I had a deal in Florida for a week I needed to take care of.

    At the time I was finishing up a deal in Kansas, so why spend a weekend in Kansas? I jumped on a plane and headed to Florida Friday night. Saturday afternoon I met up with a rancher that I had met a few months back, and we ran out to one of his pastures.

    We had about an hour of daylight when we started hunting. We didn’t get two minutes into his pasture and he whispered “There are some hogs!” They had come out of the thick sawtooth palmettos along the river bottom and were feeding under the white oaks on the edge of the pasture.

    I threw up my pair of Kruger 10x42 binocs and scoped them out. I saw three or four right fast, jacked a shell in the chamber and scoped in on one. Even though semi in the open, I had to wait a minute for one to come out of the tall grass for a clear shot. I flipped the safety and touched off a Hornady .55 gr. GMX. I had a head shot so she hit the ground fast, but before I could get another shot the others were in the brush.

    Wow it was thick. They get into the brush six inches and they’ve disappeared. Great, she was about a 75-80 lb. gilt, perfect eating size. We threw her in the truck right fast and then drove up to the next pasture. He let me out and as I rounded the corner I saw a string of four to five pigs 300 yards out feeding in the pasture under some white oaks.

    I crawled back 20 yards so I could get a good rest against a corner post. I cranked my Bushnell Legend HD up to 14x and started controlling my breathing. Wow, Wayne told me he couldn’t guarantee anything tonight, but we hadn’t been in the pasture two minutes and I had one down. Three minutes later I was squeezing on another one.  

    There were a couple of big black sows and two 70-lb. pigs of which one was calico colored. I started squeezing on a big black sow. I touched one off and she hit the ground, but jumped back up and off they ran. I got off a couple of more fast shots and they were gone.

    At dark we headed back to Wayne’s house to clean our game. We hung her up and I whipped out my new Diamond Blade fold up knife and had her skinned in a hot second. Wow, it’s razor sharp. It’s the middle of winter and she had a good inch of backfat (of course winter in Florida might not quite be what winter is up north). It was 75 degrees on Jan. 27!

    The next day we met again at 5 a.m. and went back to the same pasture to check if they were out again. He let me out and told me to round the point of palmettos and work down through the white oaks and see if any of the previous days herds were out feeding. He would come pick me up at 6.

    I had on a pair of Pro Ears ear muffs with the hearing enhancements to help me hear any movement of hogs or squealing back in the brush. Hmm, nobody was home. He said he hadn’t seen any on the North side in a month, but we’d go check it out.

    The country down there was kind of cool. There are big open pastures surrounded by thick palmetto groves and huge white oaks. In November the deer and hogs are gorging on the acorns, which are now long gone.

    We didn’t get half way across the pasture when we spotted some hogs. They were probably 300 to 400 yards away, so we were going to go a little further North and sneak in behind a brush pile that would separated us. We almost made it behind the brush pile when the big boar spooked. They ran 20 yards and stopped, and then took off like the proverbial bat. Dang, there was one big boar, two sows and 12-15 pigs.

    I snuck up on the spot but didn’t catch up with them. Wayne came up, met me and I got in the truck. He looked to the left and saw some more. Wow, another group, and they were all big hogs.

    I slipped out and scoped them, waiting on one to turn broadside so I could get a good shot. There was one really big black one, but there was a light colored one that was a little smaller, so I touched one off on it.

    The whole herd bolted across the pasture and I opened up. From what I see hogs are a lot like bears in that their fat seals up the wound and makes them hard to track. I see why they use dogs down here. It would make it a lot easier.

    The day came to a close. I couldn’t wait until the next night. Wayne was going to smoke the gilt that we killed Saturday.

    I have to find a way to take a hog home with me. Think that I could dress one up like a kid and let it set in my lap on the plane? Everyone else is carrying kids, dogs and all manner of pets.