeding age bucks check that spot regularly because the does that breed walk across it and urinate in it.
Anderson was born in Columbia in December 1986 and has been hunting since 2010. He grew up watching his uncle hunt rabbits, which sparked his curiosity.
"As I got older, I started to find myself, the country outdoorsman side, and wanted to try it. The first time I hunted was with my God brother. Now, I usually hunt alone and enjoy that time. It gives me a peace of mind and alone time. When I kill, it feels good knowing I'm about to feed my family while managing the wildlife population," he explained.
Anderson is a proud 2005 graduate of East Marion High School. He supports his community and advocates for it with an exuberant personality that definitely cannot be ignored.
