Lisa Silcox got her first buck!

Come by to see 9 new baby goats!

Molly Tanner with her dad

Come by to pick up your free deer stand!

Each two weeks we award a free deer stand for the biggest buck taken.

WINNER FOR Nov. 23 to Dec. 6: Bruce Ball

Dec. 7 to Dec 20: Ted Ford

Dec. 21 to today: Randy Marvin
Randy's buck dressed 95.8, so if you can beat that before the end of the year, put your name here!

The LAST Sunday!

Yippee!! Today is the last Sunday we'll be open for the 2008 season.
It's been fun, but we are so ready for a break!
Hours are 9 to 9 Mon. to Sat. the 3rd.

Then 10 to 7 Mon. to Sat. until the 17th.

Banks Collins with his first!

End of the season hours

Well, we are headed for the home stretch!

We'll be open all day Wednesday, New Year's Eve and Thursday, New Year's Day from 9 to 9.
On the Youth Hunt Day, Saturday, Jan. 3rd we'll be open 9 to 9.
Otherwise, we'll have our usual end of season hours, 10 am to 7 pm (No Sundays) until Jan. 17th for you to pick up your orders.

You can bring any frozen meat you want processed on Saturday, Jan. 10th and we'll have it ready for you on that last day, Jan. 17th.
After Jan. 17th, we will be closed, so be sure to pick up your meat by then!

Keep an eye on the Blog in the off season. We plan to open for Cordray Farms Beef when we have it available. I'll post more information here. If you'd like to be put on an email list, we'll be glad to contact you to let you know when we'll have beef sides, shares or individual cuts available.
Contact us at michael@cordrays.com to be added.

Youth Hunt Day for sharing!

Saturday, Jan. 3rd, is the youth hunt day. We are encouraging everyone to take a kid hunting and then donate the deer to charity. We'll be sure it gets turned into nutritious venison burger for local foodbanks and soup kitchens, and you'll get a chance to help your child learn about sharing with those less fortunate. We'll open our regular hours for that day 9 am to 9 pm. You won't pay a thing, and hundreds of people in our community will benefit. We look forward to seeing you!
We will, of course, be glad to process deer taken for your own use on that day, as well.
For more information on the rules and regs for the SCDNR youth hunt day, click here.

Cordray's Taxidermy

McKinnon record breaker.jpg

Stop by and take a look at the record breaker! It dressed 152 lbs.

Christian Hill

Christian is all smiles!

Check out Cordray's page on Facebook!

We are experimenting with a Facebook page. Using it would allow us to post pictures much faster and much easier. Hopefully, it would also make it easier for you to share your photos with friends. Let us know what you think!

08 HOOF PRINTS ARE IN!

I've been out of the 08 stickers for about a week, but they are in! Stickers are free. Each sticker represents a deer or wild hog brought in to Cordray's in that year. Keep an eye out and you see them all over town. If you'll send me a photo of your back glass, I'll post it here.

Brian Celek got a 10 point!

Adam Gochnauer

We've added fresh pork sausage to the case!

We've just added three flavors of fresh pork sausage to the meat case! Now, in addition to bacon and smoked hams, we've got pinky links in new brown sugar maple flavor and regular links in Cordray Brothers and bratwurst flavors. Give them a try while they last!

Frozen Venison?

I'm having lots of calls from folks who've gotten deer meat over the season and have it stored, frozen, and now are ready to get it processed. We'll be taking in frozen meat beginning on Saturday, January 10, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of that week. Our last Sunday to be open is Dec. 28th, so we won't be open the 11th. Please do not let the meat thaw. Bring it to us well wrapped and frozen. From there, we can do anything on our usual menu list. The price for frozen meat is slightly higher at 70 cents per pound. Drop me an email if you have questions. claudia@cordrays.com

Deer Stand Winners

We are catching our breath! As usual, Thanksgiving weekend was very busy, but things will slow down for the next few weeks until Christmas. With that in mind, I'm catching up on loose ends. Deer stand winners is one of those loose ends! Congratulations to the 2008 winners.

Aug. 15 to Aug. 30 - Gedney Howe IV
Aug. 31 to Sept. 13 - Jeff Stone
Sept. 14 to Sept. 27 - Bill McKinnon*
Sept. 28 to Oct. 11 - Dave Olson
Oct. 12 to Oct. 25 - Eugene Taylor
Oct. 26 to Nov. 8 - Cotes Simons
Nov. 9 to Nov. 22 - Lou Stewart
*Big Buck Leader

A few of you haven't picked up your free deer stand, so come on by!

