Hogs

2019 Season off to Productive Start

Opening day for the 2019 Georgia firearms deer season was wet. I mean it rained all day. But the southeast needed that rain in a big way and it did not stop deer activity. The next day we had sunshine as you can see in this photo of our Can-Am Defender from my stand. Right after that I harvested a spike buck. Opening day I harvested two does. So I’ve got a lot of venison I’ll be freezing this week while taking a large portion to a local processor for summer sausage and hamburger.

Now let’s talk feral hogs. I am happy to report that my brother Paul deleted their number by seven on opening day. Here’s a Can-Am Defender load of five of them. It sounds like a lot but we’ve got one group of them numbering almost forty and another that it is a little less. For the first time in the years I’ve been hunting in Georgia I’m seeing hogs on the sides of the roads that have been hit by cars. I counted five in just one hour long drive one morning. They are a serious problem. We’re doing our part but it’s not enough.

Georgia’s season continues through mid-January so the Crystal Pig Hunt Club members will be out several times trying to reduce hog numbers and hopefully seeing some of the large bucks which are showing up on our cameras. If you hunt deer let me know how things are going for you. I’ve seen some great photos on social media already which include children who are getting their first opportunity to hunt with Mom or Dad.

Photos from this year’s season, including pre-season work days are here: 2019 CPHC Photo Album

Food Plots Erupting

Erupting. That’s how I would describe our food plots so far. We just planted them about 4 weeks ago but they are all green and growing. And they are covered with deer tracks!

We have a few feeders out too and the ground is torn up under them. I’ll get some better images from our trail cams in a couple weeks when we’re hunting. This is the first time we’ve used trail cams.

This photo is actually a picture from a computer screen Paul took with his phone. It does show a pretty clear image though.

The best news IMO is that The Pig has pigs. Yep. We’ve got a number of images of hogs at our feeders. They are nocturnal but even so, this is the first we’ve seen any sign of them since we leased the property.

A little hog and venison on the barbie is what I’m talking about.

More Wild Hog

I think this hog looks like he’s taking a nap in the back of the CPCH New Holland Rustler. Maybe he’s dreaming of sausage and bacon! At least that’s what he’s going to get turned in to.

This is another wild hog that brother Paul picked up last night from a neighbor. He’s glad the Rustler was available since this is not a small one!

I’m waiting on the details of the story since all I got so far are these photos.

I’m sure it has something to do with pigs causing property problems, getting caught in the act, subdued via a bullet and hung up for processing.

I’ll update this post when I get more information.

Destructing Hog Turned into Tasty Hog

What do you do when a feral hog is “destructing” your property? You make him in to a good, tasty hog. Here’s the story. Paul got a call from his neighbor to help him out. Fortunately for Paul our camp’s New Holland Rustler got in on the action and made transportation a snap.

A neighbor alerted us to the fact that he and his wife have seen 2 separate groups of hogs rooting and “destructing” on our land and his. We’ve not historically had a hog population in our woods, but evidently the deer food sources have brought them to us. At least 3 of the hogs sighted were described as “enormous”, and we are now on full alert.

A phone call at 11:30P woke me up with the same neighbor’s voice asking, “So you want a hog? Come get him!” I got dressed, loaded butchering equipment into the New Holland Rustler and headed through the woods to find my neighbor with a celebratory drink in one hand and a flashlight in the other. We loaded the hog he’d shot, estimated at 150-200lbs into the Rustler and drove to our hanging spot. He said this was one of 3 in the group (passel of hogs? flock? pack? gaggle? No, gaggles are reserved for geese…) In any case, this was the smallest hog in the _______ (you fill in the blank!).

This job was not as easy as skinning and cleaning a deer, but the result was well worth the effort. I found myself in the wee hours of the morning with a celebratory drink in MY hand, and a cooler full of wild hog meat! Gotta run…the smoker is calling my name…!