Trad Gang

Seeing as how Terry Green and I had such a successful time three weekends ago, and saw such numbers of porcine invaders - I decided that another trip was called for on Mother's Day weekend.

My wife, and my own Mother, were both preoccupied and traveling that weekend anyway on what could be called "hen parties"- in other words, boys weren't welcome anyway...so I had a free shot so to speak!

Grabbed a guy I knew could pull a hog being he was a strapping fellow who is a certified pipe flinger and welder of all things round- Mike Mitchum- aka Squirrel Bait, and we beat a path back to the Savannah River basin for some swine population reduction patrols.

When we arrived, it looked like we had selected an unbelievable weekend..as the temperatures had dropped the day before our arrival to the mid seventies with a steady breeze...February weather in May!

more to follow in a little bit.

Hurry-up Ray,I am waiting ---Bone

Oh here we go again!   :D   Another long drawn out tale. But you got me already, tell on sir!    :bigsmyl:

:bigsmyl:    :bigsmyl:  I love it....Van

Just being in this place with its close formations of tall, straight pines and small gatherings of stately oaks- their beards of gray spanish moss moving gently in time with the currents of the northerly breezes is reason enough to venture here.

And the river swamp? With its vast sections of rolling sand hills and creek beds covered in palmetto, live oak, water oak,giant cypress twice the size of a standard pickup at the base, a mix of some white, red, and chestnut oaks, its a hunter's paradise.

No cell phones, no television, no traffic-just the slow steady rhythm of life moving by at its own pace, like the dark waters of the Savannah River.

Wildlife abounds:

the raucous cry and the crazy tarzan-vine -swinging flight( ala Spiderman for you youngsters) of the pileated woodpeckers, those black and white 15 inch jackhammers of the big pine woods.

The noiseless, graceful sliding flight of the scissor-tailed kites over marshes and fields

The high-gliding of bald eagles, specks at high altitude usually, and the screaming, circling flight of red tailed hawks searching out squirrels below

Armadillos scratch and dig in the duff for hidden morsels, and rabbits- cottontail and marsh- seemingly every predator's menu mainstay, abound in every thicket.

Coyote, turkey, raccoon, possum, otter, whitetail deer, each playing out its own graceful and perfect existence, and they help to make this place the closest thing I know to heaven.

Can't wait for the next part... And yes we have a cold spring, here too, in the mid 50!

Thanks,
F-Manny

You've even got scissor-tails where you hunt hogs???  What a contrast between species -- a real "beauty and the beast" scenario.  Can't wait to hear more about the hog hunt, but throw me a bone and talk a bit more about the kites!  There's nothing more graceful with feathers than a swallow-tail.

Tell it Ray!!!

The swallow tail kites mate in the early spring here.. March, perhaps, and one can see them flying together- jousting in an odd sort of way, as they approach one another, tumbling, rolling, rising up and separating only to come close again and again in midair, until satisfied in some unspoken yet equally powerful way that the other is "the right one" - and its off to build a nest and spend the next several months catching more frogs and other kite prey than one would think possible, all to satiate those beautiful downy chicks!

They don't come by the name Kite by accident- they look for all the world like a child's kite, swishing back and forth silently and effortlessly as if tethered to a  fixed point at ground level.

There's another sort of creature here, beautiful in the way a big cat stalking its prey can be beautiful: simple, powerful, malevolent, a near perfect form created solely for the purpose of catching and eating anything that comes within reach of its gaping jaws: the alligator.

A fourteen foot, eight hundred pound monster was our "prize" this day -gliding easily off the bank into Blue Lake (named for its perfect reflection of the robin egg colored southern sky seen when one wanders the elevated, meandering dirt two track along its northern edge.

There are wood storks from Florida nesting in the big cypress trees around Blue Lake- when the wind gets up the stork babies are often blown out of their nest to the water below- easy pickings for these cold blooded killers of the cypress-stained waters of Blue Lake.

