bshaf
Well-known member
First off, I want to start out by saying some of the details in this story might have some of questioning my level of responsibility as a hunter/sportsman. I consider myself and my cousin (David)to be very responsible with our practices as an outdoorsman. The problems with this story arise from a complete underestimation of the animal we (my cousin and I) harvested in South Florida. Before the events of this story, neither of us had ever seen a wild hog in person...I can guarantee this hunt will never be attempted by my cousin and I, and hopefully none of you try it.
This story in a little long but I think worth reading...one of those, "It happened to me"
Now, with the disclaimer out of the way...
March 5, 2010: My father, cousin (David) and I arrive in southern Florida on a piece of private land for our Osceola turkey hunt. The landowner recently purchased the land and had hunted very little on this property. He had seen turkeys and killed a few hogs. He showed us around the property and outlined the boundaries. He took us around a swamp and showed us some trails that the hogs liked to us moving from their bedding and feeding areas. We questioned how big the hogs were; he said "80-100 lbs, but we have never shot a boar."
March 6, 2010: First day of Spring Turkey (Southern Zone) Very uneventful, Saw two hens and listened to a bird gobble on the next property for an hour followed by "BOOOMMM". Game over for him. We hunted until 12:30 and decided to head back to camp and return for an evening hunt (legal on private ground in Florida). We returned around 4 pm and headed off to the spots we had picked out earlier. My cousin and I sat together and watched two areas around a wooded funnel area while my dad headed off to another corner of the property. It began to get dark and the turkeys had gone to roost or would very soon. David and I were near to swamp and decided to go and see if we could shoot a hog leaving its bedding area. We knew there were hogs on the property before the trip so we came prepared; we loaded our shotguns with 3in #4 buckshot At this point, some of you are shaking you heads... For those who don’t know, #4 buck has 41 .240 inch pellets in each load. Shot through our turkey chokes provide a wicked pattern and considerable energy within 50 yards. (Also, we recently learned that buckshot is illegal in some states for hog hunting... Luckily, Florida is not of these... as far as I know).
7:00 pm We move around the bedding area and find where the main trail splits in the matted grass field. The grass is matted over and remains knee deep with the trails running 10 yards on either side of us. With dark quickly approaching we almost check out but we hear snorting, grunting and grass rustling all around. One pig lets out 3 deep grunt/growls behind and old fencerow no more than 10 yards behind us. At this point, we still probably looked like banny roosters, feeling cocky about killing a pig on their turf.
7:25 pm Its officially dark now... but I see the silhouette of a black pig at about 25 yards coming toward us, this pig hops off the trail disappearing, Now we can see the face(looked whitish) of another pig squaring up to us on the very trail we are standing on at 16-18 yards. Everything is silent, then safety clicks and BOOOMMMBOOOOOMMMMM!!! We had planned to shoot the same pig in hopes of anchoring it in its tracks, nothing should survive 82 1/4inch pellets at point blank range. At this point, all #@%& breaks loose and there are pigs running and squealing everywhere... we are spinning circles hoping nothing comes at us from behind or the sides. We hear the grass rustling in front of us at close range, we assume flopping dead. Everything quiets down and David gets his flashlight and shines toward our downed animal, at this moment, if he was down... he wasn’t anymore. Grunts, growls, snorts and brush cracking sent these two roosters high stepping the other direction. I got my dad on the radio and told him to bring the drag rope which, at that point was extremely premature. We make one more attempt to get in the make a “finishing shot” on the animal but the same thing happens, he grunts and brush cracks. We run…
We decided to leave him and “recover” him in the morning.
March 7, 2010 We hunt turkeys for an hour and wait for daylight to shed some light on the situation. My dad moves off to call a bird that is gobbling on the roost very distantly.
At about 7:30 am, we move from turkey hunting area, to the spot where the events from the previous evening took place. We moved in cautiously and from the side of where the animal should be lying… at about 12 steps I can make out an ear sticking up. YES! Still lying where we shot him… relief for a split second until the ear moves; I said to David, “I think he’s still…” safety clicked off, but the brush explodes and he bolts heading straight away into the swamp (which is so thick you cannot see you feet or anything around you. Looking back, we should have put as much lead in him at this point but the property owner wanted to eat any hogs we shot and we didn’t want to mess this thing up… I thought there is no way we are following him in there. As the pig ran, we could see his front end was not at full strength but he still covered 40 yards in 4 seconds or so. We moved to the edge of the swamp and decided one of us needed to follow the trail and one of us needed to move around and cut off his escape from the swamp… Imagine my relief when David said he would stay on the trail. As I was walking away I heard the safety on his gun click to the fire position. I moved around to an open area of the swamp near where I thought the pig should exit if he traveled a straight line. I this point we had seen the hog but still couldn’t estimate his size, we were guessing over 100lbs. I gave David the signal I was ready and he could start his trail through the mess of saplings, grass, cane, and every other plant that grows taller than you. He was about 15 yards from the edge of the swamp and he said that I needed to move toward him, come closer to the edge of the thick stuff. He was worried the hog would come to the edge of the thick and circle back around on him. I moved to the edge and we were talking, only 20 yards apart… he said “I can see his trail, its bending to the right… but the noise stopped…….he’s somewhere between us, move to your left.” I took 2 steps and had a rabbit scare me half to death when it jumped from its hiding place. I took a few more steps and stopped to scan the brush around me. At that point the brush exploded 5 steps… My dad was within earshot at this point and all he heard was S#!& BOOOMBOOOOMMMM! I missed in front by inches with the first shot and connected with the second at 5 yards. The pattern was perfect, high center mass halfway between the shoulder and ear. The hog spun 180’ and sat back on his haunches and rolled to his side. I thought that pattern had to have done serious damage.
