The Cypress Creek Skinning Shed

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