If you get a chance, drop by Mike Hanback’s Big Deer blog and thank him for featuring the South Carolina lowcountry. He was nice enough to showcase the Webb/Cubbedge Hill Monster that Cody Whittle took in October as well the huge 6 point I killed in November.

And I know I have posted the trailcam shots of our two deer before, but I wanted to make sure that any of his readers that are stopping by for the first time see them. I also wanted to include the trailcam shot of Cody’s deer from when he was 3.5 years old to show everyone what a difference 2 years makes!

In addition, I wanted his readers to be able to see the other buck I was talking about in Mike’s post. That is Daniel and his son Derek posing with his great 130 inch buck that he killed in December. And that is his deer in the trailcam shot next to them from October.

You can find tons more big buck photos under my trailcam category, so please feel free to look around. Thanks to all of Mike’s readers for stopping by my site, and a huge Thank You to Mike himself for featuring big bucks from our neck of the woods!

Please note that while I will not be managing Cubbedge Hill Plantation any longer, I still plan on promoting them and their great deer. And as everyone should know by now, I truly love promoting the hunting in the Lowcountry, period!

Jeff

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We got her!

The giant sow that we have been seeing all week on the trailcam was patiently waiting for Bo and I yesterday when we went to check the trap out on the Jericho tract. That is her in the picture on the last post, and she weighed in at 250 pounds. Of course that was before Bo and I took the skinning knives to her.

Bo has been having so much fun going with me to check the trap everyday, and he has been very interested in how they look, feel and SMELL when I get them out. Most importantly he has not been squimish about me shooting them. So I thought that he was ready to see how meat/food is made…

“We’re going to skin the HOG?!” he asked excitedly when we got to the skinning rack.

“Yes son, that is how we turn the hog in to meat” I replied.

“Cool!!!” he exclaimed

Then we hoisted him up, and I went to work. Bo really thought pulling her hide off was neat, but wasn’t so sure when I opened the pig up and dropped the guts out.

“That’s GROSS, dada” he said loudly as the blood poured from her neck. “You now have boogs on your hand.”

What he meant was blood, but who could blame him for thinking that; Moments earlier it had been pouring out of her nose - therefore it must be boogs.

I finished up the cleaning, and it was time to wash the carcass down. Bo enthusiastically brought me the hose and helped me spray her down so that she was ready to be hung in the cooler. We then cleaned up and hurried home for dinner.

When we got there, he ran inside to tell mama about the hog we killed, “We got a big, MEAN hog in the trap, and we made her in to meat!”

He then blurted out, “And that big, mean hog went peepee and poopoo when dada shot her. But that is what happens when you die!”.

Amy almost fell off the couch with that comment. However after I told her how the hog’s bowels completely emptied themselves out while I was getting her out of the trap, she understood. Three year olds are already fascinated with the whole bathroom process, so to see the giant hog take a 2 foot long poop along with a gallon pee really made a lasting impression… He has now told the story at least 100 times, and that only happened yesterday!

That makes 3 sows this week in the trap that will not be filling our woods with their nasty, tick-infested offspring. I am truly ready for spring and turkey season, but I hate that I have to pull the trap now that I have them really coming in… I could really do some damage to the herd if I just had a few more weeks, and how I would love to get the cool looking boar pictured above. However you can’t have any corn down during turkey season, unless you want a visit from the game wardens - and they are really strict on it.

Oh well, I did manage to get a few of the worst offenders. And I will be ready on May 2 when I can put it back out. So hog trapping will be on hold until then, but hunting those big, ugly red-headed birds should make for some interesting reading, so don’t think for one minute that you shouldn’t check back EVERYDAY. And just because we can’t actually trap them doesn’t meant that I can’t do a few more posts on hog trapping and how to best catch them. So look for those posts too.

I am now headed out to work on getting that radiator in our Corolla. We managed to get the new tires on our van, but a lack of time has thrown off my original schedule. See you tomorrow!

Jeff

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Well it has been quite the last few days… I took the weekend off to spend some extra time in the woods with the family, and it was great. While Amy and Will went to Walmart, Bo and I took my cousins 1959 Toyota Landcruiser out to the Jericho tract to check the camera and reset the trap. We also spent a good bit of time looking for “indian rocks” (we found 3 nice bird points) and following the big, monster hog tracks to see where they went. Of course they went right in to the thick cypress bay were they spend their day, and Bo thought we should go in after them…

We then came back to find that Amy had managed to get our van home from the store even though one tire had busted a steel belt. So luckily they had not gotten stranded on the side of the road, but it looks like a new set of tires will be needed ASAP… Just a few hundred dollars that we really did not want to spend on our kids anyway. LOL

Sunday, we decided that the whole family should be in on the hog trap/trailcam checking fun, so we all loaded up in to the ancient jeep for the couple of mile ride. Sure enough, we found that the trap’s corn had not been touched, but the camera’s corn had been cleaned up. That would mean just one thing - that something would be in there on Monday. So we looked around for arrowheads for an hour (found one bird point), but did not stay too long since we had already hit the Blount Place. There Amy had found a broken, but really nice spear point.

