I took a shower and made coffee. So as to not disturb my camp mates, I continued reading my David Foster Wallace book - not the best book I've ever read, but enough of his writing is good and it does make me think. He also does get a little wordy sometimes.
Bob and Jesse were up a couple hours later and were out the door very quickly for their trip home. That left me in camp alone. I kept reading until mid morning when Rick and I went to feed stands. Most of the stands were hit and with the changing weather, there was a lot of optimism.
Back at camp I tried to nap a little before heading out to hunt. Temperatures were supposed to head down below freezing by dark, so I suited up in my snow suit I bought while headed west to hunt mule deer only a few months previous.
I sat on the "Goose Pond" stand. The first couple hours passed slowly as nothing much was moving. The wind seemed to decrease through the evening which was nice and I had a few of those absolutely placid moments when the wind stopped for a time. At least I was very comfortable as the new snow suit was very warm and comfy.
About 5:00 I saw movement and a hog came out. It was reddish with dark splotches on it. I looked at it, looked at it through the scope and looked at it some more deciding it must be about 50 pounds. A few minutes after it came out, Rick texted me to ask if there was anything; the timing made me laugh in mock suspicion. I told him a 50 pound hog was out then quick took a picture and texted it to him.
He told me to get him a broadside picture, but just then a bigger hog came out. I told him that and dropped the phone - this one was a shooter.
I double checked the size through the scope and put the crosshairs on his head. Squeezing the trigger, I thumped his noggin hard. He kicked a few seconds but was dead before he hit the ground.
I grabbed my phone again and Rick had texted to hold out as there were some really big ones.
Too late - I told him she was on the ground (at the time, I thought it was a sow).
I decided to sit for the rest of the evening in case more hogs showed up. A short time later two deer popped out right in front of me. They could have cared less about me, even though I was so close, but were very apprehensive about the hog on the corn pile.
They slowly walked down and fed for a minute or two, before disappearing into the pines. When they were near the corn pile, I felt a little better about the size of the hog I had shot. They always look really small on the ground, but it looked decent next to the deer.
A short time later a larger group of deer came out but only stayed a few minutes.
By this time it was getting quite dark and a short time after the deer left a hog, possibly the first one I had seen, came out. I looked at it through the scope, but it was too dark to cleanly do a head shot so I held off. This was definitely the right thing to do, especially with one already on the ground.
Rick and Will came a short time later. We picked up the hog and headed out. The amount of blood was quite impressive. I took a picture, but it is too graphic to show here...
Back at the lodge Rick and I cleaned the boar; it was about 160 pound boar hog - still a good eating size although there was a bit of hog stink.
Since it is so early in the hunt, I decided to get the meat processed and frozen by a friend of Rick's who makes sausage. Usually I do this myself, but in cases like this it just makes more sense to get it done. I ran to Food Lion to get ice and plastic bags. The backstraps, loins and ribs went into Rick's freezer - I'll finish dealing with them when I get home. The rest of it will go to the sausage maker.
Things happen fast in hunting. One minute I'm deep in my own thoughts and within a few minutes a hog is on the ground.
After a quick dinner of Campbell's Chili I called it a night - after a great afternoon.
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