Tale of the 3 pigs

Plus, first duck split comes to end

On Monday afternoon, David Harrison and I made a quick deer-hunting trip to Avondale on the Churchill Hunting Club.

We settled in the stands for 3 p.m. With plenty of rain from the weekend, the hunting lease was like a big mud hole.  The afternoon was cloudy and had a strong southeast wind. The temperature was in the high 50’s.

I had put David on a stand where a bunch of pigs had been showing up to feed under a feeder.  At 4:40 p.m., David dropped a 120-pound hog with a nice headshot.  He called me on the cell phone to inform me of his kill.

I told him, “Sit in the stand until dark, you will have other pigs coming by.”

Ten minutes later, David fired another shot from his Model 700 30-06.  He called to tell me he had killed two small, 40-pound pigs with one shot.  He let the pigs cross while feeding and then fired.   While I was talking to him, a big 8-point walked across my shooting lane.  The deer never stopped to allow me to get a shot.

After sundown, I climbed out of my stand and rode over to David’s stand to help load up three pigs he had killed.  On Tuesday I called Schnexayders to arrange for the meat to be processed into Cajun Hot Sausage.

Duck hunting starts with a bang and fizzles at the end of first split.

With the passage of a major cold front, local duck hunters anticipated a good weekend.

But by Saturday and Sunday most of the birds had disappeared, according to local hunter Ross Monet.

“A lot of duck flights we saw were flying north. Hopefully the second split will be better,” Ross said.

One lucky young man was Sheldon Folse, who managed to kill one lone green wing teal Sunday morning.

This past weekend was the end of the first split of the East and West Zones.  Both zones will reopen on Dec. 19.  The West Zone will close on Jan. 24 and the East will close one week later on Jan. 31.