Here is the journal from the next day.
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Monday December 14th 2015
Up at 7am up for a cup of coffee with Andrew at the main camp, Charlie came in just a little while later. Always good to see him and catch up, I kinda like to bend his ear about the hogs too. A man named Jay arrived at 9am as expected. He is a game warden for the state of SC, but also a biologist and lifelong outdoorsman. I like Jay a lot, super sharp guy. The four of us did a mosquito ridden three hour tour of the property and concluded with a nice lunch in camp. We talked habitat, planting, soil, and so forth for another two hours. I wasn't exactly getting ahead on my daily chores, but I think it was a very good use of time learning from his direct experiences with hogs.
Steve Angell arrived just after noon and settled in at the table and shared in the conversation. At 1:30 I grabbed Steve and we did a gator ride and collected/redeployed cameras. Pictures showed Daves Field was hit by a bunch of big hogs about 11:30pm. Pine Field was more encouraging at 6:15. Just about the last minutes of possible shooting light. Thom's Experiment didn't have a track. Yet...
3:00 we were done with all the camera business so we got on our hunting clothes and went out to sit Wild Fire and Hog Wallow. Two stands near the center of the property, but pretty close together. I figure there are hogs around and with the acorns gone they will hit one or the other.
We were in our perches by 3:45. 4:10 I spot a hairy black tail wagging behind me about 40 yards. I consider pursuit as the wind is good, but I figure they are just early for corn and wait. Feeder at 4:30, but nothing charges in. 4;51 rain drops fall and dark clouds choke out the shooting light. 5:00 I see a flashlight beam. This was my sign to go get Steve, but it was too early. Knowing Steve is a hunt-every-minute-you-can kind of guy I wonder what's up.
When I arrive he is standing on the ground about 40 yards from his stand. I ask "Rain run you off?" Steve replies "Nope, mosquitos.... Well that and the dead hog over there." Dang, he got me. Sure enough she was a beautiful sow.
I grabbed my truck and we took her to the skinning shed. Before getting started on field dressing I wanted to let Andrew know we were going to be late for dinner. Arriving at camp we met Ted and Luke who had just arrived. They were very excited and wanted to come check it out so we all headed back to the old skinning shed together. We played the weight game; I guessed 145 and the scale read 150. Not bad, wish I could do that good all the time.
Back at camp Andrew's son Stiles had arrived with his dog Tucker. It's been good emailing and talking to him these past few months as he's getting his recurve setup with new arrows, but it was really good to finally meet him face to face.
We enjoyed a spaghetti dinner with some beer and wine, then talked around the table until midnight.
Steve had a video camera on his gadget adapter so I got the video onto my laptop and we enjoyed a mini movie night of his shot. Called it a night about midnight and retired. Hopefully these guys don't snore!
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Here is a screenshot from that movie just before he shot, he was getting stormed!
That lead sow is the one we got the extra pictures of
Steve might have a little something to say about that shot.
Thom
Topic: we ran out of meat hooks at Wild Things last week (Read 3690 times)
