WoodsnWater30
Member
So I have been checkn out this site for the last few years and reading all of your stories and have grown very envious of GON’s member’s hog hunts. I also noticed that you feller’s like a good story, so here it is. First the background… I am originally from Virginia and have been active duty for the last 12 years and one of the biggest things I wanted to do here is to get a pig. I mean I really really really wanted to get a pig down here in Georgia… I have tried countless times over the last 4 years to no avail. I hunted Stewart over the years and have seen quite a few there, but it was always driving in at zero dark thirty or on my way out in the evening or running across the road and unable to get a shot. I finally met a friend of mine who would let me hunt his land down south, including evening hunts for pigs. We tried a bunch of stuff, we set up some homemade troughs and poured soured corn in em, we poured straight corn, and we would get them in, but they would never seem to hang around. We would find sign, we would find the entire area rooted up, but could never seem to get them to come around at a consistent time. After trolling on here and reading your stories I knew what I had to do… and that was set up a feeder. So now you know im military and it is safe to say we live a fiscally conservative life, also known as “cheap”. My plan was to build my own feeder and save some money and kill one or a few off of it. So I got someone to give me a ole 35 gal steel drum, so I took that, sanded the rust off of it and put several coats of paint on it. I bought a primos “the vault” motor for it a 6 volt, and a wildlife innovations solar charger. I then borrowed another buddies dremel and cut the hole for my motor, mounted the motor and then had to come up with a idea for legs. Well looking online all the leg kits I saw were $50 and upwards to almost $200 and I aint about to buy something like that when I know I could jerry rig something that’s just as good. So I went to Lowes one evening and was looking at steel piping in plumbing, but that was also too rich for my blood, even galvanized (schedule 40- 3/4” I.D. -NPT thread). So I went to the electrical section and bam, there they were, beautiful cheap 10ft lengths of galv conduit, also next to em was pipe benders ($80) for 1” benders. I thought “I’m not buying that” all I need is to bend three pipes, well by this time it was almost closing time. So I did what any other tight wad redneck would do, I went to the tool section borrowed a tape measure, went back and pulled three lengths out and bent them right then and there at 45 degree angles, bought some hardware to attach it and went home. I set it all up minus motor and was quite impressed…..
Well then I mounted the motor, went and bought 200lb worth of corn and went to set it all up. On the way to this spot we immediately found sign, not a huge amount, but some tracks and limited rooting. That got my blood pumping, that plus the fact the day that we went to set it all up, it was a “real feel” of 110deg. My buddy bushogged a trail for me, then bushhogged a opening to set up the tripod. We set it all up (mounted the solar charger on the leg with a conduit strap) and dropped some corn, I had also made up some special stuff to get them in the area. I made two five gallon buckets of this: corn filled up to 2/3 of the way, 1 pint of diesel fuel, water filled to the top, 5 packets of koolaid mix, and two packets of active yeast, I then let that set up for a few days in the sweltering heat and put that around the area as well. I set my timer (2230 9sec, high power on motor, and 0515 4sec, low power), tested, all sat., and walked away, but I snapped a picture just before I left and was gonna lay off of it for two weeks….
So that brings us to the 26th of June, I hadn’t shot my 223/5.56 since hunting season, so I stop by Bass Pro n get some Tul ammo to make sure Im still on paper, cause I only have 26 rnds of my game ammo (223 rem. 69gr HP). Shoot a few, im still good, and shoot some 22lr out my pistol S&W M&P, and meet a nice sheriff who was just checking I was legal. On a side note though, I don’t like the variation of the 223 between close and long distances (used to my flat shootin 270) This brings us to friday night, and a little more background…. I got two young kids and a beautiful wife, so my time in the woods n water has been chopped, but it’s ok cause their gonna go with me when they get a little older so that is why I chose those timers cause I cant sit in the treestands, plus its too hot this time of year. Most people would be out partying or sittin around enjoying some frothy golden beverages, but I have a date, and it involves the feral kind. I get to the stand at 2030ish, we got little to no wind, and a half moon and no clouds… right before dusk and go and set up in my stand. I try to avoid using a thermacell and opted for the turkey face mask and gloves to avoid the extra scent. Shortly thereafter, bout 2100 or so I see a good sized doe appear, she kinda walks around the feeder, but Mr Pig had already stolen everything from last night. She walks within 20ft of my stand, looks up at me and decides that while she is not alarmed, that she will be moving away with a sense of urgency. Then some time thereafter Mr Racoon shows up, but he to is disappointed with the lack of corn. The area that I am hunting has been saturated with rain, so there is a lot of standing water and the swamp/creak nearby has swollen to well within the thicket, so occasionally all around me I can here stuff stomping around in the water, sometimes near, sometimes far. The mosquitoes have managed to find what little areas I have of exposed skin and decide they are hungry. The frogs have started off and they are so loud it almost drowns out all noise. Occasionally I will turn on my cree green led spotlight on my AR and scan the area. Overall just a good relaxing hunt so far… then I see something near the feeder. The stature of this big black animal is impressive, equally impressive is how it manages to approach the feeder without substantial noise. Immediately I go into focus, I raise my gun and point it to the sky and turn on my light. I slowly bring it down and can now clearly see a decent sized pig. He is quartering to me at about 35 yds or so, I put the crosshairs right on center mass behind the shoulder and gently squeeze while exhaling BOOM, he takes off but I am still on him and squeeze off one more for good measure, but he continues to run. WTH? I know I couldn’t have missed him? Could those AR snobs be right about the 223? Well it clearly ran into the bush, the thickest of the thickest, I look down and it is 2145, I still got 45 min til the timer goes off. Better sense got hold of me and rather than walk through the bush looking for a wounded pig, not to mention we are in the mecca of snake territory I decide to wait. My plan was to wait until the timer went off to see if any, including him would come around, 2230 happens, feeder goes off and all is quiet. I wait until 2235, shine all around me to ensure there are no more eyes around then get down. I start looking for blood, nothing, I look for tracks in the bush and they are everywhere, I start to circle around the feeder about 20 yards and was just about to start cursing when there he was. He hadn’t ran 15 yds from the feeder, theres the hole, right behind the shoulder. I drag this beast out by myself, I almost died doing so. I get him to near my truck and struggle to get him up. Im guessing around 150# ish??? Any guesses??