Just wait , here comes the attack of the pigmy boar!!! I'm glad Ray went ahead an done this ,I can't type a story worth a crap.

Wild orchids, lillies, and a host of other flowers have splashed their vivid white, yellow, and lavender flecks across the landscape- it won't be long now though and it will be too hot and they will disappear.

Then one can look to the wet areas for another kind of color- newts and salamanders dressed in their black wetsuits splotched with blue, yellow, orange, and red. Beauty is everywhere, and here you have the time to take it in.

And don't forget the wood ducks by the hundreds, and water birds like anhingas, blue and black crowned night herons, and the snowy and american egrets, all working the wet areas for tender morsels.

I reflected on all of this as Mike and I made a quick run in my truck around the perimeter roads just to get him acclimated to his surroundings.

Get some Ray!!  :thumbsup:

Let me introduce myself, Hello I'm Mike "DRAG UNIT" Mitchum

As you can see, Mike has decided to change his handle. You will see why in a minute.

We landed back at the camp, and turned the walk in cooler on, got our gear unloaded, and began setting up our bows, putting some final touches on the broadheads, and got our ThermaCells started up.

In a few moments we were "going for a walk".

QuoteThermaCells    

What's that?  I don't get out much   :wavey:   ....Van

Van......those are the ultimate skeeter deterant...repelant...keep away...get back...bug off units.

I am not sure if you can do this on this site..but everybody ought to have one of these, Van. If you hate mosquito repellent as much as I do...you'll never go without one. I haven't bought DEET products in 5 years now because of them.

http://hunting.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=hunting&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mosquitorepellent.com

Just in front of the camp is a 6 acre rectangular field of bahia grass (looks like thin winter wheat)bordered on two sides by a very thick cutover and replanted pine plantation. The pines are approx. 10 feet tall, and in between the rows of pines are blackberry vines, and lots of pigs!

The cutover holds water, which contains crayfish, salamanders,a few snakes, rabbits (yes, pigs eat rabbits if they catch them)and when berries are on the vines, you are talking about ice cream to a pig- they absolutely go mad for blackberries.

I always check the far end of this field for pigs- it rolls downhill from the view of the camp, its close to the thick pines, and its where the pork enters the field in the afternoon.

Mike and I split up and entered the field, working methodically right out of camp toward the far end. It probably seemed a little silly to Mike but I have the benefit of lots of experience on this place, and I know that all too often there have been big sounders of pigs out in that field in the evenings working that bahia grass, so we were hunting!

We kept hearing something, but the wind was a little bit noisy, and we weren't sure. Then Mike signaled that he had spotted something moving, but wasn't sure what. I was closer to the location as we worked our way in, and at about 15 steps from the edge of the thicket it exploded with two racing forms running across a little thin area under the pines, moving to a trail that headed toward the heart of the cutover. PIGS!

Mike and I looked at each other and silently chuckled- this was a good sign getting into game so quickly out of camp...what? maybe 10 minutes or less?

Then we heard it- a very upset pig was grunting and fuming from within the thicket. I couldn't see but I could definitely hear that someone was very unhappy about something and it was beginning to dawn on me that WE were what he was upset about.

It got louder, and louder- I couldn't see it, but I could hear it getting closer and louder and more demonstrative with each grunt- he was angry. Angry we had awakened him? Angry we had chased off his buddies? Who knows...but he was mad, and he was coming! I drew back part way and waited...and about 10 feet from me this nose popped out of the undergrowth and gave a very big grunt.

I didn't feel the draw, or the release- all I saw was the arrow flash past the edge of the snout and enter the neck past its cheek, and the pines exploded with a pig screaming and running into stuff...then silence. It was over, just like that.

Dang it, I didn't want to stay up this late waiting for your next post.

