2026 Hog Hunt Day 6 & 7 - Letting Him Walk

Rick and I went out to feed on a very cold low-country South Carolina morning.  When we got to Fish Snatch, Rick looks at me and says, "Take a look.  Don't get lost."  I wasn't too happy that he wasn't going to help since I'm just colorblind enough that finding blood trails is a challenge, let alone dry blood trails.  I understood the pig is likely still running around, and even if not, the chance to find it is remote given the pig's reaction after the shot, but respect for the animal requires a good faith effort.

I spent a chunk of time looking for blood, then following what looked like a scurrying-type path and general small-grid searching.  I would have liked to have spent about 10 times the amount I did, but there were places where it was so thick that a hog could be 10 feet from me and I wouldn't see it; the unrealistic part of me was hoping it would be in one of the open areas.  After a while, I realized it was futile.  

I was surprised that there were a couple of dead hogs in the form of old scattered bones - I know locals often shoot and leave lie since they don't care about hogs (I strongly disagree with this), but there are other interpretations.  I grabbed an old lower jaw bone off the ground and told Rick that it was all that was left of my hog.

With a mix of new people coming in, I moved my stuff around once back in the lodge and had the usual down-time.  Then it was time to head out for the last night of hunting.

I was dropped off on the Zombie Hog Stand.  It was another gorgeous blue-bird day - cool with a biting breeze; I  was dressed well for it.

As I sat down and got situated, I began to have a confidence crisis due to my miss the previous evening.  Part of me was almost hoping not to see anything.  I tend to overthink everything; I swear my brain needs a good therapist more than anything.  I have definitely been overthinking my shooting recently.  And while I had shot hogs at this stand more than once, the distance felt oddly long.

For most of the afternoon, absolutely nothing was moving.  It was a nice afternoon and I was just enjoying the afternoon.

As it started to get dark, movement on the left turned into a boar walking out to the corn.  What to do???  With my setup, I was rock-solid and I did have enough light.  But shooting while a bit unsure of myself???  I put the cross hairs on the pig's head, then backed off, on, off, on, off.

I was not in the right frame of mind.  At some point indecision becomes a decision.  I settled for a picture.

(and yes, I realize this isn't a clean head shot, but gimme a break - lining up the rifle and camera while not dropping either is a bit challenging)

Ethically this felt like 100% the right thing to do; I was at peace with this as darkness claimed the situation.

I was going home with a good chunk of hog meat (room in the freezer at home remains a question).

Some deer came in a chased off the hog which ended my 2026 hunt.  Back in the truck, Claude hadn't seen any pigs.  Denis had seen a bunch, but was holding out for a big boar.

Back in the lodge, Rich and Rich were in camp from Ohio.  They seemed pretty nice, but I only had a chance to talk to them for a short time before Rick and I went to Denis' house for dinner.  It was fun having all of us there to BS and talk about the week (and just about everything else in life).  Denis got a bit distracted and the ribeyes were, ummm, extra, extra well-done.  We all made the best of it.

As I was getting ready to go to sleep, I remembered Rick had not cut my shirt tail.  This may come back to bite me at some point in the future.  Karma is a bitch.

_____________________

I was awake early and ready to be home.  A quick shower and I was out the door.  One of the Rich's was sleeping on the couch so I tried to be extra quiet as I scooted out.

The interior of the Maverick had the lingering smell of smoke from my hunting clothes.  And it wasn't a good smoke smell - a serious cleaning and deodorizing was going to be needed for my camo.

I was glad to be on the road.  I had the roads to myself for several hours.  Bridges and roads appeared to have been pretreated for snow even if the forecast had changed to make freezing precipitation unlikely.

I was listening to River Man by Ben McGrath for most of the ride home.  It was an OK book, but definitely not as good as the review I had previously read about it.  I didn't find Dick Conant (who it is about) as even remotely compelling.  And while McGrath is a good writer, the tone of the book was like that of someone who had worked in New York for far too long and had only recently discovered that there exists people, places and things in flyover country.  As a journalist, McGrath didn't call out as even potential-BS some of what was shared in the book.  I can't believe he hasn't talked to enough people to see this?  I've certainly met my share of characters on some of my epic road trips enough to nod my head at the main-character syndrome half-truths (or sometimes less than half).  The book may factually represent what McGrath saw and heard, but should have been a bit more careful in bleeding reality out of it.

As the book ended, I did reflect a bit more on Dick Conant.  Society is very quick to celebrate eccentric people who throw off the shackles of work-a-day life and travel the world in a canoe.  But we don't often acknowledge that the higher likelihood is eventual tragedy like what almost certainly happened to Conant.

He had saved [100,000 straightened] nails and wasted life. - Donald Hall

And yet (there is always an "and yet"), whether we are talking about Dick Conant, Hall's Washington Woodward, myself, or Ben McGrath, I'm not sure it is fair to call a life wasted if it is/was lived deliberately.

I continued motoring on.  The Saturday traffic was highly tolerable all day.  I was home before 2:00.

S/O and I took care of the pigs shortly after I got home.  Loins were packaged for the grill, all eight quarters will be dynamite on the smoker, and there was enough good trimmings for eight burgers.

Until next year, I'll have some reflection to do after this year's hunt.  Two pigs with one shot.  A miss.  Maybe the first time I've let a pig walk...

2026 Hog Hunt Day 5 - Patience and Hope

Bob and I went with Rick to feed stands.  We also had to get his cellular trail cameras working which involved a rather long and precise hard reset procedure.  I'm not saying the analog world was better (the problems were just different) or that we should or can go back (I may be luddite, but I'm not an atavist), but the frustrations of the digital world are real.

The camera issues were solved throughout the morning.

Back at the lodge, we had a bit of down time before heading out again for the afternoon.  I was once again on the Fish Snatch stand.  Weather was cool and windy but gloriously sunny.  The conditions - mostly the wind - did make me glad I was in a box blind even in my heavier clothes.  

Almost immediately after getting into the blind, a buck walks out.  This had me hopeful that the cool conditions meant animals were moving early and well.  The buck stayed for a while and was joined a bit later by a very large group of deer.  

Deer milled around and worked their way in and out.  In contrast to the first night, I was finding it very easy to stay settled and still.  I felt like I was in my happy place.

