The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

Cypress Creek's new bow camp

That’s right. Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge now offers a bowhunting-only camp here in South Carolina for our stick and string shooters!

We have always had a lot of bow hunters that stayed with us, and they generally had great success while hunting our deer and hogs off of the same lands our gun-toting guests use. However, as any hunter can tell you, hunting pressure can have a huge affect on their success rate. And of course the loud report of a gun always does more damage to the tranquility of the woods than does the quiet release of an arrow from a bow. Couple this with the fact that it is just MUCH harder to get any animal within the magic 30 yard window most bowhunters are comfortable taking a shot in, and a hunter using a bow has really set him or herself up against some tough odds on any piece of hunting ground.

However as committed bow hunters know, removing all of the gun-hunting pressure from the woods can really aid in keeping deer and wild boar moving freely and a little easier to coax into that 30 yard window of opportunity. And we have now done that with our new bowhunting-only camp located on 400 acres of beautiful lowcountry woods that sits right off of the Savannah River and is loaded with big deer and hogs.

Up to 4 guests who come to hunt this pristine new area will have sole access to this tract as well as to the unique, quaint old cabin that not only sits on the property, but directly on a beautiful 22 acre pond. Hunters will also have the option of bringing/preparing their own food or joining us over at our Luray lodge just minutes down the road for their meals. And no vehicle traffic will be allowed either - just a quiet electric golf cart to navigate the property or the hunters’ feet. And when you combine these restrictions with the fact that this tract has not been hunted at all in the last 3 years and only hunted before that by special guests of the owner who also owns the 4000 acres next door, you have the makings of a bowhunters dream hunt in the South Carolina lowcountry.

Please call Becky at 1-877-520-2245 if you have any questions about our new bowhunting camp or to be first to book a hunt at it.

PS: While he didn’t get it on our new bow-only tract, check out our good friend Justin with his nice 100 lb boar that he shot Monday afternoon with his bow over on our River tract - his first wild hog kill with his archery tackle. Congratulations Justin!

Jeff

We love helping to put our guests on a lowcountry hog during their stay with us. Unfortunately the fact is that since we only offer free-range, fair-chase hog hunting here in South Carolina, not everyone will go home with one. It is just not possible when factors outside of our control such as the weather and moon have such an important influence on our hogs’ movements. However we have found that there are 3 basic things that all of our hunters could do to GREATLY increase their odds of taking home some wild pork.

1. Don’t smoke in your stand. It doesn’t help if you smoke anytime and have that smell on your clothes (much less any other smell) when you hit the woods. However it is MUCH worse to actually smoke in the stand. We believe that smoke smell just floats all through the woods and sticks to everything. And when a hog has such a great nose, you can bet that he will pick it up pretty easily and not come in to your stand.

2. Take your first GOOD shot. It is nice when a hog comes in to feed and stands (fairly) still for an easy shot. However sometimes that hog will catch a scent he doesn’t like and run off or a big boar could be just cruising by looking for sows and not stop.  So always be ready to shoot once you see a hog, and then take the best shot you have at the very FIRST opportunity.

3. Don’t Miss. A hog can be a tough animal to hit when he is scurrying around eating, much less doing the fast trot that they do everywhere they go. So like I said in #2, take your first BEST shot. And that means standing still for most people in most conditions.

We also have had one of our trailcams out on the River tract this past week, and it caught some great hog movement so I thought I would share a few of those shots with you. It even helped one of our hunters bag his big boar when it flashed right at dark, alerting the hunter that something was there!

PS: This post is a variation of one that I wrote for my lowcountryhunting website. On the original article I cited 2 more ways to increase the chances of killing a hog here in South Carolina. However Danny, Bubba, Henry and I work hard to eliminate those for you: hunting the wrong area and putting too much pressure on a piece of property.

We are constantly scouting and moving stands to keep our hunters on top of our hogs’ changing patterns as well as leaving gaps in our booking and consistantly rotating the properties that we hunt to minimize the pressure we put on our land. I think you will agree that our success shows that we do a good job on both of those.

Jeff

Randy and his 290 lb monster boar

We had 8 hunters down from Maryland this past week, and they were excited to hit our lowcountry woods in search of some wild hogs.

Well, when the smoke cleared (literally), they had 6 good ones down. Randy stuck one good eater pig with his bow, then switched over to his muzzleloader to take a giant 290 pound boar off of the River tract. Ed, Ray, Rich and David then pitched in with good hog kills to fill their coolers with pork before leaving South Carolina. And as usual, the hunters also had lots of sightings of sows with young piglets to keep them entertained on the stand while they waited for the big boars.