:bigsmyl:

At this point, we have pork on the ground and we just started walking out of camp!  Mike walked right in and grabbed that sucker by the leg and snatched him out of the thicket to the field- we were dragging...er, I mean, Mike was draggin'- as I had just been diagnosed with a hernia about 4 days earlier and was told not to lift anything heavy -and Mike was determined that I wasn't going to either!

The hog was on the small side for something so blustery. He weighed probably 50 lbs and was a calico hog with a rusty red background and black and brown spots all over him- what he lacked in stature he sure made up for in bravado- he SOUNDED like he weighed a hundred fifty pounds. Oh well, he would eat GREAT at that size! And, its the first time I have EVER been charged so that was pretty exciting!

By the way, I highly recommend this "hernia" ploy anytime you are going hunting..feel free to use it as it works like a charm with any fellow hunter worth his salt. And if you get a little tear in your eye as you  tell the tale of the doctor visit where you learn of your predicament it will seal the deal for you. He will bust HIS gut to keep you from injuring yourself further.

At any rate, we (Mike "drag unit" Mitchum) dragged the hog out to where we could get it in the truck and took it to the shed. That's when we realized we had left all our camera equipment back in Atlanta! Yikes! We decided to dress the hog and hang him, and go back to hunting immediately. We would go to town and get a disposable (yuck) 35MM camera after dark.

We got after them again, deciding to drive to a different area to begin our hunt since we had burned so much daylight getting the Mad Tusker (yeah, right!) cleaned up and in the walk in cooler so we headed out East to a crossroads I planned on us parking at and splitting up, moving in two directions to cover more ground.

Before we could get to the crossroads Mike spots hogs in the distance, crossing the road just beyond my intended parking spot.

We moved on up a little shy of where I had originally planned and since I had shot first I had Mike move on up to get in behind the pigs and hopefully get him some meat made.

I took a left on a dim trail short of where Mike was, on another road that paralleled the area of the cutover the pigs had gone into. I eased along, listening and standing more than moving, when all of a sudden I hear pigs moving toward me on my left side- a different bunch!

They were in a patch of cane, below my position on the trail- next to a 4 acre square of 12-15 foot tall pines. I could hear it was a mob, but couldn't see to count. They were close, some as little as 3 feet away in that dense cane, rooting.  All of a sudden one of them moved up onto the road 6 feet in front of me- and gave me on of those pig stares- you know, like "what do YOU want!" and he turns it on, moving across the trail grunting, into the patch where Mike is headed on my right. I thought the jig was up then but all it did was make the rest of the mob move out of the cane into the pines where I coul d see them- all of them were black, and about the same size- 30 to 40 lbs and real noisy! Then a rusty red one about 10-15 lbs heavier than the rest moved across an opening and again, I didn't feel the draw or release- just saw the arrow in the hog- and in a flash the rest busted out of there and my hog was down for the count!

I waited about 10 minutes, listening, and moved over into the pines to recover my game. Two hogs down in less than two hours...I hoped Mike was having some luck!

Just as I began pulling the hog out, here comes Drag Unit (no, he doesn't wear dresses!) Mitchum to the rescue- telling me he couldn't get on the mob he was after, backed out when he heard mine squeal, and just as he got on the road he saw about 15 black hogs run out across the main road in front of our truck, crossing into another patch of timber. (those were the buddies of the hog I had just taken)

We got the second pig in the back of the truck, and moved up the road again, to check another spot and hopefully get Drag Unit a shot!

Great story! CK

Bout danged time! You'd think they had been workin or something since they got back, must be all them "honey-do's" fer missin mothers day?   :saywhat:    :rolleyes:

Good Job Ray I love reading these.

Keep it coming.  I love hog stories.

We moved down between Blue Lake and a cutover that has big wet areas just off the two track- easy afternoon spots to catch a hog rooting in the mud close to the road so you can sneak up quiet and get a shot off.

You always move slow late in the day...listening more than moving...cause usually you hear a pig before you see a pig.

