I spent the last 2 weeks down in Cape Coral Florida in a 4 bedroom AirB&B Rental House. We've gone every year for the past 4 years. The 1st year down my Nephew-inlaw, Pete, (who is my age) and I went on a guided hunt.
Covid screwed up our plans to hunt that place again. Plus last year I flew down instead of driving down.
This year I asked Pete to look into another hog hunt again. Turns out Pete was recently laid off his job of 18 years and didn't think he should go hunting. His wife makes good money as a CFO for a large company. Another nephew in-law Ben, who is also in his late 40's flew down from Chicago and joined us at the rental house. He also put some pressure on Pete to get a hog hunt going.
The main reason we wanted to hunt these hogs is the Breakfast Sausage we get from a Florida Game Processor is fantastic. Ben and I were both out of Hog Sausage and wanted more.
Pete finally caved and we set up a hunt for the 3 of us at Hog Heaven Preserve:
http://www.hogheavenpreserve.com/
We met the Ranch Owner's 21 year old Grandson Chase and told him we wanted the Meat Hog Special - $259 per hog "cleaned, quartered, and in your cooler."
Chase told us anything with a tusk longer than an inch is considered a trophy and runs $500 per hog.
Chase asked us what caliber guns we were shooting. We had a 300 Black AR15 and 2 x 223 AR15's. Chase nixed that and said they have had bad luck with 223 zipping through hogs. He offered us loaner Savage Axis 308 rifles with 3 rounds of Remington SP green box 308 win in each rifle. He also said to please shoot them behind the shoulder and not take head shots.
I was looking forward to killing a Hog with my 223 AR15 as I have already killed 2 deer with it. Pete and his son have killed 6 hogs with 223 AR15's during past hunts at other ranches. We should've asked that question before setting up the hunt.
Oh well I took a loaner Savage 308 and Chase gave us the choice of tree stands or ground blinds. I took a ground blind. Pete and Ben took tree stands.
As soon as I sat down a group of 12 hogs walked in front of me. This one presented a perfect broadside shot for me and I took it. The hog dropped but wasn't fully dead. He kept lifting his head and looking around. I put a 2nd anchor shot into his head to end his suffering. Looking at him up close, my 1st shot was just behind the shoulder.
I messaged Pete saying I got one and what was taking him so long? About an hour later, Ben took a shot at one with his loaner Savage 308. He thought he missed and shot another. Turns out he got both of them.
Chase, hearing 4 shots figured we were done shooting and drove up to see what was up. Meanwhile Pete hadn't shot one yet. Chase came around and we found both of Ben's hogs and looked at my kill. Pete then tells him he hadn't shot one yet.
After all 4 of us stalked around a bit Chase lined up Pete with a shot on some hogs. Chase set up a tripod (shooting sticks) for Pete to use. Pete set his 300 black AR on the shooting sticks. We all plugged our ears and watched Pete have 3 failure to fires in a row. At which point, Chase handed him a Savage Axis and put him in a tree stand.
We had just started walking away when Pete kill this hog:
We piled the hogs in the back of Chase's pickup and drove back to the cabin.
I'm on the far left, Pete is in the middle, and Ben is on the far right. My hog is 2nd from the right.
While Chase was skinning and quartering the Hogs we went and checked out the 7ft long Alligator in the swamp behind us.
Altogether we got 75lbs of hog sausage and had a great time.
Covid screwed up our plans to hunt that place again. Plus last year I flew down instead of driving down.
This year I asked Pete to look into another hog hunt again. Turns out Pete was recently laid off his job of 18 years and didn't think he should go hunting. His wife makes good money as a CFO for a large company. Another nephew in-law Ben, who is also in his late 40's flew down from Chicago and joined us at the rental house. He also put some pressure on Pete to get a hog hunt going.
The main reason we wanted to hunt these hogs is the Breakfast Sausage we get from a Florida Game Processor is fantastic. Ben and I were both out of Hog Sausage and wanted more.
Pete finally caved and we set up a hunt for the 3 of us at Hog Heaven Preserve:
http://www.hogheavenpreserve.com/
We met the Ranch Owner's 21 year old Grandson Chase and told him we wanted the Meat Hog Special - $259 per hog "cleaned, quartered, and in your cooler."
Chase told us anything with a tusk longer than an inch is considered a trophy and runs $500 per hog.
Chase asked us what caliber guns we were shooting. We had a 300 Black AR15 and 2 x 223 AR15's. Chase nixed that and said they have had bad luck with 223 zipping through hogs. He offered us loaner Savage Axis 308 rifles with 3 rounds of Remington SP green box 308 win in each rifle. He also said to please shoot them behind the shoulder and not take head shots.
I was looking forward to killing a Hog with my 223 AR15 as I have already killed 2 deer with it. Pete and his son have killed 6 hogs with 223 AR15's during past hunts at other ranches. We should've asked that question before setting up the hunt.
Oh well I took a loaner Savage 308 and Chase gave us the choice of tree stands or ground blinds. I took a ground blind. Pete and Ben took tree stands.
As soon as I sat down a group of 12 hogs walked in front of me. This one presented a perfect broadside shot for me and I took it. The hog dropped but wasn't fully dead. He kept lifting his head and looking around. I put a 2nd anchor shot into his head to end his suffering. Looking at him up close, my 1st shot was just behind the shoulder.
I messaged Pete saying I got one and what was taking him so long? About an hour later, Ben took a shot at one with his loaner Savage 308. He thought he missed and shot another. Turns out he got both of them.
Chase, hearing 4 shots figured we were done shooting and drove up to see what was up. Meanwhile Pete hadn't shot one yet. Chase came around and we found both of Ben's hogs and looked at my kill. Pete then tells him he hadn't shot one yet.
After all 4 of us stalked around a bit Chase lined up Pete with a shot on some hogs. Chase set up a tripod (shooting sticks) for Pete to use. Pete set his 300 black AR on the shooting sticks. We all plugged our ears and watched Pete have 3 failure to fires in a row. At which point, Chase handed him a Savage Axis and put him in a tree stand.
We had just started walking away when Pete kill this hog:
We piled the hogs in the back of Chase's pickup and drove back to the cabin.
I'm on the far left, Pete is in the middle, and Ben is on the far right. My hog is 2nd from the right. While Chase was skinning and quartering the Hogs we went and checked out the 7ft long Alligator in the swamp behind us.
Altogether we got 75lbs of hog sausage and had a great time.
