I’ve had some help with my column this week from a fine young man, fifteen year old, Caden Smith, of Brooksville. Caden agreed to tell me a fun story of a successful pig hunt on his daddy’s ranch, so I’ll happily share it with all of y’all.
“Let me tell you that it’s been a long time since I’ve successfully taken any game, except for a coyote last year. I’ve always deer hunted with a rifle I borrow from my stepdad. I’ve been wanting a gun like his for two years now, and this Christmas he and my mom surprised me with one. The funny part is, my parents bought the gun and let me use it during our annual Thanksgiving deer hunting trip hoping I would take my first deer out of state with it; which didn’t happen.
“I had no idea it was going to be mine, until they surprised me with it Christmas morning. So, to say I’ve been dying to shoot something with it is an understatement. On New Years Eve, me and my brother were talking and decided we wanted to go hunting out on our dad’s hay property. We’ve been getting a lot of pics of hogs tearing up the field, and a couple nice bucks. And we thought it would be a good place to try out my new rifle. It was right around 5:30 when dad and us boys finally got to the property, and we knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time. But, as we’re walking into our hunting spot, my brother looks around the corner then says, “Stop moving!” I looked around the corner too and there were two hogs already sitting there just waiting on us about 100 yards away.
“So, we sat on the ground and we waited while trying to decide our best option, sit there and try to shoot free handed, or sneak up into the stand. My brother decided that we should probably go sit up in the stand, so we can get a better shot since we couldn’t get one down on the ground. He went up the tree stand while I watched the pigs from the ground, motioning him to go or stop, if they looked in his direction. He made it up fine and it was my turn to climb up; I got up the tree stand fine and we waited a bit to see if anything else might come out. But, after a few minutes of waiting, we realized we were going to lose daylight, so I decided to go ahead and shoot one of the two that we had in front of us. My new rifle dropped the pig I was aiming at in its tracks. We both get down from the stand and rushed over to where the pig was laying. It was a small pig I took, but it is one less that will be tearing up my dad’s hay field and it gave me a boost in confidence for my next hunt.”
My friends, if you have any comments, questions or just want to share your success from the woods, give me a shout out at [email protected]. God Bless and Good Hunting!
