Thursday would be our last day of hunting on the lease. Prior to leaving on this trip I had only been home for three days after returning from turkey hunting in Nebraska. It was time to head for Wisconsin and reacquaint with my wife.
Larry Surtees had driven down from Kentucky to hunt with us and he reported that when he checked the stands earlier that day Skyler's stand had been hit sometime during the night.
Benjy had to return home, but we had a good replacement to take his place. Julian Tinsdale (Duckbutt) jumped at the chance to skip work and join us at the Bacon Strip. He is a smart man!
The racetrack had shown the best action of the week so we put Julian there. Jeff pulled the old man card and took Rob's stand since it presented a shorter walk. I would give Skyler's a try.
It was still relatively early and I was sitting back just enjoying the sounds and smells when a fast shuffling in the leaves behind me got my attention.
Five little hogs trotted straight in to the corn that was scattered below and started making pigs of themselves. But they weren't alone. Six more hung back in the palmettos behind me. The wind was blowing directly at them, and I'm sure they caught a whiff of something they didn't like.
Of the six stragglers, one big old boar was definitely the boss. He was huge! I don't have a lot of experience in field judging hogs, but I had seen pictures of one Jeff had shot earlier this spring that pushed 250#. I felt that the boss behind me was every bit of that - maybe more. And three of his buddies were not far behind on the scale.
This was a bachelor group, and they hadn't got so large by being stupid. After a few minutes of nosing around they turned and retreated the way they had come, and slowly walked away. Not spooked, but they weren't coming in either.
For the next 45 minutes I watched these little guys filling their faces.
Eventually the little guys left, and I settled back down. About a half hour before dark I saw movement out in front of me. Some thing very big and very black was cautiously headed my way. Bear!?!???
No, it was the big boar hog from earlier, and he was back along with the rest of his buddies. I stood slowly in anticipation of the action to come. But for the next 25 minutes they stood and smelled, and watched, retreated, and advanced. And stood still for long minutes at a time just watching the area.
Finally a raccoon came in and started to feed, and that seemed to convince the hogs that all was well. The largest of the bunch came in first, and as soon as he dropped his head to feed the rest charged in to join in the party.
I had been frozen in place and afraid to move a bit. It had been a very intense standoff, and I was starting to cramp. At least I am going to go with that as my excuse for watching my arrow sail harmlessly just over the largest hogs back.
Topic: Whip & Tippit--Road Trip from TN Classic to SC Hogs! (Read 1040 times)