Michael Weber with an 8 point.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

We are closed all day Thanksgiving Day!

We'll reopen at 9 a.m. on Friday and be back to the regular 9 to 9 Monday - Saturday. We're open on Sunday evenings, just for 3 hours, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

For Christmas, we are closed all day Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We are open regular hours for New Year's Day.

George Murdock

George Murdock is having a heckuva year!

First deer fun!

Jacob and Jeff Snyder celebrated Jacob's first with a new shirt!

Bobcats and Coyotes!

Cordray's Taxidermy has a display of bobcats and coyotes in the store for a few days. Stop by and check them out!

Tradd Cooper

Tradd Cooper got a big buck! The cold weather has them moving again after a slower week last week. Lots of does!

Hickory Smoked Hams ready for the Thanksgiving!

Stop by the store and pick up your brown sugar cured, hickory smoked pork hams for the holidays. They are fully cooked semi- boneless and range from 15 to 18 lbs. We have some in the meat case now, and if you'd like to reserve one for Thanksgiving or Christmas just send in a $20 deposit. We follow the same slow cook smoked recipe that we use for venison and you'll love it!

T-Shirt Contest Winner!

Last year we did a contest to design a new T-Shirt. Lee Taylor won the contest with this slogan "You drop 'em. We chop 'em." Lee, you can stop by the shop and pick up your prize - a Cordray's T-shirt! We've got them in adult sizes.
We've also restocked on the regular grey shirts in both adult and children's sizes.

Heading to Clemson?

Learn from our mistakes!
Many of you know that Kenneth, our youngest, is graduating from Clemson in May. He's the third of our kids to go there. Now, if we'd been smart, we'd have bought an apartment when the first one went in 1998! But since we are a little slow, we waited until the last kid to buy a 2 bedroom condo in Cedarwood Apartments about a mile from campus. If you've got a kid heading to Clemson in the fall or just want an inexpensive weekend retreat a little over an hour from the mountains, minutes from golf courses and Lake Hartwell, and almost within earshot of the Tiger's roar, give us a call. We are asking $43,000. It's got 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, hardwood floors and comes with stove, refrigerator, and dishwasher. Contact us if you're interested or have questions!

10 point on the sneak at the beach!

These pictures were sent in of a 10 point buck. If you have some good photos from game cams or otherwise, send them in and I'll try to post them. for everyone to see. The full moon and warm weather is giving us a quick break, but looks like next week will be back to business!

Eugene Taylor won a tree stand.

Eugene Taylor's Big Buck had a dressed weight of 132. 4 lbs. He won the tree stand for Oct. 12th through Oct. 25th. Congratulations!

To qualify to win a tree stand, you must have the deer skinned and processed at Cordray's . Every deer is automatically entered in the contest. Deer must be from the Lowcountry of SC and you may only win once per season. Deer weights are for the dressed weight. That means it is skinned and cleaned with bones and meat. The Biggest Buck for the season will win a shotgun.

They're back!

We've finally added new beef smoked items to the case! We have plain snack sticks, cheese snack sticks and snack sticks with cheese and jalapenos. We also have plain summer sausage right now and beef jerky in two flavors.

We need HELP!

This has been a terrific season so far! That's the good news.
The bad news is that we are REALLY struggling to get as many deer out of here as come in each week. Your orange pick up card tells you when your order will be ready.

If you've brought in a deer or wild hog, and didn't have smoked hams,
before Monday, Oct. 27th, it is ready and we need you to come and get it quickly.

If you bring in a deer, please plan on picking up your finished orders before you leave the new one. This year we just don't have the freezer space to hold them for you. We hope you help us be able to stay open to take all the deer you'd like to bring in! We've only had to close due to overload one time about 10 years ago, and as you can imagine it was a mess with hunters having no place to leave their deer. We are working as hard as we can, and hope you'll help by picking up your orders to free up some space!
Thanks,
Claudia

We'll be closing at 9 from now on!

After the time changes, we'll be closing at 9 every night.
That means 9 to 9 Monday to Saturday and 6 pm to 9 pm on Sunday evening.

Wow! Very busy for a morning!

The weather must be just right or the rut is in full swing or something, but we've been loaded with deer this morning. Two 8 points, several 6 's and even a calico doe. That's pretty unusual for a morning, so we are gearing up for another big night! One guy said that after they shot 2 bucks, there were 2 others standing there watching. Another said he saw 25 deer last night. See you tonight!

