My hog hunt

[hondo1892]

Well I made it down this past week to hog hunt in Alabama. I took my muzzleloader and Marlin 336 in 30-30 for my firepower. I drove about seven and a half hours to get to my friends place and made out of my truck for about five minutes before we were back on the road. Just long enough to call in and get a license. We drove about another 45 minutes to the farm we were hunting. We unloaded our gear and talked to the owner for a few minutes and then we were off to the blinds. About an hour after I sat down in the blind five pigs showed up. They all looked kind of small but I picked the largest one and dropped it with the Marlin. I waited till just before dark and climbed down to take a look. It grew as I got closer and turned out to be an 80 or so pounder, I thought it was probably about 40 when I shot. If I had waited more hogs probably came out but I got in a hurry. Tim said that hogs that size up to about a hundred pounds were good for eating and that's what I was looking for. By the time we finished gutting, skinning, quartering and putting it in the cooler it was close to midnite. Up at 4:00 am the next morning and off to the blinds by 4:30. I hadn't been in my stand more than fifteen minutes when I heard a shot. Another friend was hunting with us and he said he didn't even get his pack off before a young boar showed up. He dropped it with one shot from a .54 flinter. That was the only hog taken the second day and he didn't want the boar so I skinned and quartered it to bring home. The third at rolled around and just Tim and I were hunting. We didn't see any hogs in the morning and planned on hunting different stands in the evening. I headed out on my atv and it started raining a little but I kept going. About half way there it came a toad drowner and when I made it to the blind I needed to pour the water out of my boots. I waited a short time and headed back to the lodge for dry clothes and before I made it back the sun was out. Tim said I didn't have time to get back to my stand and should just hunt with him out of the lodge field stand. He had photo's of a fat hog there and it may show up early since the rain cooled things off. We were in the stand about thirty minutes and four deer came out into the field. We watched them for a while feeding and then one caught our sent or something and spooked them. Another half hour passed and a sow with some piglets came out and headed for the bait. More hogs started coming out of the woods into the field and the big fat one was one of the last to show. Tim told me "son that's the hog you want right there". When it was about sixty yards out it turned broadside and I let a 170 grain Federal bullet fly. Let me tell you I didn't think a hog that big could run that fast. It and the others disappeared into the woods but two little ones stayed at the bait. So I shot at them, missed the first but hit the second one. Tim wasn't happy because he wanted me to let them go so the others would come back out but he had told me the first day when the hogs show up you don't stop shooting till you run out of bullets or hogs. I didn't want any more hogs to clean any how. We climbed out of the stand and went looking for the big hog and found it about a hundred feet inside of the woods. Turned out it was a big barren sow about three hundred pounds. This was the last evening of the hunt and I was happy to have killed a big sow like this but man what am I going to do with all the meat. If I go back all I'm taking is a muzzleloader because I don't think I want this much meat again at once. Tim ask me if I had a good time the next morning just before I left for home. I said sure did but don't think I can handle any more fore a few days. Lots of work hauling, skinning and cutting up pigs. I'll try to post some photo's later.

[hayabusa]

Sounds like you did very well, especially with all of the lack of sleep and all of the excitement.
Are you going to make the sausage yourself? How many lbs of meat would you say that you have, just a guess.
Great hunt.

hayabusa

[hondo1892]

I would say around a hundred pounds of meat maybe more. Had around five hundred pounds on the hoof with all of them added up.

[hayabusa]

Hogs must yield out like a cow.

hayabusa

[GunnyMack]

My buddies and I did a hog hunt years ago, I shot the smallest of the group and netted 222lbs of meat! Best bacon I've ever had, the hams were 18 lbs each( butcher cut them in half). It was a cut boar but it sure was tasty!
I think you'll find plenty of room/homes for all that sausage!