The hog was still breathing and kicking around trying to get up… we pinned his head down with a large stick and cut him; 3 times, each deeper than the previous to dispatch the hog as quick as possible. Looking at the hog closely, you could count each pellet hole in the neck, no major damage or bleeding resulted from the 5 yard blast. Imagine what that would do to a deer??
We simmered the head and retrieved 4 pellets from the skull. There were a total of 5 pellet holes in the skull and major clotting found inside the nasal cavity, behind the right eye, and in the brain! He lived 12 hours with this damage and still ran. We can only think he didn’t charge because he wasn’t in his right mind. We are convinced he was attempting to charge on Saturday night but with the brain shot, he couldn’t get it together??
Conclusion: 1) There are no other animals in the country that could take as much abuse as a wild hog, the toughest animal I have even seen. 2) #4 Buckshot is an incredibly inefficient tool for hunting wild boar. 3) Research the game animal you are after. 4) We realize each time we tell the story to someone who has hunted hogs how bad this story could have turned out… there are several decisions we made that just happened to be the right one in the end. These two yankees got away with one…
Here are the pictures… The truck in the picture is a Ford Ranger. The boar was longer than the bed was wide 50+ inches nose to base of the tail. Belly to back height was about 22-24 inches, knee heighth. We are guessing the weight to be 210-225 lbs??? If you have an opinion or guess at weight, let us know. The bottom tusks (cutters) were 1 ½ inches and the tops (whetters) were 2 ½ and both were heavy at the bases. According to tooth charts on Texasboar.com (I think), he was a 6 year old stud. We are guessing the night we shot him; he was standing up to us to protect the other pigs around him?? Don’t know if a dominant boar would act this way?
Hope you enjoyed our story and learning experience.
Also added a pic of Dad's Osceola... The real reason we went to Florida hunting to begin with. 9 inch beard and 1 1/8 spurs. Great trophy, Rio and Merriams are next to complete his slam... He called the bird in from 800-1000 yards which in quite amazing.
Brett and David
(Former Uneducated Hog Hunters)
This story in a little long but I think worth reading...one of those, "It happened to me"
Now, with the disclaimer out of the way...
March 5, 2010: My father, cousin (David) and I arrive in southern Florida on a piece of private land for our Osceola turkey hunt. The landowner recently purchased the land and had hunted very little on this property. He had seen turkeys and killed a few hogs. He showed us around the property and outlined the boundaries. He took us around a swamp and showed us some trails that the hogs liked to us moving from their bedding and feeding areas. We questioned how big the hogs were; he said "80-100 lbs, but we have never shot a boar."
March 6, 2010: First day of Spring Turkey (Southern Zone) Very uneventful, Saw two hens and listened to a bird gobble on the next property for an hour followed by "BOOOMMM". Game over for him. We hunted until 12:30 and decided to head back to camp and return for an evening hunt (legal on private ground in Florida). We returned around 4 pm and headed off to the spots we had picked out earlier. My cousin and I sat together and watched two areas around a wooded funnel area while my dad headed off to another corner of the property. It began to get dark and the turkeys had gone to roost or would very soon. David and I were near to swamp and decided to go and see if we could shoot a hog leaving its bedding area. We knew there were hogs on the property before the trip so we came prepared; we loaded our shotguns with 3in #4 buckshot At this point, some of you are shaking you heads... For those who don’t know, #4 buck has 41 .240 inch pellets in each load. Shot through our turkey chokes provide a wicked pattern and considerable energy within 50 yards. (Also, we recently learned that buckshot is illegal in some states for hog hunting... Luckily, Florida is not of these... as far as I know).
7:00 pm We move around the bedding area and find where the main trail splits in the matted grass field. The grass is matted over and remains knee deep with the trails running 10 yards on either side of us. With dark quickly approaching we almost check out but we hear snorting, grunting and grass rustling all around. One pig lets out 3 deep grunt/growls behind and old fencerow no more than 10 yards behind us. At this point, we still probably looked like banny roosters, feeling cocky about killing a pig on their turf.
