The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

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

That’s right. The South Carolina deer hunting season is just about here… 25 days and counting to be exact.

I sure hope everyone is getting excited about hitting the deer woods again, even if it is 100 degrees in the shade with giant mosquitoes joining you in the stand I know we are! We have been working hard to get everything set up and ready (Bubba and Henry the hardest to be honest), and I think we are almost there. We have just a couple of food plots left to plant and just a few stands that need some TLC, and we are ready for those fortunate hunters that will be joining us those first few days.

Now we just need to get the trailcams moved over to Pleasant Hill so we can get some great new pics of our trophy bucks our guests will be looking to harvest. We are also hoping to find some time to actually get out and sit in a stand with the video camera too so that we can get some great new footage up here of those monsters! So definitely keep checking in with us as kick into high gear for the coming August opener.

And speaking of video footage and trailcam pictures, we have some of each to keep everyone informed and entertained until our next big group of hog hunters arrives this coming weekend and provides us with some hunting stories and harvest pictures. First we have two new hog hunting videos - one is from the Dodge Everyday Sportsman and the other is from Blue Ridge Outdoors.

We also have a couple of new trailcam pictures, despite the best efforts of our hogs to rub against the tree it was tied too and spin it around so that it looked into the bush. As I have said before, some of them are just downright shy about having their picture taken. First we have a giant sow moving through the woods behind the feeder, second we have neat looking hen turkey cruising around and finally we have the leader of the trailcam revolution - Mr. Squirrel - there checking to see what needs to be done to disable the camera so that it doesn’t get any good shots of his friends the hogs

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Jeff

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

I have continued to work on getting the original Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge video cut up and posted here to the Skinning Shed. And we are now ready to show off a couple of more great clips from it.

First we have a super informative video of how to hunt hogs with Danny Harrell showing hunters what sign they should be looking for and in what habitat when pursuing hogs. He also talks about how hogs live and what they do so that hunters understand these creatures better, and therefore are more knowledgeable when hunting them. This is a real must-see if you are new to hog hunting, especially South Carolina hog hunting!

Second we have a neat clip of a great South Carolina hog hunt with a bow. Ferrell L. of North Carolina sits quietly while a nice pack of meat hogs pile into the bottom he is hunting, then sticks a nice one.

The third video clip is of Ron Tabor, Cypress Creek’s old marketing/media coordinator, shooting a monster buck here in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Ron was even filming himself when he shot this great 8 point during the peak of the rut.

And forth we have one of Cypress Creek’s many lady hunters taking a beautiful doe. Marcey H. hides patiently in one of our big tower stands and then whacks a big skinhead.

So there, four big clips to keep everyone’s hunting itch scratched until you can make it down and hit the woods with us. And speaking of hitting the woods with us, we had a small group in camp this past weekend, and I have been told that they were covered up in hogs: killing two, wounding two and missing two more.  And this was all on top of seeing lots more!

Unfortunately I was off this past weekend, so I don’t have any pictures yet. However they took a bunch and have promised to email us copies. Of course, I will get them up along with more details of their hunt as soon as I get them. I should also have some great new trailcam pics from our new Cuddieback over on the Bow Camp too.

Jeff

As I talked about in a previous post, Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge put together a promotional video a few years ago. In it, there were a couple of hog hunts, two deer hunts and lots of great footage of the many great game animals that we have on our land as well as many of the harvests our hunters had made at the time.

Well, we have been working hard to get it edited in to short clips that we could put up here on The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed, and I am pleased to report that two more clips are ready to be viewed. First we have a 3 minute clip of our old marketing/media coordinator Ron Tabor shooting a big sow, and then we have one of the best hog hunts that I have ever seen showing Kerry Earnhardt watching two giant boars fight and then harvesting one of them. Check them out… I guaranteed that if you are thinking about hunting hogs here in the lowcountry, these videos will convince you that Cypress Creek is the place to be. And of course don’t forget that we also have the 2.5 minute intro to the video already up over on the Cypress Creek video page, and in it are lots of examples of what hunters come to us for…

I will keep working on getting some of the other clips from the promo video up over the next week or so, and then I will start uploading the tons of hunts that we have on film that have aired on the Outdoor Channel… We truly can’t wait to share them all with you!

