Georgia Hog Hunting Write-up: Year 3

[roscott]

Another awesome trip hog hunting down in Georgia! Once again, a great group of guys, great experiences, and lots of lessons learned! Hopefully y'all will enjoy reading about it.

(If you are interested in reading about years 1-2, here are the write-ups, although the pics probably no longer work.)
https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/great-outdoors/449903-georgia-hog-hunt-write-up.html

https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...eorgia-hog-hunt-round-2-write-up-finally.html

We headed down on a Wednesday to a 1,000 acre property back in the swamp near Americus, GA. We are fortunate enough to have a friend that has access to the property, and we are able to come hunt all the hogs we like, provided we don't touch the deer.

6.5 Grendel has taken the cake as our preferred hog caliber. We all used exclusively Grendels, with the exception of the reappearance of my 8.5" Blackout pistol from year 1. From top to bottom:
Clay's 16" Ballistic Advantage barreled 6.5 Grendel with an Aimpoint red dot and a YHM Resonator can.
Nate's 16" Odin barreled 6.5 Grendel with an Aimpoint and YHM Resonator can.
Reid's 12.5" Ballistic Advantage barreled 6.5 Grendel with Leupold 2-7x33 VXR and SIG can.
Bob's 12" PSA 6.5 Grendel with Primary Arms 1-6x24 and YHM Resonator can.
Jeff's 8.5" PSA 300BLK with Burris 1-4x24 and YHM Resonator can.

It would really pay off having everyone shooting suppressed guns, and we were all very pleased with the Grendel's performance on hogs.

We arrived after dark, but hustled to get out to our predetermined spots. Finally getting familiar with the property is starting to pay off, and we were able to decide on hunting spots before we arrived.

We didn't see much the first night, although Nate had a Pulsar Thermal scope which he used to scan an open field in front of him. Nothing but deer and raccoons showed up, until the very end of the night when he turned and saw a big bobcat looking right at him from 20 yards away! He swung and fired, dropping the cat. He was very excited, as he lives in a part of Illinois that has plenty of bobcats but practically no bobcat hunting permits. He was thrilled to finally shoot one, and had it caped by a nearby processor with the intention of having a full body mount done when he got back to Illinois.

That was the end of day one. We hadn't seen any pigs yet, but the fun had already started and we were excited to be back in the morning!

 

[roscott]

Day 2- Thursday

We loaded up and headed into the swamp after a leisurely morning and breakfast. We had learned the hard way the first year that hunting until 2am, then trying to wake up and be back out before sunrise just resulted in a bunch of exhausted hunters, so we settled into a pattern of hunting until about midnight and returning about 10am.

The weather was not as warm as last year, which meant there were not as many alligators and snakes swimming around the swamp with us, much to our relief. Apparently some of the snakes did not get the memo, and Bob had one come swimming toward him while we mucked our way through the water. Fortunately he was able to get out of its way in time, although he admitted he was more than ready to start blasting if it came within his personal bubble! Maybe someone here on INGO can ID the snake for us. We weren't sure if it was venomous, but we certainly weren't keen to find out!

Just a few moments after bumping into the snake, I spotted movement in the brush. I dialed my scope up to 7 power for a closer look, and spotted a tail swinging back and forth! Pigs! I could suddenly recognize what I was looking at, and 4 or 5 medium-small pigs were rooting around in the soft mud. I paused to look for Bob and my Dad who were pushing through the swamp with me, but they were about 50 yards back and the pigs had turned towards me. Feeling that there was no time to waste, I centered on the shoulder of the nearest pig and squeezed the trigger. The pig shrieked and they all bolted away. I took off at a dead sprint, hoping to head them off and push them back toward the other shooters. I managed to get alongside a white and black pig, but couldn't both run through the tangled vines and shoot at the same time. I stopped and raised my Grendel, firing at the pig but missing.

