We all putzed around the lodge and talked for a bit before it was finally time to start getting ready. They shared their sausage from Mike's heritage hogs with me - tasted good and the texture was phenomenal.
A little after 8:00 we all piled into Rick's truck and headed out to feed the stands. All but one of the stands had been hit overnight. There was the typical BS, lies and verbal hatchets thrown around the truck all morning.
The transmission in Rick's truck had decided to go belly-up so he was driving a loaner. Rick's vehicles work hard and it was likely the most abuse any loaner vehicle has ever endured. I believe Rick is on good terms with the dealership ... for now.
Back at the lodge there was too much time for lollygagging; hog hunting is one of the few times I get forced into down time. I guess that is good?
Soon enough it was time to head out for hogs. Temperatures were warm, at least in the upper 50's with some moderately gusty winds. I ended sitting in the Fish Snatch stand which I won't complain about. There are both positives and negatives to enclosed box blinds, but on all but the most stagnantly hot days, I like them. And the stand has treated me well before.
It was pretty slow for the first couple hours with not much moving. The shooting port in the stand is pretty tiny so it wasn't easy to see out when resting. At one point one lonely turkey came out but it didn't stick around for too long. A short time later a flock of about 11 turkeys jumped out right in front of me before heading in the brush down to the corn. They didn't stay around too long either.
As sunset approached, Rick texted me to ask if I saw anything. I texted back about the turkeys and around the time my phone buzzed again I looked up to see a group of small pigs running out onto the corn. I brought my gun up as three bigger hogs came out - one black, one grey and one reddish. The red one was on the left by itself and away from the fence. I thought for about a millisecond about waiting to see what else might pop out, but I know the situation can change very quickly. Crosshairs on its head, trigger pulled. The rifle blast inside an enclosed box blind is a special kind of loud.
All the pigs high-tailed it out as the red hog hit the ground and flopped for a few seconds. All was quiet again.
I texted Rick. He thought I was lying at first.
Once on the ground, even huge hogs tend to look tiny. I've seen enough hogs to know it was a decent eater, but it still looked like it was the size of a cocker spaniel lying there (blurry pic since it was actually quick dark at this point).
Then it was time to wait. I wouldn't have complained if the group of hogs came back out. But I was happy and didn't want to be greedy. As it got dark, I waded through the time when I could shoot but shouldn't almost hoping that it would remain quiet. It remained breathlessly quiet with the exception of the sounds of the hogs still nearby for only a few seconds.
After it was dark dark, Rick showed up to pick me up. We quickly hoisted the hog, a ~130 pound sow, into his loaner truck and went to pick up Mike. Wayne had seen two big hogs run the deer off, but they only stayed long enough to run around before leaving. Mike hadn't seen anything. They were only hunting two days and I felt a bit bad that I had shot one and they were leaving empty. So it goes...
Back at the lodge Rick skinned and cleaned my hog. Dennis and Claude had arrived for the week.
Mike and Wayne generously shared their dinner with me. The three of us (the early risers) turned in early.
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