As most of our lowcountry hunters know, the last few weeks have been unbelievably hot. And the high temperatures along with the ton of acorns in the woods has kept our rut from really cranking up since the bucks have been hiding in the shade while snacking on the oak droppings instead of coming to corn or food plots. However last Sunday a nice cold front finally rolled in, and that got the bucks and does up and moving pretty good.

And during this cool weather, I was fortunate enough to have a few days off to take our boys hunting a few times as well as hunt by myself too. Well, the boys and I drew first blood when we took a nice, big doe when five of them came out to feed. Then just a few days later, I had a chance at a monster…

It was pretty late, and I was just about to get out of my stand when I saw a dark shape cross the road in front of me. I jerked the gun up and spotted a big doe walking with another doe and two yearlings behind her about 100 yards away. None of them stopped to feed on the corn, but instead just kept going. So I kept the gun up and ready to see if anything was behind them, and sure enough a big deer stepped in the road after them. I could tell it was a giant deer with a big rack, I just couldn’t tell how many points that it had.

That is when I started to regret not taking a few shots before hunting to check where my  “new” bullets were hitting -  I had ran out of my Winchester Supreme FailSafes  that I have shot for years, so I had just grabbed a couple of old powerpoints from my hunting stuff to get by the night, thinking that I either wouldn’t see anything I wanted to shoot or if I did, it would be close enough not to matter! However,  the deer was just too big to let go, so I figured that the heavier powerpoints would hit lower, aimed high and let a round go down range.

After the muzzle blast in the dark, everything went black. I waited a second, then when I didn’t hear anything running through the woods, I picked the gun back up and looked down the scope to where the deer had been. Sure enough, he was still standing there! I couldn’t believe it, my dead deer was still just as alive as he could be. So I quickly and somewhat quitely opened the bolt on my old Model 70 Winchester 30-06 and chambered the only other round I had with me. I then put the crosshairs back on the deer, this time right at the top of his back, and let my second shot go…

At the blast, I could hear the deer running through the woods. Then a crash… I couldn’t believe it. I had got him! So I ran back to my truck, grabbed my flashlight and went to where he had been. Sure enough, blood was in the mud in the road. So I just took a few steps back into the pines and shined my light right on to him. That is when I realized that I had shot the biggest buck I had seen on my trailcam since I started setting up the little spot that I had been given permission to hunt… A beautiful mainframe 8 point with 4 inch long kickers – two off of his G2s and two off of his giant bases.

I then checked to see where my shot had hit, and found that it had just barely caught the bottom of his heart. After saying a quick prayer, I called Amy to let her know that I had gotten the big one and to keep the boys up until I could get home to show them. They were so proud of me for killing a giant buck; however there were also pretty peeved that they had not been allowed to go with me. But fortunately they forgave me when I promised to take them the next time

I have lots more stories to tell about this season, so I will try to get back to writing and share them with everyone. I also hope that everyone is having a great season too.

Jeff

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If you want to see one of the largest bodied bucks ever killed in the lowcountry of South Carolina, you had better head on over to the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed. I just posted pictures and the full story of the 267 pound monster that was killed at Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge over on our Pleasant Hill Plantation tract last week… Truly an amazing deer!

Jeff

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I know that I haven’t gotten back to my blogging here at LowcoutryHunting like I promised, however I am still working on making some much needed changes that will allow me to blog more, and better than ever. And I just can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to getting back to the grind and sharing all that has and is happening with our hunting here in the lowcountry of South Carolina.

However until I can finish these changes over the next few days, I wanted to let everyone know about another way that you can stay up with me – follow me on Twitter at “LowcountryHunt”! I will be tweeting in real time about what is going on here in the lowcountry as well as exactly what I am seeing in the woods. And I just got one of those fancy new phones with a full keypad to make my tweets quick and easy right from the stand, so I will be updating frequently now that the rut is about to crank up. So either sign up at Twitter.com to follow me at LowcountryHunt, or just go to www.twitter.com/lowcountryhunt to read my tweets just like you read this blog.

Also, if you are tweeting about some good hunting, let me know so that I can see what you are up to as well… got to have something to do in the stand while waiting for a monster to come out! And like I said, stay tuned for more big changes.

PS: Remember you can always find me over at the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed too!

Thanks,

Jeff

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I must apologize for my extended absence, however life can get in the way of even our most important activities. And that is what has happened here. However I am writing today to bring everyone up to date on this site.

First I want to address my last post about our QDMA banquet since I haven’t written anything since then. Basically, everyone had a great time and the event went off pretty well- except for not having a full house. All of the volunteers did a great job of finding sponsors, planning the event, setting up and working it. But like I said, we definitely could have used some more supporters in the seats, and that really hurt our bottom line. However we had anticipated that due to three factors, we might not get the turnout that we were looking for.

The biggest was the state of the economy right now. I don’t think anyone is oblivious to all of the people out of work or the ones that aren’t working as much as they were, causing everyone to tighten their financial belts until things get better. The second factor was that our event was scheduled for the last weekend of the summer when a ton of people who would normally attend where out of town squeezing in some more family time before school started. And the third is that the NWTF Pocitaligo chapter does such an amazing job with their banquet in the Spring, and have done so for quite a few years. They are not only a tough act to follow, but in such a small community as ours, trying to do similar events is tough. There are just only so many people/sportsmen that will attend banquets and/or sponsor, so we are all pulling from the same pool. And in this tough economy in a small community on the last weekend of the summer, that created a tough situation that I am happy to report will be rectified with some of the new plans we have coming up for our branch!

