It's Always Hog Season

Turkey season is done and over and I've been trying to satisfy my passion for the outdoors with fishing and diving. But there's just something about being in the woods that's hard for me to lay down all summer long. When I start feeling the off season hunting bug biting I think of hogs. Here in Florida there's no season on private land for hogs; so if your brave enough to endure the heat, mosquitoes, snakes, gators and skunk apes; it's game on all year long.

I haven't been fortunate enough yet to find private land to hunt hogs free of charge; so my go to spot is a private cattle ranch in Zolfo Springs that runs half day hog hunts for $100. I've been doing hunts with the ranch owner, Dennis, a sixth generation Florida Cracker, for about 7 years now and we always have a great time. It's not a guaranteed kill and I've definitely been skunked my fair share of times; but there are plenty of hogs on the property, not to mention the pleasure of always seeing deer and turkey. More times than not I have brought home the bacon.

Last August I did a morning spot and stalk archery hog hunt with two of my brothers, my nephew and a friend. I dropped the first hog, a nice 150 pound bar hog, by 8 a.m. and was waiting to get picked up by the rancher while the others continued to hunt. I was sitting on the hog in the middle of a dirt road while talking to my wife on the cell phone. A big boar came out of the swamp and began trotting down a fence line right towards me. I quickly cut the conversation short and got an arrow ready. The hog didn't even notice me until he was about 20 yards away. He stopped at the fence line and I poked a pass through shot behind his shoulder. He came right at me as I jumped out of the way! He ran through a small pond and into a cow pasture. I flung my last arrow at him and then watched him run into a brush line.

About this time the rancher showed up and we began following a good blood trail. A little while later we came upon the boar bedded up under a head of palmettos. He looked dead still accept for his ears that would flicker from time to time. Since I was out of arrows and didn't bring a gun, the rancher decided to use the only gun he had with him to try and put this huge boar down. A 22 pistol with snake shot; bad idea. He snuck as close as he could and took a shot at the boar's head. The beast jumped up and trucked down a thickly brushed ditch line. My brother arrived to see what the commotion was about and I borrowed his son's 243 youth rifle. We slowly worked our way down the ditch line. It wasn't long before we came upon a black boar that stood up and began walking away through the brush. I lined him up in the scope and dropped him. When we got to the boar we found that he was a monster, weighing every bit of 300 pounds! We also found that he was a different hog than the one we were tracking; we never did find that one. I headed back to butcher my hogs while the others continued to hunt. By the time Noon rolled around they had put down three more nice hogs. We were sweaty and exhausted but it was well worth the effort.

I went there again in December with my sons Israel and Judah. After sitting in the stand with no luck we did some spot and stalk hunting and came upon a group of hogs going into a cypress swamp. Israel got his first pig, a fat bar hog, with a little help from Dad. A week later in December I shot at a huge boar while hunting Citrus WMA with a friend. We were looking for blood in thick palmettos when I came upon a very large sow bedded up with piglets. She charged me from about 10 yards and I shot her in the head with my 30-06 while falling backwards in surprise and fear! At the end of the day I had a huge sow and two tender piglets, which were very delicious roasted whole.

So here's my dilemma; I want to go hog hunting again but still have way too much pork in the freezer to justify spending the $100. I did however just take out two bags of backstraps to thaw and I'm going to try to try to shrink that dilemma on the grill this Memorial Day. If I can find enough family and friends who want to have a couple good cookouts, it shouldn't be long before I can pick up the phone and give Dennis a call. I've got a brand new batch of arrows and my Matthews Switchback XT is rearing to let one fly through a fat Florida hog. I think next time I'll bring a gun too, just in case.