Hunting Bama Holiday 2017

Over the holidays I had a fantastic hunt in Alabama West of Tuscaloosa. It's an annual family get together that I look forward to each year.Usually we hunt the rut there which is around the first or second week in January.
The properties are very well managed for wildlife and there are some ginormous bucks running around. Due to this years drought the green fields weren't doing very well and were just starting to come in after finally getting some rain. This year I took my old faithful 116FLCSAK in 30-06 and also my 10PC in .308 which I've had for years but just haven't hunted with.
The bucks I was looking for were to be 8 points and up outside the ears minimum. I saw several from the shoot house that appeared to fit the bill but they were at 350+ yards and weren't staying still, they were quickly crossing the logging roads before disappearing into the brush.
One of my Nephews got his first rifle from Santa this year. A stainless Ruger American Compact in .243 topped with a leupold VX2 3-9x ultralight (Yeah I know, it aint a Savage) and had the green light on any deer on the property to take as his first. The first evening there, just before dark he connected with a doe using Hornady "light" ammo loaded with a 87gr SST. Right after exclaiming "I got that sucker" He made a perfect shot and she fell like a sack of rocks. I was really surprised how well the Hornady "light" ammo in .243 performed. Plenty of trauma and a decent exit. When butchering his deer, my nephew kept wanting to see the heart, but there was none as it had been jellied. He was super excited and I don't think he or my brother have quit smiling yet.
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The next morning I watched and waited as several does and a couple of fawns nibbled in the green field before wandering off. Mr Big Buck never showed for me except to cross way down the road a couple of times. The first time he crossed I knew he was headed right towards my brother and nephew. They did see him broadside at about 75 yards but after getting his first deer the evening before my nephew got his first case of Buck Fever :disillusionment: and forgot to take off the safety before watching the big boy disappear into the brush. The next time I saw him he was crossing the other way headed off the property.

After the 2nd days hunt I was talking to my cousins about one of the other properties where they were having a pig problem. I was very familiar with this property having hunted it multiple times over the last decade and knew it also had some big bucks. My cousins said that there had been no hunting pressure over there this year because everyone had been hunting the new property. The evening of the third day we loaded up and headed over to the Boligee property. I got in my stand at about 2:30 in the afternoon in plenty of time to let things settle down and enjoy a few snacks.
Within an hour the first deer came into the field. It was a little yearling spike buck with interesting straight antlers about 6" long that came to a point in the middle giving him the appearance of a unicorn. He grazed across the field from right to left at about 150 yards and eventually wandered off into the woods. Soon a doe showed up from the same entrance point and grazed a while before leaving. The wind was in my face and life was good. Then I heard something off to my 5 o'clock, I turned to look a doe and 2 fawns right in the face at less than 5 yards. I had been fiddling with the window screen at the time and I was busted. They took off with the white flag flying and the doe blowing a warning and educating her fawns. Oops but beautiful anyway.
It wasn't long after that when a doe came from the edge of the woods at my 8:00 and began grazing up the field. After a while she got nervous and kept looking away up the field. I couldn't tell what she was looking at and thought maybe a buck was getting ready to make an appearance. I kept looking and looking and finally spotted what she was watching.
A bobcat was belly crawling stalking up through the field to a clump of brush and trees surrounding a large walnut tree. I never did see it pounce. The doe started grazing away from the cat, watching it as she slowly crossed the field and came down the other side towords me on the right. She started acting skittish again about 40 yards out and looking at something in the woods.

Again my heart started beating fast as I was suspecting a buck might be getting ready to make an appearance. Then her tail went up and she froze for a long few minutes while looking to the edge of the field. Eventually she started grazing again. It's prime time and light is just starting to fade. The second time her tail went up she looked into the edge of the woods and then bolted heading right towards me bounding right past the box blind at full speed. That's when I noticed another much smaller bobcat come out of the edge of the woods and come straight to the blind. Then it disappears walking right under the blind. Okay, at this time I'm starting to wonder if this little bobcat has been sheltering in this box blind, no one has been in in it since last year. I get a picture of that sucker climbing into the blind and how I'm going to react stuck in my head. Yeah, I don't like that picture very much but I'm not real sure what to do about it, So I start hissing like one would do to spook off a house cat and whispering "Get outa here cat". It must have worked because it didn't climb up in the stand with me.
Okay Now I'm thinking "Man this hunt went from sugar to salt" (or something else that starts with S) and my hunt though enjoyable is now blown right at prime time.
I sat there a couple of more minutes and then I see a black ball streaking across the field at about 200 yards quartering towards me. I raised my rifle and at first glance thought I was looking at a Labrador retriever. Then I realized it was a wild hog and it wasn't stopping. (After seeing hog hunts on TV aren't they supposed to stand still so you can shoot them?) Before it could clear the field completely I flipped off the safety took a shot with my 10PC in .308 topped with a Burris E1 3-9x50.
The scope picture filled with the orange flash of my shot, The pig turned back into the field but didn't even slow down, so I jacked in another round of Federal deer thug 165gr and took another shot. This time the pig stumbled but still refused to slow down barreling down the field and turning straight towards me. Again I grabbed the oversized bolt knob and hurriedly worked the action, raised the rifle and fired. This time the hog went down and I saw it motionless in my scope. Man I was shaking. I sat there a few minutes to see if even after all the shooting anything else was coming into the field and to watch the hog I had shot for movement. I double checked my G20SF sidearm to make sure I had a cartridge in battery and climbed down from the box. I approached the hog and indeed it was dead. It appeared the third shot had hit it in the head just above the left eye and traveled down removing most of it's lower jaw.

Of the other two shots one had hit it in top of the right ham taking off the top of the bone. The other had hit it square in the chest exiting the left leg. I was incredibly surprised that I had hit it all 3 times on the run. The final head shot that put it down as it came towards me, wound up being 105 yards from the box blind. I was also amazed that while shooting a running animal at over 100 yards that I hadn't gut shot it. I dressed that sow out and was able to recover nearly all the edible parts of it only having to trim a small portion the top of the right ham and the left shoulder.
Overall this was one of the most exciting and memorable hunts I have been on in a long time. I got first blood on my 10PC and also My first wild hog. Man what a great trip.
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