From the SC Camo Coalition:

There is power in numbers.  Show your support for South Carolina’s outdoors tomorrow when “Underappreciated Assets: The Economic Impact of South Carolina’s Natural Resources” 2009 study is released.  Researched by University of South Carolina, Moore School of Business professor Dr. Doug Woodward, this comprehensive report documents the economic impact of activities associated with South Carolina’s natural resources, such as wildlife related outdoor recreation (i.e. hunting, fishing, boating, wildlife watching), resource based tourism, forestry, mining, boat manufacturing and commercial fishing.

DNR’s economic impact of natural resources news conference is TOMORROW (Wednesday, May 27th).
Please attend the news conference in your area.

Green Means Green
30 Billion Reasons Why Life’s Better Outdoors

GREENVILLE
9:30 a.m.
Reedy River Park
601 South Main Street, Greenville, SC 29612

COLUMBIA
12:00 noon
Riverfront Park
The Corner of Alexander Road & Meeting Street on the West Columbia Side of the Gervais Street Bridge, Columbia, SC 29201

CHARLESTON
3:30 p.m.
Charleston City Marina
17 Lockwood Drive, Charleston , SC 29401

For more information please visit SCDNR’s website.

Remember, there is power in numbers.  This is a news conference.  Media from across the state will be in attendance.  It is important that we support the South Carolina Natural Resources Society and South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

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I hope that everyone is enjoying a beautiful day here in the lowcountry by celebrating Memorial Day. Because without the service and sacrifice of our veterans, none of our freedoms would be a reality! Thank You to all of those that have served our great nation.

Jeff

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I was able to check my camera the other day down on Pig Road over on the River tract, and boy had the hogs been hitting that feeder like crazy. In 10 days, I had over 1000 pictures. A lot of the hogs were just nice size eaters stopping by the corn dispensing contraption to try and fatten up, but there were some real monsters on there too. Unfortunately, the hogs were having a great time rubbing on the tree that the trailcam was attached to, and they managed to spin the thing around the tree several times. This resulted in some neat shots of the pigs approaching the feeder instead of under it, but it also meant that lots of the images had bushes in the way since I did not clear all around the tree…

I haven’t figured out if the hogs don’t like the camera watching them, so they moved it. Or if they read lowcountryhunting.com and were tired of always seeing themselves portrayed eating, so they adjusted the camera to get a different perspective of themselves   However while I contemplate this important, pressing issue, enjoy some hog pics. And with the great, cool weather we are having right now, you might want to consider hitting the woods to stock up on some pork while the bugs are on vacation.

Jeff

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This Spring has been very tough for me to blog. Not only have I been super busy with turkey season, but I have been having computer problems in addition to being very handicapped by using dial-up internet services to blog. And I just seem to be getting busier and busier every day with two kids, two jobs, a wife and a life, so I just don’t have the time to sit around waiting for pages to load or files to download. Throw in an older, slow computer that loves to freeze up, and you can see why I haven’t gotten around the bloggosphere as much as I used to and why I haven’t posted as often as I would like.

Well, that is all about to change! A wireless company has finally introduced a high-speed modem that will work out here in our internet dead zone, and I now have it. Then, due to my computer crashing last week, I have finally had to go and buy a new computer. So between the two of them, my computing/internet surfing ability has gone from the equivalent of a Yugo to a Ferrari.

I have already been able to view hunting videos that before always clogged my computer up, such as some of Tom’s great work at Base Camp Legends, Arthur and Jeff’s turkey hunts at SimplyOutdoors and Phillip’s hog hunts over at the HogBlog. I have also been able quickly run around many of my other favorite blogs to see what everyone is up to lately, which before was becoming more and more impossible due to my time/schedule constraints.

And now with the new computer to do the processing and the high-speed internet connection to upload them, I am working on getting some of the great hunting footage that we shoot at Cypress Creek Hunting Lodge up on the internet. I am very excited about this since we have so many hunts on film, and until now, it has been trapped on our many tapes. But that is all about to change too!

