two for two!!!!!

ok here we go again! ok went out hunting again today, started out deer hunting but only seen does this morning and i cant shoot them during gun season in the area that i've been hunting, so i head to the area that i shot my boar at and on the way in i find a BIG boar now i didnt have my camera with me again so i took some pics with my cell phone to show the diferent things about wild hogs, but i didn't take any of the big boar because we were only about 20 yards appart i was on a small road/lane and he was tearin up a field so at his size in wich was i say between 3-400 pounds he was the size of a 55 galon barrel with legs, i wasnt playin with him so as i passed him he winded me and split the area so i did snap these pics to show what they do to land look at the sapling pines he just crushed them

all that was done by him! i will take the regular camera out and really show what a group of them do, the next pic i wish was better but it is a dried out hog wallow, a wallow is where they roll in mud to cover their body to help cool them and also to protect them, they have the closest skin to human (all pigs) than any other animal and they actually get bad sun burns, and in the summer they will literately blister their skin if they dont do it.
ok the next one is a hog rub, wich is after they mudd up they will rub their body on tree's to remove ticks from them selves they will also do this on logs.
you can see the rub mark of mud on the tree the higher the rubs the bigger the hogs.

ok now onto my days experience with the latest hog i got, well i went to the area where i got last weeks and there was no fresh sign so i headed back to the field area this is a big area half mile wide to a 3/4 -1 mile long, so as i head in the wind is perfect its in my face comming from the field so it being sunny and warm i figured i would work the edge in the woods and look for one in the shade, well i start in and i get a good wiff oh hogs ( they have a very distinct musk smell) so its time to hit the field cause they are out! well the weeds are head high where they havent destroyed it yet, so i was getting on top of small dirt piled pushed by dozers for fire breakd and from the tree cutters, the place i am hunting is acually a tree farm for pines the field is a cut forest that has been replanted to grow again thats why the little ones. so i get up on then and look out over the field trying to spot the hogs to try and stalk up on them and also look for bushes goin down and moving when i locate them i just try to get on them. well i seen nothing and couldnt wind them again so i started workin through the area. and then i finally see a piglet and then another so now i think ok where's mom now these arnt suckling piglets they are allready weaned but are only about 15 pounds so they are on their own but will stay with her, they are about 40 yards away so i start watching and then see here she's just a hair bigger than i want to eat or to drag out! so i figure i'll watch a bit and see what else is around them but now me being me i start to put a stalk on them just to see how close i can get or atleast into what i call bow range 30 yards or less for me to shoot the bow. i try to hunt all my game this way now its more challenging and more fair instead of 50 yards and up. now wild hogs have real bad eyesight but their nose is unbelivable about 5000 times better than ours. they can smell worms and stuff two feet under ground! so i get to about 25 yards and the wind changes!! uh ooo well she instantly smells me and some how spots me! impossible but hen we are talkin about me here ya know murpy's law.... what can go wrong will go wrong. and it turns real bad for me real fast!!! now also wild hogs will attack as i talked about last week with the charge from the other one that i stopped and he split, well she with no warning goes on a full i'm gonna kill you on me!!! now they cant turn but can and will turn around fast, what you are saposed to do is wait till the very last second and side step then climb the nearest as fast as you can or literly go at tyhem and jump over them and then get up a tree, well i there is no tree's here and the ground is super torn up if i run and trip i'm gonna get stomped bit and gored in a big way by her, so i shoot at her and guess what i miss!! next shot i stepped one to my left and got her in the left shoulderalmost straight on and she does a nose dive and almost flips over! but the bad part here is that the second shot was at about 12 feet and she dropped a little over 5 feet from me about 6! now i'm 5-5 so it was close! and yes what a rush it was awesome now but terrifying then. they are called American rhino's for a reason. i say it was awesome but dont get me wrong the kill isnt the great part of my hunting the hunting is and everything that goes with it, i allways feel a bit of guilt on every kill no matter what it is and i have the greatest respect for every animal i hunt and will do everything posible to make it as fair as posible and as fast and clean kill as i can, i ow them that much at minimum. ok well here she is.

