OSSABAW Island Hunters (Tips For The Ignorant )

[eavega]

Hey @one_shot_no_mor just got back from the January hunt on Ossabaw. Absolutely a great hunt! Pigs everywhere, just be ready to use up some shoe leather. I think I walked 10 miles every day of the hunt, and I only hunted all day on Thursday. Friday and Saturday I spent the afternoon skinning and quartering hogs.
-Eric

 

[one_shot_no_mor]

Hey @one_shot_no_mor just got back from the January hunt on Ossabaw. Absolutely a great hunt! Pigs everywhere, just be ready to use up some shoe leather. I think I walked 10 miles every day of the hunt, and I only hunted all day on Thursday. Friday and Saturday I spent the afternoon skinning and quartering hogs.
-Eric

Did you take the boat out of Kilkenny? How many pigs did you get?

 

[eavega]

Did you take the boat out of Kilkenny? How many pigs did you get?

Yep, took the boat out of Kilkenny. We had 4 groups total of 7 hunters. Two groups arrived on the island on Wednesday (my hunting buddy and I, and another two guys that were camping together) while the other two groups arrived on the island on Tuesday. There was no wait for a boat. You pay your money ($85), they take down your name, give you the process to getting back off the island, then you are allowed to back your vehicle right to the dock, unload your vehicle and load it onto the boat Mind you there is a good 20 foot or so elevation difference between where you can park your vehicle and where you load your stuff onto the boat. The ramp is a doozy. You park your vehicle in another lot, and they take you to the island.
I shot two hogs on the first day, a sow I wasn't able to recover, and later on a boar. My buddy saw a sounder of 3 decent sized pigs, but wasn't able to get a shot. The second day it rained but I still went out and shot two boar that were feeding together out in a marsh. At that point I was done shooting pigs, but my hunting buddy had not yet so I went out on the third day with him. We saw a sounder of 4 pigs feeding along a marsh and had a miscommunication resulting in no pigs taken, and a little while later we saw 2 more which did not present a shot.
On Sunday my buddy and I got up at about first light, had breakfast, and had camp broken down and packed up by 10. Kilkenny had a boat at the dock for us and another party by 11. We got two groups loaded onto the one boat and were back at the marina by 11:30. The other guys helped us get all the gear off the boat, and we were on our way home before noon.
Long story short, we saw pigs every day in the two areas we were hunting, and I went home with about 100 Lbs of pork. Kilkenny provided the transport as advertised, and everyone had a great time.

-E

 

[one_shot_no_mor]

Yep, took the boat out of Kilkenny. We had 4 groups total of 7 hunters. Two groups arrived on the island on Wednesday (my hunting buddy and I, and another two guys that were camping together) while the other two groups arrived on the island on Tuesday. There was no wait for a boat. You pay your money ($85), they take down your name, give you the process to getting back off the island, then you are allowed to back your vehicle right to the dock, unload your vehicle and load it onto the boat Mind you there is a good 20 foot or so elevation difference between where you can park your vehicle and where you load your stuff onto the boat. The ramp is a doozy. You park your vehicle in another lot, and they take you to the island.
I shot two hogs on the first day, a sow I wasn't able to recover, and later on a boar. My buddy saw a sounder of 3 decent sized pigs, but wasn't able to get a shot. The second day it rained but I still went out and shot two boar that were feeding together out in a marsh. At that point I was done shooting pigs, but my hunting buddy had not yet so I went out on the third day with him. We saw a sounder of 4 pigs feeding along a marsh and had a miscommunication resulting in no pigs taken, and a little while later we saw 2 more which did not present a shot.
On Sunday my buddy and I got up at about first light, had breakfast, and had camp broken down and packed up by 10. Kilkenny had a boat at the dock for us and another party by 11. We got two groups loaded onto the one boat and were back at the marina by 11:30. The other guys helped us get all the gear off the boat, and we were on our way home before noon.
Long story short, we saw pigs every day in the two areas we were hunting, and I went home with about 100 Lbs of pork. Kilkenny provided the transport as advertised, and everyone had a great time.

-E

WOW!! Thanks for all the info! Food for thought for a 63 year old fat man travelling alone...

 

[one_shot_no_mor]

Yep, took the boat out of Kilkenny. We had 4 groups total of 7 hunters. Two groups arrived on the island on Wednesday (my hunting buddy and I, and another two guys that were camping together) while the other two groups arrived on the island on Tuesday. There was no wait for a boat. You pay your money ($85), they take down your name, give you the process to getting back off the island, then you are allowed to back your vehicle right to the dock, unload your vehicle and load it onto the boat Mind you there is a good 20 foot or so elevation difference between where you can park your vehicle and where you load your stuff onto the boat. The ramp is a doozy. You park your vehicle in another lot, and they take you to the island.
I shot two hogs on the first day, a sow I wasn't able to recover, and later on a boar. My buddy saw a sounder of 3 decent sized pigs, but wasn't able to get a shot. The second day it rained but I still went out and shot two boar that were feeding together out in a marsh. At that point I was done shooting pigs, but my hunting buddy had not yet so I went out on the third day with him. We saw a sounder of 4 pigs feeding along a marsh and had a miscommunication resulting in no pigs taken, and a little while later we saw 2 more which did not present a shot.
On Sunday my buddy and I got up at about first light, had breakfast, and had camp broken down and packed up by 10. Kilkenny had a boat at the dock for us and another party by 11. We got two groups loaded onto the one boat and were back at the marina by 11:30. The other guys helped us get all the gear off the boat, and we were on our way home before noon.
Long story short, we saw pigs every day in the two areas we were hunting, and I went home with about 100 Lbs of pork. Kilkenny provided the transport as advertised, and everyone had a great time.

-E

Did you need waders to retrieve pigs from the marsh?

 

[eavega]

Did you need waders to retrieve pigs from the marsh?

Not on that marsh, it was fairly solid. I figured the pigs were not sinking in mud, so it was okay. THAT BEING SAID, as someone else has noted previously, if you see water, don't try to cross it! I made that mistake at one point in the hunt. I had knee-high muck boots on and thats the only reason I came back with two boots from that particular bad decision.
-E

 

[Rich Kaminski]

WOW!! Thanks for all the info! Food for thought for a 63 year old fat man travelling alone...

I was Eric's hunting buddy on this trip and I actually shot but missed the pigs twice (I am going to rezero that gun) and I am 68 years old so you being 63 can do it too. Just take your time dragging the hogs out because it is a lot of work(use a carry buggy or a plastic sled).

 

[FightandFly]

How far can you see/shoot there? I was planning on taking a normal deer rifle, but it sounds like I'm probably going to shoot more pigs than deer (which sounds good as well), so I'm considering my AR with a red dot and a 3x magnifier. Thanks!

 

[eavega]

How far can you see/shoot there? I was planning on taking a normal deer rifle, but it sounds like I'm probably going to shoot more pigs than deer (which sounds good as well), so I'm considering my AR with a red dot and a 3x magnifier. Thanks!

Depends on where...If you are in the thick of the palmettos, you are probably looking at 50 yds or less. However, if you catch one out in one of the marsh flats, you can expect a 100-200 Yds shot. When I was there I took an AR-15 300 AAC and killed two pigs at 200 yards, one at about 40. If it were me I'd take the AR. If you stumble across pigs, it'll be a matter of how fast can you pull the trigger. I'd go with the red dot and 3x fixed. It'll cover more situations you'll find.

 

[FightandFly]

Perfect, thanks. That's the exact setup I'm leaning towards. 200 is probably too far for me with a 3x red dot, but anything inside 100 should be good. Or maybe I'll throw a 2-10x on there before I go.