The third time is a charm. Sun Jan 30 05.
With the wifer visiting a nearby coastal town with a friend, I got Casey (just turned 6) and Kaitlyn (almost 4) geared up for a late afternoon hog hunt. This would be Kaitlyns third hog hunt, but to date we hadnt taken a hog together. Casey and I, however, have taken three together so far.
Once the kids were dressed in cammies we left for the hunt club near Bronson, FL at 4:15 p.m. Timing this hunt so we could spend the last 45 minutes of daylight at a favorite hog stand I had packed a number of treats, snacks, and play things to occupy the kids (mostly Kaitlyn). Forty-five minutes of hunting time with Kaitlyn is about all I can get and even thats a stretch. On the drive over a few miles from the hunt club we stopped the truck to watch a 120 lb boar snacking alongside the road. Kaitlyn thought that was pretty neat as that was her first live wild hog she had seen.
Walking into the stand there is an area where I have to carry the kids over some water and at that point I elected to continue to carry Kaitlyn to the stand to cut down on some of the noise. At the stand, Casey climbed up and Kaitlyn and I got setup on the ground. I wrapped a blanket around her and we enjoyed listening and watching all the birds flittering around. Fifteen minutes later it was time to deploy the snacks. Having to stand up a couple of times and reach up to give Casey snacks the thought occurred to me that this wasnt exactly a hunt but rather an exercise in getting them used to the idea of being in the woods and that hunting can be fun. Getting Casey to go hunting is no problem, so in reality, this was training for Kaitlyn.
Hearing Kaitlyn cough a number of times further reinforced the thought that it would take a dumb animal to present itself and I doubted if we would see any. In the back of my mind I thought that if a hog did show up it needed to be taken out of the gene pool
While Kaitlyn was playing with a wrist compass and some kind of elastic bug shooter, a hog appeared about 40 meters away and was joined by two more. We had about 15 minutes of shooting time left as the sun had set 15 minutes earlier. Having already discussed what would happen if any hogs arrived, Kaitlyn made her way up to the top of the stand where Casey was instructed to let her sit with him and be responsible for keeping her quiet and from falling out. The idea was that she would have a better view of the hogs. Seeing that they were both situated, I reminded Kaitlyn that she would hear a loud gunshot and that she should cover her ears. I slipped to the side and decreased the distance to 20 meters. The largest hog was a 60 pound black and white boar so I picked out the only sow, which was approximately 45 pounds. At the shot the hog dropped and I headed back to get the kids. The kids were pretty excited and Kaitlyn made sure to tell me that it wasnt loud at all.
After we dragged the hog away from the area for some pictures, we talked about how we should appreciate this animal as it now was going to provide food for our table, after which, Casey with clasped hands, said a prayer for the hog. We took a couple of pictures, which ended abruptly after I accidentally booted Kaitlyn in the lip with my boot. OUCH! While field dressing the hog with headlamps, Kaitlyn talked about the worms (intestines), which I thought was funny as Casey last year made the same comments while we field dressed our first hog together.
On the way out Casey closed the hunt club gate and upon getting his seat belt on Kaitlyn shouted
Where my pink bear!!? She had somewhere dropped her pink teddy bear and I knew I wasnt gonna get any peace if I didnt return to find it. Driving back to the field dressing spot the bear was nowhere to be found so with a headlamp on I backtracked to the stand and found her pink bear. Happy to have her bear back on the way home we dined on our traditional root beer and summer sausage (after every outdoor experience). Upon returning to the house it was now bedtime and after they hit the sack I butchered the hog.
So ends a very neat hunt with the kiddies and an especially successful hog hunt with my young daughter. Ive included two very
low resolution pictures of our hunt together.
Kaitlyn
(L-R) Casey & Kaits (her third hunt and first hog)
WhooYah!!
Brian