in this pic it really shows off the size of her shovel (nose) its defanetly a biggin


she really does have a great coat and markings (i dont know why this one is side ways) the next pic is for ken and ethan its the back straps from the boar right after they came off the grill, they were so tender you didnt even need a knife and tasty oh my were they!
and that one is off too ? and the final two, one is me and starr finishing the gutting, i gutted her in the field and removed her teets and stomach to lighten her but i still had to get out the lungs and heart so starr helped me.
the next was a joke between me and sue, and she told me i didnt have the guts to post it( no pun intended) well here goes.... i looked at sue and said.. hey who says i dont have a heart and she snapped the pic and i wouldnt do it well.....
ok that was bad humor....

a sucsessful hunt. (WARNING GRAPHIC PICTURES)

ok well i went out for the first day of our gun season here in fla. and what a day! well first off i went to a new area i wanted to hunt and went deep into a cypress and mixed pine oak swamp, well i got got turned around and my gps wasnt workin so i got in deep and ended up fallin in a old skidder track and ended up crotch deep in ice cold swamp water (cold here was in low 50's) so that gets me back to where i started from and then i look at about 25 yards i see a big black mass in some super thick brush, so i try to whistle at it... nuthin so i stalk up down wind to about what turned out to be 20 feet and lightly yell hey at it and all of a sudden a six foot black bear stands up on its hind leggs to see what just snuck up on it and yelled at it!! well now i have three things in my mind to do 1st is to pee my pants and run, second is if it moves a inch toward me shoot it, third in wich i chose was put my hands and gun over my head and yell at it, wich i did and it grunted and dropped and ran off the other way, thankfully it wasnt a sow with cubs if so i would have been in serious trouble to say the least.

so i head out and head to the house for some warm and dry clothes and get back out there by 9:00 yep all this happened by 8:00! and we only live 15-20 mins from where i was hunting. so i hike around for a few hours and just see some doe's and nothin else so i decide to go down this nice shady fire break to eat lunch, after a few i hear a deer stomp and then stomp again. well five mins or so go by and nuthin then all of a sudden a great sized cow horn buck walks into the breat at about 40 yards and stops and looks at me, now i'm leaning against a tree and he's on my right and i'm right handed so this is a awkward position to say the least. so he bobs his head at me then he does it again tryin to get me to move then he turns his head to the right away from me so i figure he's fixin to run so i try to swing on him but he was gone in a flash as soon as i moved. ok so there's strike three for me already so i head off to another area that has been hot for hogs in the past so i figured well cant get no worse, so i go into there walk about a mile back into a pine flat swamp combo and lots of old rooting and rubs but nothin fresh , then all of a sudden i hear a pig squeal so i sit down against a tree for about a half hour and then nuthin again so i start on further then all of a sudden about 50 yards from where i was sittinh i hear some grunting so i slip up and then there on my right ( of course) is two hogs rooting around so i get within 40 yards and drop the first one with a shot to the neck he goes straight down, then the second wich is twice the size of the one i just downed charges me!! ( i love hog huntin!!) now this hog is about 250-300 pounds so let one fly at him but led it to much and shot in front of him and it turns him at only 20 yards (what a rush!!) well he crosses the lane i'm on and stops well when he does i look and there is a whole herd there! i counted 15 including him, he was a great rust colored boar really good looking.

so now the fun begins i have to drag this hog about 1 1/2 -2 miles out!!! but first here's some pics on him

i would have mounted the head just because of the color combo, so i proceed to drag it out and i hear a yelp and look back and three coyotes are trailing me (dang four legged vultures!) now its only been a half hour sure dont take them long, but i was unloaded so i just ran them off ( had some good practice earlier!) so know i'm draggin again and all of a sudden a huge fla. buck walks onto the road in front of me in full rut mode ( the rut is in full swing here) and stops right there at 25 yards broadside and grunts at me ( insult to injury aka salt in a wound) and i have a hog leg in one hand and a empty shotgun in the other! and he stands long enough for me to count his perfect 8 points on his rack then grunts at me again then jumps off the road... talk about a kick in the nuts.
well i finally call sue and she comes out to help me get the hog out and back to the truck we finally get almost there and we hear a growl !? well guess what yep another bear! but that was it one growl and we never saw it could faintly hear it walk off but that was it. so we load it head out and meet up with another hunter at the check out box and he had a scale so we weighted the hog it was 135lbs guts in.