7:25 pm Its officially dark now... but I see the silhouette of a black pig at about 25 yards coming toward us, this pig hops off the trail disappearing, Now we can see the face(looked whitish) of another pig squaring up to us on the very trail we are standing on at 16-18 yards. Everything is silent, then safety clicks and BOOOMMMBOOOOOMMMMM!!! We had planned to shoot the same pig in hopes of anchoring it in its tracks, nothing should survive 82 1/4inch pellets at point blank range. At this point, all #@%& breaks loose and there are pigs running and squealing everywhere... we are spinning circles hoping nothing comes at us from behind or the sides. We hear the grass rustling in front of us at close range, we assume flopping dead. Everything quiets down and David gets his flashlight and shines toward our downed animal, at this moment, if he was down... he wasn’t anymore. Grunts, growls, snorts and brush cracking sent these two roosters high stepping the other direction. I got my dad on the radio and told him to bring the drag rope which, at that point was extremely premature. We make one more attempt to get in the make a “finishing shot” on the animal but the same thing happens, he grunts and brush cracks. We run…
We decided to leave him and “recover” him in the morning.
March 7, 2010 We hunt turkeys for an hour and wait for daylight to shed some light on the situation. My dad moves off to call a bird that is gobbling on the roost very distantly.
At about 7:30 am, we move from turkey hunting area, to the spot where the events from the previous evening took place. We moved in cautiously and from the side of where the animal should be lying… at about 12 steps I can make out an ear sticking up. YES! Still lying where we shot him… relief for a split second until the ear moves; I said to David, “I think he’s still…” safety clicked off, but the brush explodes and he bolts heading straight away into the swamp (which is so thick you cannot see you feet or anything around you. Looking back, we should have put as much lead in him at this point but the property owner wanted to eat any hogs we shot and we didn’t want to mess this thing up… I thought there is no way we are following him in there. As the pig ran, we could see his front end was not at full strength but he still covered 40 yards in 4 seconds or so. We moved to the edge of the swamp and decided one of us needed to follow the trail and one of us needed to move around and cut off his escape from the swamp… Imagine my relief when David said he would stay on the trail. As I was walking away I heard the safety on his gun click to the fire position. I moved around to an open area of the swamp near where I thought the pig should exit if he traveled a straight line. I this point we had seen the hog but still couldn’t estimate his size, we were guessing over 100lbs. I gave David the signal I was ready and he could start his trail through the mess of saplings, grass, cane, and every other plant that grows taller than you. He was about 15 yards from the edge of the swamp and he said that I needed to move toward him, come closer to the edge of the thick stuff. He was worried the hog would come to the edge of the thick and circle back around on him. I moved to the edge and we were talking, only 20 yards apart… he said “I can see his trail, its bending to the right… but the noise stopped…….he’s somewhere between us, move to your left.” I took 2 steps and had a rabbit scare me half to death when it jumped from its hiding place. I took a few more steps and stopped to scan the brush around me. At that point the brush exploded 5 steps… My dad was within earshot at this point and all he heard was S#!& BOOOMBOOOOMMMM! I missed in front by inches with the first shot and connected with the second at 5 yards. The pattern was perfect, high center mass halfway between the shoulder and ear. The hog spun 180’ and sat back on his haunches and rolled to his side. I thought that pattern had to have done serious damage.
The hog was still breathing and kicking around trying to get up… we pinned his head down with a large stick and cut him; 3 times, each deeper than the previous to dispatch the hog as quick as possible. Looking at the hog closely, you could count each pellet hole in the neck, no major damage or bleeding resulted from the 5 yard blast. Imagine what that would do to a deer??
We simmered the head and retrieved 4 pellets from the skull. There were a total of 5 pellet holes in the skull and major clotting found inside the nasal cavity, behind the right eye, and in the brain! He lived 12 hours with this damage and still ran. We can only think he didn’t charge because he wasn’t in his right mind. We are convinced he was attempting to charge on Saturday night but with the brain shot, he couldn’t get it together??
Conclusion: 1) There are no other animals in the country that could take as much abuse as a wild hog, the toughest animal I have even seen. 2) #4 Buckshot is an incredibly inefficient tool for hunting wild boar. 3) Research the game animal you are after. 4) We realize each time we tell the story to someone who has hunted hogs how bad this story could have turned out… there are several decisions we made that just happened to be the right one in the end. These two yankees got away with one…
Here are the pictures… The truck in the picture is a Ford Ranger. The boar was longer than the bed was wide 50+ inches nose to base of the tail. Belly to back height was about 22-24 inches, knee heighth. We are guessing the weight to be 210-225 lbs??? If you have an opinion or guess at weight, let us know. The bottom tusks (cutters) were 1 ½ inches and the tops (whetters) were 2 ½ and both were heavy at the bases. According to tooth charts on Texasboar.com (I think), he was a 6 year old stud. We are guessing the night we shot him; he was standing up to us to protect the other pigs around him?? Don’t know if a dominant boar would act this way?
Hope you enjoyed our story and learning experience.
Also added a pic of Dad's Osceola... The real reason we went to Florida hunting to begin with. 9 inch beard and 1 1/8 spurs. Great trophy, Rio and Merriams are next to complete his slam... He called the bird in from 800-1000 yards which in quite amazing.
Brett and David
(Former Uneducated Hog Hunters)