Mike was out in front, me backing him up..and I knew pretty quick he was going to get a chance. I could hear them, even with my one bad ear just slopping in the mud ahead of me. Then I heard the soft locator grunts they use to communicate  with when feeding.

I kept one eye on the wet spots and brush, hoping for a glimpse, and the other on Mike, knowing he would likely get on them before me.

As predicted, I soon watched Mike raise up, draw, and release his big 190 Ribtek-tipped aluminum shaft-right over the hogs back!! His usual deadliness had apparently been distracted by too much hog-draggin', or not enough recent practice.

We remained quiet, as the hogs scattered at the shot, hoping for another chance. True to form, their gluttony got the best of them and they quickly began moving out of the brush again, into the wet, to feed.

Mike raised up, drew, and promptly shot over a second time! Yikes. I've known Mike quite a while, and seen him shoot under pressure- the boy doesn't miss much either on foam or hair so it was disconcerting to him and me. I tried to ease his obvious displeasure as the hogs moved off into the cutover, offering no more opportunities this night.

Goodness knows I know what its like to miss, and knew it was a temporary thing and that he would work it out on the target at camp in a few minutes.

Keep it coming!   :notworthy:

We drove back to camp and took care of pig #2, and got the coals going on the fire for some home made ground sirloin cheeseburgers to go with the field green salad we had planned for supper.

We sharpened up broadheads, talked about the day, as the burgers sizzled on the grill. It had been a good day, especially in light of the fact that I had come home the previous weekend with no pork.

As the stars and clouds changed places overhead, and a full moon rose to light the woods a pale, ghostly silver, we practiced a little shooting. Coyotes howled out there in the dark...all was right with this corner of the world, anyway.

After supper we drove into Barnwell to get a camera..and made it just in time for Wally World to close. Oh well, tomorrow we would get a camera. Off to bed we went as soon as we got back, and sleep came fast.

Up at oh dark thirty, it was raining softly and low gray clouds were skudding quickly by as we dressed and drank our rich, cowboy style coffee in the almost morning soft light.

We took our time getting ready, knowing the pigs had likely fed during the night and were laying up now...but as soon as we could see well we wanted to hit the street, so to speak, and see what all had been moving around during the night.

As we suspected there was a ton of activity during darkness, with huge amounts of sign including some very large tracks in the areas we searched, but there was nothing stirring at all this morning. We finally just gave in after 4 or 5 hours and headed for camp, changed, and made for town to get a disposable camera.

We returned in a couple hours, had lunch, got our gear together, shot a couple dozen arrows and headed out to show Mike some more of the property.

We IMMEDIATELY found pigs moving around at the first intersection- the GANG O' SIX I called them- all black, all teenage boars- out looking for trouble. And Mike was gonna give them what they were looking for. He got out, grabbed his rig and headed off to smoke some pork!

The wind is fickle though, in these flatlands, and often betrays you. He moved quickly to close the gap, but in the end had to watch them disappear into the cutover like smoke in a breeze.

Rats!

We then drove around, looking at more sign to see where we needed to focus our attention this evening. We saw loads of sign laid down during the night, even in the river swamp itself which had been hammered hard by the hogs during the last week or so. It was going to be difficult picking a place to concentrate our efforts.

We decide to split up and double our chances..Mike spent his time on pigs pretty much all afternoon, and had some near close encounters, but no cigar.

I spent most of my afternoon "walking with weapons". The scenery was nice...there was a good breeze blowing..but all I saw were turkeys, deer, and a coyote. Then I began walking back toward the big crossroads to turn for camp(I was actually thinking about supper- I wanted to get the charcoal going, because we had some great looking NY strips marinating in Dale's Sauce in the fridge!)as I was getting kind of hungry.

I get to the crossroads and who do I see but the Gang of Six...all strung out and feeding near the first crossroads.

