Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Corn Eaters of Florida (w/apologies to Corbett)

What makes it pretty miserable in the winter, at least here on the coast, is the never-ending wind and 90% humidity. Add that to 45 degrees and it'll chill the bones

But you haven't lived till you've sat in a stand when it's 90 degrees with 97% humidity...and there's not a puff of breeze. You might be right about it being a preview of hell. But the pigs like it.

Yup, it's almost 114 degrees F in May!

What's the old line about "only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun.




It's cool in the shade.


Best,

GWB

Dang, GW!

This morning is the first time in a about a month I've had the chance to go to the lease. I knew the feeders would all be empty, but there was still sign that the pigs had been under them. I guess the whirr of motor spinning the scatter-pan is like a dinner bell whether there's corn in the feeder or not.

My BIL and I filled the feeders, sighted in his new Cabela M70 7x57 (he's hooked), and were heading to fill the last feeder when we ran across this fellow...almost literally. He was about 5 feet long and was on his way back to the small flag pond from which he came. Sorry that the pic isn't the best, but this was taken with my smaartphone through the windshield of my truck and I'm not the best photographer in the world.

By the way, at 10:30 a.m. it was already 91 degrees and you could swim through the humidity. I think I'll head out some evening this week and see if I can't kill one of Ingwe's pigs. I'm sure they're going to be happy to actually get some corn when they hear the feeder fire.

Rev,

bout the same here.
I looked at the weather on my phone yesterday.
Concan Tx. (location of my lease) said it was 102 with 24% humidity. Felt like 102F.
Pearland Texas, said it was 93F, with 57% humidity, felt like 104F.
It was miserable out.

I didn't make it up to my lease for almost two months between May and July. The ranch has brought in feeder cows. Result, total devestation. Cow [bleep] everywhere, electrical cords, bungees straps chewed to pieces. Even chewed off sections of a plastic table. One of my buds had three of his four jack-up feeders destroyed. Luckily only one of mine was destroyed.
So a weekend ago I spent Thursday through Sunday filling up feeders and putting things back together. Only set out once,being the Thursday eve I arrived.Took my Merkel K1 in 9.3 x 74R to the stand along with my Thermocel( after dousing with Deep Woods Off) as the gnats and no-seeum's are like black clouds. Had three small rooters come out just after 7PM. I waited and sure enough all three lined up just long enough to get a shot.



One droppped, DRT. The other two split left and right. When I walked up to the POI, I could see meat and crap heading to the tunnel through the cactus on the left, and I'd seen the one on the right limping pretty good. There was no breeze, 95 plus degrees. I decided to go back to the stand and have a cool beverage. Buzzards gotta eat same as the worms.

Next evening I was heading to my spot at the very back of the lease. It was about 5 minutes after 7PM and it was just starting to cool down. I was approaching a feeder that had just spun. I was on my Polaris 500 pulling a trailer with 600 lbs of corn and paraphanelia for repairiring whatever had been jacked up when I saw pigs under the feeder. At my approach they scattered. I turned off the motor and got my 6 x 47 model 7 Rem. out of the scabbard. Five minutes and they were back.



If anyone doubts the ability of these critters to reproduce, this sow probably wasn't much more than six to eight months old and about 50 lbs. Had 7 football size piglets with her. Life is tough in the hill country and she was so poor from those piglets sucking the life out of her that she was positively boney. Definitely no fat hog there.

Did manage to enjoy a couple mighty-fine sunsets......




Thinking about heading back up for September 1 opening day of dove season. Last week there were almost as many white-wings as there were gnats.

Best,

GWB

Dang, Gee, that's just hot however you measure it. I mowed the grass this morning and I don't think there was a thing on me that was dry. The humidity is something else.

I have a question for you: I know you hunt with a lot of different rifles, but in your environment - which seems to be a lot like mine - do you ever really get a chance at a second shot? In other words, do you ever feel handicapped with a single shot? About the only time I ever get a chance at a second shot is when a sounder of young pigs comes in, and they're not sure what the "bang" means. Occasionally one will hold up in order to go back to the corn, but that's a pretty rare occurrence.

That's a big ol' hole, by the way. I assume he was the one in the front.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, great shot of the sky. I love watching the sun set when I'm sitting in a stand.

In reverse order, yes, that was the one in front. When I purchased this Merkel, it came with 100 rounds of handloaded 286 gr. Partitions. I've been slowly using them on hoglets.

In regards to being handicapped by a single shot? No I do not feel handicapped by a single shot.

I have an AR in 6 x 45 and access to my son's 6.8 SPC, but I really am not a black rifle guy.

Perhaps if I was under pressure to kill a bunch, maybe so, but I'm not. When it comes to killing stuff, I've always been lucky. I get to go afield enough and have been doing it long enough that if I don't kill, I'm not bothered, there's always the next time. I usually have a camera on me and I end up employing it much more than a rifle or pistol. There's almost never a time that I don't see something or have an experience that makes it worth the effort.

And as to the topography/environment........

