The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

Having hunted in South Carolina for most of my 38 years, I can tell you that 60 degree mornings are not the norm in August. Neither are having bucks out of velvet on opening day or leaves falling off the trees before late September. So that can only mean one thing, and that is that we are going to have an early Fall.

And that should really help out our rut that typically starts around October 15th but doesn’t really get cranked up until almost Halloween when it cools off. So with cool weather already here, and hopefully cold weather just around the corner, the deer should really be moving great soon. Therefore anyone looking for some great hunting this fall better go ahead and call Becky to get their dates on our calendar.

However, just because our Fall is coming a little early this year doesn’t mean that the deer and hogs aren’t killable RIGHT NOW. The movement of both animals has definitely been better after a slow start to the season, and lots of bucks are being seen on all of our properties by our guests. As a matter of fact, Orlando from Goose Creek, SC and his brother visiting from the Phillipines, left the lodge last week with two nice bucks off of our any-legal-buck tract. So congratulations to both of them on their FIRST deer, and we look forward to you guys sending us some pics to put up here on the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed!

In addition to our guests and guides Bubba and Henry seeing lots of bucks while out prepping our properties for the rut, we have also had lots of activity on our trailcams. Both have been hanging over on the bow camp for the last few days, and both caught some unbelievable trophies just wandering around without a care in the world during the night and in daylight hours. First we have some beautiful bucks frequenting a feeder, then we have a giant boar hanging out in a wallow near another stand on the same tract.

And don’t forget that our doe season starts on September 15th if you are just looking for some tasty, healthy meat along with a fantastic hunt. Rates are just $225 a day with all meals and lodging included for our doe-only hunts that run from the start of doe season until October 15th. So again, just give Becky a call to book. We look forward to hunting with you!

Jeff

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

It is hard to believe that the 6 months since the 2008 South Carolina deer hunting season ended has gone by so fast… but it has. And we are now just days away from hitting the woods again with some of our lucky guests to pursue big, velvet antlered whitetails.

Like I have reported before, we have been working right along to make sure everything is ready to go for opening day, and we are now all set. We finished up the last few food plots of peas on Pleasant Hill Plantation last week as well as checked/fixed all of the remaining stands. And I did get one trailcam moved over to our trophy property too, but I just haven’t had a chance to check it yet.

However I do have a couple of big buck sightings to report, both on our trophy land and behind our lodge. First, several hog hunters as well as all of us have been seeing several LARGE bucks and a couple of monsters in the bean fields that they planted around the lodge after they took up the sod. Second, I saw two really nice bucks and one 20 inch wide MONSTER over on Pleasant Hill while checking a stand on Wednesday… They were bedded up less than 100 yards from it! And these sightings do NOT include the over 50 deer that our hog hunters saw this past Friday night alone…. Oh, deer season is going to be GOOD!

However one  monster buck that will NOT be around this year to be hunted is the buck that our good friend Kerry Earnhardt shot last December on Pleasant Hill while he was here with a group from BassPro. Danny filmed Kerry shooting this freak of a buck on his last morning with us, and what a deer. The 8.5 year old buck had almost no teeth left and his rack had gone crazy, resembling something between a pronghorn and a caribou. Check out the video to watch the whole thing in real time! And please note that this is the FIRST installment of some of our newer videos that have NEVER been seen before on TV… so enjoy.

As for our hog hunting group this past weekend that saw so many deer, they had a great time even though the hogs were not very cooperative. Several members from the Ashe County Wildlife Club came down for a one day hunt, and the heat and lack of rain really took a toll on the hog movement. Fortunately they did manage to kill the couple of hogs they did see, including one 150 pound sow with a broken leg and another hog that the guides saw at 2pm in the afternoon while filling feeders - Henry and Bubba were able to race back to the lodge, grab Scott and get back to the feeder before the hogs moved off - now those are some hard working guides :)   Now hopefully the ACWLC will email us some pics of their kills for the site!

Again, hunting season is almost here, so stay tuned for lots of action, more videos and tons of trailcam pics!

A big boar grabs a bite at 2:17pm over on the bow camp; and check out the stand right behind the hog... it's waiting for YOU!

While most of our Cypress Creek Skinning Shed readers sit in the AC at work and dream about their fall hunts with us, we continue to work hard to prepare our lands for the opening day of deer season… which starts now in just over 6 weeks!

Bubba and Henry have been working just about every day checking and fixing stands, cleaning out wasp nests, adding pull ropes (where the old ones went, we don’t know) and trimming shooting lanes while Danny bush hogs the roads and plows the food plots to get them ready for the beans and peas that the deer love in August. And me, well I have helped with a little bit of it all, but I must admit that I don’t mind the days that I get to sit in the AC working on the website

And with all of this work, the bow camp is now ready to go! We have the cabin in great shape, the pond cleaned out, the stands and feeders up and the food plots plowed. Now we just need to the hogs and deer to cooperate and show up during daylight hours during opening week like they have been this summer… check out the big hog stopping by the feeder for a snack in the 100 degree heat at 2pm that our new cuddieback captured last week!

We are now moving over to Pleasant Hill Plantation to prepare our trophy deer hunting tract for August 15th. And when we do, we will put up a couple of cameras over there so that we can show everyone some of the great bucks that survived last season so that our guests could shoot them now that they are even bigger this year. So make sure and keep checking back.