It never ceases to amaze me that even when the deer don't know I'm there, they have the ability to look through me.

At around 5:00 all the deer bolted away.  This had me hopeful that something else was coming in.  And it did.  A large boar hog lumbered onto the corn.  But what to do?  He stayed behind the fence that is there for deer season to keep hogs out of bait.  I was not comfortable shooting through the fence as any contact would surely push the bullet on an erratic path.  I had two pigs in the cooler; I had patience.  I watched; adrenaline subsided.

The situation was similar to my 2025 Bear Hunt, where I watched the bear for a very long period of time.  Although it was also different since the question now was a good shot opportunity as opposed to the question of if it was the right animal.

After about 20 minutes, deer came out and were hanging out between me and the boar.  This was when the boar was nearing the edge of the fencing.  The situation was a multi-species Mexican standoff with the boar holding almost all the cards.  The deer became an additional barrier for me.  Patience Beagle...

The deer moved to the far right of the lane and the boar finally cleared the fence.  I still took my time and carefully waited for a clear head shot.  At the shot, the pig dropped and rolled - it looked good.  As I was chambering another round, he got his feet under him and scooted off to the left.  I stared in disbelief and said a few expletives to myself.

I texted Rick; I knew this was not going to make him very happy.

Oddly, the deer were back on the corn within minutes.  They seemed to care less about a 30.06 bullet zipping around and were just appreciative that I ran the boar off.  It was nearing dark, but it was still a long wait, made even longer by the situation.

Rick texted me to come back to the gate.  The unfriendly situation suggests looking in the morning during daylight made more sense.  Temperatures were expected to get down into the upper teens, so the hog would be OK (and it was probably a big enough boar that edibility would be a question).

If I was thinking about Aesop the previous morning, I was now back to Pandora and what remained in her jar - hopeful that the deer I saw staring off to the left at dark was looking at something.  But hope is just as evil as everything else unleashed by Pandora.  Humans just hold on to it...

Bob and Claude had seen only deer; Denis had sat out the night again. 

Denis and Claude were once again gracious and shared their wild pig sausage dinner with me.  Bob was done hunting and had left, so alone in the lodge I went to sleep - overthinking everything.  EVERYTHING!

In the morning, I would either have a hog, or I would get my shirt tail cut.

2026 Hog Hunt Day 4 - Pre-Smoking Pigs

In the strange, terrible wilderness that is my brain, I woke up in the morning thinking about Aesop's fable of the ant and the grasshopper.  The grasshopper spends all summer singing and playing, seemingly whiling away his days.  The ant works hard all summer, storing food for the winter.  In the fall, the grasshopper begs the ant for food.  The ant snuffs at the grasshopper's laziness and says, "No."

The lesson of this is that hard work now pays off later.  Having grown up in a fairly strict Calvinist family, this was a constant lesson.

There are alternative interpretations that the ant is heartless.

This week I'm a grasshopper ... er ... wait ...  I'm bringing home free range pork, so I'm an ant?  Hmmmm...

And I think there needs to be a third insect, since working for the future and living for today are both important.  So maybe we should all be beetles.

After an early morning putzing around the lodge, Rick, Claude and I went out to feed stands.  It was a good time and as usual, almost all the stands were hit.

Back at the lodge, Bob from New Jersey came in.  We talked a bit; he had never hunted hogs before, but had done several other adventurous hunts.  Then it was time to head out for the afternoon.  Denis' back was hurting him to the point he opted to stay home.

Claude and I were dropped off by Kyle's house.  I was in a plastic porta-potty blind behind the small house.  I was pretty sure I had been at this spot twice - I clearly recall once when in a world-famous blind when it was raining sweet gum pods on me and another when two deer came walking down the 2-track right beside me.  I also seem to recall once when pigs came into the field, but stayed far away and never actual came to the corn?  But I was unable to find if that was this stand or I'm thinking of something totally different.

This time was very different.  There had been a controlled burn and it was still smoldering making the area very smokey.  Right behind me was a small spot that was doing more than smoldering as one time I saw flames.  A brief shower did come through, but it was minor enough that it did nothing to the smoldering.  The smell was a bit much, but I guess I didn't have to worry too much about human odor.  Although when the wind blew in the wrong direction it got 100% annoying.  I didn't like it ... at all...

But I toughed it out and figured any pigs that might come in would be already pre-smoked and ready to eat.  I did wonder if I was going to have to invest in an ozone generator when I got home; this is something I've thought about anyway.

There were turkeys in the area when I first got there.  They milled around for a while, but only came into the corn very briefly.

Sadly that was the only animals I saw all night.  Other than the smoke, at least the stand and seat were quite comfortable.

Back at the lodge, I walked down to Denis' house where he and Claude graciously fed me mule deer roast.

The weather is forecast to turn colder which will hopefully bump animal movement up a bit.

2026 Hog Hunt Day 3 - TwoFer

After dropping kids off at school, Rick and I once again went to feed stands.  Almost all of them were hit well and some of the fields had fresh rooting as well.

Back at the lodge I had some down time where I slept a bit and poked around on the computer.  I don't lollygag very well, so being forced to once in a while is not a bad thing.

Soon enough, I was ready for hunting.  Claude and Denis showed up and Rick took all of us out.

Claude and I were dropped off on nearby stands on opposite sides of the road.  I was at the Pet Cemetery stand, passing by it as I quietly made my way in.

The stand was a box blind about five feet off the ground.  To get in was something which was not quite a ladder and not steps, being somehow worse than both.  It was not confidence inspiring while carrying all my hunting crap.  But once inside, I was able to get situated and comfortable very easily.

It was an absolutely bluebird of an afternoon with bright sun, cool temperatures and a bit breezy.  There was lots of noise from critters scurrying about; I'm quite sure most were small birds and squirrels, but gosh they can make a lot of noise sometimes.

At some point I noticed two small deer way over to the left.  I watched them as they milled around.  What were they doing over there?

The went back into the pines and came out a few times as the afternoon went on, always staying far away.

As the sun started to sink lower, it became kind of annoying since it was so bright and the stand faced southwest.  I had to adjust myself and the camo fabric to not be blinded.

The deer started to make their way over to the corn.  At almost the same time, I started to hear pigs to my right in the trees.  I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen; who would blink first.