Lost a pocket knife?

I found a small pocket knife in the driveway. Must have been lost Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Describe it and it's yours!
Claudia

Some guys REALLY LOVE hunting!

Al DeLeon - 9 points, 170 lbs.

Tan your hide?

Did you know you could buy a tanned deer skin for $100? We have these soft furs available in the store. Come by and check them out.

Jeff Stone

Jeff Stone got an unusual 14 point deer. It had an injury to the right back foot. We often see that a buck that has an old healed injury will have antlers that are misshapen on the opposite side. This was really true in Jeff's buck. Anybody know why this happens?

Bernard Funderburk

Tyler Limehouse

Paul Stanley

It was very quiet during the flood!

But here are a few pics from recently as we wait for the water to recede! Pete Lempesis brought in this nice one.

Gina Oliver

Lewis Vaughan brought in two!

Paul Hanckel got a big buck.

Boo's big one!

Boo Baird got his first deer! You gotta love that smile!

Just a note...

We're back to our regular hours - closed during the day on Sunday - now that gator season is over. We open at 6 pm and are open until 10 pm Sunday evening. If you get a deer or pig during the day, field dress it and fill the body cavity with ice. It will hold until you can check it in with us at 6. If you can slip the whole thing into a clean trash bag and tie it securely, you'll keep flies and trash from contaminating your meat.
If you want to avoid a wait, come in a little after 6 since we usually are VERY busy until about 7. Thanks!
Claudia

The bucks are getting stupid!

Two stories heard over the desk:
One guy was walking up to his stand and shot the buck standing on the corn pile. His other stand was about a mile away, so he ventured on. He shot another big buck when he came to the next pile. He went back to the first stand and took a shot at a third one and missed!

Another guy was in white shorts and a white T-shirt and killed a huge buck with a bow. It walked right out in front of him.

The full moon has them moving in daytime. We've had 4 or 5 nice bucks in each morning. The cool weather and rain should keep them moving early next week.

Bucks are wandering singly now. Interestingly, we are seeing some in complete rut mode, necks swollen, smelling strong, and others who are just beginning. We have customers from a pretty large geographical region, but it has been surprising how scattered the signs are.

These two came in during the mornings, Rawling Pratt-Thomas and Stephen Ostapeck.

Bucks are coming in!

An 8 pointer, 4 pointer and a button buck are standing by a field browsing on acorns. The 8 pointer says, 'I'm happy with my 10 does, we're really getting along.' The 4 pointer says, 'I'm happy as heck with my 5, they really take care of me!' The Button buck says, 'My two are all right, better than nothing I guess.' Then all of a sudden a GIANT 14 pointer walks out into the field. The three bucks had never seen anything like him before, they were in awe. The big buck made a huge scrape and pees in it, rubbed a tree the size of a telephone pole and snapped it off at the ground! The three bucks looked on in amazement. The 8 pointer says, 'I could probably get by with 4 does...........Who really needs 10 anyway?' The 4 pointer says, 'You know............. come to think of it, I only really use one or two of mine!' The button buck was silent, as the other two bucks look over to him in confusion. Suddenly the yearling runs out into the middle of the field! He rips and tears up some grass........ pees all over the place, snorts & wheezes, rubs his head raw on a tree and chews a lickin branch clean off! Then he runs back over to his buddies. His friends immediately ask him, 'What the heck are you doing!?' 'I'm just makin' sure that big sum***** knows I'm a buck!'
Kenneth

RAVENEL ROAD RAGE!

It's back! We've finally gotten in everyone's favorite seasoning, Ravenel Road Rage. It's a tasty mix of spices, great for venison, chicken, beef, even eggs! It's not too hot. It's not like something labeled Dorchester Road Rage might be. It's just mildly aggravated!

Gators and Cordrays in the news... in FRANCE !

Hunters bag nearly 200 alligators in season

An AP reporter, Jeffrey Collins, interviewed Michael about the gator season and did an article that is going all over the world. Yesterday we got links from newspapers in France who picked up the story! According to a Getty Images photographer I talked with, alligators are a source of great interest in Europe and around the world. Who knew? Click on the link above to see the article in The State newspaper. However, I did argue with Michael that it really isn't much like Christmas at the mall here, more like the parking lot of the Esso Club in Clemson on Saturday night!