We then headed back to the house where we spent the rest of the afternoon letting the kids ride around the yard in the used Jeep that my mom bought them at a garage sale. They absolutely love cruising around the yard in it, and they don’t seem to even care that it is HOT BARBIE PINK! (That just goes to show that boys aversion to that color is learned) But I think we are going to pick up a couple of cans of spray paint for a custom camo paint job this week… Then they will think it is REALLY COOL.

Monday then rolled around, and I knew one would be in the trap, so Bo and I ran out their yesterday afternoon, and sure enough there was a 100 pound sow napping in the cage. My Rugar .45 made that nap permanent, and Bo and I loaded her up in the trunk of my toyota corolla since the landcruiser was out of gas. We then ran her back to the house for a quick cleaning.

If you are keeping track, that is two sows now out of the herd! When they eat A LOT of corn at $6 a bushel, every one taken out helps. And by killing the sows, it really means that you are taking out a bunch of potential hogs later on. So while I love trapping/killing any hog, catching the sows actually does more good than taking a boar out.

I have also included a couple of new trailcam shots in this post. Nothing too crazy, just a shot of one of the bigger sows that I am hoping to catch, some hungry birds caught mid-flight, and two coons displaying dominance/submission over who gets the corn… you just never know what will turn up on that thing!

I am now headed out to get some tires on our van, then I have to put a radiator in my Toyota. And if I have time, I will check the trap again. So you see I have a busy day ahead of me, but I should be back tomorrow with another update on our trapping program… I just have one more week before I have to pull the corn up due to the turkey season laws, so I am trying hard to get a few more before then… Who needs Pork?

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Since I needed to check the camera and trap on the Jericho tract, we loaded up the whole family and went out for a hike today as well. We managed to find several nice pieces of pottery along with one great bird point arrowhead.

As for the trap, it was sprung but there was nothing in it. Damn hogs will get their noses under the door if you give them long enough… Luckily the camera told the story of what had been there. Looks like two packs of hogs, some deer and a bunch of raccoons.

I reset the hog trap, but now I am going to have to get a coon trap too! At $6 a bushel of corn, I definitely will not be feeding these suckers for long. And check out the midday movement during the full moon - That deer is out at almost dead noon.

And I also learned something about Trophy Rock, the mineral lick. Don’t let it sit in water! It rained so much this past weekend that it puddled up in front of the camera, and the water just ate my brand new rock away. I will not do that again…

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Since I am in Florida this weekend, I thought that it would be appropriate to showcase some great trailcam pictures from here. My friend C.J. hunts west of Palm Coast and gave these to me a while back. He says that they have more bears than coyotes!!! I would hate to find that big one waiting patiently by the feeder for me to show up with a fresh refill…

They also have quite a few coyotes running around too. And I just thought that it was funny that he got a picture of one peeing in the corn pile. I also have caught them doing that, so it must be fairly common for them to mark it. This behavior is also not surprising since they love to go at high-traffic areas.

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The weekend hunt did not produce any big bucks or big buck sightings. Hell, it only produced a couple of deer sightings period. The big bucks seem to be hunkered down with the does, and only the small ones are moving. I saw three spikes Saturday morning, and C.J. passed on the 6 point in the first picture over at the Blount Place. He also saw a 6 point standing in the new road when he went to pick his dad up at 10 am this morning.

And that fits the pattern I have seen lately. Many of the bucks I have spotted have been later in to the morning, and while they are not monsters, these two bucks pictured show that. Like I said, the big 6 point was on the camera at the Blount Place several days in a row at various times during the day. And the smaller 6 point was in the bay on Cubbedge Hill every day at different times during the daylight. Of course I also did not shoot my buck last week until close to 9am.