I quickly got off the road, and entered the cutover and worked my way close to them, and hooked back out to the edge to reconnoiter their position. Holy cow, there they were- they must've been moving quick to get this far up so fast! I loaded my Centaur and waited. I was wishing the whole time that Mike were here..and then they moved through my shooting lane in the trail- but instead of my usual not thinking about it- just lettin' it happen- I tried to be cute and MAKE the shot happen. You know what's coming next- MMMMMMIIIIISSSSSSSS right over his back! Off they go, into the other side of the road thickets...DANG!

Well, I've done this enough I know a quiet bow can often lead to second chances so I just hung in there- not moving except to slowly load up another Grizzly tipped carbon and wait.

It wasn't long- maybe 10 minutes- and here they come again...back out the same hole...and cross my shooting lane again. Again, me being the smart fella I am- I decide to FORCE the issue again and !Voila!- another MMMMMIIIIIISSSSSS.

Off they go. Well, I was just dumb enough to stay put once more and it wasn't five minutes they came back out again. This time I just went with the flow and things worked like they should this time with that familiar watermelon thumping sound and a passel of pork stretched out headed for the promised land. I saw my arrow stickin' out of him side to side like a Steve Martin sight gag and I said to myself, self, that is one dead pig right there!

I heard him and the others in the brush, about 30 to 40 yards in raisin' sand...all upset..then everything got quiet.

Mike was coming down the road shortly after that and spotted me so he came down to see what was happening. I explained the situation and because it was getting cloudy, and we weren't sure of the rain situation we decided we would get on the trail...but guess what? No trail to follow..not one drop. But we did know where the sound came from so we went in on the two possible trails, sort of paralleling each other into the thicket of the cutover, and worked the trails out trying to pick up sign. Footprints was about all we could muster, and we just stuck it out for about 60 yards and Mike clicked his tongue to tell me he had him spotted and we moved in, checked his eye and slapped each other's hands. Splash THREE pigs for the ol' Centaur! He was black with a white blaze on his nose, and weighed about 125 lbs. The drag unit went to work again while I carried his bow and we got the pig loaded and moved him to the skinnin shed, cleaned him out, and hung him in the cooler.  Steaks, HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!

 (http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e322/rayhammond123/SavannahRiverMothersDay06.jpg)

The pigs in this picture were already field dressed, so they look even smaller than they were!

I'd tell you about the fantastic steaks, so tender you could cut them with a fork, and A1? Forget that stuff...these tasted too good to use any kind of sauce on them,and the cool salad and cold adult beverages we enjoyed with them, and how we sat outside listening to teh night sounds of the whipoorwill and owls and coyotes doing their things...but you probably wouldn't be interested much so I will spare you the details!

Did someone say: MISS!!! Ray, I told you the reason was , I had already told myself not to shoot one of them small piggies and then when I decided to shoot my mind hadn't caught up with me yet! That's got to be the only explanation?

dddhuh????   :bigsmyl:    :thumbsup:    :campfire:    :archer:

Hey wait , I resemble that remark!!  :banghead:

Sounds like a perfect weekend to me - good friends and food, great hog hunting, nobody got snake bit, and the women didn't care that the guys were having so much fun.  The only way to top that was for Drag Unit to not mmmmmmiss.  I'm jealous.  I gotta remember the old "I have a hernia" trick.........

Congratulations Ray, A well deserved weekend for you brother.

we ain't finished yet....We are off to bed and then Sunday morning hunt is yet to come...hang in there while we get a couple winks.

Got some hogs to attend to or I'd stay for the conclusion. Guess I'll pick up where I left off when I get back. Hope I have a story as good as this when I get back bud... way to stack em!
  :thumbsup:

Dang, No sence in me comming your way Ray. I think yall went and kilt all the pigs.  :D  
I really like the two brown ones!   :thumbsup:  CK

:thumbsup:    :thumbsup:

Curtis, we left plenty for seed, brother.