Apparently I succeeded in forcing some of the pigs back toward my dad and Bob, but they weren't able to connect. We regrouped and walked back to where I thought I had first shot, but we couldn't locate the pig! I felt sure of the shot, but was still immensely relieved to turn up some blood on the ground. We tracked about 30 yards through the marsh, following a surprisingly heavy blood trail before we finally located the hog. Our first pig was down! It was by no means a trophy, but we were amped up to be back in the swamp and already have successfully gotten into pigs.

We had to wrap up in the swamp at that point, because we had made extra plans this year. We had reservations with Southern Hog Control, a professional hog hunting crew that had access to dozens of fields, and provided Remington AR10's in 308, topped with Pulsar Thermals for us to use. While we really enjoyed hunting on our own, we were excited to try something new and see what a professional outfit had to offer.

We met up with Jackson from Southern Hog Control, a great guy and excellent host for the evening. We confirmed zeroes on our assigned 308 thermals, made a quick stop for BBQ, and headed out for the evening. We drove from field to field and scanned with thermals, looking for the bright white dots that indicated heat. Several times we thought we spotted a sounder, but it turned out to be a herd of deer out for the night. Finally Jackson gave the word we had been anticipating, and asked, "Who wants to shoot a pig?"

The initial set was just a single boar in the middle of the field. We voted my dad (Clay) and Bob to be the first up to the plate. Carrying their rifles and tripods, they followed Jackson into the dark. With their rifles slung, they couldn't look with thermal to check on the boar's location, so they had to trust to Jackson and his thermal handheld to put them in the right spot. Finally he stopped them and whispered for them to set up their tripods and get ready. Downwind from the pig and in the complete dark they had total surprise on their side. At about 75 yards, Jackson whispered 3, 2, 1, and both hunters fired. The boar dropped as though struck by lightning! We never got a finished weight on him, but Jackson said he was really a big boar and probably approached 300 pounds.

We drove into the field with Jackson's off-road golf cart to collect the boar, which Bob had already decided to keep the skull from. Then we piled back into the truck to go look for more hogs.

Before long we came upon a group of 4 hogs. Jackson took Nate, Jeff, Bob and myself out to shoot this group, with my dad drawing the unlucky job of waiting with the truck to bring the golf cart after we shot. We cautiously stalked toward the pigs, eager for our chance at the hunt. Jackson later admitted that since my dad and Bob had done such a good job of stalking quietly, that he intended to sneak us very close to the hogs to ensure successful shots.

Unfortunately when Jackson told us to set up our tripods and get ready to shoot, Jeff's rifle barrel connected with his tripod and made a distinctly metallic *clink*. Jackson looked through his thermal and hurriedly said, "If you're set, shoot!" We had been busted. Nate and I managed to get our thermals turned on in time to take a couple shots at the rapidly departing sounder, but it was too late. The hogs had won this round.

We tried not to let it get our spirits down, and certainly tried to make Jeff feel better about the situation. Jeff is not as avid a hunter as the rest of the group, and he seemed to think his lack of skill was to blame for our busted stalk. We reassured him that while thermal hog hunting has a high probability of success, it is still called hunting, not killing. Stalking is stalking, and the chances of getting busted are what make it so exciting. Everybody makes mistakes regardless of their level of experience, and we did our best to encourage him.

Soon enough, we were back on the hogs. We pulled into a large field and Jackson spotted a very large sounder, maybe 30 strong. They had heard our truck and moved away, but were still in the area. We quickly disembarked and geared up, with Bob stuck in the unfortunate role of remaining behind with the golf cart. (We could only take four shooters max, as we had sort of secured a "discount" hunt from Southern Hog Control. They had a one night opening, but only 4 rifles available that night. Given the circumstances, we had been more than happy to rotate shooters.)

We stalked across the open field toward the sounder, which was already jumpy due to hearing our truck. They were still feeding, but were moving from left to right in front of us as they fed. We angled to the right to head them off. As we came within range, we encountered a drainage ditch between us and the sounder. Although we were still over 100 yards away, Jackson gave the order to set up and get ready. You may be thinking that 100 yards is a pretty easy shot, and you are not wrong- as it regards the first shot. Fast moving targets 100 yards away can be tricky, especially when you really need a CNS or major bone hit to drop them.

