The stand I had been on the first night had been hit, as had most of the stands. A hog has 24 hours a day to be in the swamp, he doesn't have to choose to be out in the daylight.
Rick was originally thinking of putting me on the club land, but decided the wind wasn't optimal for it. After feeding the hole, which was the first of Rick's stands I ever hunted on (a decade ago now), Rick said that pigs, which had been gone for a couple days, were back and there was at least one big one in the group. Since the wind was right for this stand, it was mine for the evening.
After feeding all the other stands, we headed back to the lodge for a short time, followed by changing into camo and heading out.
Jessie and Cody were sitting in a ground blind on Will's farm. Rob was on the same stand I was on the first night, and I ended up in the hole.
When I first got to the stand, there was already a deer on it. I was almost in the ground blind before she got nervous enough and bolted. The temperatures still being unusually cool by South Carolina standards, my chair had a small frozen lake in it, which was (mostly) easily removed by pulling it up from the canvas bottom.
Time passed somewhat slowly at first, until two deer came out. They were nervous and kept looking in my general direction, but more to the right. This made me hopeful that something else was lurking in the pine woods. The deer huffed and ran off, only to return and leave a few more times.
With the deer acting nervous and daylight starting to drain, I lifted my gun up to the rail, in case anything happened quickly and to minimize motion.
Around 5:30 I saw movement to the right of the corn pile. Definitely a pigs ear flicking. It milled around that right hand side for what seemed like forever, only briefly showing me his head and never his body.
After several minutes of this, the pig came out just far enough for his head and neck (if hogs had necks) to clear the trees. Putting the crosshairs on his head, I steadied for a slightly awkward shot, as the rail was just higher than what I would have liked.
At the shot, the pig dropped and kicked a few times before laying still. With a fresh round in the gun, I kept the crosshairs on him, just in case he got up. But, it was over.
Some hogs look very small after hitting the ground, but I knew this was a pretty decent pig. I texted Rick and waited to get picked up.
While sitting quietly in the blind, I heard something else, probably another hog, come up the main trail to my right. It may have made its way to the pile, but by then it was too dark.
Rick came and got me and we drove up to get my hog. He was a 230 pound boar hog, with the bullet having taken him out cleanly just behind his skull. We hoisted him in the bed of the truck and went to pick up the others. The hog stunk pretty bad, so I knew he wasn't going to be a good eater, but I didn't ask at that time.
Rob had gotten a very good sized sow, and Jessie and Cody had pigs come in just a tad too late.
Back at the lodge, the two black pigs filled a large portion of Ricks truck bed.
We talked a little about whether my hog would be eating, but he smelled like skunk so I knew he wouldn't be. This does bother me a little, but hogs are an invasive, destructive species that breeds prolifically so I don't let it bother me too much.
Rob's pig was cleaned and hung for the night - she was quite pregnant.
The skull of mine appeared to be intact. I've always wanted to have a large boar skull so I was planning to have it boiled out. I set mine up to have some good pictures in the morning light. He was nearly a twin to my other large black boar, with huge shoulders and a much smaller butt. He also had a light colored splotch on his nose.
I was happy and still hopeful for some hog meat before the end of the week.
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