Mike and his sow

As for this past weekend, we had two hunters at the lodge for 2.5 days and another two just for the afternoon on Saturday. The two from Indiana, Mike and Matt, each had an opportunity on a hog, and Mike shot a nice sow at Boggy Creek while Matt missed a HUGE boar over on our Sandy Run tract. However we will give Matt a pass since it was kind of a long shot with his open-sighted rifle, and he was a good enough sport to pose with Mike’s hog!

Matt is in the picture somewhere

Our two hunters over from Charleston for the afternoon, Jonas and Carl, also had a great time with us, and Jonas came close to harvesting a hog with his bow while his friend Tim filmed the hunt. However it didn’t happen when a deer eating on the corn got nervous and ran off taking the approaching pack of hogs with her… but that is REAL hunting.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check back to see more of the video clips that we will be showing off as well as tons of new trailcam pics from our new Cuddieback trailcam that we just put out over on the Bow Camp.

Update: Jonas came back Sunday afternoon and had a big boar come by his stand over on Boggy Creek. But it didn’t stop and give him a shot with his bow. He said that it then trotted away, passing right under the rifle stand down at the other end of the food plot… now that is bowhunting!

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!

Big pack of River tract hogs

A torrential downpour Saturday here in Hampton County washed out our hunter’s Saturday hunt, but it didn’t dampen their spirits or keep them from having a good time with us. While we needed the rain, I wish that it had either stopped before dark or waited until after dark to start since the heavy rain kept most of the hogs from moving on the River tract. However some of the hunters did still see a few small hogs even in the horrible weather while one missed a 75 pounder and another couldn’t get a shot at a monster boar right at dark.

Pig Road stand

The 7 outdoorsmen down from North Carolina with their buddy and our good friend Joe for just a one day hunt fortunately had better conditions for their Sunday morning sit, and quite a few hogs were seen at Boggy Creek and Sandy Run. Unfortunately most of those were as they entered and left the woods, but Joe saw the most from the stand. He had several monster hogs at his feeder right at daylight, and he was just waiting until he could see better before shooting when they spooked and ran off… once again, proving that free range hogs are not the easiest animal in the woods to kill.

And while our NC group went home without a hog, Joe’s friends, who were first time visitors, had a fantastic time with us. As a matter of fact, they have already booked another hunt with us in June. We can’t wait for them to return and give us another shot at putting them on some big pigs like those that were seen on our trailcam on the River tract over the last 10 days. Check out some of the giant hogs that would have shown up if not for the weather… Also, check out the different view on each shot. The camera was in the same spot for the entire time, but the hogs kept rubbing on the tree that it was tied to thereby moving it in a 360 degree circle and getting some different, cool shots. In one you can see the top of a coon’s head and the Pig Road stand in the background while in another you get the hogs coming to the feeder instead of under it.

I also want to let everyone know about some cool new features that will soon be coming to the Skinning Shed. I have just upgraded my computer system as well as added high-speed internet out here in the boonies, so I am experimenting with getting our many hunting videos loaded on to my computer and uploaded to the site. Please check out our new page called Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge Video to see a 2.5 minute clip of some great footage with kill shots from our first Cypress Creek Hunting DVD. It is under the PAGES tab on the top right of this site, and it has a watermark in it for now, but if it works correctly, I will go back and get that off of there and then upload some more from that great video made about 5 years ago! I will then start working on getting some of our recent footage uploaded… So please let us know if it works for you and how you like it…

Jeff

Ken with a lowcountry double

We are fortunate to have lots of friends who hunt with us every year here at Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge. We even have some friends who hunt with us several times a year, and one of them is our buddy Ken from Florida.

You should recognize Ken because he has been featured several times here at the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed in just the last few months, once for his great velvet buck from this past August and once from late October when he shot a good buck in rut. Well, he has just been back to the lowcountry where he first shot a monster boar over on Boggy Creek, then killed a giant longbeard with Bubba at Roebuck Plantation. Congratulations to him on another great trip, and we are already looking forward to his next visit.

And that brings me to the point of this post. We truly enjoy each and every guest that we get to hunt with here in the lowcountry, and most of those guests we now consider friends, just like Ken. Friends that we look forward to sharing our woods with whenever they can get away for a few days and join us for some great South Carolina hunting.

Lem with his good boar off the River

That is also why we love to get emails like the one we received a while back from Scott out of Virginia talking about how much he and his friend Lem loved their visit, and how they would be back. Again, visited as a guest and will now be returning as a friend.

Danny,

Just thought I would share that. And a big thank you to everyone that comes back time and time again to “pursue the experience”.

Jeff

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