Operation Ham Blam 2011

[Deep C]

Well my season has been less than stellar... Public land in short sucks... Bow season came and went without me comming to draw. Black powder had me shoot a 4 point buck that a little kid had missed. I did a "thing" that made it work out. Deep deckhand alwats brings down more deer than we can eat so I hollered out to the kid and his dad "your deer is over here". They came out a little puzzled. I made up a story how their shot flushed a pig that I missed but saw the deer drop right before I shot. I think dad knew but he just smiled and didn't say anything. The smile on the kids face made it all worth while.

Regular gun season arrived. Buggies, dogs, kids four wheeling, others target shooting, even caight a pair of guys looking to break into my car... Couldn't stand the public land anymore and jumped on a chance to cull a piece of land.
They busted the cull into a square kilometer sections each with nine guys working. 4 on buggy with dogs and a driver and four on the ground. Then switch off for a total of four hard passes. I drew the Boca Raton police department team to be on with three officers who had never seen a pig much less shot them. Even I was a little out of my element working with the dogs and buggy.
We no sooner cleared the gate when our driver spotted a coyote real long. I hadn't seen it so I handed him my '06 and let him do the honors at about 250 yards... Blamalama ding dong doggie down! It was rainging and still wind so the dogs really had nothing to work with for quite a while. Finally we got two of em bayed up... Now this is where the fairy tale of open perfect shot situation falls short. The dogs and pigs run in the thickest palmetto crap you ever want to deal with. They wanted me to go first since I had pig hunted before but with two pigs bayed that meant one of their own had to go with the driver to the closes one first. I watched them go into a thick spot about the size of a standard hotel room. I heard "Holy shit! Then the whistle to call that dog off and blam!" I crawled in my spot about the same size and came face to face with mine. Talk about up close and personal. I hollered out "I'm on him and my dog was called off. The bugger looked me square in the eye and I dropped the slug right in his dome". This pair were both 150 class porkers and it was a start.

We got no more that first drive and only heard one shot from the ground crew. We swapped spots and now i got to do the ground thing. Right off the bat I was a bit un comfortable. This was the bull pasture while the cows were on another piece of this cattle/ sod farm. Something un nerving about fifteen hundred pound moo moos with horns and big balls eyeballing my 165 pounds of impossible averageness. But none got agressive. I guess I was about 3/4 of the way to the back when I rounded a palmetto clump and stopped in my tracks... A fuckin buffalo fifty feet away!!! Nope not on the cull list but was surely something I wasn't expecting... Came to find out later there are three on the property. Saw no pigs going or comming for any of us on the ground. The buggy though capped four more...

It was a quick donut and piss break and back on the buggy. We had worked to the back and were half way back to camp when we got on a pile of em backed into a corner next to a canal. We dropped the cops off fifty yard apart cause the pork would have to bolt back that direction on either side of the canal. They droped me closest to the corner where i could head them off from hitting open field. The dogs got in the pack and they split up sending fouur down my side The first one got to a hole in a fence before I gould get a clean round off at him. Number two and three though collected lead. Number four shot back the other way and I couldn't get the shot safely there. As the pack raced past the cops they each fired, two taking one and one taking two. I got back on the buggy and we had to make tracks big time to catch up with the dogs still chasing what was left of the pack. Some of the pigs had swam across the canal and escaped with one of the two dogs in hot pursuit. The other dog had a red hog bayed up and it was a stand off. Off the buggy I went to deal with that dog and the buggy driver was left to catch the other dog before it reached the horizon.

I got to where the barking was to find that it was on the other side of the canal... I know the pigs swam across and teh dogs swam across. So I prepared to do the same and take one for the team. Luckily I didn't quite swim but it was thigh deep. And cold... I got to the other side. Barkin and growlin and grunting and screaming mere feet away and it was so thick i still couldn't see. I pushed the brush aside and litterally at the end of my 12 guages muzzle was the particularly aggressive red hog. I did a whistle and the dog backed off. The pig lunged and I punched its ticket. Now for those of you who wonder if what they say about pigs being tough being true? It is.. I just ran a 12 guage slug right between the eyes and blew the back of its skull along with about half its brains all over the place and it still wanted to fight and bite. In too close to pump the long gun and cycle another I grabbed the 45 off my hip and laid one straight up and down at the top of the neck to sever that spine. It worked like a charm. I dragged it back to the other side of the canal. Dumped the gallon or so of water out of my boot and walked all the way back to the the other two I had laid down minutes beforfe. One was still flopping around so I gave it the 45 short circuit also.

We did another foot drive and the lady officer who took one during the smack down found another. Final score for our team was 10 pigs and a yote. The other team tallied eight. I wound up with four which felt damn good. I kept two and donated two to the cops meat kitty... Great day!

[clt_capt]

Good Read Deep - Welcome back again.

[Robja]

Nice read Deep

[Agitated88]

Well spun yarn Paul...thanks for sharing!