Kevin and I were up early for a thermal scope crash course. I was using Rick's 7mm-08. I had used this in
2021, so I was privileged to use it again. We talked a brief plan and Rick dropped me off at the stand I had missed the hog on last year.
I made my way down the dirt road and toward the "front stand." The plan was to scan a few areas using the scope to see if any pigs were in the area and make my own plan if there were. The front stand was empty, although thinking later, I wasn't 100% sure I was in the right place.
I made my way around to the other stand. I got to the edge of the field and saw a deer bedded down nearby. I paused, trying to think of what to do. I just didn't have many options. I tried sneaking around, but (of course) this failed miserably and the deer huffed and took off. I was hopeful this was far enough away from any pigs.
I started to slowly work down the field and scanned a few more times. When I got near the actual box blind, I scanned the first corn pile, but it was empty. Thinking this whole thing might be a bust, I scanned the other pile and it was wrecked with pigs.
Now what???
I thought about shooting from the blind, but I wanted the stability of the tripod. And setting up the tripod in the dark would be really noisy in the blind. I left my pack at the shooting blind.
I made my way around the blind and down a bit, inline with the hogs. I set up the tripod and scanned to find the hogs. There were several pretty big ones, a bunch of little ones, and many of them were bedded right in the corn pile. My heart was racing; I had to back up and just take a few seconds to calm down, "Calm down idiot, you've done this 500 times before...."
I stepped forward and watched the pigs. There was a pretty big one on the left, I waited for it to get away from the other pigs. Boom!
Recoil was minimal, but I still couldn't see anything after the shot. I heard pigs scurrying away everywhere. I scanned the area - no pig. I! Could! Not! Have! Missed!
More scanning and remembering to unzoom the scope showed a white hot pig doing the 100-yard dash on the ground. I watched it for a bit to make sure it was really done.
I didn't want to bugger up the stand more than needed, so I grabbed the gun and tripod, and headed back to the stand. It took me a few minutes to get everything set up to hunt for deer in the morning. I was absolutely drenched in sweat at this point. Looking through the scope, I triple check that my hog is really - really-really dead.
Morning light came slowly. It was another beautiful morning with much less humidity. I didn't figure I'd see much early with all the commotion, so I just sat back and watched. Hunting mornings are even more magical with a pig down.
Shortly after daylight, some turkeys came out to the pile. They did not want to come out with the hog there. One brave turkey did but only for a few minutes.
Hogs always look so small once they are on the ground. And this hog was deer colored. I had a lot of second-guessing myself as the morning wore on.
Not much else was moving that morning. I did catch a glimpse of two bucks running the back treeline. One was mildly interesting, but neither one was a shooter. Temperatures stayed cool and with the wind picking up, it was almost cold at times. I still enjoyed the morning.
Rick came and got me a short time later. I watched Kevin and him load up my hog while I packed up. They picked me up and we headed back to the lodge. Apparently a neighbor had heard me shoot and called the game warden about someone poaching deer at 5:15AM in the dark (note, shooting hogs at night is 100% legal in SC). I thought this was quite funny, but am also glad that people care enough about wildlife to do this.
My hog was a really nice eater - 150 pound sow - with spots! It was in the cooler on ice shortly after 11:00.
Breakfast was homemade donuts, eggs and bacon. I was glad I had the chance to stay another day. Well worth it. And still one more chance at a buck for the trip.
After a last great breakfast we had a lot of downtime. A few of us took the opportunity to walk down to the river. The level had risen a lot.
Soon enough it was time to head out for the last sit. I was on the White Trash / Washtub stand. The box blind had seen better days, and there was a very active wasp nest in the corner. I had a quick conversation with the wasps, "I'll leave you alone and you leave me alone." The truce lasted the evening.
It took a few minutes to get settled, but once so it was quite comfortable. This isn't always the case after spending so much time on the stand.
At least there are interesting things to watch.
Does filtered in and out of the area all evening. I kept hoping something more interesting would show up, or that hogs would come out and push everything else away, but that didn't happen.
The area had clouded up considerably and darkness came early. I met Rick on the road and we picked up everyone else. Everyone had seen deer, but nobody saw any shooters.
Back at the lodge we had a final meal. I packed up most of my stuff to prepare for leaving in the morning.