Did you see Charlie and Phish in the paper?

Charlie Shearouse and John (Phish) Overcash are taking autographs for their picture in the paper! The alligator isn't talking. Yesterday there was a great article on the front page of the local section of the Post and Courier all about the gator season. Click on the link above to read it.

It's never to late to become a hunter!

Tom Hill was inducted into the Cordray's First Deer Hall of fame this past weekend. Mr. Hill started off his hunting career with a very nice buck! Congratulations!

Dee Jenkins

Dee Jenkins brought in this 8 point that weighed 157 lbs.

Cotes Simons got this nice buck!

What is brucellosis and why should I worry about it?

Brucellosis is a disease carried by wild hogs. It has been found in SC wild hogs. The following article from Clemson tells of the dangers and how you can keep yourself safe and still enjoy this delicious wildgame. Click here to read the Clemson article.

Sal Zichihi got an 8 point that weighed 130 lbs.

Sal got this nice buck!

Why won't you sell venison? I just want to pick up orders that customers don't pick up on time.

We hear this question all the time. But the fact is, it is against the law. If someone leaves a deer with us and then refuses to pick it up, we can't sell it to you, even for the cost of processing. We agree that it doesn't seem fair, but it is the law and we abide by it. That fact also explains why we work so hard to remind you of your pickup date! If something happens and you change your mind about getting your meat processed, please give it to a friend or neighbor. Lots of people love venison!

From the DNR website:

Deer Processors - Deer processors should recognize
that it is unlawful to sell deer meat to regain
the processing fee for deer that have not been
picked-up by the owner (50-11-1910). The best
practice is to take a deposit for the processing
service when deer are left at the facility. If meat
is not picked-up by the owner it can be given to
another individual at no charge.

Last day for gators is this Sunday morning!

Chris Dorsey brought in a big 11 footer earlier this week.
We are seeing more and more alligators as the end comes in sight! We'll be taking our last ones on Sunday morning . You can bring in your gator heads for mounts, too.

Private land hunters can hunt a little longer, but our main gator skinner is going back to Clemson, so Sunday morning, the 12th, is the end for us! We've got plenty of deer to keep us busy!

If you'll give us a call before you bring in a gator, it really helps us to be ready to handle them.

Check out this article in The State by Summerville native, Joey Holleman!

Good article in the The State newpaper by Joey Holleman on alligator hunting. We've heard the same sentiments. One guy snagged the gator at 7:15 and captured it at 12:30! Joey went to Summerville high school with Michael and me, so we're pleased to link to this informative article! Click on the title link above.
Claudia

When will my order be ready?

When you drop off your deer, we take your order and give you an orange pick-up card with your Ready Date. Your order will be ready on that day. You don't need to call and check. It will be ready unless we call you to tell you of some problem. This seldom happens! It is important that you pick up your order on time. Pickup days are always on Saturdays and we are open every day but Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. We do not have storage facilities for storing your frozen meat. Orders left more than 10 days after the pickup date will be subject to a $1.00 per day storage fee.

What can I have done with a wild hog?

We process wild hogs into whole meat cuts like roasts and chops and make a wide variety of sausages. It is best to process sows or immature boars for meat. Older mature male hogs have a distinctive odor that ruins the taste of the meat. Usually males under about 200 lbs are fine, and females of any size are great!

Looking at having a pig for a BBQ?

We skin all the pigs we process, so they can't be used in a skin-on cooker. We'll skin the pig, split the carcass, and freeze it for your cooker.

Want your wild boar mounted in a head mount or European skull mount? Contact Kenneth at kenneth@cordrays.com.

Tom Sadler's buck

Tom Sadler's buck was an 8 point. Look at the height of the tines! Tom killed this one with a bow.

What about bringing frozen meat? Why can't you take it all year?

We take frozen meat from August 15th to September 14th and then again from January 10th to 19th. When hunters start using the antlerless deer tag on September 15th, we get swamped with fresh carcasses. In order to do the best job of processing those carcasses at just the right time to get the best yield of safe venison, we must process these fresh carcasses according to a strict time schedule. Frozen meat must be unthawed and then processed immediately. There isn't time to do both frozen meat and fresh carcasses together. We insist on giving you with the best product we can provide. Reserving frozen meat for these specific times ensures we have time to concentrate on each product separately.

Moses Oliver got 2!

Moses Oliver brought in a 6 point and a 3 point buck.