Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Alabama Deer and Pigs at Ruzic Farms

A couple friends and I were looking to do a late hunt after our home state deer season was over. After some internet research and phone calls I decided on Ruzic Farms in Alabama and booked a 3 day hunt for Jan. 18, 19, 20.
The farm is a 2800 acre cattle operation owned by Anita Ruzic. She only books one party at a time and leaves several days between groups so the deer are not too pressured. Her friend Dale emailed me a map of stand locations and spent a good deal of time on the phone with me discussing specifics a week prior. On this hunt with me was my friend Bill from IN and Rick and Neil from NC. Anita told us it was OK to arrive mid-day on Saturday before our hunt started on Sunday and do some scouting. Bill and I arrived around noon and Anita met us at the gate.

Dale arrived a short time later and went over the map with us as well as pointing out landmarks from the high ground at the entrance.

The North half of the farm is gently rolling hills of pasture, fields, food plots and thickets.


Running East/West in the middle of the property is an old railroad berm, the Dinky line.

South of the Dinky are more fields, and food plots along with some creek bottom swampy ground and big hardwoods.


Bill and I checked out a few stands in the South section and he decided he liked Foots Field as a starting spot the next day. After checking two more stand locations I headed into Church Field and saw a buck standing in the food plot at 2:00 in the afternoon. I quickly decided that is where I wanted to start Sunday morning and backed out.

We checked out a few of the Northern stand locations including the White House.


Then Bill and I met up with Rick and Neil who had arrived around 3:00. We all headed over to the guest house and settled in. The guest house was a fairly new home built on the site of Anita's family home which had burned down several years back. It had three bedrooms and baths, big living room, kitchen, garage for gear and a deer skining pole out back. Here is our group in the living room.

Anita stopped by and showed us where breakfast and lunch foot was stocked and went over the hunt rules, one buck 8 points or better, one doe, and kill all the hogs and coyote you see. We were ready to start hunting the next day.

Sunday, Jan. 18
Bill drops me off at the Church Field and heads on down to his stand at Foots. I settled into the shooting house and sipped a little coffee as the rising sun started to light the field. I had told myself that I wanted to shoot a buck before anything else. I changed my mind in short order when three pigs stepped into the South end of the field about 10 minutes after full light. I had never hunted pigs and thought "Why wait!". I picked out the largest one and put the crosshairs at the base of his ear (Rick told me to shoot them in the head). The shot from my Tikka .270 echoed across the creek bottom. Two pigs scattered to the woods but one was down for the count in the field 135 yards away.


I thought that might have blown the chance for a deer that morning but stayed in the stand just in case. An hour later I see a spike buck coming in from the North. He dropped into the woods just as he reached the edge of the food plot. So deer are still moving through the area. I texted Rick and Bill to see how they were doing. Rick had passed a small 8, Bill had seen does, a spike and a 6 point. I look up and there is a nice 8 point feeding in the field just 30 yards from the dead pig. The .270 goes back to work and breaks his shoulder. He stumbles to the woods but never makes it. I am a happy hunter.



You can see the pig in the field behind the buck.

I text Rick and he and Neil head over with the 4 wheelers to help. While waiting I get the stupid idea to drag the pig over to the deer for a picture. Only about 80 yards but it wore me out.

Neil and Rick arrive and Neil tells me he used to raise hogs and this one was at least 200 pounds. It had a bigger body than the buck. We took some more pictures then got the work started.



I said it was the best Sunday morning I had spent in Church in a long time. More on the rest of the trip will be posted tomorrow.

Nice story and pics!

That's pretty cool! Perfect mid-winter getaway too!

I'm jealous, that place looks great.

Congratulations. Looks like a fun hunt.

Nice ! How did the other guys do?

Well that's down home for me. When I lived in Alabama I hunted in a couple of clubs nearby in Bellamy and Whitfield. Lots of critters down there.

cool

Thanks for taking the time to write the story of your hunt and also for the great photos. It looks like a stellar time was had!

Well done! Sure beats what was going on in this state during those dates.

Enjoyed... thanks for sharing!

Sunday afternoon the 18th,
Back to the guest houst at noon for a quick lunch then skinning and quartering and getting meat into the cooler. Than around 2:30 we headed back out to the stands, me and Bill in the same places and Rick and Neil decide to try a couple food plots down in the river bottom. I decided I was not going to shoot a doe that evening, two days left to hunt and I had done enough skinning for one day. So I settled into the shooting house and the first visitors I had were three tom turkeys.

Then about an hour before dark a few does on the South end of the field.

With about 10 minutes of light left the does all became alert and looked past my blind to the North. I looked out the front window to see what got their attention. Pigs!

Two boars, a sow and 4 little ones. The nearest boar was only 35 yards away so he was my first target. Another DRT behind the ear. As the others broke for the far woods line I lined up on the nose of the back one and touched off another round. Another bang flop, this one on the sow. I lined up on one piglet but only got a click as I had not reloaded my clip after shooting the buck that morning. WOW! What a day. I went from never killing a pig to taking 3 and a buck in one day. We left them in the field over night as Rick had shot a doe and needed to get her taken care of.


Took some pictures in good light the next morning.

[img]http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l528/54Woody/imagejpg6_zps3f325792.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l528/54Woody/imagejpg12_zpsec08be6a.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1122.photobucket.com/albums/l528/54Woody/imagejpg13_zps7bd20638.jpg[/img]

I told Anita about the last two pigs at dinner time. She said to shoot the sow first next time. Helps control the population spread. Also said if I keep killing pigs she would buy me a box of ammo.
Bill and Neil both saw does the first evening but did not take any.
Monday the 19th. I am back in the Church Field and willing to fill my doe tag. Bill changes to a plot on the North end of the farm. Rick and Neil are in the river bottom again.
I see a button buck as the only deer that morning. But I also see the 4 little pigs come out and mill around and try to nurse the dead sow. I was a little reluctant to shoot them but decided if I could line two up for one shot I would give it a go. Missed low and off they went.

Bill saw 6 does that morning and let them walk hoping a buck would follow. No such luck. Rick and Neil saw more does, no shots.
More updates later.

Monday Afternoon the 19th
Bill sat in the same North stand as the morning hoping to see a couple of the does he passed on in the morning. He was getting an itchy trigger finger. Rick and Neil hunted South but I forget which stands. I switched to a North stand located on a small knoll between a green field and a broadleaf food plot.


I killed some time taking some pictures of birds.

The about 4:30 two does step out into the food plot about 170 yards away.

I decided to watch them for a while. They were feeding toward me and I wanted them to face the field road so they would not run in the thicket when I shot.

Also wanted to hold off because Bill was nearby and I didn't want to spook anything in his direction.

I sent Bill a text 30 minutes later and all he had seen was turkeys.

The does were now only 65 yards from me so when one turned broadside facing the field road I took the shot.

Nothing dramatic on this one. Small doe, ran the right direction and eliminated 50 yards of drag to the truck. Dressed her, loaded her and picked up Bill. Five minutes after my shot I heard two shots from the South. Both Rick and Neil had shot does (Anita gave us the OK to take an extra doe if we wanted). We headed into the sunset. One day to go. Update tomorrow.