The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

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

Rocky with his Boggy Creek Boar

Last Wednesday, we had three hunters kill three hogs in just one day. And the fortunate hunters emailed the pictures of their kills to me just like they promised - so here they are!

Rocky started the shooting off with a great 190 pound boar over on Boggy Creek. And he killed it during the morning hunt which is always tough since the hogs have been out all night eating, so they are usually heading back to their bedding area before daylight making them very hard to kill in the AM hours.

Anthony with his 160 pound boar

Matt and Anthony then followed up Rocky’s success by each killing one a piece that afternoon over on the River tract. Matt’s hog should eat great since it was in the meat-hog category at 75 pounds while Anthony’s nice boar pulled the scale down to the 160 pound mark. However, as Matt pointed out, they could have gone 3 hunters for 4 hogs if Anthony’s other shot had found its mark :)  But hey, that is true free-range wild hog hunting!

Matt with his meat hog and Anthony with his boar

Thanks Matt for sending those shots, and we are all so glad that you guys came down from New Jersey and had a great time with us. We truly look forward to having you all back!

PS: Matt has also been doing some cool hunting over in Europe during the last few years for REAL Eurasian hogs as well as Red Stag, and he has some great pictures of them up on his website www.mattmatarazzo.com - Check them out!

Jeff

We have had a lot of North Carolina hunters at the lodge lately, and they have been really hammering away at the hogs. Our latest two groups this past weekend were no different.

Randy, Joe, Gene and Rick from the Ashe County Wildlife Club

One of the two groups hunts with us all of the time, a weekend a month to be exact, and as usual most of the four from the Ashe County Wildlife Club were all over the hogs. Unfortunately Rick did not see any while Gene and Randy had problems shooting straight (unusual for them!), so only Joe took home a monster boar… I understand that his walls are now barely holding up with great-looking mounts from their many trips down. But as hunters, we all know you can NEVER have too many, so his latest 230 pounder should go nicely with the rest.

The other three hunters down from North Carolina also saw quite a few hogs, but only took one home as well when Jeff shot a nice meat hog down on the River Friday afternoon. So, for those of you keeping tract, that makes 12 big South Carolina hogs killed and 17 missed in just the last 14 days! And four of those misses were on Saturday evening when they saw over 70 wild hogs between the 7 hunters!

Joe and his 230 pound boar

Jeff with his great meat hog

We have a couple more small groups coming in during this week, so stay tuned to see how they do.

PS. I haven’t forgotten about the 3 hunters that shot the 3 hogs last Wednesday; I was off and didn’t get the pictures, so I am waiting on the lucky sportsmen to email them to me. As soon as they do, I will post them! HINT, HINT :)    I would also love for some of our deer hunters from this past fall to send me pictures of their deer if I didn’t get them either.

Jeff

Our hogs are still up and moving in search of food during all of this cold weather that the lowcountry has been having. And that has meant more happy, successful guests leaving the lodge with lots of pork.

We had a group of 9 down come down last Saturday afternoon and replace the group of 10 that had just finished having a “hog of a good time“. They hunted through Monday morning and killed two great hogs while missing 6 and seeing countless more. And while their tally wasn’t quite as big as the last group, they also had to contend with a bunch of COLD RAIN that didn’t help the hog movement at all on Sunday.

Ron with his huge boar

And just to show you how nasty it was for their hunt - Just check out the damage our white van sustained when it slid off of the muddy road that winds 6 miles down into the swamp to the River tract… Bubba drives that course all of the time and is always so careful, so you know it was horrible weather conditions to land the van in the ditch and knock out the back window while throwing everyone around a bit. Luckily with a big group on board, they were able to rescue the vehicle from the gooey, red clay and get on the stand and back to the lodge again without further problems!

Michael with a nice pig

The two fortunate hunters out of this group were Michael and Ron. Michael shot his great pig Saturday afternoon while the largest boar we have killed recently was not deterred by the duck weather and came by Ron’s stand over on our River tract Sunday afternoon. That giant South Carolina wild boar had lots of Russian blood which showed in his thick, curly black coat that covered his massive 280 pound frame. And thank goodness that Ron decided to mount him because that hog had to be 6 years old or better, and you just don’t kill many like that. Hogs are very smart animals, and old boars that have been around for a long time just usually don’t make many mistakes that can land them on a sportsman’s wall. Congratulations Michael and Ron!