And to start things off, I have gone and pulled the great intro to the original Cypress Creek Hunting Video made about 5 years ago and posted it to YouTube and linked it to the Cypress Creek Skinning Shed, specifically at Cypress Creek Hunting Video Intro. Please note that it has a watermark on it for the first few seconds, but that is because I was using a program that we are thinking of purchasing. If it works well, I will buy it and remove the watermark, then re-upload it. I am also still trying to get it to play directly on the Skinning Shed, but for right now, I can only get it to work from YouTube. So check it out and let me know what you think of the footage. And then prepare for much more, because once I get the these bugs worked out, I will transfer the rest of the hour-long video and get it uploaded; then I will move on to some of our most recent hunts.

And of course, I am grateful for any advice anyone can give me about working with the videos on the internet as well as on the computer. I am new to this, so I will be glad for any help. Now if I could just get all of my old emails and programs off of my old, dead computer, I would be in good shape. However I am working now on getting that done right now, and as soon as I do, I should be all caught up on my biggest projects. Then throw in the fact that the summer is our slowest hunting time as well as our slowest wedding time, and you can see that I will have more time and ability to blog. So forgive me for the lack of writing this Spring and prepare for some big changes over the next few weeks. I truly look forward to sharing much more with you.

Jeff

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A few weeks ago, Amy took the boys hiking along the train tracks that run through the Palachucola WMA that is a part of the Webb Wildlife Center and WMA. There she found a great buck that had recently been hit by a train, and that is him in the picture with Will holding the half a rack left from the collision.

From his pedicle, beam length, mass and teeth, it appears that this great buck was at least 3.5 years old, so definitely a good one produced by the great management program that the Webb Center runs for their deer. However the fact that a good quality deer management plan produced a great buck like this one after 6 years of antler restrictions is not a big surprise. The fact that it has a knife-like G2 just like the original Webb Monster is!

If everyone remembers, two seasons ago, a young man killed the great buck called the Webb Monster that we had been watching and trying to kill over on Cubbedge Hill Plantation that runs through the Webb Center. And that beautiful buck that gross scored 146 inches had a very unique rack that sported flat, knife-like back tines (Bo is holding one of his sheds from when he was 4.5 years old). And amazingly enough, so does this one.

Of course, since the Webb Monster was 5.5 years old, he obviously was able to breed quite a few does over the years. So it isn’t unusual for a deer living just down the dirt road and in the same management area to have a similar rack. But since we haven’t seen any others like it since then, I just thought that everyone would love to know that there are more giants just like the Webb Monster running around the 26,000 acre WMA. And if you are lucky enough to get drawn for one of the hunts this fall over there, you might just see and kill one!

Please note that the applications for the hunts become available June 1st, so you might want to apply.

Jeff

PS: the boys are standing in front of Amy’s garden which she has been taking great care of. And the vegetables are coming right along, so put your orders in now!

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I have been using Facebook (or FB as many call it) for sometime now. At first I just went on and signed up just to make sure that anyone that was looking for us could find me or my wife. However over the last year or so, I have been using it more and more, and now find myself checking it almost daily.

I love seeing what others are up to, especially my hunting friends out there since it is always neat to see what they are hunting or what they just harvested. And since you can create folders of pictures as well as even put a trophy gallery up on your profile, it makes for a great way to show off your success and see other’s – especially if they don’t have a blog for me to check.

I also love the fact that I have heard from so many people that I have lost contact with over the years, and can now see what they and their families are up to whenever I have a spare minute without always having to send them an email or call them. Not that I mind doing either of those things, since I do those too, but it just helps keep you a little more connected with those people even when you don’t talk everyday.

I am already friends with several fellow bloggers including Phillip over at the HogBlog, Jody over at The Hunters Wife, Tom over at Base Camp Legends and Marian at Marian’s Hunting Stories. I am also friends with quite a few of my readers and fellow QDMA members including Ann, Beth and Robin from the Lightsey Hunting Club for Ladies. However I would love to invite all of my readers and other fellow bloggers to add me to their friend’s list if you are on FB. And if you are not, I encourage you to go and sign up… you will wonder how you lived without it You will also be amazed at the great hunting community already on there!

