Hog Hunt 2014 Day 3

Another day in South Carolina.  Woke up to a warmish day.  Went with Rick to drop off Will at school and then breakfast.  After breakfast, fed stands around the lodge.

As the morning progressed, the day quickly got warmer and sunnier.  Hot and sunny isn't the best hog weather, and it was the proverbial calm before the storm as the weather was expected to deteriorate in the next 24 hours to where the counties in the area are already cancelling school for Tuesday.

After a couple hours back at the lodge, we all loaded up and headed out to Georgetown to hunt for the evening.  I ended up being dropped off early behind the "big house."  The stand I was on wasn't a very large one and with the slight forward pitch it wasn't the most comfortable.  The position put pressure on my sciatic nerve which would prove painful over the next few hours.

After being on the stand for a little over an hour, workers in the vicinity behind me started using leaf blowers or some kind of loud electric trimmers.  The noise continued for a large portion of the evening.  Between that incessant whine and the stand position, this was not the most blessed hunt of my life.
The noise stopped around 4:45 PM (probably quitting time) and Rick said the noise was very common so likely little effect on the hunting (my sanity not withstanding).
However, as it got dark no pigs showed their burly heads.  I spent the last half hour with my gun on the shooting sticks hoping to catch one in the waning light.

I was picked up first after dark.  I did hear one shot while on the stand which was Jerry who had shot a sow in an act of redemption from the previous night's miss.  Claude had seen a couple small pigs, but didn't get to shoot.  A far cry from Sunday night where most of us saw multiple hogs.  What a difference 24 hours can make.

Jerry's hog was cleaned and quartered since Jerry and Jack were to head out on Tuesday.  They did decide to stay for the next evening to get a bit more time in the stand.  Jerry's 120 pound sow would be a good eater - and she was very lean for a sow.

We stopped by fast food before heading back to the lodge for the evening.  Everyone in camp booked for the next year.  Rick runs a good camp and many first timers decide to come back.  I booked for a little earlier in 2015 which will put me in camp at the same time as friend's of Nathan and Rachel's - 2015 will be 9 consecutive years for me...