Wanted to include you folks in hog hunt report. I worked on this for 2 months here in Florida and gave up at one point then I met up with some great people here in the RV resort. My original hunting partner was from Canada but they developed health issues and never made it to Florida. I tried hunting alone but my hunting experience has been with duck and geese so I was far from being in my comfort zone. Below is a copy of the email I sent to many of my friends.
Killed my first pig tonight with my 12 gauge slug. Made a new friend at the campground interested in hog hunting. Turns out this guy is quite a sportsman and is gifted WITH an outstanding hearing ability. More on him.
Ken and I have been setting up the wild hogs all week putting out 50-lb of corn for bait. I learned a coffee can full of corn won't get their interest. By coordinating feeding times along with a game trail camera we determined the best time for a hog ambush. I would put out 50-lb of corn around 3:00 pm for an evening hunt. Venturing out at 7:00 pm we discovered 90% of the corn had already disappeared. The game camera showed the hogs eating the bait at 6:00pm. Last night we hunted until 9:15 pm before we left. The game camera recorded us leaving the blind at 9:15 then recorded the hogs eating our bait at
9:21. The hogs were eating our bait before we were in our cars heading for home, well RV.
Today I set out another 50-lb of corn at 3:00 pm and we were in the blind by 6:00pm. It was only a few minutes before the hogs began to appear from all directions, headed for the piles of corn. This was broad daylight. I got ready to take a shot with the crossbow but couldn't decided if I should shoot a little pig or a big one. What a thrill to see all these pigs in daylight 20-40 feet away. Something spooked the hogs and they ran off before I got a shot off. I was so mad at myself for not taking a shot. Ken said, they will be back.
We waited and waited until it was pitch dark all the while mad at myself for not taking a shot while it was daylight. Next, 7:30 pm, Ken whispered to me, "the pigs are coming back". Then Ken told me to point the shotgun at the bait pile and wait. Finally, I could hear them coming. The jungle floor sounded as if it were alive with all the pigs. Then I could hear a "grunt grunt" about 25 feet away. All this in total darkness. Ken tapped me on the shoulder and I could see he had the spotlight ready to light up the hogs. The spotlight turned ON and Ken said, see them, see them. I took aim, it was all I could do to see the gun sights in the darkness. I felt like everything was lined up so I fired. A little 40-lb pig rolled over and thrashed around. It was a clean kill. The pig never knew what hit him. Hit in the shoulder and out the top of the head. Rifled slug is a wicked shotgun load.
We field dressed the pig and skinned it. It is now in a cooler with 20-lb of ice and some lemon juice.
Couldn't of done this without Ken.
Tomorrow night Ken gets to shoot a pig. Jim
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