We had a party of five hunters Charles, Jim, Ellis, Brian and Myself, with three of us looking to shoot what the proprietor refers to as trophy boars, and the other two looking for meat hogs. The Boar's Nest is split into two hunting areas. There is a smaller area of 30 acres that is walk-and-stalk for the meat hogs, and a larger area of 85 acres where the larger trophy animals reside, and where we chose to hunt over dogs.
The day began when we all met up at the bunkhouse at about 8:00am. There was another hunting party that was staying in the house that had plans to hunt the meat hog area in the morning and then leave it for us to hunt in the afternoon. We introduced everyone on site and made a loose plan for the hunt. Four of us piled into the back of a pick-up truck outfitted with bench seats and Charles rode shotgun.
The trophy enclosure at The Boar's nest has a network of unimproved tracks that pass for 'roads'. The terrain is rough and unimproved. There are trees (complete with low hanging branches) creek bottoms, dry beds, pastures littered with stones, trees fallen across 'roads' and occassionally... cattle. The ride in the back of the truck was... invigorating (along the lines taking a ride inside a clothes dryer)... but for today's hunt I think that there was not a better place to see the action.
I was the first shooter. We drove around for a few minutes, stopping every so often to listen for the dogs barking to signal whether they had a hog at bay. The dogs bayed a nice brown hog in a stand of trees, uphill from the road we were on. I got out of the truck and walked up the hill and the hog had laid down up against a tree and behind some deadfall. The place where I stopped to evaluate the scene wasn't a long shot, maybe 20 yards, but there was a thick branch in front of the hog that I didn't want to shoot around, so I took one more step... and the hog bolted. Our guide was standing beside me, and just rolled his eyes. Back into the truck... and we started chasing a hog. The dogs started barking again a couple of minutes later, and had bayed the hog down in a dry bottom. I jumped down out of the truck and started to a place where I could see the hog, and just as I sighted him he was running again. Back into the truck. We chased the hog for another few minutes until the dogs had him bayed again part way up a steep hill against a split-trunked tree that was beside a small catch of water about 18 inches deep and several feet across. I walked up the hill and was on the opposite side of the water from the hog, and he was behind the tree fighting with the dogs. The hog made a run for it up the hill and I took a shot at him which struck him quartering from behind his ribs on his right side, passed under his spine (through the tenderloin, dammit) and exited behind his left shoulder. He fell and started to roll back down the hill squealing, but then gained his front legs and worked his way back behind the tree again. He was backed up against the tree and the dogs were harassing him. He was pushed up against the tree to the extent that his entire right shoulder and chest was visible through the split in the tree and I took a second shot through the split which entered his lower chest and destroyed his heart. The hog stepped out from behind the tree staggering. I was ready for a third shot but it was not necessary. The hog staggered down to the ground and started to slide head first down the hill toward the water. Luckily, he didn't slide too far into the water. I was hunting with a Winchester Model 94AE in .356Win using handloads made of a Speer 220gr HCFN over 47.1gr of W748. Both shots had full penetration, but the second shot had a core/jacket separation. That jacket was recovered from the far side ribs on the heart shot.
We let him bleed out for a few minutes and then dragged him closer to the truck. We posed for a few photos and then loaded the hog onto an ATV to get him back to the skinning rack. So, back in the truck, we headed back to the bunkhouse area.
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The other hunting party mentioned earlier had success and now there were hogs to skin. Our skinner was outstanding. I apologize that I never caught the young lady's name but brother... she could use a knife. I think she skinned 9 hogs between 9am and 3pm, almost by herself, and did an expert's job. While we waited, our Host, Mr. Paris, regaled us with tales of broken ribs, bears, and buttermilk. He is a fine fellow.
By the time the hog I'd shot was skinned and in a cooler, the other group was done hunting and on it's way in with their hogs, so our little group split up. Brian and Jim went over to the walk-and-stalk, and Charles, Ellis, and I loaded back into the truck to run down another hog over on the trophy side.
Ellis was the next shooter up. His hunt started much like mine where the dogs got a hog bayed, Ellis jumped down out of the truck to approach and the hog ran. We watched the dogs chase the hog down a hill and saw the hog turn to address the dogs about 50 yards downhill on the road right in front of us. The temptation was there to just stand up and shoot from the bed of the truck, but Ellis again jumped down from the truck and by the time his feet hit the ground the hog was running again. The driver/guide started driving off before Ellis was back onto the truck, and I was wondering if he planned to make him walk for a while, but it turns out he was just focused on trying to get the truck between a fallen tree and a five or six foot drop off the road on the passenger side. Ellis regained the truck and it was several minutes before we picked up on the dogs again. This time the dogs had the hog backed up to some trees beside a dry bed, and we had a good clearing in front of the truck. The dogs were harassing the hog and it was obvious that he was going to bolt again. Ellis had dismounted the truck and had just got up front when the hog ran down into the bottom of the dry bed running toward us. The guide shouted to Ellis that the hog could come out of the bed toward him, and that's exactly what happened. Ellis took a first shot and missed, but the hog startled and then started to run perpendicular, whereat Ellis made a broadside shot that dropped the hog. Whack. We took photos and then that hog was loaded into the back of the truck with the rabble (that's me) and hauled back to the skinning rack where the girl was still skinning hogs like a machine.
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Back in the truck and looking for another hog. Charles was the shooter. The hogs bayed a third boar back in some thick brush. Our guide parked the truck in a rough patch and then he and Charles went through the brush and toward the sound of the dogs on our left. We could hear Mr. Paris down there commanding the dogs on the boar. Our driver/guide went in with another dog. Ellis and I could not see the hog, but we could see dogs moving to keep the hog bayed. We we unable to see Charles or the hog. We heard barking and shouting, and then two shots, and then more shouting and barking. Ellis and I dismounted the truck and went through the brush to see what the heck was going on. When we got there Charles and our guide were looking down into a dark wet hole under a couple of fallen trees. There was thick blood on some of the broken branches, and at least one of the dogs had been cut by the boar. In the bottom of the water-filled hole was a boar, bobbing on his side in the water, apparently drowning, with a gunshot wound to the head. We all stood there for a few minutes making sure that the hog was dead, and advising the guide to stay out of the water until he was sure it was dead. The animal bobbed up and down while the guide pushed at it with the toe of his boot and I poked a stick around it's visible eye until we were sure that the beast had expired. The guide then waded into the hole and wrapped a tow strap around the hog. It took three people to drag the hog out of the water, and Mr. Paris went to get the front-end loader to haul the hog out. While he was gone we took some photos.
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By the time we got back to the bunkhouse area, Brian had taken a hog from the walk-and-stalk area, and before the girl was done cleaning up Charles hog, Jim had taken a hog.
It took a little bit longer for the skinner girl to work through the back-log of hog, but she got it done, and then we tipped our skinner and settled up on the final tab with Mr. Paris.
It was a bit warm, and there were some bugs, but the weather was good, there was game, the hunters were good company and performed well, and the Boar's Nest staff was, as usual, outstanding. I had fun.
It was a good day.
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)