The two deer got to the corn and several more deer came out to join them in munching.  The sun started to slip below the treeline - a blessing, but also this meant shooting light was sinking quickly.

I heard noise to my right and saw three pigs right on the edge of the field.  They weren't huge and no shot - at least not anything I was willing to take.  The pigs blinked and ran back into the woods.  They must have gathered reinforcements since a few minutes later a few different pigs came out.  These pigs pushed the deer off the corn, running a wide circle around them.

"Good," I said to myself.  I brought my gun up.  Almost instantly a whole wad of pigs ran onto the corn.  "Crap," too many.  With all the pigs in a big wad there was no way to get a clean shot at the head of just one.

I left my gun up, trying to figure out what to do.  Sunset.  Thirty minutes of shooting light left.  Facing the remaining light there was some glare in the scope complicating the picture.  I kept watching through the scope.  The hogs weren't monsters, but were a tender eating size.  I had briefly seen a larger one and heard more pigs to the right, further complicating any decision.

Every once in a while a pig would separate, but pigs constantly dance - too fast for a slow human.  The minutes ticked down; I had memories of the previous year where this same issue meant no shot.

This was a very long (at least 20 minutes) time watching and waiting to get a clean shot.  Finally one out front was facing to the left and I saw a clean head with nothing behind it.  I was rock steady and squeezed the trigger.  At the shot the pigs scattered, running a wide circle close in front of me.

I said a small prayer and looked through the dim light back through the scope.  I saw not one, but two pigs doing the 100-yard dash on the ground.  Uh Oh...

I kept watching.  If the "back" pig wasn't hit great it might get its feet under and skedaddle.  Within a short amount of time, both stopped moving.  At least they didn't die alone...

I texted Rick and watched and waited.  It was too dark to see, and I second-guessed if there were really two pigs?  If I overthink before shooting (I do), I'll do so again after (I will).

Sitting there in the dark, I heard noise.  The pigs came back.  They were indifferent to their friends, now quietly sleeping on the corn.  They noisily ate corn.  

Rick texted me to slip out so we could bump them off quietly by driving in.  I went back to the pet cemetery and waited what felt like a really long time.  I heard several groups of hogs while waiting there in the dark.  There were at least a few different groups of them nearby.

We drove up and Rick and I quickly loaded up two pigs.  Both were under 100 pounds, but would be great quarters for the smoker.  I was a bit surprised that both were fairly clean head shots; the hogs must have been lined up with the back pig also with a messed up lower leg.  No doubt the bullet had broken up by that point in its travels.

Back at the lodge, Rick cleaned and quartered the pigs.  I drove to Dollar General and got a few bags of ice, then went to Denis' house where he and Claude graciously shared their chili.  I felt bad for leaving shortly after, but I was losing steam quickly.

Quite a day.

2026 Hog Hunt Day 2 - Settling In

After an early morning spent putzing around on the computer, I went with Rick to drop off kids for school.  Then after running some Rick errands, we fed up stands.  All but one had been hit well.  It was fun seeing all the stands and one cow pasture had several hogs in it.

There had been a rather grisly murder the previous night in a nearby township the previous night.  And one of Rick's neighbors had got stuck in a ditch while going out to assist the family.  We pulled him out - although I was concerned that Rick might pull the car apart given its state of disrepair.  But all was well.

As an aside, the murder - which was originally believed to be a robbery-gone-wrong - was more likely due to the spouse who also shot himself in the gut in the process.  The world can be a terrible place sometimes.

There was a scheduling mix-up with the other guy coming in to camp, meaning I would likely have the lodge to myself for the week with Denis and Claude staying at Denis' house.  This works just fine for me.

I had some down time at the lodge which allowed me to get a pseudo-nap in.  Then it was off to hunt hogs.

I was dropped off at the Fish Snatch stand.  This stand had treated me well previously so I was hopeful it would again.  I was glad it was a big box blind since I had a hard time sitting still at first.  The air was cool and dry and there was absolutely no wind making the afternoon breathlessly still.  This did force me to calm down and just settle in the for the afternoon since every movement felt unbelievably loud in the still air.

After sitting for a while three bucks popped out onto the corn.  They were followed about 10 minutes later by a whole bunch of does.

The deer milled around the area for a while.  A turkey came walking down the 2-track, and while this same turkey had been nearby when the deer first came out, the deer now seemed bothered by it.  The deer bolted away.

At least I think that is what happened.  I did hear a gunshot from a nearby stand, so pigs were moving and they could have been in the area as well.

About a half an hour later most of the deer came back and stayed in the area until it got too dark to see.  As the light dimmed, I shook my head about how age-related changes have hurt my low light vision; I don't suppose this will get better.

After dark, I packed up as quietly as I could and walked the 2-track back out.  While waiting to get picked up in the still dark evening, I heard a group of pigs to my right.  It is highly possible they were making their way through the pines to my bait pile.

Claude had shot a very large and healthy sow.

Denis had seen a lot of deer, but not pigs.  

The forecast was for a cold night, so after cleaning the hog, we left it hang.

I had a quick noodle bowl and was ready to turn in early.

2025 Hog Hunt Day 6 - Rinse and Repeat

Overnight I came to terms with my hog.  I still may not be happy about the situation, but all I can do is try to be better.  Without the benefit of hindsight, I'm not sure I would do anything differently.

After another blessedly slow morning, Paul and I ran some errands with Rick, followed by feeding stands.  The winds were shifting out of the east, opening up new stands for the afternoon.

After another walk down to the river, it was time to get ready for the final afternoon of hunting.

I was dropped off at the Trash Pile stand.  It was a box blind that was a little small, but it was really easy to get comfortable in it (although really glad I had my own cushion).

When I first got to the stand, there was a deer on the corn, but I was able to get everything situated without spooking it at all.  It stayed around for about a half an hour before it sauntered off.

Then I had a long sit alone with my thoughts.  It was a really pleasant afternoon with just a bit of breeze and temperatures in the upper 50's.  Forecasts were for extreme cold the following week at home, so I knew I had to take advantage of the nice weather while I could.

Around 4:00 I had two deer come in.  The first was probably a button buck followed by a small spike.  They stayed in around for about a half an hour before they made their way out.  