Sunday morning- dawn breakin', low clouds, comfortable temps, and a soft drizzle at gray light. Coffee up, and out we go.

We walked, walked some more, and then a little more...not one animal was stirring.

We decided to drive down into the swamp and check things out and NADA, nothing! It was like God "beamed 'em up"- we didn't even scare up a deer or a turkey.

As we drove out of the swamp a little let down if you want to know the truth, and were headed back to the main intersection just out of camp we spot some pigs running off into the big woods and Mike grabs his bow and gets after 'em.

I continued on to the camp to start packin' stuff and getting the camp cleaned up so we could leave later in the day.

In an hour and a half I got everything done and headed back to check on Mike and what do you know? He got on the piggies and stayed with 'em, ghosting them through their travels down the road, and when they ducked off into some thickets he knew they would be back out so he hauled buggy down to where they entered and sure enough, in just a couple minutes here they come back out to the road and he center punched one!

(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e322/rayhammond123/hammond-R1-046-21A.jpg)

I'm sorry these photos are so bad but with just a disposable camera and the weather was getting nasty, threatening rain, they just didnt come out very well.

All in all we had a great weekend. The interesting thing was, with the full moon and all, we didn't see ANY large pigs at all. Lots of sign that they had moved around during the night...but they didn't appear during daylight hours..other than that one with all the small piglets we killed the biggest pigs we saw but we saw a TON of smaller pigs.

The big ones were there...they just weren't moving around in daylight.

AWESOME tale Ray! Way ta go fellers....that spot is certainly turning out to be hotttttttt  :readit:  

Now if we could just get Mike to smile in his pics  

JC, in his defense, he was plumb wore out from DRAGGIN'  !!!!

After we got back to the skinning shed, we had to skin, clean, and cut up all four pigs and that took about an hour and a half..then shower and change, have our leftover burgers for lunch, and we headed toward civilization!

We were both WORE OUT!!!!!

"Drag Unit".....yeah, that fits   :D  

You gonna bring that sweet lil bow so I kin shoot it?

I concure,...the last morning of Ray's and my hunt Ray went for a walk all by himself...and I skinned and quartered 500#s of hogs...all by meself. Course that's not what I think about while I'm smelling that smoker.

What's cool about this story for me is that I really can see it in my minds eye, cause I've been there.

Congrats guys...and thanks for sharing the story.   :thumbsup:

Great story, wonderfully told. Thanks Ray, I too felt like I was walking with you.  :thumbsup:

absolutely, JC...on June 10th if the creek don't rise I will be in Ranger with her for you to shoot...I want to see that pretty new house of yours.

Thanks, SuperK, it's fun writing them when you have that much happening!

Heck , I was smiling!!!  :bigsmyl:  Man I worked hard, pamper Ray, drag hog , pamper Ray , drag another hog , pamper Ray , stay up too late, pamper Ray , drag another dang hog , pamper Ray , total mental let down , pamper myself, pamper Ray, eat too much , pamper Ray , stay up too late , pamper Ray , kill hog , drag hog, pamper Ray, dress hogs , pamper Ray, half wet, walked 20 miles, pamper Ray some more, and then have to go back home!!! But I spent all weekend with one of my best friends!!! I'm smiling   :bigsmyl:

The pleasure was all mine, Drag Unit!!!!!!!!!   :bigsmyl:    :bigsmyl:

Mr. Ray, I guess you got out of this Mother's Day OK, least you bought the groceries.  Um brought home the groceries.

Hellooooooooo Mikey, its me, your favorite nurse.    :wavey:

Hello BEAUTIFUL!!!! your just my favorite period!!!

unless I miss my guess, Mike's blood pressure just jumped a few points---and I'm not even there

Yep, That woman is a sweetheart!!!! And TG is my Hero!!! Hey by the way Terry, where's my Pic of the ladies with there quivers, you promised me a year ago?????

ttt for Terry

Lemme see what I can do this weekend!!!!!!