It went very well, thanks. The weather was very Springlike, of course, ha. The light drizzle helped keep me from passing out from the heat ( I'm fat, and my blood is still thick from Utah's winter,ha) I saw several come by the ladder stand I was on,and later a nice blind set up. One really big hog zoomed across the trail, no shot on it either.
I then found out when the guy called, said he had no "Alpha boars", I thought he meant a few big gnarly tuskers. Turns out they have to get older to have cutters at all! So, once I figured out I wasn't going to see anything like that, I determined to take a nice meat hog, my friend too.We were both raised as meathunters anyway, so it was an easy decision!
On the second day, after lunch, we were headed back to a transition zone, between a high hardwood ridge and the swamp ( gnarly swamp!) We had almost reached where my friend was going to sit in a popup when two nice pigs came out on the old road we were on. They were about 8oyds away, I told my friend to go first. He was about to shoot when they abruptly hit the high ridge. From our position, no shot. Bill got set up, and I was going on down the road to the box blind, about 250yds further.
I was almost at the blind, which was situated just on the other side of the road which made a 90 deg curve up toward this ridge. Well, seems those two pigs had made a big circle, and came around the curve, walking toward me! I waited until they were about 30yds from me, figured this is a gimme shot and decided to pop one. I eased up my Mod 700 Whelen Ackley Improved, and when one turned broadside I grunted to stop them. Now, I had "intended" to shoot a hog through both shoulders/bones to see if my 310gr Woodleigh at 2400fps would open up or tumble. I could "not" make myself do it! The "meathunter" in me took over, but I at least wanted to see if it would open up and declined to make my favortie "behind the ear shot" so I held tight behind the shoulder, just over the heart, and popped her. She ran about 25ft, fell, no kick at all! I got out the radio and whispered to Bill to come shoot the other one, which didn't want to leave mine. I stood very still, and Bill came down the road, the pig had worked its way up the ridge about 50yds and Bill popped her with his BAR '06.
My Woodleigh was 'perfection"! Blew lung tissue/blood 30ft the other side, .40cal hole in, 75 cal out, no bloodshot meat! Made a huge hole through the top of the heat, lungs were soup! I will use this load some more! Bill used the Vortex Barnes 168 TTSX '06 load, same great results, but 30 cal in, 50 cal out, no bloodshot meat either!
We both were trying out our elk loads, just to see how they do up close, and wow, we got better results than we expected!
Anyhow, that's me on the right w/Bill and our fat , close to 200# meathogs. When I shot mine, she had those hackles up, with a classic "prehistoric pig look" about her. It brought back fond memories of woods loafing during field maneuvers in Bavaria's Black Forest as a soldier! 40yrs later I shot one of those critters, ha.
I would have preferred a big 400# boar with 5" cutters, but, it was not to be. We brought back most of the meat, which some airline baggage handling thief got into and stole some of it ( we had it cut/vacuum packed/froze before we left.) Oh well, I loved the UP, the people, all of it. It was familiar in many ways to the Houston area Gulf coast transition thickets/woods I grew up in! We had palmetto though and instead of alders, Youpon hedges,which look very similar to your alders. Next day we drove up past Big Bay and saw a few healthy whitetail does. man! They were big as burros, taller and longer wheelbased than our average mule deer! ha. I had a great time! I kept hearing Gordon Lightfoot lamenting the Edmond Fitzgerald in my head, ha!
I asked everyone I could if they had "ever" seen Bigfoot, and none had! I "suspect" it is a myth...what do you think?
