Katelyn's First Hog - Florida
Katelyn and her hog!
Painting Hoppy's nails!
Hunter: Katelyn Smoot
Cameraman: Matt Snyder
My dad, sister and I were able to go down to Florida to Uncle Hoppy's to hunt hogs with a TenPoint crossbow. The first evening, we went in to an Ameristep ground blind while Matt climbed into the tree stand next to us with the camera. It was raining a little, but after a while it started pouring. It wasn't long before Matt was soaking wet and he decided to join us in the nice dry ground blind. It rained for quite a while and they asked me if I wanted to stay and wait to see if the rain would stop or go back to the lodge and I told them I wanted to stay, so we did.
When the rain finally stopped it wasn't long before we saw our first hogs come in to the field. There were several hogs and I saw one that I wanted to shoot, but we couldn't get a clean shot at it with all the other hogs.
While we waited for a shot, a bunch more pigs came out and there was a bigger hog and I decided I wanted to shoot that one instead.
I was excited as I listened to my dad instructing me while I waited patiently for the black hog to give us a shot. The boar finally cleared the other hogs and presented a broadside shot and my dad gave me the go ahead. So I got a good aim and shot! I hit him but the shot was a little too far back. As I watched him run off with the bolt still in him, I was so excited I was shaking; this was the first animal I had ever shot!
As we celebrated in the blind, it looked like it was going to start raining again so we called Hoppy to let him know I had shot a hog. When he arrived to pick us up, he had some good news for us—he had spotted the Lumenok on my bolt when he came in, giving us a good place to start trailing my hog. We found him only about 30 yards from where Hoppy had spotted him and I had my very first hog!
I want to thank Ralph & Vicki for inviting me to go and Uncle Hoppy for letting us hunt and for everything he did for us--I had a great time!
Happy Hunting,
Katelyn Smoot