Up at my normal time I putzed around online for a while before reading Donald Hall's Essays after Eighty. It was only OK. The beginning was good, but it didn't stay that way.
Rick and I went out to feed the stands around 9:00. All had been hit well - the ever present question being if it was during daylight. We kvetched about ammo availability. Rick has been looking on gunbroker.com where it is now going for astronomical prices.
With the stands baited we headed back to the lodge. I should have gotten a bit of exercise by walking down to the river, but ended up half-napping while watching The Office and eating lunch. Then it was off to hunt. Rick dropped me off at Fish Snatch where I quietly made my way down the sandy track to the box blind.
It was warm, but once again the wind was significant. I appreciated being in an enclosed blind with the wind; even if it did blow in, I stayed quite comfortable. Once situated I was quite comfortable and settled in for the afternoon.
Some time through the afternoon Joe texted me. I last hunted hogs with Joe about five years ago and he continues to vicariously hunt hogs with me. Unquestionably I have met quite a few characters down here. I was glad for the distraction since not much else was moving. About the only excitement through the afternoon was when some kind of small, colorful raptor-bird landed on the shooting port of the blind when my face was only a few inches away. I'm not sure who was more startled - the bird or me.
Like the previous day as it got later the wind died down. For about the last hour of daylight, the wind completely quit - so much that the silence was absolutely deafening. I love these magical moments. It was so quiet that every creek of the chair I was sitting in felt like an explosion. The quiet also made me hopeful that the pigs would show up.
Around 45 minutes before dark, I heard some thumping to my right. Peering through the shooting port I saw a one-antlered fork horn buck walking down the 2-track. It either heard or smelled me and bounded away quickly after passing the shooting blind. I also thought I saw something moving way beyond the corn pile, but I wasn't sure and if it was there it almost looked more canine-like. Darkness came with nothing else.
I packed up my stuff and headed back to the gate. Rick was there shortly and I got in. We talked for a few minutes about not seeing anything on one of my favorite stands. A few minutes later Rick asked, "How hungry are you?" I wondered what joke I was being set up for but I really hadn't thought about eating yet. "I'm pissed off about you not seeing anything. Let's grab the thermal and see if we can find anything in the dark." Being alone in camp has some priveleges. "We ain't going to stay out all night, but let's try it."
"In a dark time, the eye begins to see." - Theodore Roethke
I dropped off my rifle while Rick got his 7mm-08 AR with FLIR scope and we headed out again, driving to a field Rick doesn't hunt with clients but whose owner has been having hog problems. Using his handheld night scope, Rick saw many deer and a large group of hogs. We parked at the gate, and because there was a bright light there, we hoofed it down a ways before climbing the fence and making our way to the back part of the field. I could not believe how we could walk the field without spooking the hogs. Many of the deer took off, but under the cover of darkness, once the pigs are settled they are fine as long as they didn't smell us.
Once at the far end of the field rick set up the rifle. I looked through the scope and picked out a bigger hog. They didn't look very big in the optics so I settled on the biggest one. Since it was a group of pigs, I figured it was a big sow. I settled the digital cross-hairs near the pigs neck and squeezed the trigger. In AR-platform, the 7mm-08 is a pussy-cat, but it rocked the tripod. Looking through the scope again, I saw my hog was down.
Rick grabbed the rifle and shot twice, bringing down another hog. The rest of the group, quite confused, ran directly toward us, going into the woods next to us. Rick and I talked quietly for a few minutes before he left to get the truck. Standing there in the darkness I saw a vague shape and realized it was a big hog - and it was not acting right. It took me a minute to get the FLIR back on and looking through the scope I saw it was Rick's hog. It was close enough that I could see blood splashing off of it onto the ground. It took me a few seconds to get the scope on the hog, but in the pitch blackness I wasn't sure what was behind the tree line. I held off shooting - a decision I regret a little bit.
It took a while for Rick to drive up, and I told him about his pig. We easily found bright red foamy blood that was easily followed. Unfortunately, it was not recovered although there is little doubt it is dead.
We drove back up to my pig which was an enormous boar hog. And despite being well shot, he wasn't done yet either. Rick had me walk up behind it with my SP101, and I gave him a coup de grace (Rick videoed this - but it is a bit much to share...). It never ceases to amaze me how tough a big hog is. My shot right at the base of the skull with a hand-loaded XTP produced a near-geyser of blood.
We took a few pictures in the darkness. I'm quite sure it is the biggest hog I've shot and definitely had a good set of cutters on him. Now was the next problem - how to get this beast into Ricks truck. We ended up going back to the lodge to get the receiver tray and it was still all we could do to get him loaded up.
Back at the lodge we got him set up for better pictures in the daylight. I knew he would be inedible, but was hoping that like my 2016 hog, it might be. Sadly, he smelled truly terrible; eating him would be like eating 4-day-old skunk (although in all fairness, I've never eaten skunk). I have no issues shooting feral destructive species - but it can feel a little wasteful at times.
I was tired and Rick asked to be let off the clock. Even though I was kind of hungry, I knew if I ate a lot I'd regret it so I snacked lightly before turning in. After hog hunting for many years, night hunting was new and quite exciting. It makes me want to come back in the summer some time to have a go at it.
No comments:
Post a Comment