In just a few seconds, Jackson was giving the countdown. We all picked out a hog, and after he counted 3, 2, 1, we cut loose. At that point I no longer worried about what the other guys were doing. I dropped my first pig with a shot through the front two shoulders, and then began putting rounds out towards the running hogs! Jackson was cautioning us to conserve ammo, but the mass of pigs was too tempting. I put several rounds into a really big boar before running my gun dry! Feeling the bolt lock back, I instinctively reached to my hip for my next mag, before realizing that I wasn't shooting my Grendel! I didn't have another mag! In a panic I felt for a mag before realizing that I was shooting the outfitters gun, and we did not have spare mags! In just a few moments the shooting went quiet, but there were still pigs! I called out the position of each pig I could see, as some of them had even slowed and stopped to look around, but everyone was empty! Jackson later admitted that they rarely did that much shooting at once, and due to often having new hunters under his care, he did not generally give spare mags to his shooters.

Our 308's were dry, but there were still wounded pigs in the field, some of them still trying to get away. Jackson asked if anyone had a pistol, and my dad and I had our handguns on us. I drew my Glock 29 10mm, and he drew his Sig P365 9mm, and we hopped across the drainage ditch to go play clean-up.

Nate had already jumped the ditch and headed toward a large pig that had been hit in the spine. It was trying to crawl away, and Nate jogged up to it to inspect it. That's when things got really comical. The injured pig, sensing that Nate represented a threat, turned and started crawling towards him and snapping its sizable tusks at him. You (and Nate) would think a pig couldn't move very quickly with just its front legs, but it turned out that the pig could move faster forwards than Nate could go in reverse! Nate started backpedaling, yelling for someone to come shoot this hog! Unfortunately I was too excited and ran up quickly and shot the sow. In hindsight, I sort of wish I had just enjoyed the moment for a second longer, as it was really pretty hilarious in retrospect.

We dispatched the remaining hogs, and then started the herculean task of rounding them all up. The largest boar (the one I had put round after round at seemingly without effect) had finally succumbed to his wounds when he reached the drainage ditch. He was piled up in the bottom of the deepest part of the ditch, and required the use of some straps and the truck to get him back out.

It was a pretty exciting round, but unfortunately no one had remembered to press the record button on the thermals prior to all the excitement... so we didn't come home with any thermal footage of our exciting evening. But it was a great evening, and after scanning a few more fields, we finally called it a night around 3am. We dropped off 4 sows at a local processor, and Bob and Nate each kept a big boar's head to have the skull done.

Exhausted, we made it back to the hotel and instantly fell asleep.

 

[roscott]

Day 3- Friday

Friday morning we had another late breakfast, and headed out to the property to do some walking through the swamp. Bob, my dad, and myself decided we would go all the way around a large impassable marsh on the property. We often hear hogs in there, but it really is just too thick to go in after them. It was a tough hike even going around the perimeter. Lots of submerged roots and mud.

On the far side of the marsh, we were just beginning to feel like we might never bump into pigs when a large sow jumped up not 50 yards away and sprinted into the marsh! I ran after her and clambered up onto a large fallen tree where I could look down and get a better view of the area, hoping to spot her again. I pointed out to the other two where the pig had gone, and they began circling around to flank where we had last seen her.

I heard a curious rustling behind me, but initially dismissed it as I didn't want to miss my chance if the sow came back. Then I heard it again, a distinct crunching perhaps only 10 yards behind me. I turned and looked from my perch in the tree, and suddenly spotted several smaller piglets! The sow must have jumped up and inadvertently left the piglets behind, and they had remained motionless as we all walked right past!

I made a tactical error at this point. I should have called out to Bob and my dad and had them get into better positions, but the excitement of the moment was too much. I put the crosshairs on the biggest piglet, and pressed the trigger. The pig squealed and flipped over backward, and the other piglets went in all directions. My dad took a couple shots at one going through the trees, and then everything went quiet. We circled around a couple times looking for the others but came up empty, so we came back to look for the piglet I had shot. We couldn't find it! I had shot it under a mess of fallen logs, and whether it had managed to crawl off or we just simply couldn't spot it, I'll never know. I wished we had thermal with us, to pick up the heat from the pig. Unable to locate it, we finally moved on.