There was another lull in any action and it started to get dark.  I started to get into go-home mode.  There was still tons of light, but I started to organize things to make an exit.  I looked up and hogs were pouring out of the pines.  I brought my gun up and waited for the pigs to settle down.  There were 5-6 good eater size pigs and a wad of little ones.  Unfortunately, it was a repeat of Day 3 as the hogs insisted on sticking in one huge group.  It was 100% impossible to pick out one and only one hog.  I was not willing to take one nearer the blind and let the bullet likely impact collateral pigs.

(It was a lot darker than this picture looks since it was taken with my phone's "Night Sight" - which is also why it looks a little like an impressionist's painting)

I waited, and waited, and waited.  It was getting darker and darker.

A second group of pigs came in which consisted of a huge sow, 2-3 good eater sows and another wad of smaller ones.  I had a brief window as the pigs scattered and I started to line up on the larger sow when all the pigs came rushing back in; they were now in an even BIGGER group.

I waited, and waited.  I got darker and too dark.

I packed up quietly and left.  

As I was waiting to get picked up, I was wondering if I was a bit gun-shy after my less-than-stellar performance on the first hunt.  Thinking back, I was not.  There was just no ethical shot opportunity, and certainly not a clean head shot.  I can still be disappointed, but I did the right thing.

Back at the lodge Denis, Claude and I made plans to hunt again next year, hopefully with everyone in good health.  Paul decided to head home, giving me the lodge to myself.  I packed up most of myself before turning in; there was a long drive ahead.

2025 Hog Hunt Day 5 - Recovery and Redemption

I was up early and read the entire internet.  It was a good morning, and the down time was nice.

Around 8:00 I said goodbye to Gary and went with Rick to feed stands.  We chatted as we went along.  At one point I commented that I had lots of pictures of hogs down on January 16 in previous years so I was sure someone was going to get one.  Then we came to the Carol Astor stand.  Something in the road just didn't look quite right.  Rick came to a standstill, "Is that your hog?"

"It has to be!"

It was.  I had a sinking feeling.  The hog was still quite alive, but not moving well.  

Rick backed the truck up.  Unfortunately, Rick's pistol was not in the truck since Will had used it to go to school.  "We have to do something..."  We talked a bit about what to do.  Rick dropped me off and was going to "haul ass" back to the lodge.  I was to keep tabs on the wounded hog.

I hated seeing the hog.  The last thing I wanted to do - the last thing any sportsman wants to do - is cause any animal to suffer.  My heart was in my stomach.

Rick left and I carefully moved to just where I could see it.  It got up a few times, but was in no mood to move far.  It was quite pissed off.  After what seemed like forever, Rick was back and texted me to come get the rifle.  I would have preferred to just walk down the road to sneak up on it, but Rick said to go through the pines.  I had a hard time seeing the hog but finally got into the right spot.  I fired.  Rick was on the road and walked toward the hog.  The hog was still moving.  There were a few moments that were a bit more exciting than they should have been and the hog was down for good.

With the morning's excitement done, we loaded the hog and headed back to the lodge.  We dropped it off to go get Will's truck and some Hardee's.  I don't eat much fast food, but it was good.

Back at the lodge, Rick cleaned the hog; it was a nice eater of about 125 pounds.  The larger hog I saw on the first night must have been another hog (my memory also sees it as blacker).  There were still stands to finish up on, but Rick was going to do those while we were hunting.

Paul had come into camp and we only had a bit of time to get ready to head out for the afternoon.

I was dropped off on the weird lighting stand.  I liked the blind, even if it did lose light quickly.  

I had some time to think after getting into my stand.  I felt bad for the hog, even if I was glad that I got one and also glad that we were successfully able to end it.  I thought back to my deer hunt were I was a bit judgey of Mike's neighbor.  I reserved the harshest judgement for myself.

I distracted myself with my phone and saw on Reddit that David Lynch had died.  This brought me back to 2017 when I recreated the route from the movie The Straight Story on my motorcycle.  David Lynch's movies, even when I didn't understand them (I'm looking at you Mulholland Drive), were visual poetry.  His Netflix movie What Did Jack Do? was hilarious.  Twin Peaks was an amazing TV show when I was in high school (at least the first season was) - I had to clandestinely watch it since my high school friends made fun of the "weirdos" who watched it.

It was a nice afternoon with warm temperatures but very windy.  I was glad I was in an enclosed blind.  The first two hours passed slowly until several does started coming and going from the corn pile.  They were around for about an hour until they bolted away.  

I was wondering if this meant that pigs were coming in, but I guess it was the bucks turn as 6-7 of them wandered in and out of the lane.  One was a decent shooter and at least one other should be really nice by fall.  

Darkness came early with deer still hanging around.  I carefully and quietly worked my way out.

Paul had seen only deer.  Claude had shot a big stinky boar and a sow.  Denis hadn't seen anything.  Rick cleaned the sow and let it hang overnight.

I went to sleep, still a little conflicted.

2025 Hog Hunt Day 4 - Pandora's Hunt

I was putzing around online after getting up and saw something on Reddit about Pandora and it got me thinking that "hope" in the context of Pandora's Jar is not something positive; it is just as evil as everything else that escapes when she opens the jar.  It keeps people going when there is no realistic chance of success.  It promotes inaction by people who assume everything will work out.  It forces people to hold out for a better future that may never arrive.  Hope is hunting.  

But hunting is what I was in South Carolina for.

Gary was going to meet some cousins for breakfast, so Rick and I went to get Will after he dropped his truck off for repair.  After a stop at Hardee's, we all fed stands.  A few weren't hit, but as usual, most where.

I had some down time at the lodge so I took another walk down to the river.  Soon enough it was time to head out.  We stopped by Denis' house; Denis and Claude drove their own vehicle in case they were still contagious.

I was dropped off at the Sea of Pines stand.  The trees had grown up a phenomenal amount over the previous two years.  It was still pretty and a comfortable stand.

Temperatures were cooler than the previous day, but it was still very sunny with only light breeze.  It was a nice afternoon which was good since there was not much moving other than deer.  I kept hoping something more interesting would pop out, but it was an uneventful afternoon.

No one had seen any pigs, it was deer all around.  I went to bed hoping one of my final nights might turn things around.

2025 Hog Hunt Day 3 - Chicken Hunt

I beat myself up pretty much all night about the previous evening's mistake.  I slept some, but it wasn't a good sleep.  It can be painfully hard being an overthinker.