Jamie with his 300 lb lowcountry boar

We also had our old marketing/media coordinator/cameraman Ron Tabor down from North Carolina along with Jamie, his good friend and bear hunting outfitter from Ontario for a few days. They had lots of hogs around their stands, and Ron ended up missing one while Jamie took home a huge 300 lb. boar from the River.

PS: Any of you that have hunted with us before and/or seen the old Cypress Creek hunting promo video should be familiar Jamie and Ron. Ron did much of the work on the video and killed a good hog and a giant buck for it while filming himself. He also caught Jamie shooting a big pig with his muzzleloader. Unfortunately he hit the boar’s thick shield, and the sabot literally bounced off! Check that footage out if you haven’t seen it…

Jeff

The Virginia Crew with Danny, Bubba and I

Our lowcountry weather has been pretty cool lately, and that has really helped the hog movement for our guests.

Two groups that benefited from the pigs moving so well during shooting hours were a married couple from North Carolina along with a great crew of Virginians who visited us last weekend. David and Tracy, our NC couple, and most of the Virginia group have hunted with us for the last couple of years, so they were looking forward to spending some time down on the River tract. And they were

Ricky with his monster boar

Bruce and his roaster pig

not disappointed when their time in the stand paid off with 7 good hogs and one huge 275 lbs warrior. Their two groups also had lots of sightings of sows with piglets in addition to several misses and missed opportunities when shooter hogs didn’t stop long enough for a good shot.

Ricky got things started Saturday night with his 275 pound monster at the Red Bank stand. Bruce and his dad, Donnie, then chipped in with a couple of good hogs to bring the group’s total to 3. Not content with his giant boar, Ricky then knocked down 2 more meat hogs Sunday evening when our NC

Mr. Donnie with a good-eating pig

couple shot a good-eating pig as well. Charles then capped off their 3 day trip over on our Telfair Plantation tract by shooting two nice hogs to bring their total to 7. Everyone in Stanley’s group then left with a ton of fresh pork and a lot of great memories… I may even have to tell one of them soon in its own post!

Charles with two Telfair Plantation hogsFinally on the 3rd afternoon, Charles dropped two nice pigs over on Telfair Plantation to bring their total to 7.

I also don’t want to leave out Washington Wizards basketball player Darius Songaila. He and his father-in-law were in just before the Virginia crew showed up to reek havoc on our hogs, and Darius shot a nice sized sow out of the cut over stand on the River. His hunt was then capped

Washington Wizard Darius Songaila with his nice sow

off by watching Bubba run his wounded hog down (while I ran behind him providing the light to see) and dispatch it! Darius said that even if he hadn’t shot a hog, his trip would have been worth it just to see us at play… I mean work

After such a busy, long holiday weekend of hunting, it was then time for a couple of days rest - for us and our properties! But then it was time to get back to work and put our hunters on some pigs, and we did. We had 8 hunters from Maryland join us here in the lowcountry this week, and they racked up the hogs too. However you will have to check in on Tuesday to see the results of their hunt…

Also, Everyone here at Cypress Creek would like to send a huge Congratulations out to our great hunting guide Henry and his wife. They just had their second baby boy!

Hank and his 130 incher

Believe it or not, we only have 6 months until the South Carolina deer hunting season starts again for the lowcountry. So if you are thinking of finally putting a great buck in velvet on the wall, you had better call and book your hunt now. Opening day is August 15th, and we only take a limited number of hunters during this time. And many of our spots are already filled with returning guests.

The first two weeks of the deer hunting season in South Carolina is usually the best bet for such a hunt since bucks start losing their velvet around the first of September. Also, the bucks are usually in bachelor groups for those first few weeks of the season, so if you see one buck, you usually see a bunch together. And while it is unbelievably hot here in August, the bucks are in their summer coat which helps keep them cool, allowing them to move earlier in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, it is not uncommon to see 4 to 8 good bucks standing in a field as early as 4 or 5pm, and it doesn’t get dark until after 9pm!

Ken with his beautiful 8 point

And in case you need some encouragement to come join us for some of these early South Carolina deer hunts, take a look at three of the great bucks our hunters harvested last year. Ken from Florida shot a very nice 8 point that grossed over 110 inches, Hank from NC killed a monster 130 inch 8 point and Monster Plot TV cameraman Craig harvested a good 100 inch 8 point. All three of these deer were taken over on Pleasant Hill Plantation where we only kill bucks with at least 8 points and a minimum of 16 inches of antler spread. We also only hunt that tract the first two weeks of the South Carolina deer hunting season; we then don’t allow any more hunts on that piece until October 15th when the pre-rut starts up. This allows us to really keep the pressure off of those deer so that we have great rut hunting for our trophy bucks, but it also means that we don’t have a lot of time or spots for hunters looking for that trophy velvet buck. So like I said, call NOW if you want to get in.

