Hog Hunt at Outwest Farms outside of Okeechobee, Florida
Just a little 60 lb meat sow, but the little bugger sure could run
fast. Black Hills 75 grain stopped her in her tracks, and a final kill
shot behind the ear put her down for good.
I used www.outwestfarms.com in Okeechobee Florida. There are a lot of guided hunts up there and you can hunt
wild boar on private property in Florida without a license and year
round. I met up with my guide who lives on the property about 11 AM,
and we were in the swamp buggy and following the dogs by about 11:15.
The landscape was mostly Florida swamp, although the recent lack of
rain made it very dry swamp. It was mostly palmetto bushes and the
like, with small thickets here and there that, I would come to find
out, the pigs like to hide in. We rode around in the buggy, following
the dogs, mostly sticking to the established trails but using the buggy
to crash through and make our own trails whenever the dogs found
something.
And find something they did. As the dogs started barking we could hear
them approaching from the right side of the buggy and the guide said
"get ready". I had no idea what to expect, and I wasn't remotely
prepared for how fast the pig was moving. It darted across the trail in
front of the buggy faster than I could get sights on, but it appeared
to be about a 80 pounder. The dogs followed behind, and we gave chase
in the buggy but eventually lost the pig.
A few minutes later the dogs found a little 15 lb piglet and just would
not leave the thing alone. The guide went down and scooped up the
piglet and stuck it in one of the cages under the buggy, but now the
dogs kept following the buggy to bark at the piglet.
Eventually they got the scent of another pig, and they were barking and
moving around one particular thicket. The guide then used the buggy to
slowly creep into the thicket to flush out the pig. I was standing on
the front edge of the buggy looking down into the thicket hoping to
catch sight of the pig (and hoping not to accidentally shoot one of the
dogs) when movement about 10 yards to my 12 o'clock caught my eye. It
was the damn pig that had made it's way to the edge of the thicket and
was running her little ass off! By the time I brought the rifle to bear
she had gone approximately another 10 yards when I got the shot off.
She dropped in her tracks as her legs went out from under her from a
heart/lung shot.
The dogs then caught up to her, and she still had some fight left in
her as she nipped back at both of the dogs and tried to get away. After
the guide pulled the dogs off, I put one more shot behind her left ear
and she stopped moving completely. After taking a few pictures, the
guide put the pig on the buggy, and we went back to the shed where he
skinned, gutted, quartered, and loaded it into my cooler within about
15 minutes. He showed me my entry wound and the blood coming from the
heart shot, but he was moving so fast I didn't get a chance to get a
good picture.
I know some will say that what I did wasn't real hunting, and I'd
agree. Having never done anything like this before, I wanted to ease
into it. If you were just getting into camping, you'd stay at a KOA
your first time and not hike down to a primitive site at the bottom of
the Grand Canyon, and I see this as the same kind of thing. This was
equivalent to KOA, and I'll be back a couple of times before I try the
equivalent of the primitive site.
So, why'd I do all of this?
1) First and foremost, I wanted the meat, so let's not have any moral
dillemas about killing something you're not going to eat/use. We're
having a few people over and I needed something to cook, and
figured wild boar would freak out the Boca Raton crowd.
2) I wanted to test my rifle and myself in a dynamic situation. I shoot
matches all the time where we're moving, the targets are moving, or
both, but those are still matches. I just didn't think it was a
straight comparison to shooting out in the swamp at an animal that was
running for it's very life. I was right. Shooting from on top of a 7'
high moving swamp buggy at a 60 lb pig running away from you is quite a
challenge. You have to just put the sights on the target, track the
target, squeeze the trigger, and hope that your training is ingrained
enough that you make the shot. There really isn't time to assume a
"proper fighting stance" or even ensure that you have a perfect cheek
weld. You make do with what you have and you take the shot.
3) I wanted to kill something. I grew up in the suburbs in the South,
and alot of my friends hunted all the time, but my family wasn't into
hunting or guns. As such about the biggest thing I've ever killed was
squirrells. I wanted to kill something to see if I could. Not if I
physically could (see item 2 above), but to see if there would be any
shred of remorse or regret on my part either durring or after; there
wasn't. Having grown up the way I did, virtually all living animals you
encounter are pets. It creates a different mindset than someone who
grew up hunting or around farm animals where they separate pets from
food. I wasn't sure I could put that suburban upbringing aside and kill
something. Ya'll may think that this makes me a pussy, but it's the
truth and it bears mentioning.
4) I wanted to test my ammo. If the Black Hills 75 grain ammo that I
shot the pig with hadn't taken down a 60 lb sow, I would have been very
doubtful as to it's ability on humans. While I understand it's not a
straight 1:1 comparison, it's close enough for me. Fortunately, the
round dropped her right in her tracks as I believe I got a good
heart/lung shot. At the sound of the shot I watched her legs go out
from under her and she slid a couple of feet to a stop. With that said,
she was not dead and still had some fight left in her as evidenced by
the way she fought with the dogs when they caught up to her. Despite
being shot through the heart and lungs, she still was nipping back at
the dogs and trying her damnedest to get away. I think it was an
important lesson as to what "stopped" really means.
All in all I think the whole thing was a very positive experience. I
want to thank Big Ed's butcher shop in West Palm for really helping out
a newbie and storing and wrapping my meat for me while I was out of
town and not charging me a cent for it. If you're in the area and need
butchering, Ed is a great guy with an awesome staff. I will absolutely
take all of my future kills to him.
Big Ed's Butcher Shop Inc
8140 Belvedere Road
West Palm Beach, FL (Florida) 33411-3211
Phone: (561) 798-9876
Also thanks to Grant from gandrtactical.com for fighting through the
credit card maze and getting me my TA33R-8 Compact ACOG in time for me
to sight in and take to the hunt.
By the time all the credit card crap got ironed out it was Wednesday,
but he still had the optic in my hands by Friday in time for me to
sight in Saturday and take the pig Monday. Great service as always from
Grant.
070211 Update
Well, the pictures of the cooked meat got ruined because one of
our party guests decided that my girlfriend and I needed to be pushed
in the pool. I had my camera (and my phone too) in my pocket when I
went in, and now the camera and the memory card appear to be shot.
I smoked one ham, both shoulders, the ribs, and the loin/backstrap with
a traditional Southern dry rub and two sauces served on the side; one
mustard-based and one ketchup-based. I smoked 'em for about 4 hours and
they came out perfect. I also marinated the other ham over night in
italian salad dressing and smoked it for 4 hours once the other meat
was done. Since the dry rub stuff was kind of spicy, it was nice to
have the other option for people to eat. One of my friends went to the
same place I did a couple of days later and he brought up some
tenderloin that he had marinated in some kind of Hawaiian stuff and it
came out really well too.
Interestingly, everyone really seemed to enjoy it. Nobody commented on
any gamey-ness to the meat and a couple of people didn't even know it
was "wild" pig until after they had some.