A picture of my first dog came up on my Google Photos when I grabbed my phone.  This sent me into a bit of a tailspin as I remembered her and remembered what things were like then.  It is easy to look at the past with rose-colored glasses or think that things were simpler then (the most definitely were not).  But it often seems like we spend the first part of our lives filling up an existential bank account, only to have to start taking from it later.  When that happens isn't obvious at the time; looking back it is possible, in the right frame of mind, to see where that wave may have crested and started to roll away.

Morning blessedly came with lodge coffee.  Then it was off to feed stands.  Most had been picked clean - including the stand from my miss.  So the hogs weren't totally scared off (right?).

Back at the lodge I took a quick walk down to the river.  It felt good to be moving again and get the blood flowing again.  The day was brilliantly clear and the walk in warmed me - body and soul.  The river is way down from where it was in the fall during deer season.

After a quick bite to eat, we headed out for pigs again.  Rick dropped me off at the Hunting With Lucy stand.  Although the stand has seen better days and the part that reminded me of Lucy Van Pelt's psychiatry office is essentially gone at this point.

I had noticed a black blob on the pile when I was getting to the stand, but I assumed it was a small tree branch or something.  Taking a closer look once I was comfortable, I saw it was a small racoon eating corn.  It seems a little surprising that I don't see these guys more; although they are mostly nocturnal.

The early part of the sit passed slowly.  When the sun was out, I was cursing it as it was shining directly on me - this kept me warm, but also made it hard to see anything.  Once it went behind the pines, I cursed the cold.  Some days I guess I just can't be happy.

A few deer came and went throughout the afternoon.  

At one point the deer were tearing around like crazy to my left.  With all the noise, I was hoping it was pigs; small deer usually don't make that much noise.  I knew it was deer for sure when one of them came out with really grubby feet - she had been making a ruckus in the swamp.

As it started to get dark I heard noise to my left.  This really didn't sound like deer.  And I saw the unmistakable outline of pigs.  I still had a few minutes to shoot as the pigs started to pile out onto the corn.  There were a LOT of them.  There were two really big ones, 5-7 good eaters, and then more small ones than I could count.  

When pigs come out they generally run around and fight for a bit.  It is really risky to shoot during this time since they do move very fast.  Once the pigs settled down, I spent quite some time trying to pick out one and only one head to shoot.  Staring into shadows created by the setting sun didn't help; the remaining light behind the pines created blurring lens flair.  By the time the pigs had fully settled down, it was in the evil 5-minute period when I could probably still shoot, but should not...  Had I not screwed up the previous night, I might have tried.  But I didn't want to duff a shot two nights in a row.  It was too dark.  It was very painful.  It might have been the correct decision.

I texted Rick and asked if he wanted me to slip out (affirmative).  I did the best I could, but some deer were near the field cut-off and they may have spooked the pigs when they ran.  Rick picked me up shortly after I got to the rendezvous point.  

Gary had shot a nice eater 125 pound sow.  Back at the lodge, Rick cleaned and quartered his pig.

I was already second-guessing not shooting.  I certainly have connected on pigs under darker conditions before.  So maybe I was just a bit too timid.  As I went to sleep, I had this to rethink and overthink.

2025 Hog Hunt Day 2 - All Is Lost

After some typical futzing around, Gary and I went with Rick to feed stands.  There were some I'd seen many times before and (as always) a few I either had never seen or forgot about.  Most were hit quite well.

Then it was back to the lodge for some down time and lunch.  Sadly, it seems my cookies had gone AWOL.  Subsequent conversations with SO revealed some miscommunication and the cookies were in the cupboard at home.  Cookies probably count as ultra-processed, toxic food anyway...

Early afternoon came and we headed out.  Denis and Claude were under the weather so it was just Gary and I.  Temperatures were reasonable in the mid-40s with heavy cloud cover.  But I had been freezing all day, so I was grossly overdressed in my snow suit.  I was dropped off at the Carol Astor stand; after walking to it, it seemed like the first time all day I wasn't cold.

The afternoon started slowly.  The stand is a ground blind made of scaffolding which is a really good idea.  I played around with my zoom lens that fits over my cell phone.  I really can't decide how well it works vs. just zooming in all the way with the phone.  It isn't terrible, but getting a good picture takes a lot of messing around with it.  It might work a little better if I took my phone case off, but that is too much hassle to try to do while hunting.  Besides, the last time I tried to do so, I cracked my phone case.

I had a hard time getting settled; something just felt off as I was sitting there - something I just couldn't put my finger on.  Maybe this was prescient?

Mid-afternoon three deer came out.  They milled around for a couple hours.  I was glad to have something to watch.  A few times they nervously stared into the bush and I was hopeful something more interesting would appear, but that didn't happen.

They left for good later in the afternoon, leaving me alone with my thoughts.  Usually this is good - a blessing.  But not always.  I was still quite unsettled.

About an hour before dark, four deer popped out between me and the corn.  I was watching them when I saw a dark hog at the far end of the lane run right to left.  Usually this means they are working their way toward the corn.  The deer stayed put which also suggested they were nervous.

A short time later the hog popped out at the corn.  Both the hog and the deer were really nervous.  I had my gun up shortly after seeing the hog the first time.  I waited until he was clear of the deer and tried to decide what to do.  Nervous hogs flee quickly.  He was quartering toward me and I put my crosshairs on the crease of his neck.

The hog dropped and flopped a couple times at the shot.  Then he was up and out on three legs; I knew this was a bad sign.  I heard rustling in bush to the left.  I texted Rick with an update.  Then it was time to second-guess ... painfully so.  I should have waited; I should have head shot; I should have gone target shooting one more time; I should have...

This quickly morphed into guilt.  My 2024 deer hunt ended with a bad shot from the neighbor, now I was that guy.

Rick came with some daylight left.  We could easily see where the hog had bolted and we tracked him to the edge of heavy trees and brush.  We found several bone fragments, but not enough blood to keep going.  Hogs are very tough beasts.

Rick verbally beat me up while we picked up Gary.  He had seen hogs as well, but they were well beyond the pile and he chose not to shoot (probably wisely).

