So....I decided I would take advantage of the nice, cool weather we were having here yesterday and go sit on a stand for awhile.
I went to the bait site about 2 p.m. and hand broadcast some corn. This bait site has elevated stands set at 40 & 100 yds from the corn. I intended to sit on the 40 yd. stand because I wanted to try and get a couple of hogs 'in line' and hopefully take two with one shot. I try to be efficient...when I can.
The hogs have been coming in around 7 P.M. so I thought if I got on stand by 6 O'Clock that would be early enough and I wouldn't have to contend with so many mosquitoes. Sundown is about 7:30 p.m. and by 8 O'Clock its pretty much pitch black down there.
So that was my 'plan' all calculated and figured out.....right? Just saunter down there, sit for an hour and enjoy myself. Watch the birds and squirrels and whatever else might come along....until the hogs get there.
Left the house and drove down the pasture...stopping a few hundred yards short of my hunting spot. Walked to my stand, left my rifle there and went to go hook up the battery to the hog light....just in case they came in later. And that is where my 'plan' started to fall apart. I could see where a squirrel (or something) had chewed completely through one of the wires leading up to the light and it was too far up the tree for me to reach it to repair it.
O.K. not ideal...but nothing to fret over. I have a light on my rifle and the pigs would probably come in before dark anyway. A took a quick glance at the feed site and my heart sank.
ALL the corn was GONE. Except for some that I threw into the mud-hole it was ALL gone. The hogs had already been there and left. O.K. well..... THIS is not good.
Well...what the heck, I'm already here and there is some chance that the hogs will come back before dark. So I get in my stand.... and the wind that previously was angling toward me is now swirling. Then it changes directions altogether....and starts blowing from my back toward the bait site! Come on....!
At that point...I was thinking 'I might as well get down', this just isn't going to work. Then I thought about it a little more and decided to chance it. Since it was the second day after the front had blown through...as soon as the sun would set the wind would probably settle some. Then IF the hogs would come in from my left I might still get a shot off before they caught my scent. Not too much to ask....right?
Right at sunset the wind began to settle and I heard a few twigs snapping in the distance off to my left but also from BEHIND me. What the heck? I stayed perfectly still and quiet and listened closely.
Sure enough....something was approaching from an angle (to my left and behind me). Surely...this was not the pigs. They would had to have been out in the pasture to be coming from this direction.
Soon I heard the sound of mud 'sucking' at hooves/paws/feet ? And then the first hog appeared, sloshing it's way though the muddiest part of the whole area. They NEVER come from that direction.
They were no more than 25 yds. to my left when they went by my stand. How they didn't smell me I will never know. I just waited and let them come on in. They went directly to the 'mud hole' and starting rooting around in it for any left over kernels of corn.
I got my rifle up and frantically started looking for any two to get close together. I knew they would not be there for long. They were either going to smell me and run....or give up on the corn and leave in short order. Finally...one hog came up behind another but was facing it (creating a 'T'). This looked to be as good as it was going to get.
I would have to hold really high on the back of the first pig in order to hit the second one in the head or neck. So be it.
At the shot....both pigs went down, but the one in the front got right back up and ran 'humped up' about 30 yds., went under the fence line and barely made it to the creek where it expired.
So...in the end when the bad and good luck were weighed...the 'good luck' (AKA dumb luck) tipped in my favor and we were able to get two more pigs out of the population.
Game camera just happened to get most of it. Had to edit the video (lighten it) so you can see it. It was actually MUCH darker in real life.