Craig, Monster Plots TV cameraman, with his nice 8 point

We are also running out of spots during the early season on our other tracts that we hunt as well, so call about those hunts too. We offer great velvet buck hunting on land where you can shoot any legal buck (2 inches above their hairline) as well as on land where the bucks must have 4 points on a side. Hunting on tracts with these rules is only $400 a day, so it is quite a good value for a sportsman looking to get a jump on the deer season and put some fresh venison in the freezer.

We look forward to sharing camp with you!

Jeff

The last week has been a busy one for our hog hunters at Cypress Creek, and I am just now getting a chance to get caught up here on The Skinning Shed with all of their ups and downs, kills, misses and sightings!

Tommy with his great boar

Last Sunday through Tuesday we had a group of 8 hunters down from Virginia, and they were covered up in hogs. The final tally was 3 down, but they sure had plenty of opportunities to harvest many, many more. As a matter of fact their group took a total of 20 shots during their stay which included the

Black Coyote From Behind The Lodge

harvest of one beautiful black coyote from behind the lodge as well as their pigs. And out of their kills, Tommy won their group’s big hog contest with his great boar off of the River.

After the VA group, we had a great couple of guys down from Pennsylvania, and they knocked down 4 hogs between the 5 of them. John and Jason both shot

Pennsylvania group

nice hogs over on Boggy Creek while Lamar killed two good eaters over on Telfair Plantation.

Then for this past weekend’s hunt, we had two small groups in camp, one from Tennessee and the other from North Carolina, that had quite a lot of opportunities as well. And this was despite the extreme warm spell that showed up with them! There were several misses, one wound, one kill and tons of sightings of pigs either running by or of big sows with lots of young piglets. Kent with the NC group was the lone gunman that made his shot count down on the River.

Note: We discourage the killing of our sows with very young piglets that will not survive without their mother and then leave it up to the individual hunter if the piglets are older. Most of our hunters choose to pass these as well since sows that are still nursing do not provide the best-eating pork, and many of them are looking for a monster boar anyway!

So, as you can see, the pigs keep moving and our hunters keep knocking them down. And now with a few days off and no in at the lodge, we have some time to let all of our properties rest so that we can keep up the number of opportunities our hunters will get during their stay with us. Now we just need the cold weather to return to help push the hogs to the corn.

Kent with his hog

We have truly been blessed this Winter with some great hunting for our guests, but we have been even more blessed to have such great people hunt with us. We look forward to having more of them in camp, and I look forward to sharing their stories here.

Jeff

The Virginia Hog Killers

The hogs continue to fall here at Cypress Creek, and this past weekend our hunters dropped 6.

Wes with his nice boar

We had two groups down, one from Michigan and one from Virginia. The guys from MI have been hunting with us for the last 7 years, so they are very familiar with the program and were anxious for another shot at our lowcountry hogs. They ended up taking one nice pig when Wes dropped a good boar over on the River tract. His son, Chris, saw quite a few hogs, he just didn’t shoot them (sows with young piglets) Only David got skunked. It is rare, but it does happen - and that is just one of the possible

Nathan and his HUGE boar

outcomes when you go after free-range feral hogs under fair-chase conditions, and that is what makes it “hunting” and not “killing”.

However the young guys down from Virginia went 5 for 5 for 4 - That is 5 shots to kill 5 hogs between 4 hunters! A great round of shooting for sure, and a feat that has yet to be matched by any of our groups so far this year… Joe killed two nice meat hogs, Eric shot a

Check out the teeth on Brian

150 pound boar, Nathan blasted a monster 275 pound boar with some huge teeth and Brian

Eric and his boar

Joe with his meat hogs

whacked a great 240 pounder with good cutters just moments before shooting light ran out.

The 6 wheeler loaded up at the River!

And I normally don’t take my camera with me to the River due to all of the mud and rough going. However the guys had a couple of small ones with them, and they were having such a good time while Henry and I loaded up their take that I couldn’t help but to steal one to snap a couple of shots of our 6 wheeler at maximum capacity before we “mudded” back to the van! Joe then sent us the shot along with the following email:

Jeff - Here are the pictures you wanted, we had a GREAT time, a blast!  We will for sure be back, and remember, never underestimate the ability of the “VA Boys” to get it done!  Thanks again, Joe

We truly enjoyed having both groups in camp, and we can’t wait to have another chance to share our woods with them.

PS: I just got word that our latest group had quite a time down on the River too! I will try to get their pictures and story up as soon as I can.

Jeff