So to help everyone get through the tough times, I thought that I would post a picture of a button buck trying to mount a doe - demonstrating how strong the urge to breed is for a whitetail. Combine that with midday movement (when most of our hunters are long gone) - and that shows why no matter how hot it is, how slow the deer movement, how tired you are - during the rut, you should be here sitting in a stand waiting on a monster!We also finally have proof that we occasionally have hogs on the Blount Place. I knew I saw their prints every once in a while, and Chip and I definitely heard one squeal two weeks ago, so it is no surprise. But it is nice to prove it…

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While it had warmed up for the last few days, a big cold front is rolling in tomorrow. And that should put the bucks back on their feet for the weekend’s hunt. We should also have another full house, so hopefully we can kill one of the nice deer caught on the camera at the Big Oak over the last week.

Check out the heavy 9 point working the scrape by the corn in the first picture. In the second, a good buck shows off his broken tine due to fighting for his place in the pecking order. The third is a very rare picture - it captured a middle aged buck ejaculating after working the scrape! The fourth picture is of a HUGE buck with a mediocre rack at the scrape. That thing looks like a cow, and has to be at least 3.5 years old (if not older), but just does not have a very good set of horns (very similar to the 5 point I shot a few weeks ago). And the fifth image is just a cool looking 2.5 year old 3 point working the licking branch.

I just thought these were all great shots, and all truly show off how different a buck’s rack can look on deer in the same age classes.

I also thought I would have a report from this morning’s hunt, but Will obviously did not go due to the rain since I still see his car out by his trailer. And we did hunt last night, but did not see ANYTHING in the 80 degree weather.  So check back in the morning for a fresh hunting report…

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The weather and acorns are still killing the hunting here in the Lowcountry. We could not even manage to kill one good buck this weekend - with the rut going and a house full of people! C.J. saw tons of young bucks and passed on a few mediums at the bottom of the Bay on Cubbedge Hill while I passed on two decent bucks in the pond on the Blount Place. But everyone else just saw a few does and small bucks, so not very exciting for anyone! And that was even with two cool mornings, that unfortunately warmed right up to the 70’s by midday.

Hopefully our luck will change over the next few days. We have some hunters up all week, and the low temperature rolling in should help. I will keep everyone posted, and should have a fresh report up by tomorrow night.

And I thought that everyone would enjoy these two trailcam pics from the Big Oak. First is the 2.5 year old buck eating corn at 11:45; just goes to show you that they do move during the midday ( and I know the trailcam clock says 10:45, but it is off by one hour). The other picture is a nice buck that came out on Herb last Friday night there right after he could not see anymore. He said he could tell it was a big bodied deer, but not what  it had on its head. And since he saw the flash go off, he knew it had been captured on camera, and asked me to check to see what he had missed… Just this!!!

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Well, the weather has not changed too much, and the acorns are still falling. However the deer have decided the rut is almost here, so they better go ahead and move.

We have four hunters up this weekend, and most saw deer last night. One even saw a probable shooter, but could not get a shot at him down in the bay. I also checked in on the Webb Center hunters this morning, and they had one 15 inch wide 7 point on the truck and were going to look for another one they could not find.

I am still crushed over losing my buck Thursday night, but it happens. And while I would like to think that I missed, I saw my bullet hit him, so I am sure we will find him once the buzzards get on him. And just so you have an idea of what I shot and why I am so upset, the fat 7 point in the first picture was one of the deer I passed up while waiting on the one I did shoot!

The other couple of bucks were just some nice ones that showed up on the camera at the Big Oak and the Back of the Pasture. I also thought everyone would enjoy seeing the two bucks fighting over the corn as well as the coyote stopping by for a bite.

I will have more updates later when I come out of the woods tonight - hopefully with a nice kill shot of something one of us knocked down…

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I just wanted to remind everyone that our QDMA meeting is tonight at 6pm over at the County Line restaurant next to the Hampton/Colleton county line.

I have also posted two pics from last week’s camera at the Big Oak. The 6 point must have felt very safe even in the daylight since he spent quite a bit of time munching corn. I also thought that the two bucks sparring made a nice shot.

And while not a huge change, the weather man is calling for a small cool down this weekend. I sure hope so, because I saw yesterday where we are almost 20 degrees hotter right now than our October averages… so everyone get up here for the weekend hunt!

I also almost forgot that I stopped by Tuten’s deer processing last night in Estill to see what he had in the cooler… only three heads! That right there shows that the big bucks are not yet on the move. When the floor starts to fill up, you know it is time to hunt!  The guys up there were also skinning one nice buck killed on Barney Tuten’s land in Scotia - a nice 10 point with good mass and a lot of character. Mr. Tuten’s grandson, Justin, said that he would email me a copy so that everyone could see it…

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