Hey all, new to the forum although i've lurked for about a month and touched base with ELKLOCO to invite him and his hunt buddy up here to Chazz. I've attached a pic of this hog that was pulled out tonight ( hope it comes through ). Weighed in at 210lbs. Don't know the guys name but he said it was his first time in. Got him from a climber with a .30-30. First shot hit the shoulder and the next got him in the brain pan as he was trying to get back in the bush. The other pic is of my hunt buddy Charlie and his 70lb that he shot at Homosassa with a couple of 12ga slugs. I've been skunked so far this season but hopeful. ELK, the invite to Chazz still stands when you're interested. Happy hunting to everyone.

There's a trick to posting pictures. You've got to give it time to upload before you submit your post. Give it another try. You can do it by editing your first post and attaching the pics to it, although starting a 2nd post might be easier until you get the hang of it.

Bye
Jack

Thanks Jack, i'll give it another shot. Where i wnt wrong i think was i did'nt click on add this file. Thanks again.

Let's see if this works now.

The attachments were too big. I had to re-size them.

MattD-

Glad to see you on the forum! I spent last weekend in Green Swamp and was skunked again! Sunday morning was like a shooting gallery. I bet I heard at least 15 shots between first light and 9:00am! I heard shots all day also and come nightfall i could hear a hog(s) not 20 yards in front of me but I couldn't see a thing and had to turn and walk out! I did see a nice 6 point buck that came crashing through the palmettos, about scared me to death, but I already have a freezer full of venison from about a month ago.
I'm convinced that the only way to go in our area is to get yourself up off the ground in a climber. Every stinking stick in the forest here cracks like you're wlaking on firecrackers and the palm leaves sound like folded sheet metal when you brush by them! Learning to hunt in FL I guess!
Look for an email from me here in the next week, definatley will get up the Chazz way befre general gun closes!

MattD, Welcome to the forum. That's some fine lookig pork that you showed on the post. Up here(extreme NW Fla.) we haven't had much luck with tree stands.Seems like you gotta go to the pork cuz the pork wont come to you. Ivan gave us big problems with moving around in the hunting areas. It shoved allot of water inland off the river to flood some of our prime hunting spots. One thing for sure,we're learning allot of new areas this season. It has been cold up here and it helps to keep the hogs from bedding during the day. I found hog tracks in my tracks several times this year. It makes you feel like they are taunting you but it also tells you that they are still moving during the daylight hours. ----- GOOD HUNTIN' --pruhdlr

pru, I know what you mean about hunting from a stand, it's a matter of luck which i think that guy just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. He said that the squirrels were bouncing off the trees and did'nt even hear the hog but saw him when he came out of the bush. I've seen plenty of sign here but still waitng for one to show himself. Hoping i can spot one before the season ends. How have you done this season with all the changes the storm made? Which WMA do you hunt? How big is the area you hunt, Chazz is just under 34,000 acres and alot of it swamp. I explore back there some but i don't go to deep cause i have no one to cover my back. My hunt buddy is 67 and i don't need to be dragging him around back there. He likes to work the trails waiting to see if one crosses. Works now and then, that's how he got the 70lb. from Homosassa ( only about 5,600 acres ).

MattD, Hunting from a stand(especially a climber) can be very productive. Especially in the afternoon. In the very early AM when the air is usually still and "heavy" the slightest noise that you make while climbing can be bad for the early AM prospects of killing game. The woods as you know are usually very quiet. There is usually not much wind and the temp. is colder which holds your scent down at ground level. On the other hand, I will use a climber about 1430.The air temp. is warmer taking at least some of your scent upwards. It is usually windier so the moving brush and trees will help to cover the noise that you make while climbing. I will plan to be up and situated in the stand by1500. Animals that are bedded might not hear(and/or remember) the sound that you made while gitting situated. I can't sit for a long period of time,but I can manage 2-2 1/2 hrs. This is how I used to kill allot of coyotes in the mts. of rural Maine. As in hunting any animal,it really matters where you put your stand. Sometimes people will put it too high. It just depends on what area and how much area you want to watch.---- Extreme NW Fla was devistated by Ivan. The woods and waters will never be the same in my lifetime. The big Cypress trees fell accross the small waterways that we used to access some great hunting areas. The places along the river(Escambia) that were high and dry have acres apon acres of backwater. I read in the paper the other day that the water(storm surge) came up 16' above normal at the mouth of Escambia River. Picture where you hunt and imagine it 16' under water. That is with all kinds of debris in the water tearing up what was left after the 140 MPH winds went through. The backwater will eventially disappear but the trees,tree tops and all sorts of other stuff will be there for a very long time. The hogs went to high ground, but I'm sure that allot of them,especially the ones on the large islands that we used to hunt, were drowned. We have been hunting the higher areas of the WMA about 15-20 miles North on Escambia River and we have been seeing some hogs and fairly good sign.---- We have been hunting Eglin AFB which is about 30 miles to the East. I killed a 95pounder(field dressed) over there but we had to do all our scouting after the season started and that is never fun. I also killed a 140 pounder on the northern part of the Escambia River WMA just after the season started. My hunting buddy killed a small hog yesterday on the river, from the boat. We usually(at least in the past years) kill 4-6 per year. This year we are doing better than I had expected. I am retired so I can hunt every day. I usually go by myself on the weekdays when there is much less hunting pressure. We hunt the river by boat only. We usually run 3-7 miles N of the boat ramp. There isn't many people that want to go that far North and the ones that do wont get
more than a couple of hundred of yards in off the river. The WX has been cold and that helps the hunting also. Good luck in your efforts to put some pork in the freezer.------ HANG EM UP---pruhdlr