So, like I said, we had a pretty good event; it was just a tough year to do it in. However we did break even, so no problems there. We also did what the Quality Deer Management Association wanted us to do, and that was to promote QDM and the QDMA while bringing more supporters on board our group – and we did both. We also spent over $7500 with local businesses (including Have Gun, Will Sell who supplied all of our firearms and the County Line who provided the dinners), hopefully helping them during this tough time. We also spent over $3000 with national QDMA sponsors. So all in all, not too bad during a tough time. And everyone with the QDMA Salkehatchie Branch wants to thank those that attended.

The only thing that did not work out for our banquet was our newspaper promoting QDM, our branch and our sponsors. We had decided to wait until after the banquet to put the paper out so that we could not only have more time to put out a nice publication, but to also make sure we had the funds to pay for it. And due to only breaking even on our event, we had to postpone the release of our paper because of that cost.

And I hate that we were not able to fulfill our commitment to our sponsors, so I take full responsibility for it. HOWEVER, I intend to make it right, and quickly at that. First I am still looking to publish a QDMA newspaper around late October, even if I have to cover some of the cost myself, when we have the most visiting hunters to read it. Second, I will be promoting all of our local sponsors in a very unique way, and it will be obvious very soon how I am going to do it.

Which brings me to the state of this blog… There are lots of new posts on the horizon and even more big changes coming! So I hope that everyone will understand about my absence (which I will also write more about) and continue to stay with me as I get back up and running. And as always, I want to truly thank those that have been loyal readers as well as the newer ones, both of whom I have run into in town asking when I was going to get back to the business of writing about the great hunting we have here in the lowcountry…

All I can say is check back on Monday!

Jeff

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While I haven’t posted much here at LowcountryHunting lately, don’t think for one minute that I haven’t been working like crazy on several big projects. And one of those projects is of course our annual Quality Deer Management Association’s Salkehatchie Branch REACH banquet that will be held on August 8th at the County Line restaurant. The banquet will feature a live auction, a silent auction, games, raffles and another amazing meal fixed by the County Line’s own David Rowell.

However this year we will be doing something EXTRA SPECIAL for all of those that support QDMA and our banquet – we will be publishing a NEWSPAPER to publicize their businesses as well as QDMA’s mission. The paper will be 12×12 inches in size, have 16 pages with color on the front and back and have a minimum run of 5000 copies that we will distribute across Hampton County during the opening week of deer season!!!

And in this paper, we will be giving ads to our sponsors as well as selling ads to other local businesses that would like an advertising mechanism to reach all of our visiting hunters. So please contact me at 803-842-1155 if you would like to purchase tickets (single $50, couple $65) become a sponsor for the banquet or just purchase an ad in our newspaper.

PS: I was able to take the boys out in our new, nicely used F250 for a hog hunt last night. And while we didn’t kill anything, we sure had a great time watching a sow with her piglets… MUCH more info about the truck, the boys, our hunting and my projects coming very soon, so stay tuned!

Jeff

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With deer season just over 6 weeks away, our family is trying to enjoy what little of the summer we have left… so I apologize for not posting regularly lately. However in-between our summer trips and activities with the boys, I have been working hard on a bunch of new articles as well as a couple of new projects. I look forward to sharing all of them with you in just a few days, so please stay tuned..

Thanks, Jeff

PS: If you are looking for something to do, head over to SimplyOutdoors… Arthur has some great ideas, and one of them has to be near you!

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Good Monday Morning! For your viewing pleasure today I have some great footage our friends from Trijicon’s Outdoor America filmed at Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge a few years ago. So please check over at the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed to view them shooting a big hog and then harvesting a beautiful buck in velvet.

Jeff

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August is fast approaching, so if you are still in the market for a hunting club to join, you may want to check out the Longbranch Hunt Club outside of Ridgeland.They are currently looking for members to fill their remaining openings on their 9,800 acres in Jasper county. The club has 1800 acres of still hunting-only land and 8000 acres that they still hunt as well as dog hunt. Dues are $1650 and the membership period runs just during deer season.

If interested, please contact Mike at 843-726-1425.

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I can’t believe a week away from SC can go so fast!

Amy, Bo, Will and I ran down to Melbourne, FL for some rest and relaxation, but ended up doing almost as much there as we do here. We went on an unbelievably fun bowfishing trip in Orlando with Florida BowFishing Charters, a fishing trip on the Intracoastal with friends and a great hog hunt near Lake Okeechobee with Chappy’s Outfitters. And that was all on top of eating out, visiting friends and spending lots of time at the beach and pool with the kids!

We really had a fantastic great time, and I look forward to sharing some of our pictures and outdoor adventure stories with everyone. However I am headed to work this morning, so they will have to wait until later. But until then, please check over at the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed for four great new video clips: a bow hunt for a hog, a monster lowcountry buck by rifle and one of our many lady hunters shooting a doe. There is also a great instructional video clip about how to hunt hogs, and what sign and habitat you are looking for when pursuing them – a real must for those that are new to the sport.

Jeff

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That’s right… The Hunt family is headed to Florida this morning for a full week of fun in the sun. We will be staying in Melbourne visiting Amy’s mom and stepdad that live across the street from the beach as well as catching up with lots of friends that we don’t get to see too often. We also have several day trips planned to Sebastian Inlet, the zoo and on the St. John’s River. So I look forward to sharing those adventures with you when I return, and hopefully I will also get  a post or two up while we are there since I will have internet access.

However to keep you entertained this morning, I suggest you check over at the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed for some new video clips that I just posted. One has some great footage of a big sow being shot by our old marketing/media coordinator and the other has Kerry Earnhardt watching a great boar fight and then shooting the winner. I think you will really like them!

Jeff

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