Also, please note that I will have some more great South Carolina hog hunting stories and pictures up by Monday since the couple of small groups that have been here all week have had pretty good success too. As a matter of fact, Danny called last night and told me that while I have been off, the hogs have been moving great and that 3 hunters killed 3 hogs on Wednesday alone.

Have a great weekend!

Jeff

Giant Boar on our River Property

Now that our South Carolina deer season is over, we are preparing for a big Spring of hog hunting here in the lowcountry at Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge.

All week, Danny, Bubba and I have been out at our River property, 1000 acres sandwhiched right between the Hamilton Ridge WMA and Crab Orchard Plantation, clearing roads, trimming shooting lanes, setting up feeders and erecting stands in preparation for all of the hog hunters that we have booked for 2009. Danny has also been out setting up another 500 acre tract down near Roebuck Plantation that we will be hunting this Spring for hogs while Bubba and Henry kept working behind our Luray lodge and on our Boggy Creek property to keep the wild pigs coming to those stands as well.

River Property giant hog herd

And you wouldn’t believe the amount of hog sign on all of these tracts. I will have to take my big camera with me the next time I am out there to capture some of it for the blog - the rubbed trees, the muddy wallows and the rooting as well the unbelievably beautiful setting our hunters will have to look at while in the stand. However since I had a trailcam with me last week, I stuck it up and in just two days had several hundred photos of hogs! Just check out the giant herd as well as the monster boar hanging out all by himself.

And while most of those were after dark, they were just shortly after shooting light (my camera’s clock was off by two hours, so it looks like they are out later than they were). But with our timed feeders now running to help encourage daylight feeding and no deer hunters in the woods, which removed a lot of the hunting pressure around us, the hog movement should just get better and better on all of these pieces. As a matter of fact, Danny ran in to a huge herd of pigs already on the corn as he was leaving the other afternoon at 4pm!

Boggy Creek Hog Herd

And don’t forget, the South Carolina Spring turkey season starts March 15th, so there is still time to book a hunt during that short 6 week season. We will be hunting those red-headed, feathery ghosts from daylight until noon, then eat a great lowcountry lunch so that we are ready for the afternoon hog hunt on one of these great tracts.

Please call or email us for more information on these South Carolina hog hunts and turkey hunts. We would love to add YOUR picture and story to The Skinning Shed.

Jeff

The South Carolina deer hunting season finally came to a close on January 1st, and we couldn’t have asked for a better ending. The warm weather that had plagued us for much of December was replaced by a nice cold front for the last few days, and that helped get the deer and hogs up and moving. That allowed our guests to see lots of animals during the final week and kill quite a few of them.

Rod and Payton with his first deer

Payton S. was over from Charleston hunting with his dad, Rod, when he killed his first deer ever! And as you can see, dad welcomed him in to the hunting fraternity by “bloodying” him up.

We also had Jeremy Jenkins, the grand prize winner of the North Carolina Sportsman Magazine’s annual hunting contest, in camp for the last week of the season, and he killed a beautiful 8 point with a 17 inch spread over on Pleasant Hill Plantation. He was at the fuller field stand, and shot his buck during an afternoon hunt.

Grand Prize winner Jeremy and his 8 point

However the deer were not the only animals moving during the final week of the season. The hogs were still out too, and Jason L. from Stanfield, N.C., down with his son Little Zack and his good buddy Big Zack, killed a nice boar over off of Boggy Creek.

Jason, little Zack and Big Zack

Please note that we also had several other hunters with good kills, including Frank and Bobby with his does, that we didn’t get pictures of as well as a 12 year old young lady who killed her first deer during the last week. I am still waiting for those pictures, and I promise to get those up as soon as I receive them.

We have also been working on getting some new properties set up for hog hunting this Spring, and I will have more on that tomorrow!

Jeff

The West Virginia Group

I have been working like crazy to send out all of the pictures that I took of our guests during this past South Carolina deer season. And as I went through my shots, I realized that I hadn’t yet put up a post about our group of hunters from West Virginia. They came down during the first week of November and had a fantastic time with us. The weather was nice and cool, and the deer and hogs were moving good while they were here.

Mr. Lynnie and his Pleasant Hill Plantation Monster

Joel got on the board first by shooting a nice hog over on our Boggy Creek property with his bow. And during the same afternoon, Ron shot a good 8 point just around the corner from Joel. Then a day or so later, Ron continued on his successful way by killing another beautiful 8 point on our Old Harper tract.