I then quickly (as quickly as hog skinning goes) get his hide off, and quarter him up and throw these beautiful cuts on ice in a cooler. My apologies for the quality of pictures and punctuation… Me n the smoker this 4th of July weekend…. couldn’t have planned it out better, God Bless!
Well then I mounted the motor, went and bought 200lb worth of corn and went to set it all up. On the way to this spot we immediately found sign, not a huge amount, but some tracks and limited rooting. That got my blood pumping, that plus the fact the day that we went to set it all up, it was a “real feel” of 110deg. My buddy bushogged a trail for me, then bushhogged a opening to set up the tripod. We set it all up (mounted the solar charger on the leg with a conduit strap) and dropped some corn, I had also made up some special stuff to get them in the area. I made two five gallon buckets of this: corn filled up to 2/3 of the way, 1 pint of diesel fuel, water filled to the top, 5 packets of koolaid mix, and two packets of active yeast, I then let that set up for a few days in the sweltering heat and put that around the area as well. I set my timer (2230 9sec, high power on motor, and 0515 4sec, low power), tested, all sat., and walked away, but I snapped a picture just before I left and was gonna lay off of it for two weeks….
So that brings us to the 26th of June, I hadn’t shot my 223/5.56 since hunting season, so I stop by Bass Pro n get some Tul ammo to make sure Im still on paper, cause I only have 26 rnds of my game ammo (223 rem. 69gr HP). Shoot a few, im still good, and shoot some 22lr out my pistol S&W M&P, and meet a nice sheriff who was just checking I was legal. On a side note though, I don’t like the variation of the 223 between close and long distances (used to my flat shootin 270) This brings us to friday night, and a little more background…. I got two young kids and a beautiful wife, so my time in the woods n water has been chopped, but it’s ok cause their gonna go with me when they get a little older so that is why I chose those timers cause I cant sit in the treestands, plus its too hot this time of year. Most people would be out partying or sittin around enjoying some frothy golden beverages, but I have a date, and it involves the feral kind. I get to the stand at 2030ish, we got little to no wind, and a half moon and no clouds… right before dusk and go and set up in my stand. I try to avoid using a thermacell and opted for the turkey face mask and gloves to avoid the extra scent. Shortly thereafter, bout 2100 or so I see a good sized doe appear, she kinda walks around the feeder, but Mr Pig had already stolen everything from last night. She walks within 20ft of my stand, looks up at me and decides that while she is not alarmed, that she will be moving away with a sense of urgency. Then some time thereafter Mr Racoon shows up, but he to is disappointed with the lack of corn. The area that I am hunting has been saturated with rain, so there is a lot of standing water and the swamp/creak nearby has swollen to well within the thicket, so occasionally all around me I can here stuff stomping around in the water, sometimes near, sometimes far. The mosquitoes have managed to find what little areas I have of exposed skin and decide they are hungry. The frogs have started off and they are so loud it almost drowns out all noise. Occasionally I will turn on my cree green led spotlight on my AR and scan the area. Overall just a good relaxing hunt so far… then I see something near the feeder. The stature of this big black animal is impressive, equally impressive is how it manages to approach the feeder without substantial noise. Immediately I go into focus, I raise my gun and point it to the sky and turn on my light. I slowly bring it down and can now clearly see a decent sized pig. He is quartering to me at about 35 yds or so, I put the crosshairs right on center mass behind the shoulder and gently squeeze while exhaling BOOM, he takes off but I am still on him and squeeze off one more for good measure, but he continues to run. WTH? I know I couldn’t have missed him? Could those AR snobs be right about the 223? Well it clearly ran into the bush, the thickest of the thickest, I look down and it is 2145, I still got 45 min til the timer goes off. Better sense got hold of me and rather than walk through the bush looking for a wounded pig, not to mention we are in the mecca of snake territory I decide to wait. My plan was to wait until the timer went off to see if any, including him would come around, 2230 happens, feeder goes off and all is quiet. I wait until 2235, shine all around me to ensure there are no more eyes around then get down. I start looking for blood, nothing, I look for tracks in the bush and they are everywhere, I start to circle around the feeder about 20 yards and was just about to start cursing when there he was. He hadn’t ran 15 yds from the feeder, theres the hole, right behind the shoulder. I drag this beast out by myself, I almost died doing so. I get him to near my truck and struggle to get him up. Im guessing around 150# ish??? Any guesses??
I then quickly (as quickly as hog skinning goes) get his hide off, and quarter him up and throw these beautiful cuts on ice in a cooler. My apologies for the quality of pictures and punctuation… Me n the smoker this 4th of July weekend…. couldn’t have planned it out better, God Bless!
