Saturday, January 8th, 2005
Its been a quiet Saturday for us. With Casey at a birthday party I took my 4-year-old daughter to a local Gun Show trying to find a small Youth Rifle in a 22 caliber for Caseys upcoming 6th birthday. No luck on the rifle but she behaved well at the show. Returning late in the afternoon I called ahead to see if our soon to be 12 year old neighbor, Dylan, wanted to do a late afternoon hog hunt with Casey & I. He was waiting in the driveway dressed in camies and ready to go hunting when we returned to the house. This would be our second hog hunt with Dylan.
With Casey and Dylan loaded up, 30 minutes later we hit the hog stand both boys helped me put up 2 weeks ago in my hunt club just outside of Bronson Florida. Casey climbed up the one-man stand and Dylan & I stayed on the ground watching the area where we expected the hogs to come out approximately 40 yards away. For 30 minutes everything was quiet (except Casey whispering he was hungry
.) and we enjoyed the sights and sounds typical of the southern woods on the edge of a swamp. At one point we thought hogs were coming as the deep raspy cry of a great white heron sounded right behind us. Five minutes later (ten minutes after sundown) 4 hogs slipped silently into the feeder. With that I told Dylan to get up on his knees to get a better view of the hogs. Casey already had a good view so I moved a little closer to pick out the hog we were hoping to take. Three of the hogs were similar in size going approximately 80 lbs (one white and spotted). The largest was a black hog going approximately 120 lbs. All four were sows.
With a loud bang, 3 hogs scattered running pell-mell into the swamp and splashing water. The black sow dropped where she was standing and I went back to get the boys. Gathering our gear we approached the hog and dragged it away from the area to take a few pictures. While taking pictures we talked about being respectful and thankful towards the hog as this was a responsibility of the hunter and that we had just taken an animals life in the pursuit of putting meat on our table. It was nice to see Dylan understand this as he patted the hog and spoke appreciatively to her (Casey too). After dragging the hog away from the hunting area I then demonstrated how to field dress a large animal and reviewed its anatomy as we went.
This was Dylans first successful hog hunt (Caseys third) and it was a good learning experience for the boys. On the way back we enjoyed our hunting/fishing tradition of root beer and summer sausage. At the house Dylan watched as I butchered the hog and we discussed the process along the way. What a great hunt with two young boys!
For today (Sunday), Casey & I are doing a Ducks Unlimited Dove Shoot planned after church. Hopefully, Dylan can go with us too since thatll be his first Dove Hunt.
Low resolution picture of Dylan, Casey, and I with a nice Waccasassa River hog
Brian