I just enjoy the fact that so many people stay up with what our family is up to through this blog, so I would really enjoy seeing what others are up to as well. It will also make it easier to let everyone know what is going on here in the lowcounty when we have events or important issues that hunters need to be aware of.

So please consider adding me to your friend’s list. Just search for “Jeff Hunt” in Garnett, SC and/or in the Savannah, GA network and send me a request… I hope to hear from you.

Jeff

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The South Carolina lowcountry turkey season ended Friday at sunset, and I  managed to kill a bird on Thursday afternoon just before dark to avoid being skunked until next year.

While I guided many days this Spring, I only got to hunt 3 mornings and one afternoon by myself. So that did not leave a lot of time or opportunities to bag a bird for us to eat. And after missing a big gobbler on one of those mornings, I was starting to think that there would be no wild turkey dinners for the Hunt family this year. And let me tell you, my boys want to see some wild game on the grill – especially since they consider their dad to be one of the greatest hunters in the world (as all young boys should!) 

Their questions about why I hadn’t killed a turkey were getting old, but their constant harping on my miss was really driving me crazy. I had to get my boys a turkey to hold, pet and eat. So I was kind of kicking myself for not shooting one of the jakes that I had several times at 10 yards and instead trying to shoot an older gobbler at 40.

However on the second to last day of the season, I hit the woods at 5pm for one last try. But between the horrible heat and the giant, swarming bugs, I didn’t have much hope or motivation left. Fortunately I spotted several young gobblers, some hens and one older gobbler in a chufa field as I made my way into the property.

I had already decided that if I saw any gobblers that I would not waste any time trying to get to the back of the property where I had seen lots of turkeys, but instead go right after any one that I saw. So I ran down the road past the field, down a logging road and into the back of a bottom that bordered the back of the chufa field. I then headed up through the bottom and back up towards the field where I then eased up to glass it in hopes that the gobblers had not moved off.

At first, I couldn’t see anything but hens in the field, but with the weeds being so tall, it was hard to spot them unless they were standing straight up looking around. But after a few minutes of glassing, I caught sight of four red heads about 150 yards out in the field – all jakes. I called lightly to them to see if they would come to me as well as to possibly make the older gobbler I had seen show himself.

I never saw the big gobbler again, but a couple of the hens started making their way to my side of the field with the four young gobblers behind them. So I just kept clucking and purring away for about an hour while they slowly fed into the corner of the field that I was hiding in.

When they reached 30 yards, I picked out the one jake that was twice the size of the rest and prepared to shoot. Only I hadn’t seen a hen walk right up behind me, and when I moved the gun barrel around on him, she went crazy putting. That sent the gobblers into a frenzy, and while they didn’t run off, they moved behind some big bushes that were in the field that blocked my shot. So I sat motionless until I thought that the hen had moved off, then I moved the gun barrel just slightly again.

Turns out the hen had not left, but was still standing quietly behind me, and this time she let out one lout putt and then took off flying into the hardwoods behind me. The gobblers took this as their que to leave the field too, and with that, they all took off too.

Luckily, the woods behind me are where the birds normally roost, so all of  the birds slowly took flight and attempted to head that way together. Only one of them didn’t make it. I dropped the hammer on him as he was getting his big, feathery self airborn!

The 14 pound jake with a 6 inch beard made the ride home with me where my two boys congratulated me and once again proclaimed me the greatest turkey hunter ever. Then after taking some pictures, I skinned him out and put him in the refrigerator until it was time to fire up the grill last night for a turkey celebration/dinner… He was very tasty, and I don’t think that any of us could tell that he didn’t have a 10 inch beard

Congratulations to everyone who got to enjoy the turkey woods this Spring, especially my friend Arthur over at SimplyOutdoors who just killed his first turkey! And remember it is all about having a great time and a great hunt.

Jeff

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