Central Florida Hogs with Bill Langer //Page 6, NEW Must SEE PIC!!!!

[Mint]

That is a beauty for sure. A lot of good BBQ there.

[rushlush]

Nice hog!

[Doug S]

Nice Hog!  Way to go!

[steadman]

Great hog Bill! Congrats!!  

[PV]

Sounds like a great time was had by all. Looking forward to the rest of the story.....

Congrats...

[PA stickbow boy]

Congrats.  Can't wait for the story, pics and the video.

[Over&Under]

Yes Sir thats a big'un!

Great story as well!      :D

[maineac]

Great pig!!  Looking forward to some more.

[tarponnut]

Day Two: After Bill graciously treated the whole group to dinner at a local Greek(my favorite food since birth/my heritage)diner. We reviewed the video at Chris' place and checked in at the hotel. The motel owner helped me out by taking some meat, I already have two in the freezer.
Early the next morning Chris and Bubba met us and the hunt was on.(sorry about my horrendous snoring Bill!I was fighting a bad cold)
I parked in a better spot than the previous day(this time not in dog poop)and we jumped in the quad to stalk some hogs.
Immediately, the guide spotted hogs along a distant tree line. We quickly closed the gap between us and the 15 or so hogs. They spotted us or maybe the wind swirled, but anyway, off they went with a really big hog bringing up the rear. I'm always amazed how fast they can move when spooked. They sure don't look like they should be able to run that fast!
More to come, I have to teach a class.....

[tarponnut]

We spotted the group of hogs in the woods a couple times but couldn't get ahead of them.

After lunch we still-hunted along a creek and soon spotted a big hog in a wallow. Bill got downwind and moved in with Chris following along running video.Bill snuck in and waited for the hog to give him a shot. After a while, the hog stood up and slowly turned opening up the angle for a shot. Bill capitalized by making a twenty yard shot. Blood immediately appeared and the hog crashed away. Bill moved through the trees and made a perfect quartering away shot and the hog was down within 20 yards(breaking another arrow as it fell).
The video captured it all and Bubba, running my video camera, got a nice second view of the action.The stare down between the big sow and Bill before the initial shot was awesome.
Pics to come soon....

[tarponnut]

Hal,
You were right about the place!!!
Here is a pic of the swamp beast.
The guide figured it was around 300 lbs!  

[tarponnut]

I hunted a stand we hung mid-day under a live oak that was dropping acorns. The rooting around the tree was amazing. I did see six deer and about 25 turkeys but no hogs before dark.
Bill tried some more spot and stalk and saw a sow with shoats but no opportunities.
After the evening hunt, we drove an hour to a friend's lease to spend the next two days hunting.
Bill slept in my van "system", which is probably the most disorganized collection of archery, camping, art, and fly-fishing gear ever assembled.
At least he didn't have to hear me snore!
My buddy and I slept in the "snore trailer".
In the morning I hunted a familiar stand and Bill hunted another about 150 yards away.
Just after sun up, I had a group of hogs come in down wind of my stand. The sow leading the group caught my scent(which was probably a conglomeration of coffee, stale socks, and Bud light)She bolted and took the group with her right towards Bill's set-up.
A few minutes later I heard some major squealing over there. After meeting Bill, he related shooting a sow that he had already blood trailed for a distance.
We headed over and started on the sparse blood trail. We lost it a couple of times, found it and then lost it again. Bill somehow followed it 100 yards across a grassy field to where it crossed a fence and then a canal.
Always up for adventure, I used my longbow "Barta style" feeling my way across the dirty canal which turned out to be 2-3' deep.
Bill followed and picked up a little blood and tracks on the other side a ways down a gravel road(this guy can really track!).
The track entered some mature woods and we lost it...... almost.

[tarponnut]

We criss-crossed the woods looking for a dead hog or some further sign, nothing.
On the way out, I noticed what looked like a cave under some tree roots against a dirt bank.
I went over to check it out. I got a call from my buddy and started talking on the phone when I noticed some blood on a rock. I was listening to my buddy on the phone when I heard WHACK!!!
I said " I gotta go!" and hung up. I scrambled out of the cave and saw Bill in a face-off with the sow!Apparently she had heard us coming and climbed out and over the bank. Bill sent another arrow on its way and she went down.
These animals are tough!
She turned out to be a healthy sow of about 100 lbs or so. She should make excellent table fare.
I'm hopeful Bill will post some pics of her as my camera crapped out. Bill? Bill?  

[owlbait]

Bill sure seems to get a lot of shooting in as soon as the camera is rolling! Looks like a great time.

[T Lail]

very nice.....  

[Mike Vines]

Really nice hogs.  Sounds like a good time was had.

[bill langer]

Well Jim has stepped up and told the story the way I would have.

Been busy catching up with my loving wife Katie and 4 little ones.

I have been blessed to have hunted hogs all over florida by all means for 20 years. Although 3 hogs fell to my arrows, it was slow hunting at best. The full moon and heavy, heavy acorns( I'm talking all over the ground and still falling from some trees) made movement slow. The 2 big hogs I killed were at mid afternoon in shaded swamp, wallowing. Just bs luck bumping into them. The third hog was killed early morning coming to a feeder.

Jim hunted as hard if not harder than I did and it just did not work out for him. We did not see alot of pigs. Jim made several phone calls checking in with hog hunting buddies all around florida and the story was the same.

The key's to success on the first place- a 3200 acre cattle operation was perhaps a daily silage run for the 600 head of cows, which the hogs took advantage of, lots of water, and the fact that we did not sit around in the shade bsing about why other hunters are successful and we are not. We simply hunted them all day! Period.

The second place we hunted was a lease on a 9000 acre cattle operation in Clewiston, FLA. We only hunted over feeders. The only hogs we encountered were early on the first day. The next day and a 1/2 yielded nothing. We should have got out of the ac and off our fat duffs and may have done better. But we were enjoying the good times and great laughs to much.

Katie is playing tennis tonight and being the brains of this operation is going to have to help me with the pics tomorrow, thanks for tuning in. More to come...

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Dang Fella's Looks like you are hunting Southern Water Buffalo

      Congrats.

[Bjorn]

Nice going!  Congrats!

[wv lungbuster]

Sounds like an awesome time.