So, many people dont even know that I returned from Iraq a little over a week ago but I did and I quickly set up a coastal Georgia wild boar hunting trip! In Georgia...you can kill hogs 365 days a year and most places theres no size, daily, or season limit...you could kill 50 a day if you so chose! All ya need is a hunting license...if its not deer season no hunter orange is required! Now thats we have the basics down... This is the story!
I got home and immediately started setting up and dialing in my brand new Bowtech Guardian with SDP site and new style Whisker bisket rest...also sporting 27 inch full metal jackets tipped with 125 grain thunder heads...oh, and white wraps on each arrow embossed with a pics of my wife wearing nada
The bow is a 76 lb draw also! (twisted cable guards)
Once my bow was on and I felt 50 yards was locked solid...I turned the Xterra South and headed for Savannah GA. I met up with my buddy Sean and after setting up the Kayaks, my wife drove me to the boat landing. Soon enough we were off paddling our butts off...we got a late start so we had to haul it to get the 4.5 miles done to reach the camp site!
once we reached the camp site we set up and built a fire to chase bugs off while we had dinner!
Morning came early and we were off looking for some wild boar / feral hogs! After several hours and lots of miles...no hogs! I had to take a break...the heat was less than Iraq by far but dear god the humidity
After we found no hogs and really the sign wasnt what we were hoping to find either
...we headed up the river for better ground
!
we covered some serious ground between walking and paddling!
Heres a decent pic of Sean taking a water break!
We found ourselves headed up smaller and smaller channels looking for game
This creek turned out to lead to a pot of gold
We got on the Island and within 5 minutes we spotted a dark spot out on the salt marsh...so far away that we needed binos to figure out if it was a pig or not... it was and it was a nice one... jet black and freakin HUGE! only one problem... it was about 600 meters straight out into a salt marsh that is nothing but needle grass, mudd, and oyster beds.
None the less, we figured an impossible stalk seemed better than no pigs elsewhere! It took us only 15 minutes to get to the closest spot on the Island to the hog..now only 300 meters out into the marsh...the hunt would have been done if I had my 300 WM but with a bow...I needed to cover some distance.
Me and Sean started making our way and to our dismay...it was slower and even harder going than expected and I may have forgotten to mention..we were fresh off the boat so I had on flip flops rather than real shoes
A stalk in the open is soooo depressing because the prey is RIGHT THERE!
Any way..as we stalked, the pig slowly fed around and we got over 100 yards closer before we realized there was a mcuh much smaller calico pig between us. That was a good thing because the huge black boar was now feeding away from us faster than we could cover ground in that marsh that was made to cut up people!
I made the stalk in the chest high needle grass pretty easily but the last 100 yards to the calico was knee high green grass. It looked like I was about to try to sneak up on a pig in the middle of a golf course!!!
I figured what the hell... worth a shot! So, I would take a step and look at the pig... Id only move when the calico was facing and feeding away from me. Sean stayed 50 yards behind me because the oysters crushing under foot made so much noise along with the slosh of the water and the mudd.
So...heres a hint, when your buddy is carrying your range finder...dont let him get away from you
No matter. I figured Id just stalk so close I could be sure of the range!
Now, heres one of those dave moments that you would have to know me to understand why but... at around 75 yards...I slipped out of my flip flops. This CUT way down on noise but cut the hell out of my feet with every step... damn oyster beds!
ohhhh..and at 100 meters I took my black tee shirt off... in the dark lush trees of the islands...black is great... in the needle grass of the marsh the black stood out like a neon sign and the grass was similar to my pasty white flesh (minus the tattoos)...
When I reach somewhere around 23 yards...the calico started feeding to the side and figuring I was milliseconds from getting busted I went to full draw! The second I had a little bit of side to aim at I released... before it hit, I knew I was golden! When I saw the arrow hit and vanish right behind the front shoulder I actually said "thats a dead hog" out loud! When it took two steps I could see the angle was so sharp that the arrow exited out of the hog's face on the opposite side! It ran about 20 steps and stopped. It was about to go down but I had loaded a 2nd arrow so I let it go! The hog spun and it hit a lil back but went down instantly!
I field dressed him and threw him over my shoulders and hauled him the 300 meters back to the Island. We didnt have the camera with us so heres a few bad quality cell phone pics of a white trash hunter in GA!
I know...I know...lol
any way,
once we got back to the Kayaks I tried to take a better pic...
After the pics, I took an ocean splash off!
We immediately reset and headed to the far side of the Island. Within 20 muntes we had hogs all over us...in a herd feeding right twoard us but in VERY thick underbrush and palmetto bushes. Well, I went to full drawn on a 300 lb monster at 16 yards but the small pig 5 yards to my side spooked and the big boar bolted with me at full draw waiting for a decent angle!
While we were standing there discussing how awesome that was we realize the back of the herd didnt know the front spooked so here come more!
Well, here comes a 50 lb calico right at me and I come to full draw hiding behind a tree...the pig is at 10 yards and Im about to release but Sean says theres a bigger one...so I wait... but the calico gets to one yard and freaks when it sees me..it could have licked my broadhead even at full draw...lol
as it bolted I tried to release on it but missed... no matter what else happened...know that I never heard the end of the missed 1 yard shot!
so, with that herd now way gone...we decided to circle around and cut them off.
We ended up with 2 small hogs feeding toward us not 200 meters from where we saw the last herd!
After watching a calico for like 10 minutes at 25 yards...the black hog gave me a great shot and at 27 yards I released. It was a thread the needle shot and it hit just a bit back. The pig squealed and ran off. I knocked another arrow and looked up to see "another" black hog trot up. I released and hit home..the pig went down in its tracks!
Turns out it was the same pig and it just doubled back for some reason!
Any way,
After a wonderful day of hunting we loaded the hogs into the Kayaks and headed home!
I didnt get a field pic of the black so heres a double pic
Now I gotta get these skulls to Michelle for some whitening!
Every single shot was a pass through and only the one yard shot was a miss...so Im pumped for elk season!
Hope you enjoyed this! I know its long but it was my best pig hunt ever and Ive killed huge hogs and over 100 of them...none of those hunts compared to this!
dave