The day went on without any other hogs, and soon enough it was time to head to our respective stands for the evening. As I approached my hunting spot, I walked very slowly, knowing we had put a pile of corn down earlier that weekend to attract the pigs. Sure enough, there was a group of medium sized hogs chowing down on the corn! With my pack and tripod on my back, I raised my Grendel and fired at an orange/tan pig, dropping it immediately. I shrugged out of my backpack and tripod, and sprinted toward the running sounder, leaping over the still-kicking hog! I was able to keep up for a brief bit, but only enough to catch glimpses of the fleeing hogs. Soon enough they pulled away, and I returned to my hunting spot not far from where I had shot the orange pig.

While I didn't have the fancy thermal setup we had been using the night before, if you've read my write-ups from previous years you will know that we had sort of settled on a reasonably effective setup: FLIR makes a thermal handheld monocular called the Scout, which only costs about $450 and will pick up heat signatures out to about 125 yards. For our night hunting in the thick swamp, it is fairly effective to use the Scout as a scanner, and a powerful flashlight and scope to shoot with. I have found this combo to be even more effective in the woods than Gen III night vision, but it still isn't perfect. More on that later.

Late into the night I heard a noise to my right, and scanned with the thermal. There were several large hot blobs on the screen moving across the trail right past the hog I had shot earlier! I dropped the thermal, raised my gun and turned on the light. There were a couple big sows and numerous little piglets! They were moving quick, so when one of the sows paused, I put the crosshairs on her ear and squeezed the trigger. She dropped and the rest scattered. I hoped the piglets would return to the sow, but the other large sow must have been the alpha female in the group, as they never came back.

I was elated to have shot a nice big sow, as I was hoping to take back some backstraps. Using the same method we discovered last year, I carved a big capital I and laid back the hide, easily carving out the two backstraps. Those went into zip loc bags that I had tossed in my hunting pack for just such a purpose.

Shortly afterward, I heard an intense volley of shooting followed by a few staggered shots. It turned out Nate had gotten into some pigs too! Using his Pulsar Trail thermal, he had been walking up and down the paths through the swamp and scanning for hogs. Soon enough, he had come upon a sounder eating a pile of corn we had dropped. He dropped the big sow with a single shot to the ear, and then went on to duck in and out of the pine trees, tagging one pig after another until he managed to wipe out the whole sounder. It really sounded like some impressive shooting, and we were all excited to see the thermal footage. Unfortunately, he accidentally deleted the clip later that evening before anyone had a chance to see it! So once again, no cool thermal hunting footage to post on INGO.

While he didn't get any footage, he did have plenty of meat! He took not only the backstraps, but all four quarters from the big sow. We would have plenty of pork coming back home with us!

That was enough for the day, and we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

 

[DCR]

WOW. I am not a hunter, but I read the whole thing and was just mesmerized by it.
I remember your previous years' reports too. Nice job! Thanks for sharing. This sounds like it ought to get published in some hunting magazine.

 

[roscott]

Thanks DCR! Always glad to hear when someone enjoys the write-ups!

Day 4- Saturday

Saturday was our last day of hunting, and I was really hoping that we could find a good batch of pigs out in the swamp. Other than our success with Southern Hog Control Thursday night, my dad, Bob and Jeff had not shot any hogs, and while thermal at night is an absolute blast, jumpshooting hogs in the daytime is a whole different kind of fun.

Jeff decided to sit at a deer stand overlooking a corn pile and wait for the hogs rather than venture back out into the swamp, so the rest of us headed south into the jungle. After about a half hour, the rest of the group decided that they wanted to go east into a part of the swamp we hadn't spent much time in. I wanted to venture back west toward the river, so we went our separate ways for a little bit.

