South Carolina Hogs

Went to a plantation northwest of Hilton Head along the Savannah River that had about 5,000 leased acres. It was a deer/hog hunt for five days. I saw some small bucks and does (minimum buck has to be an eight or better) and a bunch of hogs.
I never hunted hogs before so the first day when two nice hogs came in I just watched them and observed their feeding habits and movements. The guide said to shoot them in the head because otherwise they just run off into the swamps and they are hard to find. And the swamps had gators and snakes.
I was using a Remington 700 .308 but after the instructions and observations I switched to a Sako 7mm mag. with 160gr Federal Trophy Bonded bullets.
The next evening once it was past legal shooting for deer I focused on hogs but nothing came in. I was unloaded and waiting for the guide to pick me up and finally a bunch of hogs came in to the feeder. I could see them but not pick out the individuals too well. Then I put up my binos and everything came in much clearer. With that I put in one round and put up the rifle and scoped the group. I found three large hogs, picked out the closest at about 70 yds and when it stopped bouncing around and feeding and stood straight with a steady head I put a shot right through its ear dropping it dead in place. A few minutes later the guide showed up and a couple of the hunters put the hog on a deer carrier. He said it went about 150 pounds.
The next day we focused on deer but did not get any. The fourth day I was in a good stand for hogs and I shot the first hog about an hour before dark. It came in all by itself kind of spooked. When it calmed down I hit it in the head at about 50 yards. At dusk about 30 hogs came in to a feeder and I sorted out a nice hog and dropped it with another head shot at about 70 yards. These two were in the 170 pound range, again according to the guide. On Saturday I only hunted the morning for deer and saw a huge buck more than 200 yards away walking along a cotton field but I could not get the gun up fast enough to get on target. I shot a moose at 290 yards in Newfoundland square in the front shoulder with this 7mag so I would have poked at this buck no doubt if it would have stood for me but my grunts were never acknowledged and he just kept on going past my view which was down a woods road so it was a very narrow field of view for me and the buck was there and gone in a fraction of a few seconds. Anyway it was action.
I spent the afternoon and evening cutting up the hogs and grinding meat, packaging the back straps and roasts, etc. I brought with me electric saws, vacuum sealers, sealing bags, knives and a 2hp Cabela's meat grinder to do all of the butchering with. The guide did the gutting, skinning and quartering though I did not want them quartered since I cut a whole animal differently.
Very nice week but a long trip from Ct. My two friends had it easier coming from Norfolk, Va. and Melbourne Beach.
As a side note, the flooded bottom land was loaded with wood duck which would fly in big flocks into the corn feeders to eat. No duck hunting allowed though due to the baiting of the hogs. But leases dedicated to duck hunting would be a great destination for a waterfowl gunner.
Nice lodge, meals were ok but could have been better and the rooms very clean and comfortable. The name of the lodge was Cypress Creek.

 

I was in the upper CNS near the Eldora complex and there was hog activity sign all over with torn up turf. The police officer said they use a hired shooter who has a corn spreader back in a remote spot. He comes at dusk and stays for the night and is trying to reduce the hog population.

 

Going again to the same place, Cypress Creek in S.C. Leave next Friday, the 28th for five days again. This time I am more excited for the hog hunting. We have plenty of big deer in Ct. and eastern NY. I have full hunting and fishing licenses in both states. But there are some real big wall hangers on these leased hunting lodge lands in S.C. so maybe I will get lucky.

 

Sorry for the late report. This time it was not good. Bad drought in that area of SC along the Savannah River. The back areas had no water in them and the hogs moved out to other properties. I did see deer but the three bucks were all too small from spikes to four pointers. I saw no hogs or turkeys. But I had a good time with guys I grew up with and hunted with my entire life. At my old age a trip is worthwhile just for getting together with old friends.

 

2025 report from South Carolina and Ct. I had NY hunting permits for deer and small game but did not go this year due to time constraints.
I had a banner year in South Carolina. I shot two eight point bucks and two nice 150lb hogs. One of the bucks taped out at about 160lb estimated live weight after I used a calibrated tape across the chest of the buck after being gutted out. The second buck was larger by another 20 pounds or so. He looked to be about four to five years old with a very dark rack. I spotted him from a stand I was in looking into a small plot between two pine groves with the deer all the way over to another field that was clear cut in preparation for preparing it for a cotton field. I watched him for about ten minutes until he worked his rut line to be in front of me and at the closest he was going to get. I was shooting a 7mag with 150gr. trophy bonded bullets so if it was a hog I would get good head penetration. I hit the buck square in the shoulder and from my stand he paced out at 195 paces which with my normal pace would be somewhere around 170 yards. So he dropped dead right where he stood doing a scrape.
In Ct. I had passed up every thing because I had plenty of venison and hog meat even though I gave one of the bucks and one hog to my hunting buddies to share so we all had about the same amount of meat to bring home. I did see one very large buck working a scrape line on one of my properties on opening day of Ct. gun but he was too high up the hill and in brush so I never had a clean shot and he walked off. Late in the gun season on the last weekend I was watching some football and my wife suggested I go deer hunting. So I went to my opening day spot and took a different stand which would cover a lower rut line coming out of the day bedding areas where I last saw him heading two weeks earlier. I was violating my rule of not hunting late into the afternoon due to being 81 years old and not having someone to help gut and drag a big buck out of the woods with me. But there he was. Coming right down the rut line towards me. A large bodied animal but only a nice sized six point rack. This one would tape out close to 200lbs. So at around 4pm I pulled the trigger and he collapsed in place. Now to fight the clock and dusk. I had him gutted by dark and the drag through glacial rocks and hardwood blow-downs, then loading him into my GMC Acadia back area, getting home which is only a few miles from the farm I hunt, etc. took from the time I shot to the time I got in the driveway about four hours. I even had some snow on the ground to help with the drag but with old age balance problems I had to be very slow and deliberate. A great hunt though with lots of memories and I even survived the lectures from my daughters about why this was really a dumb idea and from now on I need to line up a helper ahead of time.