PS: We didn’t have any die hard hog hunters this week that were willing to tackle the swarms of bugs in the unbearable heat to try and kill a wild pig, so no new kill shots here at the Skinning Shed. However we have a group coming in on Thursday - so we should have a few new pictures on Monday if the heat does not keep the hogs from moving- because with no hunters over the last two weeks, hunting pressure sure won’t be the cause if our hunters do not get an opportunity.

Jeff

Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge is very fortunate to have many friends that film shows for the Outdoor Channel, and one of them is Steve Gruber from Wolf Creek and Trijicon’s Outdoor America. Steve comes down periodically with another good friend of ours, cameraman Craig “Sweetpea” Pond, to relax in the lowcountry and attempt to kill a big South Carolina hog, deer or turkey.

Well, during a visit a couple of years ago in which Steve had already killed a giant hog, he picked up the camera so Craig could take a turn as the trigger man. And as they walked in to their stand during an afternoon hunt, a big pack of hogs were already in the area, so Steve quickly turned on the camera and captured Craig shooting a nice boar. Steve then filmed Craig, I mean SweatPea, CAREFULLY following our old head guide Mike R. into the bush to retrieve it. … Great stuff, so check out the video clip to see the hunt and to find out how Craig earned his nickname :)   And as a bonus, right after the hog hunt, you will also get to watch Craig shoot a beautiful South Carolina buck in velvet.

Jared with his first hog

Speaking of big bucks in velvet, opening day is exactly two months away now! If you haven’t booked yet, please get in touch with Becky as soon as possible to reserve your spot. We only have a few spots left during those last 15 days of August when your chances are super high on shooting a monster velvet buck on our trophy land. And hunters are almost guaranteed to harvest a buck (if not more than one) over on our any-legal-buck land if you are more interested in putting meat in the freezer instead of a head on the wall. However since the bucks haven’t had any pressure in 6 months, there are good chances at shooting a monster on those tracts as well! So get yourself some warm weather clothes, a thermocell and come join us for some of the best hunting in the South.

As for our summer hog hunting, our guests are still having good success even in the unbearable heat. I told you how we had a group down last weekend that saw tons of hogs, killed two hogs, missed two hogs and hit two more that we couldn’t find. Well, I haven’t gotten any pictures from them yet. But I do have some great pics of Tim and his two sons Jake and Jared. They came down from Ohio for a few days of hunting and bonding, and what a time they had with us. Tim shared his stand with Jared, and Tim shot a beautiful coyote behind the lodge on a morning hunt while Jared shot his first hog ever over on the River. Jake also got in on the action by watching tons of deer just feet from him and then sticking a big hog with his bow and arrow; unfortunately he hit it a bit back, and we couldn’t find it in the dense cover that surrounds the River tract… But that is hunting, and if it wasn’t difficult, it wouldn’t be any fun!

Jeff

Cypress Creek's new bowhunting camp

Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge is very excited about our new bowhunting camp here in the lowcountry of South Carolina where our hunters can pursue deer, boar and turkeys with their archery equipment on over 400 acres of prime land bordering the Savannah River. And we are now booking for these bow-only hunts that will include lodging in our rustic cabin that sits on a 32 acre pond loaded with big bass and includes a full kitchen so that hunters can fix their own meals. A screened-in skinning shed and walk-in cooler are also provided for hunters to process their kill in addition to a screened-in pavilion with grills for cooking and hanging out.

Hunters will find our South Carolina bowhunting camp all set up with 20ft ladder stands hung in the best spots on the property and overlooking timed feeders that dispense corn twice a day. Bowhunters are also encouraged to bring their own climbers if they wish to set their own stands to hunt the travel trails leading to the feeders or the rub/scrape lines left by the big bucks during the rut.

Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge has been offering bow hunts in South Carolina since its start 10 years ago, and we have had great success putting our bowhunters on game on the same lands used by our gun hunters. However we believe that this will be a unique opportunity for bowhunters to come to the South Carolina lowcountry and pursue deer, hogs and turkeys with their stick and string on game that hasn’t heard a gunshot in many years. This is because the 400+ acre tract is owned by the same person that owns the 4000 acres around it, which is only lightly hunted with bows as well. The only other neighbor to this tract is Groton Plantation, the renowned quail hunting plantation that covers over 26,000 acres and is carefully managed for the best game as well.

Our South Carolina bowhunting camp will accommodate 4 hunters a day, and we encourage you to call now to reserve your spot. Prime bowhunting dates are already being filled, so check out the Cypress Creek Bowhunting Camp page for prices and more information on what the hunt includes. And please note that there will be NO vehicles allowed on the property. Hunters will utilize a provided golf cart, 4 or 6 wheeler for retrieving their harvests to keep from disturbing any game.

Also note that for an additional $25 a day, hunters can come over to the main lodge just minutes down the road to eat the fantastic meals our cook will be preparing for our other guests. Hunters can also pay an additional $45-$55 for a guide to skin and quarter their kill.

Please call Becky at 1-877-520-2245 with any questions about our South Carolina bowhunting camp, to check availability for dates or to book your hunt. We truly look forward to having YOU down to the beautiful South Carolina lowcountry for some of the best bowhunting in the South!

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