A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough have the opportunity to hunt hogs in Georgia with some good friends and family. I drove down with my dad (clay319) and my buddy Bob (americanbob) for a 3 day hog hunt. We were near Americus, GA, and truly out in the boonies. We had the good fortune of knowing a friend of a friend with access to 800 acres of swampland down south, so we were headed to a free hunt, but with extremely few instructions. We were pretty much told to "bring guns and waterproof boots" and we'll have a great time.
My dad and I had hunted hogs once before in Texas, but it was done with dogs and knives (THAT is an absolute hoot!) so we didn't really know what to expect. Since all of us are pretty solid gun fanatics, we did as you might expect- we brought it all. I personally brought my .44 mag Redhawk revolver, a Remington 700 AAC-SD, and a suppressed 300BLK 9" AR15 pistol. (Turns out, I was still unprepared. More on that later.) The other guys brought plenty of guns as well, the most interesting was probably americanbob's .308 FR8 frankengun, with a fixed 4x scope and bayonet to match. (Unfortunately he didn't get the chance to bayonet any hogs, but he still won the award for coolest gun.)
Upon arrival, night had already set in, but our host asked if we wanted to go for a little walk. We obliged, and what followed was a 3 mile ruck in the dark through the swamp, blindly stumbling through the mud. (I was vividly reminded of basic training...) We did jump a group of hogs, but no one had a shot in the thick swamp. We returned to our trucks, and our host then put each of us in a tree stand near feeders, which he uses for deer hunting. We had considered that we might hunt at night, so we all mounted flashlights on our rifles accordingly. I had brought a Gen 1 night vision monocular, and one of the guys had managed to get ahold of some real Gen 3 military NODs, so we were eager to give it a try.
30 minutes into our stand hunt, I heard a noise near the feeder. I raised up the monocular, and could just barely make out the outline of a pig rooting around the feeder. I took a deep breath and flipped on the flashlight, ready to blast away! -and discovered that my Inforce WML, while throwing a really nice bright light, barely reached the feeder 80 yards away! On the plus side, hogs seem completely unconcerned about flashlights. This one didn't so much as glance in my direction. What started then was a strange back-and-forth between the NV and the red dot, as I tried desperately to make out my target. Finally the pig moved a bit closer, and I could make out his outline in the dim light. Not a perfect shot, but pigs are considered vermin down there, and any shot is considered a good shot. I squeezed the trigger, and the 300BLK made a funny pffft noise through the suppressor. I could actually hear the thump of the round strike home, but the pig lit out into the bushes, seemingly moving at full speed.
When I got out of the stand, I checked for blood, and did not find any, although I knew I had scored a hit. Our host later said this was fairly common, and frequently hogs won't bleed for the first 50 yards or so. No one else saw anything that night, so we called it and went to our hotel for the night, ready for an early morning.
-End of day one-
My dad and I had hunted hogs once before in Texas, but it was done with dogs and knives (THAT is an absolute hoot!) so we didn't really know what to expect. Since all of us are pretty solid gun fanatics, we did as you might expect- we brought it all. I personally brought my .44 mag Redhawk revolver, a Remington 700 AAC-SD, and a suppressed 300BLK 9" AR15 pistol. (Turns out, I was still unprepared. More on that later.) The other guys brought plenty of guns as well, the most interesting was probably americanbob's .308 FR8 frankengun, with a fixed 4x scope and bayonet to match. (Unfortunately he didn't get the chance to bayonet any hogs, but he still won the award for coolest gun.)
Upon arrival, night had already set in, but our host asked if we wanted to go for a little walk. We obliged, and what followed was a 3 mile ruck in the dark through the swamp, blindly stumbling through the mud. (I was vividly reminded of basic training...) We did jump a group of hogs, but no one had a shot in the thick swamp. We returned to our trucks, and our host then put each of us in a tree stand near feeders, which he uses for deer hunting. We had considered that we might hunt at night, so we all mounted flashlights on our rifles accordingly. I had brought a Gen 1 night vision monocular, and one of the guys had managed to get ahold of some real Gen 3 military NODs, so we were eager to give it a try.
30 minutes into our stand hunt, I heard a noise near the feeder. I raised up the monocular, and could just barely make out the outline of a pig rooting around the feeder. I took a deep breath and flipped on the flashlight, ready to blast away! -and discovered that my Inforce WML, while throwing a really nice bright light, barely reached the feeder 80 yards away! On the plus side, hogs seem completely unconcerned about flashlights. This one didn't so much as glance in my direction. What started then was a strange back-and-forth between the NV and the red dot, as I tried desperately to make out my target. Finally the pig moved a bit closer, and I could make out his outline in the dim light. Not a perfect shot, but pigs are considered vermin down there, and any shot is considered a good shot. I squeezed the trigger, and the 300BLK made a funny pffft noise through the suppressor. I could actually hear the thump of the round strike home, but the pig lit out into the bushes, seemingly moving at full speed.
When I got out of the stand, I checked for blood, and did not find any, although I knew I had scored a hit. Our host later said this was fairly common, and frequently hogs won't bleed for the first 50 yards or so. No one else saw anything that night, so we called it and went to our hotel for the night, ready for an early morning.
-End of day one-