John J. was gonna be in town for a few months attending school at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He posted on another board, asking if any traditional guys were in the area. I responded for him to look me up when he got in town. We ended up becoming good friends.
John is good people and had some great hunting tales from his home state of Alaska. Stories of brown bears, moose, and caribou kept me glued to his every word. I just hoped I could show him a good time in SE Ga.
We chased pigs several times and he did see some on every trip, but was unable to connect. We made one rabbit hunting trip, in which we did manage four rabbits. We made some great memories! Here is John on our rabbit hunt:
The last trip yesterday afternoon was the best!
A special hog hunt had just started where we were hunting, and any weapon was allowed. As we were entering the management land we passed a road leading about 100 yards into a fresh tilled food plot. We both saw what looked to be a black bear standing at the end of it. I backed up and we both could still see a big black critter down at the end of the plot. There are no bears in this area, so it had to be a large hog.
There was another plot down the road about 200 yards. They both backed up to a swamp. We drove to the next plot and readied our gear. With John in the lead we stalked into the wind on the edge of the swamp to the next plot.
As John got close enough to the plot to see into it well, he gave me the thumbs up, indicating that the hog was still there. As we neared the edge of the plot, I thought the hog didn't look quite right. As we got closer, you could make out details of the tail, ears, and snout. It looked real enough, but we soon determined that it was a decoy! We had been had!
Upon closer inspection, we determined that it was a Mckenzie target with a real black hog hide stretched over it. I knew that a warden was watching us, so I waved to let him know we were on to him. We walked out to the road and started towards the truck. From behind us, we heard a "hey come over here". We turned around and saw the warden in the middle of the road. We spoke for a while, and he was a good guy!
I'm sure they will get some road hunters with this set-up! Here is a photo from the road hunters perspective:
We hunted that evening and John had a hog at 25 yards, but he was traveling too fast for a shot.
He will head back to Alaska in a few days. Hopefully I can make it up there one day.
Topic: Shared some adventures with a new friend! (Read 242 times)