We closed out the day back at the lodge.  I had stuck the largest bone fragments in my pocket.  I think I'll keep it as a reminder that life's lessons are unrelenting.  And that every lesson I'm supposed to learn needs to be taught 1000 times and even then, I may be forever a neophyte.

2024 SC Deer Hunt Day 6 - Under The Banner of Darkness

Kevin and I were up early for a thermal scope crash course.  I was using Rick's 7mm-08.  I had used this in 2021, so I was privileged to use it again.  We talked a brief plan and Rick dropped me off at the stand I had missed the hog on last year.

I made my way down the dirt road and toward the "front stand."  The plan was to scan a few areas using the scope to see if any pigs were in the area and make my own plan if there were.  The front stand was empty, although thinking later, I wasn't 100% sure I was in the right place.  

I made my way around to the other stand.  I got to the edge of the field and saw a deer bedded down nearby.  I paused, trying to think of what to do.  I just didn't have many options.  I tried sneaking around, but (of course) this failed miserably and the deer huffed and took off.  I was hopeful this was far enough away from any pigs.

I started to slowly work down the field and scanned a few more times.  When I got near the actual box blind, I scanned the first corn pile, but it was empty.  Thinking this whole thing might be a bust, I scanned the other pile and it was wrecked with pigs.

Now what???

I thought about shooting from the blind, but I wanted the stability of the tripod.  And setting up the tripod in the dark would be really noisy in the blind.  I left my pack at the shooting blind.

I made my way around the blind and down a bit, inline with the hogs.  I set up the tripod and scanned to find the hogs.  There were several pretty big ones, a bunch of little ones, and many of them were bedded right in the corn pile.  My heart was racing; I had to back up and just take a few seconds to calm down, "Calm down idiot, you've done this 500 times before...."

I stepped forward and watched the pigs.  There was a pretty big one on the left, I waited for it to get away from the other pigs.  Boom!

Recoil was minimal, but I still couldn't see anything after the shot.  I heard pigs scurrying away everywhere.  I scanned the area - no pig.  I!  Could!  Not!  Have!  Missed!

More scanning and remembering to unzoom the scope showed a white hot pig doing the 100-yard dash on the ground.  I watched it for a bit to make sure it was really done.

I didn't want to bugger up the stand more than needed, so I grabbed the gun and tripod, and headed back to the stand.  It took me a few minutes to get everything set up to hunt for deer in the morning.  I was absolutely drenched in sweat at this point.  Looking through the scope, I triple check that my hog is really - really-really dead.

Morning light came slowly.  It was another beautiful morning with much less humidity.  I didn't figure I'd see much early with all the commotion, so I just sat back and watched.  Hunting mornings are even more magical with a pig down.

Shortly after daylight, some turkeys came out to the pile.  They did not want to come out with the hog there.  One brave turkey did but only for a few minutes.

Hogs always look so small once they are on the ground.  And this hog was deer colored.  I had a lot of second-guessing myself as the morning wore on.

Not much else was moving that morning.  I did catch a glimpse of two bucks running the back treeline.  One was mildly interesting, but neither one was a shooter.  Temperatures stayed cool and with the wind picking up, it was almost cold at times.  I still enjoyed the morning.

Rick came and got me a short time later.  I watched Kevin and him load up my hog while I packed up.  They picked me up and we headed back to the lodge.  Apparently a neighbor had heard me shoot and called the game warden about someone poaching deer at 5:15AM in the dark (note, shooting hogs at night is 100% legal in SC).  I thought this was quite funny, but am also glad that people care enough about wildlife to do this.

My hog was a really nice eater - 150 pound sow - with spots!  It was in the cooler on ice shortly after 11:00.

Breakfast was homemade donuts, eggs and bacon.  I was glad I had the chance to stay another day.  Well worth it.  And still one more chance at a buck for the trip.

After a last great breakfast we had a lot of downtime.  A few of us took the opportunity to walk down to the river.  The level had risen a lot.

Soon enough it was time to head out for the last sit.  I was on the White Trash / Washtub stand.  The box blind had seen better days, and there was a very active wasp nest in the corner.  I had a quick conversation with the wasps, "I'll leave you alone and you leave me alone."  The truce lasted the evening.

It took a few minutes to get settled, but once so it was quite comfortable.  This isn't always the case after spending so much time on the stand.

At least there are interesting things to watch.

Does filtered in and out of the area all evening.  I kept hoping something more interesting would show up, or that hogs would come out and push everything else away, but that didn't happen.  

The area had clouded up considerably and darkness came early.  I met Rick on the road and we picked up everyone else.  Everyone had seen deer, but nobody saw any shooters.

Back at the lodge we had a final meal.  I packed up most of my stuff to prepare for leaving in the morning.

2024 Hog Hunt Day 6&7 - Back to the Feezer

I certainly wasn't ready to go home when I woke up, but I was started to get ready for things to wind down.  I was definitely ready for my own coffee (and water) at home.

Rick and Denis once again headed out for ducks.  They had a good morning with 30+ ducks from the group and 2 bands.  Once they were back, we headed out to feed pigs.

After a bit more down time at the lodge, I was ready for the last hunt.

I was once again in a world-famous blind - although this time was a bit sillier since I was both in a little more open area as well as sitting in some fresh hog rootin'.  I've had hogs come within a few feet of me in the past...

Temperatures were cool, yet nice.  But the wind was ferocious with gusts nearing 30MPH.  It wasn't terrible tucked into some trees, but it was definitely noticeable.  I was glad I made the decision to wear my snowsuit even though it wasn't that cold.

As I was sitting there, I happen to notice a hang-pn stand in a nearby tree.  It appeared to be partially blocked and not too easy to get into, so presumably it hasn't been used in a while.  I also expect that it was more likely from deer than pigs.  I don't know why, but I always find other stands nearby somewhat distressing.

My mind wandered as I sat there.  As it got later I was slightly more ready to go home.  And absolutely nothing was moving in the field on this last evening.  I remembered the last time I was here and sat in the box blind at the opposite end of the field, the deer walked right down the 2-track I was sitting near.  With the wind, I may not even hear them if this happened again.

Darkness came late and I packed up to be picked up.  Claude had seen several very small piglets; Denis - nothing.

Back in camp I packed up most of my stuff and ate pizza with Denis and Claude.  I plan to be back in 9 (short?  long?) months.

