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Americans enjoy hunting both of their hog varieties. There are the wild boar, known
as the ridgeback, and the wild pigs, domesticated breeds, gone feral. The wild boar grow to
around 300lb and have a reputation for being aggressive. The feral pigs are much, much
bigger.
Later on we will be going out for some feral hogs, we’ve got some property on Bayou Portage
been rife with them lately and we’ll see if we can see a few of those and try and call
in a couple of coyotes.
We need to walk through the swamp to a high seat next to a wallow. First, I'm given my
cowboy-style rifle. It's a lever-action Marlin 30-30, one of the guns that won the West.
Pretty standard American lever action, loads in here, lever here so, just cowboy style,
to load it lever out, lever in it’s loaded. Hammer’s back ok. It’s ready to go, pop
that back it’s the safety.
John's is less cowboy, more militia. It's a modern version of the SKS, a forerunner
to Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK47: ideal for pigs, especially decadent American capitalist running-dog
*** pigs.
Semi auto absolutely, fully autos, I don’t like Swiss pigs.
With a slightly sicky feeling that keilers are hiding behind every tree, we head off.
John says that the pigs are not scared by the torch beam - they can even be attracted
by it - though their senses of smell and hearing are excellent.
You’ll find a lot of times tracks along side these sluice where they have come into
wallow, or water and often times if you check the clarity of the water you can tell how
lately they have been in. If it is very, very cloudy they have been in wallowing cooling
down from the hot sun recently. This water looks fairly clear.
So that’s why we are whispering?
Yes, so I’m imagining they haven’t been through here for a bit so we’ll check another
couple of wallows and try and spot some tracks off them.
A few hundred yards in and if we get the unmistakable whiff of pig pee. John has been putting some
old burger buns down and we can see they have been to this boggy Burger King. Suddenly,
there's a lot of noise and something is coming towards us, fast.
It’s moving really fast to be an armadillo.
Both of us chamber around and raise our rifles. I feel a wave of immense relief tinged with
disappointment when an armadillo breaks cover.
So we just gave up on the hamburger stall for the pigs that are out here and then John
slammed off the light and we could hear rustling in the bushes and your heart starts racing
and thank goodness it’s an armadillo. I really thought we would be in touch with a
pig there but quite relieved we’re not.
Pah - armadillo shmarmadillo - good job there isn't anything really terrifying out there.....?
America has big pigs. Really big pigs. And not all of them are called Bubba. Here is
one shot with a handgun by an 11-year-old lad in Alabama. A US record, it weighed more
than 1,000lb. I am six feet four inches and can be easily impressed by a 5lb armadillo.
Imagine how the kid felt.
John and I stalk through the swamp, which has a gumbo-like consistency. Gumbo is a local
stew that tastes exactly like it sounds. Soon we reach an old duck hide, or 'blind' in American.
So we’ve got a good 150 yards of visibility to take a shot on them and as soon as we see
them break those bushes we’ll hold off, give them a little time to get as close in
front of us as we can, just stay trained on them the whole time, keep our scopes on them
and as soon as they get close enough and we’re comfortable taking that shot we’ll put lights
on them and fire away and see what we’ve got.
We sit and wait, and we wait, then John reckons its time to go and see the boar face to face
After the little scare earlier on, the approaching armadillo, John thinks it’s a good idea
that we go after them on foot. Brilliant.
Another wild pig hamburger joint, but this one looks undisturbed. John reckons we will
have to put tonight down as unlucky.
So we got to the end point, feeling a bit defeated by duck, bit beaten by boar, they
haven’t touched the bate, but you cannot beat the excitement of stalking up on something
that could easily be stalking up on you. It’s not a lion or a tiger, it’s a pig, but it’s
a great big thing in a very dark wood and it’s absolutely brilliant.
Above all, this part of the United States is truly gorgeous. For more on hunting with
John, visit www.doublegunguide.com or the landowner's website www.bayoutechehuntingpreserve.com
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