Long day at the clinic plus taking my entire staff out to dinner tonight. Now where was I...oh yea hog hunting
OK, Zach & I went to the lease on Sunday to throw out some corn but two things happened that would change our plans.
1) Terry had been hunting that weekend and there was plenty of corn on the ground, so we thought...1st mistake.
2) More importantly it had rained steadily all Saturday & night. The pot holes in the road were all over flowing with water. Since the lease is on the Savannah River, it doesn't take much for the swamps to seep in.
Monday broke with a bright blue sky. I scrambled to get camo, packs, cooler, 4 wheeler, etc ready for Three Amigos. The grand kids & Mommy needed some Daddy time, so we didn't leave the farm until 2pm with an hour drive to hog hunting. I had planed on setting the boys up in the best stands with the right wind. With three of us and one 4 wheeler, I took Matt in first and one 50# bag of corn. As we drove in there wasn't a speck of corn on the road or the stands. That one bag was all I'd brought...2nd mistake I thought. Neither Matt or Zack had ever been in a tree stand before but Zach was the one who set up my Gri Gri self belaying safety harness. Matt was a little unsure how to use it so it took a little while to get him set up. I dumped a 1/2 bag of corn around his stand then went back to get Zach.
Zach does high mountain rescue for a living so he took to the stand like a bird. I put the other 1/2 bag of corn on his stand minus two handfuls for me.
Benjy had gotten me into using lighted knocks at dusk to be able to see which way a hit pig ran plus hopefully seeing where the arrow might be broken off. If you can get that much information on the initial hit usually the blood trail will really open up when the arrow comes out. I had three lighted knock arrows so we each got one to use at low light. We all had a total of three arrows...3rd mistake!
After getting them set up I proceeded further into the swamp, but my stand but had wind going from me to the feeder and it hadn't been hit over night...no matter as this was a hunt for my sons. I didn't get into the stand until 4pm much latter than I had wanted but I was very content and excited knowing my sons were hunting with the old man. I saw nothing until around 5:30 when 6-10 turkey buzzards started circling over head. Had they pick up something? I knew Terry's group had been hunting previously maybe they found an arrowed pig. As I watch more buzzards appeared. Then they circled lower & lower. I had no idea what was happening until the first B52 set it's wing for a landing in the biggest tree a mear 100 yard from me! Then over the next 45 minutes at least 50 more buzzards came into roost for the night. Now turkey buzzards are very gracefully soaring over head...but not so when coming into roost. They land like a brick sometimes braking branches or even falling to a branch below. It was very comical & entertaining to say the least.
About dark, I heard branches breaking. Finally the pigs were coming to Daddy until the wind changed back to blowing toward the feeder...snort/wheeeze of some deer. I knew my hunt was over. The moon was almost full & bright so I stayed another 1/2 hour before getting down and walking a 1/4 mile to my 4 wheeler. Now to find out what Matt & Zach might have seen on the very First Hunt! The thought gave me goose bumps.
Topic: Tippit's Finest Hour--Story Finished (Read 1898 times)
