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Saturday, January 1, 2011

Wild Hogs Succomb to Lead Poisoning

Michael and Marenna Cowley

My good friend Michael from Decatur, AL took his oldest daughter Marenna hunting a few days ago in the Bankhead National Forest WMA.  After an uneventful morning, they decided to head back to the truck.  As they made their way through the woods, they happened upon about twenty or so wild hogs bedded down. 
Amazingly, the hogs were all bunched together and didn't hear their intruders! 

Michael whispered to his daughter to be still and he took aim with his 30-06 at one of the pigs on the outside of the group.  Bang!!  With one shot, he downed two of them!!!  The rest of the small herd leaped to their feet and shot off in different directions.  A second group to the left also jumped up and ran off.  Michael tried shooting at the pigs as they ran but was unable to get a kill shot.  As the excitement settled, the larger pig which turned out to be the bye kill was still moving a bit - stunned from a hit to the head.  Thinking this larger hog was nearly done for, Michael waited a bit and then unsheathed his knife to finish it off.  He stood over the hog and then stabbed it in the neck to bleed it out.  To his surprise the hog squealed, stood up, and started to run after him!  Marenna ran off screaming and Michael made for his gun which was resting on a tree.  The hog stopped short still dazed and Michael was able to fire a final shot to down the beast.

Since they were a good mile or so from the road, they field dressed the hogs and began the tiring job of dragging them to the truck.  The smaller pig weighed about 60 lbs and the larger hog weighed close to 250 lbs.  After calling in reinforcements, they were able to get back to the truck and off to the processor. 

What a day and what a story.

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