Last night can only be described as Persistence Pays. I sat my SE Corner tree stand from 3:30 PM until dark. Nothing moved early and for the previous 5-hunting days, nothing has moved at all, well, hens and Jake turkeys have been something to watch.
At 5: 30 PM on an overcast day in failing light I saw 3 small hogs (50+ pounders) at 65 yards. I was unsure of the rifle, could not seem to get a steady rest, and the sow I wanted did not present a broadside shot, so I did not shoot. They came out again at 150 yards. Again, she did not present a broadside shot and I did not shoot. They ambled off to the north to check the (empty) pig pipe for corn. At 5:40 PM four footballs, their Mama, and another large sow came down the East Road behind the SE Corner tree stand traveling north to south and too close to miss. I had just seen 3 pigs going east to west. Now comes 6 pigs (counting the footballs) going north to south.
I let the footballs and their Mama go. However, when Big Mama, the last in line, stepped into the final shooting lane 17 yards behind the stand and stopped broadside, I shot her left handed with the single shot, 223 caliber, bull barrel, Handi-rifle. There she lay. In the last dregs of light, say 5:50 PM, I saw five other decent hogs (to 100#) on the South Road at 175 yards going east to west as they were turning toward the (empty) pig pipe on the West Road.
So I packed up my gear, checked out Big Mama first, then went for the truck. I drove south down the West Road and east along the South Road. Half way to the stand, a large boar and a small boar were standing and advancing toward the truck headlights on the South Road. I stopped, got out, opened the topper on the back of the truck, rooted around for the Handi-rifle I left back there, unzipped the front pocket of the back pack where the bullets were, got and loaded a single bullet, went to the passenger side of the truck, rested the rifle across the front of the truck, looked down the long axis of the barrel (could not see the boar through the scope – too close) and shot Mr. Big broadside at 15 feet high and through the back.
The small boar started grunting, chomping its teeth and advancing at a “high rate of speed” toward the truck. I had nowhere to go but backward. I was hemmed in by road-side trees and thick vegetation on the right, the truck body on the left and the mad and scared little boar in front, so I turned around, hauled butt, and jumped up on the game rack that I had fortuitously placed in the receiver before starting to retrieve the sow. The little boar tried to get on the rack with me and I kicked at him trying not to fall down on unsteady footing, but missed, however he departed into the darkness to the west on the South Road. Now the adrenaline is racing.
I rooted out another bullet, flashed a very dim head lamp to the west first, the coast was clear, no mad pig there, then went to the driver’s side of the truck, got out the 3 x D-cell Maglite flashlight, and went looking for Mr. Small. The little porker was standing in the forest at 30 yards on the State land looking back at me. When he saw the light moving he moved behind a tree. He did not present a broadside shot and when I moved to see his quarter, he departed for the deep south woods. I was not sorry to see him go.
I went back and Mr. Big was trying to depart so I put a bullet in his head. Mr. Big weighed 127.5# and Big Mama weighed 125#. It was difficult, for me, to get them both on the game rack. Duchess, our adopted Pit Bull/Terrier mix almost had a stroke in excitement when she smelled the big boar as I rolled up at the house at 7:30 PM. He was rank and had peed quite a bit of noxious boar pee that only a sow could admire.
I had my work cut out for me at the skinning pole. I took both animals to Processor Scott Hall’s and had them in his cooler by 9:30 PM. I got back to the house, showered, and had dinner at 10:25 PM. I slept well last night!
Sorry ==> No Photos. Imagine that these pigs look like most others i.e. black, hairy, drenched in sand, ticks, sandspurs, and pig musk.
