The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

Charlie with his 20 inch wide 9 point

Deer movement around the lowcountry seemed to pick up everywhere this past weekend, and it definitely did for us here at Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge. It started on Thursday when Mike, down from NY and visiting Isla Palms with his family, came over for the day and hunted Boggy Creek where saw tons of hogs and a couple of bucks near dark. Unfortunately the hogs didn’t stand still long enough for a clean shot while fading shooting light kept him from being able to count the points on the deer.

However good game movement then continued right on through the weekend when our hunters saw quite a few deer during shooting hours. That included Charlie, down from Dana, NC with four of his buddies, who spotted two great bucks right behind the lodge Saturday afternoon and dropped one of them - a great 9 point with long main beams, good tine length and a 20 inch spread!

Now we just have a few more days of hunters trying to capitalize on the summer feeding patterns of our deer and kill a buck in velvet, then we slow back down until around the middle of September when doe season opens up. That will allow Bubba and Henry to get back to work on the many things that have to be done before the rut cranks up including putting in all of our fall food plots.

So stay tuned!

Opening week of deer season has now come and gone, and unbelievably, none of our guests killed a deer. We started off slow last year too, but finished up strong with a couple of real monsters being taken by the end of the first week. Unfortunately it just didn’t happen this year, and once again proves why you can’t predict how the animals are going to move. Fortunately, all of our guests had a really great time with us and rebooked before leaving, so that says a lot about them for understanding that “there is NO guarantee in real free-range, fair-chase hunting “…

From talking to lots of fellow hunters around our area, the deer just shut down in much of the lowcountry this past week, so we weren’t the only ones to feel the pain of slow deer movement. And we knew from the moon phase and hunting charts that opening week wasn’t going to start during a good time, but we figured that it would still be OK. But then the low from the tropical storm moved in and sat on us for the entire week bringing rain and funky weather which lead to even worse deer movement than we had expected.

We kept thinking it would get better, but it didn’t. And that is just unbelievable since we have been seeing tons of good deer all summer, and we even had our bow hunters see quite a few great bucks just two weeks ago at the bow camp. However opening week’s bow camp hunters didn’t see any big bucks. They did fortunately see quite a few big hogs during daylight, and Patrick down from NC finally got some within 30 yards and stuck a nice sow.

The other hunters we had at our main lodge did see some good bucks, but most were on the way in to the stand in the dark or on the way out after dark. And the couple of good bucks that were seen during shooting hours didn’t stop long enough for clean shots! AGHHH… But again, that is REAL hunting.

We have a few hunters coming in this weekend, so I will keep everyone updated on how they do. But with opening week now over, we will get back to working on the properties so they are ready for the pre rut to start up around mid October when the majority of our guests will be down. We will also work on getting our cameras back out and running to capture some of our bucks on film for everyone to see. Until then, enjoy two neat pictures of big hogs feeding during shooting hours from the bow camp…

Jeff

The wait is over, and the 2009 South Carolina deer hunting season is finally here! All of our opening-weekend guests will be arriving tomorrow afternoon with high hopes of knocking down a big, beautiful buck in velvet. And we are ready for them… We have four hunting over on our new bowhunting-only camp, four on our trophy area at Pleasant Hill Plantation and seven hunting around our Luray lodge.

I don’t want to make any predictions since just about anything can happen when you hunt. However we have already seen more bucks, and bigger bucks at that, than anytime in the last few years. And we are not the only ones; everyone that I have spoken with around town has said the same thing. Some of that is the fact that many of the sod fields around Hampton County have been converted back to soybean fields, and the deer just LOVE the beans - so they have been much more visable in the fields instead of hanging back in the woods. But it also looks like the county has a lot more deer this year, and I am sure that we do. Hampton county just did not have as many out of state hunters last year due to the high gas, corn and lease prices, so it sure appears that a lot more deer survived the season last year. And that not only means more deer for everyone, but bigger deer since they had another year to put on antlers.

All I can say is, check back on Monday. We are looking forward to having some great new harvest pictures for everyone to see! But until then, GO HUNTING and Good Luck!

PS: For those that have not hunted with us before, please check out the new page we created to show off our lodge and all of its amenities.

Just 10 days away now, and we are ready to go deer hunting! We have the stands ready, the corn on the ground and lots of big buck sightings that have us excited, so we are ready to put some guests on the stand.

Now, since we are ready for the season, we are just finishing up a few last minute projects on the lodge including having a new roof put on. And  with some great help from our friends Brian and Paul, we poured 15 yards of concrete yesterday and expanded the skinning shed at both the Luray lodge and the bow camp as well as made a slab for our shooting range. So you can see, we are ready for our hunters!

As for the big buck sightings, after working all day, Paul and Brian both hit the woods at the bow camp where they both saw hogs but couldn’t get shots. But just as importantly, they both saw LOTS of good bucks over there, including several nice 8 pointers and one great 12 point!!! We have also been seeing some great bucks behind the lodge in the soybean fields as well as over on Pleasant Hill in our food plots full of peas. And we have been trying to get some pictures of these bucks on all of these tracts too, but the bucks are not cooperating… as a matter of fact, one great buck was seen walking near the camera, just not in front of it. Very frustrating! And unfortunately, the camera I put up over on Pleasant Hill had issues this past week and did not take a single picture… so I guess we will have to put fresh batteries in them all, move them around and try again.

And I promised to put up pictures of any kills our guests have made lately that I didn’t get, and we have one shot that just came in from E.T. who was in the group from Ashe County, NC and killed a sow with a broken leg. Just check out that happy hunter!

We are now just days away from putting the smack down on some great velvet bucks, so stay tuned! And if you have a wish for one on the wall too, give Becky a call ASAP to see if we can’t squeeze you in!

Jeff