The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

Danny with Larry Proffitt and two big lowcountry turkeys

Like I told everyone last week, Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge was blessed with a visit from turkey hunting legend/master Larry Proffitt during the opening week of our lowcountry gobbler season. And while here, the man with 30 Grand Slams and 20 Royal Slams, was able to use his vast experience to call in and harvest three nice longbeards during his stay.

Danny and his video camera joined Larry for his last morning’s hunt down near the Savannah River, and while he didn’t get the shot on camera, he was able to get some incredible footage and audio of Larry working the bird. So join us in a 3 part series as Larry first tries to coax a big bird to him right off the branch with some incredible tree talk. Then sit close during the second video, and watch and listen as Larry works ALL of his calls until he finds just the right sound that the big gobbler likes, and brings him in close. Finally listen in as Larry puts the double-bearded bird down and then spends a few minutes sharing the techniques he used to bring the gobbler in for a shot. So whether you are a novice turkey hunter or an old master, you will truly want to watch and LISTEN to these videos to learn how to improve your calling as well as your turkey hunting success rate.

As for this past week’s hunting, all I can do is talk about the tough hunting conditions for both hogs and our turkeys. First we had a bright full moon all week that really seemed to keep the pig movement under and after dark. Then henned up gobblers that barely wanted to talk much less come in was the norm for the turkey hunts over the last few days. However that is real hunting. And fortunately, most of our guests know that real hunting is just that - Hunting and only sometimes killing - so everyone had a wonderful time. And when you are pursuing wild animals under fair chase, free range conditions - that is all you can and should guarantee!

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

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

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

Ron, Clif, Tristan and Travis with the group's two-day take

Even though we didn’t get much rain last week and the weather stayed hot, our wild hogs kept moving for the lucky hunters we had in camp last week. Our group of four down from the upstate for two days started things off by killing 4 nice pigs. Clif knocked one down while Ron stacked up two more; their friend Tristan was covered up in hogs for most of their stay, but had some problems hitting the fast moving suckers. And unfortunately the one that he did kill, we didn’t find for a few days despite a huge search for it. That left their good buddy Travis the lone man out with no pigs sighted or shot at… but as I say, that is REAL hunting. And since they are already making plans to return, we have promised to tie one up for him for his next trip We also want to wish Tristan well and thank him for his service as he heads overseas to defend our great nation!

We then had a two day break before Jeb Jr. and Sr. showed up from Virginia to try and get the younger one his first boar. And despite having only one day to do it, Jeb saw quite a few pigs and then put a great shot on his 130 pounder which dropped right in his tracks over at the Bar Pit at Boggy Creek. They took some good pictures of it, and they have promised to email us a copy, so I will get it up as soon as I do.

Clif and his pig

Next our good friend Clay from N.C. came down for two days of hog hunting with his girlfriend Cayla. And I know that they saw several hogs but couldn’t get a shot at them before they got by on their first day out. However I am still waiting for information on their second day’s sits, and hopefully they managed to watch the woods and not each other so that Clay could take home some port. And of course if he did, the pictures will be up here next week too!

Ron and his two wild hogs

So that wraps up our week’s worth of hunting, which considering how hot it is and how few hunters we have in the woods right now is pretty good. Now, since most of our food plots are in, we have another week to work on our our stands before our next big group of 12 come in. And with two weeks of no pressure on the hogs, they should put some pork on the ground while they are here too.

I also promised some new trailcam pics this week, and our new cuddeback over on our bowhunting-only tract didn’t disappoint us. We had lots of deer and hogs on it as well as a gray fox, and they all seemed to come by at all hours of the day and night. Fortunately many of the visits were during shooting hours. You can see one nice boar was at the feeder right around 6am and the start of legal shooting time while another wandered by around 7:30pm. We also had a couple of good sows with their piglets that stopped by quite frequently too - and what was neat about getting them on camera was the fact that you could see the stripped young hogs. FYI: piglets that are mostly feral are a solid, single color while those with stripes have more Eurasion hog genes in them. So obviously some good hogs over there just waiting to be stuck

So there you have it… a recap of our week of hog hunting along with some new trailcam pics. Now to get back to working on getting some more video clips up on here! See you in a few days…

Jeff

Outdoor Moments with Bub and Kelly was a great TV show that covered lots of hunting in the South and was even produced right here in South Carolina. Unfortunately it is no longer on the air, however we have been working on getting some of their old clips up from their many visits to Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge up on our website. And now that they are ready, check out one of the hunts where Kelly shoots a big old boar and then has to track it down in the thick brush with the help of our old guide Mike Rayano. Then follow along as they let Mike have a chance in front of the camera to try his hand at shooting a big hog - with Kelly’s gun! It’s great stuff and should provide a few laughs in addition to reminding everyone why you NEVER hunt with a gun that you haven’t personally verified is ON TARGET.

And I posted last week about how we were going to have some hunters in camp this past weekend, so I guess I better report on how they did… Well, most of the hunters saw hogs - that was the good news. The bad news was that two of them had a monster boar run by without getting a shot over on our Sandy Run tract while Tim, who was down with Doug from Clover, SC, had a pack of 30 hogs show up at his stand on Boggy Creek only to miss a giant one. Fortunately our good buddy Joe, down from NC with Rick, Gene and Randy, managed to get his crosshairs on a good sized pig and drop him. The bad news on his good kill was that his shot almost cut the hog in half, so no pictures were taken for the blog…

We have this July 4th weekend off to celebrate the founding of our great country, then we get back to business with several groups coming in starting Sunday and running through the following weekend. So if the hog movement will continue to stay decent and our new hunters can sit still as well as shoot straight, we should have some new hunting stories and kill shots for the Skinning Shed next week - so stay tuned. I will also have some new trailcam shots as well as more updates on our preparations for the opening of deer season.

I am also still working on getting many, many more of the clips from the different hunting shows converted and uploaded here. Then I will begin transferring all of the unseen video footage that Danny has taken over the last few years so that we can get it up here as well. And since I have seen some of it, all I can say is that you better keep checking back - you don’t want to miss any of it because there is some unbelievable action on those tapes - and we truly look forward to sharing it with you.

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