Shortly thereafter, Bob heard something behind him. He kept looking back, but after some time, he was quite certain that something was following them. We had seen plenty of fresh bear scat, so the potential for bumping into a bear was always an exciting possibility in the back of our minds. After some time of this, he finally caught a glimpse of the creature: a deer of all things! It was a younger deer, and it shadowed them for quite some time, getting closer and closer until it was finally hanging out with them just outside of arms reach! Everyone was amazed at the deer's calm curiosity, and we later asked our host about it. He said he knew which deer it was, and that every few years of regularly feeding the deer all season one would develop sort of an attachment to him and would follow him around. The unfortunate part of this neat relationship, he said, is that there is no way to mark the deer. So come hunting season, his newfound friend was usually the first to go, shot by another hunter that didn't realize that he was practically shooting someone's pet! (I don't have pictures of the deer, but perhaps Bob or my dad will post up some of the pictures or video. It was pretty cool.)

Meanwhile, I was having a less than stellar time. I had ventured back into the deep swamp near the river, and was encountering channels of flowing water too deep to cross. I found that I could generally cross on a fallen tree, although pushing past the branches on the trees made quite a bit of noise and I was worried I would scare all the hogs away.

Soon enough I heard a noise up ahead. Pigs! It's hard to explain, but they make a distinct shuffling/rooting noise that sounds somewhat different from something just walking through the woods. They were still across a river channel from me, so I had to attempt one more tree crossing and hope I could be stealthy enough to get a shot. I wished that I had more hunters with me because I wouldn't be in much of a position to shoot while crossing the tree. Sure enough, just as I got towards the top of the leaning tree, I heard the big splashing sound of a large hog crashing through the swamp. I couldn't even get my gun up into position due to the thick mass of branches around me, but it wouldn't have mattered. I caught one brief glimpse of a big black hog running back the way I had come, and everything went quiet again. Nuts!

Eventually we all regrouped and swapped stories about deer and missed pigs. Encouraged by my sighting, we all agreed to swing around and try to push through the area I had been, hoping to come upon more hogs. We fanned out in a loose line and began moving through the swamp, trying to be as quiet as possible while stumbling over roots and vines. After a bit I heard a noise up ahead. I was on the far right of our line, so I motioned to Bob, who was about 30 yards to my left. I pointed to my chest, then my ear, then held up 3 fingers, then pointed to where I heard the noise. "I hear 3 pigs there," is essentially what I communicated. Yeah, I made up the part about it being 3 pigs, but we hadn't established a hand signal for pig yet, (any ideas?) so I figured a little artistic license would be tolerated.

Bob swung around to flank the place where I had pointed, and I scrambled up a leaning tree to get a better vantage point of the area. I still couldn't see any pigs, but I could overlook the area very well, and I hoped to be able to guide Bob in to the right spot. As it turned out, he didn't need any guiding! He moved quietly forward, then raised his Grendel and looked through the scope. My heart started to race in anticipation, and then I heard that wonderful little metallic click of the safety coming off! It was about to get exciting!

Bob fired, and the swamp exploded! He had seen 3 pigs, and when he had the opportunity he took the shot. What we didn't know is that there were about 30 other pigs all laying up under the palm leaves! His shot connected, the pig shrieked, and suddenly there were pigs running absolutely everywhere. Bob was shooting, and then I could hear my dad and Nate shooting as some of the pigs ran away from Bob and across their shooting zones.

I had an interesting experience at this point. I was able to shoot at some of the pigs initially, but as they crossed toward Bob I had to hold my fire to avoid any terrible accidents. In the moment however, I realized that I had never encountered a fully 3 dimensional shooting environment. Up until that point, I had always hunted on the ground with other hunters, or even in the army trained on a level range for the most part. Now I could look down at Bob, and see pigs to the left and right of him, but also above and below him. I held my fire just to be on the safe side, but it was an interesting factor I had never considered. When is it safe to fire over your own guys? Certainly if he had been standing at the base of the tree I was in, I would have felt comfortable firing over him, but where does safety rule out those shots? As I said, I erred on the side of safety, but it was an interesting situation that I had never even considered.

