Kestrel's First Hog - Florida
Kestrel, Dad and bacon!
Hunter: Kestrel Smoot
I sat in the car listening to my iPod, reading and watching the scenery pass by on the two day trip down to Florida and Osceola Outfitters. We met everyone and played around while the guys hurried out to see if they could get anything with the little time left that first evening.
The next night my sister went out and was able to shoot her very first hog, way to go Katelyn! There was still some time left so her and I switched spots but unfortunately we only had piglets come back in to the field.
I went out in the mornings and evenings with my dad filming me over the next three days, but the hogs just wouldn't cooperate. We had piglets in front of us that I could have shot but I wanted to wait for a bigger one. We had hogs come out five to ten minutes after filming light. While the hunting wasn't working out I still was able to spend time with my dad and see some really cool things like deer, turkeys, owls, and even had an otter swim by in front of our blind one evening. I figured out that if you watched a pig’s tail you could tell if he was nervous, he would keep it curled if he was nervous and then would let it unwind when it was relaxed.
On our last day to hunt we decided to drive and look for hogs in the pastures in the morning. We almost had a chance at a big black boar close to where Justin shot his hog, but it saw us before we saw him and he got away. We then went to a different property and we spotted a group of hogs by the logging road. They went into a patch of woods and we tried to track them but we didn't find them. When we were returning to the vehicle we spotted them again down by the logging road and tried to sneak up on them. As we were getting into position a “ginormous” boar spotted us, it stood up and ran back a little ways. We stood really still and it calmed back down. We set up the TC on the shooting sticks but I'm shorter than my dad and Mr. Hoppy and while they could see the hogs vitals just fine over the grass, I couldn't.
Hoppy told us we would try to move around them and set up in front of them. We went back and circled through the patch of woods and were working our way to the path that he thought the hogs were coming down when he spotted a black sow in front of us. We hurried and set up, it was close and if it would get past us it would see and smell us and then it would be all over. Finally I had my opportunity, my dad cocked the gun for me and ready...ready... BANG! It ran toward us and then turned, only running about 20 yards and it went down, I was so happy I hit it right behind the shoulder and I had my very first hog!
Thank you Mr. Hoppy for letting me come down and hunt with you.
Kestrel