Ron with his two 8 points

But the group from West Virginia wasn’t done. Dusty’s dad, Mr. Lynnie, decided it was time to show all of the younger guys how to hunt, and he put dropped the hammer on a MONSTER over on Pleasant Hill Plantation. The deer went around 130 inches, which is truly a great lowcountry deer; but what was even more amazing was the size of the deer - he weighed 215 pounds on the hoof.

Joel and his bow-killed boar

We had a great time hunting with the group from West Virginia, and we are already excited about their return this coming fall.

Jeff

A great 21 inch wide 6 point

I promised in my last post to get pictures up of some great early December kills, and here they are…

We had a bow hunter, Dave from Jamestown, NC, arrow a nice hog over on Boggy Creek last week as well as a rifle hunter, Jeff down from Rock Hill, SC, over on the Old Harper tract who killed an unbelievable 6 point (7 if you include the forked G2). And on that tract we allow guests to kill any legal buck, so it just shows that while the deer season is winding down, there are still some great opportunities left before it ends on January 1st.

Boggy Creek Bowhunter

As for the weather, the rain has finally stopped, but the temperature has gone WAY UP. And it is supposed to stay that way for the next week. So that will have the deer and hogs holding a little more tight to cover since they will not be as forced to move and eat, but I believe that if hunters stick to the thick stuff, there will be plenty of chances for a good kill. However that will only be true if the property you hunt has had VERY LOW hunting pressure over our long deer season here in South Carolina.

Danny and Two of his sons

And that crucial point is illustrated here in this great picture of Danny and two of his sons with Ryan’s great Pleasant Hill Plantation buck. He killed this one a few weeks ago, but well after the rut had run most of its course. I just seriously doubt that most hunters are killing mature bucks like this on most tracts after four months of hunting. But again, it just shows that big bucks will keep moving well into the season if you just keep the hunting pressure down as well as pass on all of the little ones!

Keep checking back, and I will keep working on posting some of our great harvests from earlier in the season now that The Skinning Shed is fully up and running! And while we are not taking any hunters until after Christmas, guides Bubba, Hampton and Henry will also keep putting out the corn in preparation for all of the hunters that will be here starting the 26th.

Jeff

Kerry Earnhardt and his giant freak of a buck

Like I talked about on Tuesday, we had a big group of employees from Bass Pro Shops at the lodge to deer and hog hunt the South Carolina lowcountry this week. And Bass Pro hunting team member Kerry Earnhardt was with them.

The weather was perfect for their hunts, and everyone saw lots of game. Just about everyone had shooter bucks come by their stands, and those hog hunting also saw quite a few. The only problem with the hogs was that many showed up right at dark, so they only killed one nice boar.

However everyone was covered up with great deer. Several hunters passed on some good shooters hoping for a real monster while a few others had monsters come by, but couldn’t get a shot. But that is hunting. Fortunately Kerry had a great 5.5 year old buck with a giant, freak of a rack follow a doe by his stand on the final morning of his hunt while

Cypress Creek owner Danny Harrell filmed his last hunt. Craig Pond of Wolf Creek Productions was down to film as well but had to leave to catch his flight back to Michigan early Wednesday morning so Danny stepped in.

Wolf Creek films lots of hunts with us, and they are responsible for providing the footage that you see on several shows on the Outdoor Channel as well as Versus such as Trijicon Outdoor America, The Wingshooter and American Archerer. So make sure and look for this great hunt on one of these shows in the very near future.

We truly had a great time with all of the Bass Pro guys in camp, and they are already planning their next hunt with us.

I also would like to take this opportunity to talk about the hunts we film with special guests like Kerry… They hunt the same stands that every other guest gets to hunt - Period! Every hunter that visits Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge is the same as far as we are concerned, and EVERYONE gets special treatment; that is what makes us different.

And we don’t have stands that we save just for them. For instance, the stand that Kerry saw hogs at Monday night but couldn’t get a shot due to darkness was the exact same stand that an Sargeant Major in the Army, up from Fort Stewart with his daughter, missed a hog from last week. It is a great stand that gets constant traffic from hogs, and that is the type of spot we want to put all of our guests in!

We hope that you will come join us to see for yourself.