The Lowcountry Rut Is Right Around The Corner

The acorns are falling and the bucks are rubbing  in the lowcountry of South Carolina, and that means that Fall is finally here! And every deer hunters dreams revolve this time of year for one reason, and that is

the RUT… The time when big bucks roam in search of does, finally showing themselves during daylight hours for a fortunate hunter to take a shot at. We here at Cypress Creek have  been preparing all year for this time, so we are very excited to get it cranked up.

However the rut doesn’t just happen overnight. The bucks start slowly to crank up right here around the first week of October by eating a lot in preparation for all of the action they will soon see. Then their activity builds during the middle part of October as the bucks start to cruise around their home ranges leaving scrapes in high-traffic doe areas, usually near food sources and bedding areas. Finally the deer hit late October and that is when things just plain go crazy with bucks searching high and low for hot does. And this is when ANYTHING can happen for the patient deer hunter, at any time of day. This cray buck activity usually continues into the middle of November, and then slows down but never quite quits until the end of December. So as you can see, there is a ton of great hunting on the way, an we hope you can join us for it!

As for the first week of Fall here at Cypress Creek, it was still hot during the midday but cooler in the mornings and evenings. And that helped the deer movement for our Becoming an Outdoor Woman (BOW)

Florida group that came in and hunted Saturday. Jeanene and Pattie both knocked down big does over on Pleasant Hill while their good friend Ellie celebrated her birthday by shooting her first buck with us. So a big congrats to everyone in the group on a great hunt.

This past weekend we also had our great friend Gary from N.C. who was back for another shot at a gator. His son Colby shot a nice 6 foot 11 inch gator a few weeks ago, and dad was looking to get one too – maybe just a little bigger for some bragging rights. So when a good 7 foot 1 incher showed itself back in our canals, Gary put a perfect shot on him and bested his son by 2 inches. So congratulations to Gary as well on a great weekend hunt.

Now we have a few days off, and it is a good thing. The start of Fall has already brought us over 5 inches of rain over the last few days, and that has made it tough to get anything done at the moment. However the soaked ground will allow us to till all of our food plots up in a day or two and immediately start planting for the rut. All of the rain will also fill back up our canals out back to keep our gators happy as well as flooding the bottoms that had dried up, allowing the hogs holes to wallow and escape the heat and bugs. Man, I love Fall!