I had a great time at HogHeaven

[Margly]

Hi!
I`m just back in Norway after an excellent weekend at Ray Hammond's HogHeaven!
And what a place.
I had read a lot about other tradgangers that have been there and I had some high expectations about hunting, there after all the nice read I`ve done here at tradgang.
But this place was more then I even hoped for    

Ray picked me up at the Atlanta airport (thank you) and after 20 minutes in the car I felt like I had hooked up with an old friend.

The 4 hour ride down to Estill went fast, we stopped for some food at a place near Augusta (very good T-bones).
When we finally arrived I was really tired after a near 30 hours of travel and had no problems with falling in to sleep.

The next day we ate a good breakfast and went out to look at the place.
We had not gone far before the first animal showed himself    
 
A nice 175 # hog    

more to follow

[Margly]

The next animal to pop out of the woods was a nice whitetail..
 

To say I was excited is an understatement
I was lucky enough to have tags both for whitetail buck and pigs so I had all the possibilities  :D

[Margly]

We then did go further around the area and Ray showed me some really interesting signs:
 
The hogs use their teethes to cut off the bark and rub their sides in the pine resin for then to roll in the dirt. This will give them an extra shield(smart pigs) :p

[Margly]

Then we Ray showed me one of the “snackbars” in the area..
 
This fruits if I`m remembering correct is the persimmons. I tasted them and and it`s a good taste.

After this small round-trip we headed for the town nearby called Estill to pick up the other tradgangers that was joining us this weekend and buying some groceries and collect the tags for the weekends hunt.

In Estill we meet up with father and son McAdams and father and son Hall.
Back in camp I also met Mike aka Squirrelbait here on tradgang.

Great gentlemens and a privilege to join camp with for the weekend.

None of us where able to get any animal to the ground during the weekend but that has nothing to do with lack of effort or game.

The area had acorns dropping like rain during the weekend and the hogs had just to roll over and eat acorns.

For my own I have to say that my stalking skills in the swamp definitely scared of some(many) pigs and deers  

[Featherbuster]

Looks like the beginning to a great time!!

[Margly]

Finally when all had packed out the gear and done some test shooting ( here is a pic of the shooting range with the two of the targets):
 

Ray had a lesson in shot placement and area information ahe told us about tha stalking on ground in this area and that we should remember that good stalking would be 200 yards = one hour.

I asked him about snakes and other dangerous creatures in the woods and he told me that the pigs eat the snakes so you will probably not see them,
Squirrelbait said that in his 8 years at HogHeaven he couldn’t remember to have seen some big snakes, Ray just said”don’t play with them and you will be safe   :D   and of to the swamp we went..

[Margly]

Originally posted by featherbuster:
Looks like the beginning to a great time!!

Absolutely    
I have really enjoyed this trip

Margly

[Margly]

To go in to the swamp and start hunting was a great excitement for me. I`m from Norway and is familiar with mountains and pine-forests so this was really a new experience for me.
Here is my first pic of the swamp area..
 

I had not been in the swamp for more than a couple of hours before I almost stepped on a snake..
I did not see it and then just two feet away suddenly something did start moving away from me and to say that I sky-jumped would be an understatement    

More to follow later..

Margly

[Hot Hap]

Sounds like you had  a great adventure. Hap

[jcar315]

[Margly]

Here are a pic of a really strange animal:
 

I had several encounters with them, they had an attitude of just minding their own business and this one actually was so near that I could have touched it with my bow
 

[Margly]

The nature of the swamp is like nothing I ever have been hunting and I really will go back and try that out many more times.
Here are some more pics of the swamp.

 

 

 

[Margly]

What a nice place
I did not see any gators but guess that this waterhole would be a nice place for an gator ambush..  :rolleyes:  

 

If you look good at the pic above you can actually see the watermark on the trees. I wonder how it is like when the area is flooded? Guess that is awesome to experience  

[Margly]

Here are a couple of more pics from the swamps:

 

 

[Margly]

Some of the creatures living in the swamp:

 
I think this was called a banana spider.

[Margly]

Here is a pic of one of the many roads in the area, this road was nice to go and stalk for the pigs. Some places it looked like someone had used a plough, where the pigs had been digging for food  :D

 

[Margly]

I had many close-contacts with deers during the weekend. I did see about 15-16 deers during my time in the swamp!
Several six pointers and four pointers.
My nearest contact for a clear shot was about 30-35 yards but I`ll never shoot at an animal on that distance if I`m not doing a recovery shot.
 
So I tried to still-hunt into a nearer range, but my skills of this, when I felt I was walking on leafs crushing like cornflakes blew it because I didn’t see the doe but she did see me    

Here is a pic of my "cornflakes"  :D  
 

[Margly]

The days went fast and on Sunday Ray decided that he would take me hunting.

Here is a pic of Ray.
 

Here is a pic of me in the swamps    
 

I have to say that I was impressed of he`s skills    . After a small hour we did see more pigs than I had during the whole weekend.
We scared up 7 pigs one around ca 350# area (that’s BIG)

We decided that I should try to round up behind them and Ray would be near the place we stalked them the first time. I had not been gone for more than one hour before Ray heard some noise and went looking. He discovered about 20 pigs in this period and was about 10 feet above some pigs in an river-bottom fighting and I was of course far away    
He decided to go back waiting for me so I could go in for the pigs but I was just stalking for a six-pointer and forgot about time. So when I finally went back it was too late.

[zipper bowss]

Great story and pictures!
Bill

[Margly]

I have not yet mentioned the food    

The food was great and I have really been eating:
Here`s a pic of the chef of the weekend:
 

BTW Ray:
Your salsa recipe made a big success with my family! I made it yesterday and every body was eating and enjoying it with the Friday taco dinner.