With time to kill in the morning, I sprayed down Rick's loaner in preparation for turning it in. The dealership said the only thing they cared about is that it didn't go off road, so there couldn't be mud in the wheel wells.
Once it got light we dropped off Will at school before heading out to Kingstree. En route we stopped at Hardee's for one of my very rare forays into the world of fast food. Rick was up front about the dents in the loaner to the dealer and it would be on his dime to fix them, but the dealership seemed fair about it. In the morning sunlight the scratches from driving through brush, etc. were easily noticed as well.
Back on home turf and in Rick's truck we fed most of the stands. There was little opportunity left for down time at the lodge before heading out for the afternoon.
Rick dropped Denis off at the field in front of Larimor's field. I was dropped off on the front stand in the property looking down the green food plot. I've always thought this looked like a good spot but have never hunted it before. Once situated in the stand, I noticed it was one of the few fields that hadn't been marauded by hogs yet.
The afternoon was warmer than the previous day but still very windy. The ladder stand gave some shelter from trees, but the wind still dominated. I spent the first hour dozing in the stand. This is probably not the safest thing to do. Tucked into the stand (and really more resting than anything), the risk is acceptably low.
Around 3:00 I noticed movement and six turkeys popped out. The four gobblers and two jakes weren't terribly interested in the corn and made their way down the field to nearly right in front of me before turning around and working their way out by the same route - meandering the whole time to pick at morsels of who-knows-what in the ground. The 45 minutes or so they were there gave me something to watch.
Shortly after the turkeys left another larger group of 18 popped out right next to me. With all the wind I hadn't heard them which is surprising since turkeys do make quite a bit of noise. They worked their way to the end of the food plot, leaving at around the same place as the first group.
It remained quiet for most of the rest of the afternoon. The wind began to die down, at first giving brief interludes of quiet which sporadically got longer. By the time I left to meet at the road, the wind had nearly stopped.
Right at dark I barely caught movement of something. Thinking it might be a hog and with just enough light to get me in trouble I looked through the scope. It was a whitetail buck and the fact that I couldn't see it well enough to know if it was decent or not told me it was time to unload and slip out.
Once we were picked up, nobody had seen any hogs - meaning this was the first night since I got here where none were at least seen.
Back in the lodge the beef roast Denis had put in the oven smelled amazing. Denis and Claude once again were kind enough to share and it tasted as good as it smelled.
I had finished Roughneck Grace and was thinking about heading to bed when Rick walked in with an AR rifle hung over his shoulder. Denis told him dinner was over.
"I don't care about that, ya'll want to go out and see if we can shoot some hogs with the thermal?" His AR was equipped with a FLIR scope.
We all scrambled to get ready.
As we got in the truck Rick pointed at his rifle, "Take care of that since it is more valuable than your life." As with many things with Rick, he was kidding, but also not.
Back in the truck we went to one of Rick's stands. In the darkness I really couldn't tell which one. Since both Claude and I had shot twice, Denis was to be the shooter. We walked in a ways at which time Rick gave some very quiet instructions. I ended up acting as an interpreter for the two French Canadians by nudging Denis to follow Rick, but holding Claude back. Over the years I've gotten to know all three of these guys well enough that this is acceptable. Still, it was hard not to laugh about the situation.
Claude and I stood in the pitch black darkness hoping for a rifle report. The stars overhead through the winter South Carolina trees were amazing. The now windless night amplified every sound.
After a while, Rick and Denis made their way back; no joy.
We drove around a bit looking in a few more of Rick's fields with his handheld thermal monocular. It seems the pigs were not cooperating even in the dark night. Despite the lack of success, it was exciting trying a new twist on hog hunting. I do want to try night hog hunting some time, but at >$2500 for a decent thermal scope, I hope to be able to use Rick's. That isn't an investment I can make.
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