_____

I woke up at a little after 2:00AM and took out my ear plugs so I could hear my alarm that I set.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so just got up, got ready and was out the door a little before 3:00.

As I was heading down Rick's road, a buck ran right in front of me.  Grow strong my good man - and hopefully see you soon again.

The trip home was uneventful which is good.  By the time I got near Columbia the temperature was already near the teens. and it went down from there.  

The Appalachians had quite a bit of snow, but being a Saturday, there was very little traffic.  Temperatures also dropped to the single digits and stayed near there for the rest of the trip home.

I finished listening to Good Morning Monster and found the last "patient" to be ... unsympathetic.  Overall the book was good, but certainly not great.  Hopefully I'll find better options for bear hunting later in the year.

Once home the dogs were happy to see me.  Surprisingly my hog hadn't frozen solid despite nearly 10 hours of frigid temperatures, so I took care of it that afternoon - I can't say I really wanted to do this after the long drive, but it was the right thing to do.

I know that now comes a long slog with little to immediately look forward to.  But that may be OK, so I have a successful hog hunt to look back on with fresh wild pig to eat.

2024 Hog Hunt Day 5 - I'm Old

I spent my early morning browsing and reading online.  Something got me wondering when was the last year we hunted pigs in Georgetown?  2014 - a full decade ago.

I recently saw the definition of nostalgia as "strategic oversimplification of the past" - which is probably as good of a definition as there is.  It's hard not to miss parts of the past, but equally easy to overly-romanticize them.  It can be a tendency to judge current events more harshly compared to this "strategic oversimplification of the past."  I think the greatest gifts to humanity are the inability to travel backwards in time and the inability to see into the future.  

Doug left fairly early and the remaining three of us went with Rick to feed stands.

Down time at the lodge followed by getting ready for pigs.

I was dropped off on the weird-lighting stand.  I don't know what it is, but I do like this stand.  Although it seemed like the chair had suffered a very difficult year, since the seat webbing was gone, replaced with wood, replaced with logs.  Logs!  Talk about uncomfortable.  But between the two cushions on the chair and my own, I managed to get reasonably comfortable.

The morning's thinking about past years sauntered back into my brain.  I suppose if I can have big helmet thoughts on motorcycle trips, I can also have big treestand thoughts (or in this case, big ground blind thoughts).  I don't consider myself old yet, but I'm definitely not young anymore either.  Physically age is definitely starting to take its toll.  But thinking back to 2014, the next 10 years might look a little scary.

Around 4:30 a few deer came into the corn.  Then a few more came in.  The stand is like looking down a tunnel so it was hard to see how many deer there were, since for quite a while deer would filter in and out.  At any one time, there may have been as many as 10 deer.

One of the things I don't like about ground blinds is that I can't see behind me from most of them.  The deer were definitely worried about something in my direction.  I wasn't sure if they knew I was there, or if something could have been behind me.  Eventually they all bolted, leaving me lonely again.

Around sunset two bucks came one with one of them being at least nearly a shooter.  They stayed in the area until it was dark.  And darkness came early to this stand while the open areas were still light (it is the weird-lighting stand).

It seemed like it took forever for Rick to pick me up.  As I was waiting, coyotes started howling from back towards the stand - what a magical sound.

Back at the lodge Denis and Claude graciously shared their burger/gravy/fries - a facsimile to French Canadian food.

2024 Hog Hunt Day 4 - Shooting Star

After finally getting moving for the morning, Rick and I fed stands while Denis and Claude ran errands for the day.  Doug went into town for breakfast.  All the stands had been hit except one.  I'm falling once again into the rhythm of the pig camp.

A quick bite to eat back at the lodge and we all got ready to go out hunting.  Temperatures were uncharacteristically cold for South Carolina.  Overnight lows had been down into the lower 20s with highs only in the lower 40s.  I bundled up in my snowsuit.

I was last to be dropped off and was up in a very tall ladder stand overlooking a food plot.  The corn was on the right and with the stand being a single ladder, it was incredibly awkward for a right-handed shooter.  I got set up as best I could.  If pigs come out, there always seems to be a way to make it work.

I was hopeful it was going to be an active evening since the cold weather can often make animals move early.  Even with the cooler temperatures, it was still spectacular with crystal-clear bluebird skies.  It felt like every time I moved I was making a ton of noise, but in reality, I know that because I had my hood up it tends to amplify every noise.

Right near sunset three deer came out on the far end of the field.  I watched them as they slowly made their way to the corn.  They were acting very nervous, but it was only because more deer were in the woods nearer the corn.  Eventually several groups of deer filtered into the open.  

The deer hung around until just before dark.  As I always am, I was hopeful pigs would come out when the deer ran away, but if pigs were around, they stayed hidden.

With the clear skies I had tons of light at least 10 minutes longer than previous days.  But even that didn't help.  As it was almost too dark to see anything, I looked up and saw the most amazing meteor that I've seen in a long time shoot across the sky and break up before disappearing, leaving a phosphorescent trail behind.  The world can be an amazing place.

Back at the lodge, Denis had picked up ribeye steaks from Rick's butcher which Bobby the Butcher (that sounds like a super-villain) had given Rick - quite the fantastic gesture.  Denis and Claude cooked and while it was a bit late by my standards, we all ate like kings.  It was one of the largest, thickest ribeyes I've ever eaten.  It may sound weird from someone who hunts, but I don't usually eat that much meat in one sitting.

2024 Hog Hunt Day 3 - It's Raining Pigs

Morning had Rick and Denis go shoot ducks until they, plus Claude and I went out to feed stands.  Doug had gone into town to eat breakfast.  All the stands had been cleaned out; daylight is always the question.

Weather forecast was for the day to be a transition day.  It was cloudy but nice temperatures.  Rain was coming into the area for the afternoon.

Back at the lodge there was very slow down-time.  Usually I have something to read, but I didn't this year - trying to find something on TV seemed like too much work.  I don't do "nothing" well, so I was glad when early afternoon came ... sort of glad - since it had also started raining.  Intermittently, the rain was quite significant.  Rick had told me I was going to sit at the Church stand in a world-famous ground blind.  I wasn't excited about sitting in the rain, but one of my rules is to never "guide the guide" - so I was suited up in my rain gear.  I wasn't able to find either of my waterproof hats, so I must have accidently left them at home.