Finally two of the pigs swung far enough that they were back in a safe shooting zone for me, so I cut loose again. They dipped in and out of the trees as they circled around, and I was unable to connect. Meanwhile my dad had some great shooting opportunities, and dropped a couple of the pigs. It was a shooting gallery for a few moments, and we were all immensely grateful that we had taken the plunge and gotten suppressors. That would have been pretty rough on the ears to go through that many rounds without ear pro!

They weren't massive hogs, but that made the guys' shooting even more impressive. The big pigs are big slow targets, and the smaller pigs are much quicker. We were elated to have finally found a big sounder out in the swamp and had the opportunity to work as a team to bring down several pigs. On our way back out of the swamp, we bumped into a couple more pigs, probably the survivors from the big group. I managed to drop one more of them with a quick (lucky) snap shot.

We had one more exciting moment that evening in the dark, which really solidified our desire to make the switch to thermal scopes. As we walked back to the truck, I scanned the area one last time with my FLIR Scout. I picked up a heat signature down a trail about 100 yards, and began stalking towards it. Bob came out of the woods just then, and I motioned him over to join me. Initially, we thought it was probably another raccoon or possum eating on the corn pile, but the closer we crept the more we realized its behavior matched that of a hog. We still couldn't see it at all with either flashlights or night vision, as it was standing behind a small patch of weeds. With the wind in our faces, we inched closer and closer until we were a mere 10 yards away. Through even my budget thermal, we could now discern that it was clearly a pig, but could not see it at all with flashlights or night vision. After struggling to locate it for a few moments, it either caught our scent or heard our whispers and ambled off into the marsh. That was enough to convince us both to sell our night vision and make the leap into the thermal game.

That concluded our awesome third year of hog hunting in Georgia. We profusely thanked our host, and spent the whole next day on the drive home discussing just what new tactics and gear we should use next year. A few lessons learned:

-Thermal rules at night. For locating animals at distance in the fields, or in the thick swamps, it has a tremendous advantage.

-You can't catch the hogs, no matter how fast you run. I comically tried several times to chase down some pigs, and they are just too quick in the swamp.

-Grendel works great, but shot placement matters most with any caliber.

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I have time for at the moment. I'm sure the other guys will likely chime in. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed our adventure! I know we sure did!

 

[KJQ6945]

Roscot, excellent write up! Sounds like you all had a great time. It’s been a few years since I’ve been out hog hunting, but after reading this, I want to put another trip together. Well done!

 

[ditcherman]

Thanks for a great write up, this was almost like being there. Would love to go sometime! How common is it too not have to have a guide or hire an outfitter? I suppose you have to know someone with property?

 

[Rookie]

Next time you go, let me know. I've got a thermal scanner that you can borrow. Also, have you decided what your budget is for your thermal scope?

 

[yetti462]

You just had to mention 6.5 grendel. I have the grendel bug and you're not helping. Looks like a fun trip.

 

[roscott]

Thanks everyone!

KJQ- you should go again, and let us know how it goes!

Ditcherman- we are fortunate enough to know someone with land access. Nowadays everyone wants to charge you to access their property, and unfortunately that often comes with lots of rules, something we are fortunate enough to have avoided thus far. Hunt leases are pretty common down there though, and some of the “hog-only” leases cost less than a single night with an outfitter.

Rookie- that is super generous! I would happily take you up on that next time! I actually already managed to trade my NV for thermal, an older FLIR T50 clip-on. It has its pros and cons, but I used it last night to drop a coyote at 287 yards, so I’m pretty pleased, especially for what I have in it!

Yetti- Grendel is the best. I’ve become a huge fan. Deer, hogs, and coyotes. If you need an AR platform hunting rifle, it’s the bees knees.

 

[Wbayne]

Great read!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DocIndy]

What ammo are you guys running in the Grendels? My 18” Mk 12 Mod 0 is done and at home on my Armalite lower so now it’s time to dial in the Vortex and let the fun begin. I have some Hornady Black for now o get things started.

 

[Rookie]

Hornady 123sst is pretty accurate. I'm using federal 90tnt. They aren't as accurate (1moa) but they shoot flatter.

 

[roscott]

Same as Rookie. Factory SST shoots great in my Grendel, and we all ran that or Hornady Black for hogs.