@Kyle Sullivan that old sow had some bad juju or something 😂

This one was a doozy. I found a pig trail crossing a road. At first I started out on the opposite side of the road, but since it looked like the tracks were facing the other direction, I crossed back over the road in the direction of the tracks. I hiked 2 miles through the swamp in Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge following the trail. Every time I was ready to give up, I would come across fresh sign. The tracks looked mostly like piglet tracks, so I felt like I may be trailing a sow with piglets. I noticed on HuntStand what looked like a couple of pine islands. It had rained heavy the night before and cold had moved in, so I felt like the sow would be looking for some fluffy pine straw on dry ground. I finally found the pine island and as I tracked, the droppings got closer and closer together. Then I heard pigs. I scanned the area and couldn’t see anything. I inched about ten feet closer, and that’s when I saw her at the base of a pine tree, burrowed in thick pine straw. I put the crosshairs at the base of her left ear and pulled the trigger. To my surprise she hopped up and walked ten yards, and stood there popping her jaws. I thought I flat missed. I stepped behind a pine tree so she wouldn’t see me and charge. When she turned and presented her right side to me I aimed center-mass and she dropped. This is when I realized there were, in fact, six piglets. They were about the size of my hand, so they were less than a week old. This is actually where things got REALLY interesting. On HuntStand I could see the closest service road was 300 yards ahead. I decide to drag her there because my group was near the other end of that service road, maybe a mile. When I got to the service road, I realized the road was washed out between me and my group and the swamp was neck-deep or higher. The service was so poor I could not get my location to go through to my group. My phone was dying, so I pulled out my backup charger with the intention of turning around and going back the way I came. The backup charger had bit the dust. Then I decided to fire a location shot. The bolt jammed. I couldn’t believe it. I knew that trying to weave back through the swamp from cypress knee to cypress knee would be impossible without my phone.  I had my refuge brochure, so I decided I would stick to the the map in it, even though it would take me two miles in the other direction to a main road. I had to leave the hog behind. By the time I got back up to my group and back to my truck, it had warmed WAY up and over three hours had passed since the kill. I knew I couldn’t chance the meat being spoiled. The next day I went back to the same area and hunted for a while, then decided to trek back in to at least recover her skull and my paracord I had used to make a drag. Total I hiked about 6 miles just for this hog. When removing her skull, I found the first shot travelled down her neck and out her shoulder. Second shot hid the first exit wound. Tough animals!!

A Wild Hog Hunt Adventure

method

weight

body length (in)

land type

distance (yards)

hunting

mentorship

scouting & hunting prep

cooking & smoking BBQ

do it yourself

A Wild Hog Hunt Adventure

Tiffiny S

Are you sure?

Hog

Tiffiny S

Craig M

Tiffiny S

Brian L

Kyle S

Tiffiny S

ReelCamoGirl