I have five different spots that have a feeder. Four are elevated. One is ground level. All are open spaces of about 20' to 30' in diameter, in reasonably dense cover.

The ground level stand I have a box blind set up about 100 yds. away and a couple tripods that I use for bow and crossbow.



Being at ground level makes it much easier to take two or three with one shot than at an angle.

I have two feeders set up at my canopy stand. The topography of this is similar to the other three.
This one is to the northwest @ 174 yds.



You can see the stand under the black dot looking uphill from the feeder.



It's an opening about 30' in diameter.


And feeder #2 is south of the canopy stand. It is about 164 yds. to the south.....



As you can see, pretty much one shot is all you get. I have had a couple occasions where I was up close with a lever gun and have caught them running up the side of a hill and nailed 3. Also, as you mentioned, I've had a couple instances where I've shot and killed and a couple will run off and be back within a couple minutes. Most of the time that don't happen.

Best,

GWB

There must not be any goats on that ranch, otherwise they'd knock over the feeder

TNC

Almost don't see any free ranging goats anymore. I don't believe the gov't is subsidizing the mohair industry as it once did. That and predators and predation.



I have my version of a Texas slam that I took between 1995 and 2000 with rifle, bow, pistol and one with a Goodyear Wrangler AT 315-75R 16. Nothing spectacular, but all DIY, and I was into "mounts" at the time.




Aoudad




Wool sheep, with Mouflon cape (a definite story behind this one)



Rambouillet (IIRC)



Black Hawaiian



Texas Dall



Corsican


Best,

GWB

Well, let's hear it.

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3411043/m/4731087001?r=4731087001#4731087001

Best,

GWB

Great story! Still taking steaks, cigars, and Patron to your brother's in-laws?

Absolutely!

Lord willing,this will be the 15th year to hunt with those guys. Opening weekend has become more of a Rendezvous than an actual hunt. We've all slowed down a bit, but the older I get, the better I wuz!

Best,

GWB

Amen to that!

Yesterday, BIL and I went out to the lease to sit in a stand for a bit. We'd gone out earlier in the week but got skunked: there wasn't a pig in sight even though there was corn all around the feeders. At 8:30, with shooting light entirely gone, we called it a night. So we decided to try it again yesterday afternoon.

It was hot as we were driving into camp: 94f at 4:30 and not much of a breeze. There wasn't any cloud cover either, so we sat on the cabin porch for a while and let the sun drop a bit. We talked about which feeders we wanted to hunt, and since we had already been at the south feeders on Monday, we decided to try the north feeders. Normally we alternate in order to keep the pressure at a minimum.

At about 5:50 we headed out. The feeders fire at 6:00, and we normally try to be in the stands before then, but since it was hot we didn't think the pigs would be moving until almost dark. We were wrong.

I dropped BIL at the road leading to a feeder that sits on a right-of-way and I drove to a feeder about a half-mile north, close to the right-of-way but not quite on it. There is a natural head of myrtle, pine, and palm that separates the feeder from the right-of-way, and this not only provides a little shade to the feeder in late evening, but it also allows a hunter to slip to the south of the feeder and then head eastward to the stand without being seen.

I parked the truck on the access road about 30 yards from the right-of-way, crossed it to the south of the feeder, then headed in. The access path was a muddy mess, since we're finally back to our normal "summer monsoon" cycle - afternoon rains from about 2-5, which makes the humidity pretty rough - and the pigs had been using it as a wallow. Nevertheless, I was able to pick my way through the mud without getting it above my boots, and when I came to the end of the path I peered around a myrtle to see if by chance there was anything under the feeder. Sure enough, there under the feeder was a nice boar.

He had settled in to the corn pretty well, and was facing directly towards the west as he fed. If he stayed that way, I would have a perfect side shot, and I watched him for a minute or two to see if any other pigs were going to join him, but tonight he was dining alone. He raised his head to test the wind - I wasn't sure if he had winded me or not - but when he went back to eating I eased the hammer back on my old M94, put the Firesight on the base of his ear and squeezed the trigger. He hit the ground, pumped his legs a few times, then lay still.

As you can see from these pictures, he must have moved his head a bit between my brain saying, "squeeze" the bullet making impact since the bullet went through the outer part of his ear, straight into the ear canal, and directly into his brain. He never heard the shot.





Once we washed the dirt off of him he wasn't nearly as dark as he looked. He'd obviously been in the mud to escape the heat.





A little cleaner.



Anyway, about 165 pound boar taken at 6:19 p.m. on a hot summer day with a 52 year old .30-30 at 27 yards. And I never even made it to my stand. Not a bad way to end the day.

Rev. I just worked up a 223AI load for your Florida Hogs�gonna test it in Texas first, in January then descend upon Florida for Aporkalypse II: The Silence of the Hams

Sounds like you'll have to save some for me!!!

Mike, do you eat all those pigs? Seems like a powerful pile of pork.

A lot of it, yes. PPP - priest provided pork - is a favorite at parish potlucks. I also give some away to friends who like to eat organic: you don't get more organic than that.

Oh, and giving some to the Bishop is always a good thing.