ok now its the next morning and time to butcher the little piggy that should have stayed home and not gone to the market (sorry just had to say it before ken)

as you can see nothing went to waste ill even boil then bleach the skull for the trophy, and tomorrow night for dinner its gonna be marinated in pineapple and brown sugar pork tenderloin on the grill!! and yes camouflage overalls and flip flops is the proper dress atire for backyard butchering of pigs.ok well i had something to blog about so look back for more cause winter fishing and alot more hunting is just starting.

wow a new post!!!

ok well i guess its time i finally update this place, but i still am ahead of ken!!! well not much yet but, today was another bus rodeo for sue ans once again she won! and this time she will go to Tallahassee fl. for the state championships. i dont know if we ever gave out the results from last years state match but she came in 5th out of 55 people so she did great but not good enough to make it to the nationals in vegas so keep you fingers crossed for her this time. well we are gonna go do some bird hunting in the morning so hopefully we will have something to post about when we get back and too grill also. if not i'll just post some random pics of us and here to get up to date and hopefully keep up with this a bit more. sure wish ken would. just kidding ken but we'll be lookin. ok its sat the 6th so check back sun night or mon to see the posible hunt results.

in memory of dakota

well today we had to put down our oldest dog dakota, we had her for 12 years and she was our first togeather. i got her from the humane society for sue about a year after we moved here, i was working out of state and only comming home on the weekends so i got dakota for her to keep her company, the damn dog bonded with sue big time the first week i was gone i came home about 11 at night and she locked on to my pant leg and showed me who was now house boss! we are grateful for the time we all had together even tho it wasn't nearly enough, she got cancer and her legs we're failing her also so it was just her time, we we're with her all the way and stayed by her side just as she did for us for the last 12 years, the four of us had alot of great times togeather and will cherish her memory forever. we still have are other dog starr but dakota will allways hold a special place in our hearts.
this one was one of her favorite past times harassing the squirrels in our yard
she will be so missed, her and starr are the only children me ans sue will ever have, these two are so spoiled we dont think they even know that they are dogs. here's starr
the meaning to the expression if you love something set it free has never been truer than today because we set her free from the failing body that was imprisoning her, she is now truly free. we love you dakota.
dakota
8/95 - 6/2007

a day at silver springs

well me and sue went to a place here called silver springs. if any of you make it down here again we are defenetly takeing you there! the place is a natural spring river with about 7 springs, and they take you on tours of the springs on 3 different boat rides and all three are glass bottom boats! this is also where the original tarzan movies and series was filmed as with the original movie creature from the black lagoon and the tv series see hunt. this guy back in the 20's bought a bunch of monkeys and had them put on a island in there for something exotic for people to come and see, but he didn't know that they could swim and by the next morning they all we're gone, well he thought he bought one type of monkey that couldnt swim but he got screwed and the ones he got could swim and so they did! theese monkeys have been in the wild since the 20's and now range from jacsonvile to tampa! the springs have about 2000 in there and the surrounding state forest, we got to see some on one of the boat tours and all of them had yungins with them well most of them did.

ok now here's some pics of the boats and the springs
ok now this next one rob should like its a prehistoric crock's bones thats on loan to them its 40 feet long and has a 6 foot jaw bone!
this next pic shows the size of another one still in the ground
now here's more from the boats the first one is a sunken boat from perl bishon i know the spelling is off but you get it! 2 pics
ok these next ones are just random pics from the boats most of the boat ones through the bottom didnt come out because of the reflection.
we bought year passes to this place so next time we go(july 4th week) we will take alot more pics and post them. and also a link to the place. well got a bunch of things planed comming up so there will be alot of posts the next month or so, day trips, our reneck patio, and just vacation things so keep lookin lots to come.