| Beautiful morning, in the 60's and looking like rain.........again. The place looked great. The stand and feeder needed no maintenance. No brush really needed to be cut, so I got some time to scout the place on foot. Goal is to find a spot to hunt when not in my stand. After last year, not seeing any decent bucks, at my stand, which I hunted every time I was there, I need a new plan. I walked the back fence to check out the neighbors who hunt the fence line. Stirred up a pack of pigs just off the road, at least 5, taking a morning nap. They just grunt and wonder back into the brush. Just 2 stands set up, not to bad........... The back road turns and crosses the big creek. I turn to follow the creek back toward my stand. This is the prettiest terrain on the lease. Green grass, large oaks and not a lot of under brush. Looks like a park. A ground stand would be great some where in here and that's my plan. A stand off the ground would just limit your vision, because of the large oaks. Ahead, about 50yds, there is a lot of black??? It is moving. It's 12 to 15 pigs, all black, two different sizes, large and medium. The wind is in my favor, so I start crawling through the grass. Gosh this is fun. I have never seen pigs so relaxed. Most of the times I have seen them they are scrambling for corn. These guys are just standing around and kind of smacking on the grass. They are on the bank of the creek, so I get in the deep ravine of the dry creek to see how close I can get. The ground had the perfect moisture for very little sound and with the wind blowing it muffled out the rest. I got out of the creek about 50ft from them since it was and easy exit at that point. I got with in about 30ft before one started to grunt. He would look right at me and then start eating again. He knew something was there, but did not feel danger. Stop eating, grunt, start eating. I just stood there. One came out of the brush on my right side about 30ft and then started to walk behind me. Once behind, the wind gave him my scent. He gave the big warning grunt and headed off. The others wondered off into the brush also. He grunted a few more times and they all finally disappeared. They were in no hurry. WOW!!! Soooooooo cool. I found a spot a little further down the creek close to the end of my sandera where it looks to be a cool place to hang out when not in the stand. I might come up with some sort of ground stand here. Two hour walk, 20 pigs, that's 10 pig per hour. O'boy................. |
| 10/05/04 PreSeason Check out |