Wednesday was a day that god reserved for me to be in the swamp. You'll hear why here in minute
I went with a new guide by the name of Jimmy Roseman . Jimmy and me were made to hunt together.We have the same mentality ( no jokes please ) when it comes to hunting hogs. We like to get in the deep swamps and the wet grass. Jimmy's grin when he hears hogs lites up a swampy area like the crescent moon .
We went down on the south end of the ranch in an area that nobody had been in for over a month. It was a swampy area that had wet areas with cypress trees and upland islands with palmetto thickets immersed with Live oaks with acorns everywhere . Sorry guys but I didn't get pictures of this area and I know I can't do it justice. But picture the Dolly Sods Wilderness area in WV in swamp mode
It is rough !!!
As soon as we shut the truck off I stepped out to take a practice shot in the dark foggy morning when an Osceola turkey gobbled down the swamp road about 300 yards , I grinned and so did Jimmy. We knew that was an Omen.
We hurried down the logging trail into the swamp and made it to water in about 20 minutes of fast walking . As it was breaking daylight we heard a Boar hog chasing another boar through the water , squealing and squalling all the way .
That's how it was the next 3 hours as we weaved amongst the palmettos and Live oak trees.Trying to get some pork .
I finally had a big gray boar come through a palmetto thicket to see what all the racket was about and I promptly missed him at a long shot of 18 yards . I had shot right over his back . Jimmy just said oh well we don't have to drag him out of here .
Anyhow total for the morning was 19 different hogs spotted , 11 Osceola turkeys and a nice 8 point at 5 yards . Of course the 1 MISSSSSSSSSSSSSS. We had walked over 3 miles according to the GPS. We headed back to camp.
After Pancakes and a short nap I spanked my buddy Dirk at a game of pine cone shooting around camp . Of course he would have a different story
Me and Jimmy headed to a field that was several hundred acres with 6 Cypress heads engulfed with palmetto thickets in the afternoon . After going through several of these cypress heads we came out of one to see the biggest hog either of us had ever saw on the ranch about 600 yard across the field . Hogs started pouring out of the head in the back of the last field until there was 19 hogs in this field.
1 problem ,the only thing between them and us was 600 yards of the inch long grass in this pasture. We looked the situation over and checked the wind.
The stalk was on , on the far right was a swampy area with switch grass from knee high to over our heads. We made it to the grass undetected but were still 150 yards from the spotted hog that was near 300 pounds.
We started slowly through the grass getting soaked the farther we went with black muck up to our knees and sometimes having to crawl through openings in the grass to stay undetected . Stopping frequently to check the wind and check on the hogs . During one of these rests/stops I heard a hog walking in water close by. I turned and asked Jimmy if he heard it , he said no . I raised up to peek over the grass and saw a black hog moving parallel to us headed to the same spot .
I took 5 giant steps forward when the hog went behind some tall grass, knocked an arrow and got ready . As the hog came into the opening I drew and held until she cleared the grass clump. I wanted the hog standing still but at 15 yards I would shoot walking. About the time I was to release Jimmy grunted , she stopped and the arrow smacked her in the side tight to the shoulder . I melted and Jimmy melted with a BIG GRIN on our faces . Jimmy whispered you just shot the second biggest sow I ever saw here and the other is waiting on us to stalk her in the field . We marked the spot for later tracking and continued our original stalk .
The other hogs didn't have a clue but fed back into the saw grass. As we got closer we had hogs all around us. It was getting darker as rain approached from the west . We had gone maybe 50 yards when Jimmy grabbed me and pulled down on my shoulder and said the big spotted hog was 30 yards away. When we raised back up we could see 3 hogs 2 at 15 yards and sowzilla at 30 yards . I had a decision to make , I shot a 80 pound sow through both shoulders at 13 yards .
The rain was approaching fast and we had 2 blood trails to follow .
10 Minutes and 2 hogs later we stood in the pouring rain grinning from ear to ear .
The pictures didn't come out good for the small pig but the big 240 pound sow looks good in all the rain. I tried to get Jimmy in the picture but he wouldn't have it. We had two hogs to drag 1/2 mile across a field to the fence .Again Jimmy just grinned and so did I !
Topic: A stalk to remember (Read 889 times)