Rick dropped me off and I had to hoof it the short distance back to my spot with my gun, bag, chair and gun tripod.  It was a bit unwieldy but I made it work.  It took me a few minutes to get my world-famous stand situated.  I was sitting next to a turkey box blind.  I thought about turning the turkey blind 90 degrees so it faced the corn, but it would have made too much noise - plus the condition of the blind was suspect at best, so even if I could have lifted it, I wasn't sure it would have held together.  I was able to sit right by the door, allowing me to keep my bag and gun inside the blind.  I was in the rain - at least my crap wasn't.  All world-famous ground blinds look a bit silly, but this wasn't the worst I'd ever been in.  Tucked in next to the turkey blind with live oaks around me, I had reasonably good cover.

Time passed in spurts as did the rain.  The trend was for the rain to come to decrease.  It wasn't terrible sitting there but somewhere between uncomfortable and miserable.  I made the best of it.

Around 4:00 I looked up and saw something on the corn, "What the..."  I grabbed my gun to look through the scope and sure enough, there were four small hogs on the corn.  

The largest was probably in 50-pound range.  I almost thought about shooting him, but that size can be hard to judge.  I watched them for about 20 minutes until a few more the same size came out.  This is a good sign.

Sure enough, a good sized sow walked out, "She'll work."  But with all the little porkers running around, it was really hard to get a bead on her and just her.  No hurry, I just took my time until her head was by itself towards the right.  Bang.  She dropped and did the 100-yard dash on the ground.  The little guys left and almost immediately came right back.  One or two of the little pigs actually pushed the bigger one away from the corn.

They fed for a little while until they ran out of the area.  One very light-colored pig was struggling to leave with the group and I'm a little afraid I may have winged it when I shot the sow.  I have no ethical qualms about hunting - especially pigs since they are a non-native, feral, destructive species.  But I don't ever want to cause an animal to suffer.  It is hard to know exactly what happened since little pigs running around is always a little chaotic.

Pigs always look small on the ground and in this case it was almost worse.  The area is thick with water and deep mud, so all I could see was a small spot of black in slop.  The rest of the afternoon passed quickly enough.  Rain had almost stopped.  A few deer came in, but they seemed nervous of the pig still laying there.  At one point the little guys popped out closer to me than the corn.  I didn't see the light-colored pig with them, but it was getting quite dark by this point.

Just before dark Rick came to get me.  Denis was already in the truck.  We drove down to the pile.  Rick got close and pointed to my pig in the heavy mud, "Fetch."  I walked over and had to unstuck her from the mud.  At least I could see it was a very clean head shot.  It took a few minutes to pull her to the back of the truck.  When Rick asked what took so long, my response was not fit to print...

Denis had shot a really nice eating boar.  My hog was loaded next to his.  No one else saw any pigs.  Back at the lodge cleaning both of the hogs was an exercise in mud as much as anything else.  We left both pigs hanging since temperatures overnight were to get down into the lower 20s.

Denis and Claude generously shared their roast with me - saving me from another noodle bowl.  As the night wound down, I had to laugh at myself since I was a bit surly initially about sitting in the rain, but it all worked out.

Didn't The Weather Girls sing the song "It's Raining Pigs"?

2024 Hog Hunt Day 2 - Piggy's Got the Conch

Because I had gone to bed early, I woke up ungodly early.  And frustratingly, the previous afternoon's headache had not subsided.  I dozed and tossed and turned before deciding to see if caffeine would help.  It is always a game - more caffeine or less?  Food or no?  Sleep or power through.  It turns out Vacation Migraines are a real thing...

Headaches seem to be a common recurrence early in my adventures for the last couple years.  Is this due to getting older?  Or inflexibility on the disruption of the routine?  Or???  I hate it.

And why do AI image creators have such a hard time making guns?  A hat tip to anyone who can shoot the gun that is on the laptop in this image.

After a slow, painful early morning, Rick and I went to feed stands.  By the time we left I was starting to feel a bit better and there were other signs that the raging migraine was on its way down.  All of the water in the area had left many of the dirt roads rutted and/or half washed out.  There was lots of water around some of the stands as well.  It was fun seeing all the stands; most had good evidence of pig activity.

Back at the lodge I thought I was going to have some downtime only to have Doug come into camp.  He seemed a bit crabby that food wasn't provided, but if he was, got over it quickly and went to town to stock up.

Denis and Claude came back into camp and soon enough we all got ready to head out to hunt for the evening.  Thankfully, at this point, I felt nearly back to normal.

I was the last to be dropped off on the 15-Acre stand.  I liked the spot and had previously shot an orange spotted hog at this location.

The stand sits very near the road which is a little uncomfortable.  It was even more so since the trees in the field had been harvested.  It felt like every car driving by would be able to staring right at me.

Every few minutes a car would drive past.  I couldn't help but wonder how I might appear to them.  A semi-human form, there but also not there.  A silhouette of the unknown; an apparition of their own darker selves.  I was the beastie from William Golding's Lord of the Flies.  A solitary figure tethered to a tree, seen only as a fleeting glimpse from the background as they sped to their soulless destination.

Temperatures were warm in the lower 60s with filtered sunshine and little wind.  Wind direction was perfectly in my face.  I enjoyed the time in the stand.  It wasn't the placid quiet that hunting often is, both because of the road and some annoyingly loud 4-wheeler not that far away.  Those things can be awful.

A little before 5:00, deer started to filter out into the corn.  They were all very small.  The deer gave me a diversion as I watched.

I was hoping they would bolt away signaling something else coming in, but it didn't happen.  Eventually they worked their way out of the area.

It started to get dark and I saw bats flittering around eating bugs.  Their acrobatics were amusing.  A bald eagle also landed in the cutover.  There must have been something there for it to eat since I generally don't see eagles on the ground just to hang out.  And I couldn't have imagined what other large bird would have a bright white head and tail.

As it started to get dark, I once again saw shapes on the corn pile.  I was hopeful it was pigs but knew instantly it was just the deer coming back.  They were very playful and kept me entertained until it got too dark.  I slipped out as quietly as I could.

Nobody had seen any pigs.  I was a bit surprised by this given the almost perfect conditions.

A bite to eat back at the lodge and I turned in for the day.