After I shot my first deer a few years back my Dad and I wanted to hunt wild pigs, but we hadn’t gotten a chance until last weekend. On the 21st, I woke up at 7:00 A.M to pack my bags and get ready for my Dad picking me up at 8 A.M. I ate breakfast, which consisted of a bagel because I wasn’t that hungry. As he rolled into the driveway, I saw two kayaks on top of his car. One was a deep green and the other was a neon orange. I didn’t recognize them, so I assumed they were new. I hugged him and I told him how excited I was. I didn’t have any hunting clothes, so he bought me a pair of boots, pants, and a long sleeve shirt. I went into my room and changed, but I didn’t have any time to tie my boots, so I was stumbling around trying to not trip over the laces. I hugged my mom and sister, grabbed my backpack, and hopped in my Dad’s grey Explorer. I never paid attention to the color of the car, but today it struck me as the color of the gravy on country style biscuits and gravy. We drove for a little, then he told me we needed a few things, so we stopped at a Walmart to get bullets and an eating cup for me. We had to wait for a while because there were no cashiers at the hunting section. Eventually, an employee helped us, and told us that she never sees anyone with camo in West Florida. (In West Florida fishing is more popular than hunting.) We explained that we were actually heading to a WMA near Kissimmee, in central Florida. Once we got everything, we headed back to our car, and continued the adventure. After about 3 hours of driving, we got to the area we needed to be in, but unfortunately his GPS stopped working, so we turned into a private community to ask for help. We asked a couple on a golf cart, and they said that there was a boat ramp down the road, and that we couldn’t launch our kayaks there. We ended up finding the place, but it was a little confusing. It seemed like there was a airboat meet up, so my Dad told me that if there is big waves, to turn your kayak to paddle them head on, because of how easily a kayak can tip on large waves. We packed up everything on the kayaks and wheeled them out to the water. We paddled for about a mile and a half before we stopped to set up camp. My Dad taught me how set up my hammock and we made our plan. We would kayak out of the camping spot, up to the WMA, and hunt until 3PM, then head back and sleep. We waited for the wind to calm down, and paddled our kayaks up into the lake and into a patch of lily pads, where we met two fishermen. We paddled closer and asked if they knew where the public hunting land was. They said it wasn’t down that opening, but we had just checked our maps, and we were positive that was the area we needed to be in. So we waited to go around them, and continued until we found a small area of water. We pulled our kayaks out of the water, and my Dad told me that he expected those men to be rude because they were casting at us. We checked our gun cases and there was a small amount of moisture inside, but our rifles were not wet. I tightened the laces on my boots, and we headed out into the woods. We met a fork in the road. We had to choose from a road that was used by vehicles and was closer to the water, or a path in the forest. My Dad said there are probably more hogs on the road less traveled, so we turned right. Between the small crunches of branches breaking underfoot, and the wet grassed being stepped through with heavy boots, there were barely any sounds. Several crows and other turkey vultures felt like they were alerting other animals of my Dad and my presence. The hike felt like a mile out into the woods, but I’m not sure the exact distance. Right after my Dad said we should turn back soon, he heard several boar in some underbrush about 10 feet in front of us. Before I could comprehend what was going on, he fired, and I was startled by the sudden deafness and ringing in my ears. If you have never fired a gun without hearing protection, it is a very weird feeling. Like when you are under water and you can people talking out of the water? You can make it out, but it seems blurred. I ended up tracking one of the pigs he shot, through thick underbrush. I saw that he shot the hog in the stomach, and that it was writhing in pain. I felt bad for it, it didn’t deserve to suffer. So I looked at my Dad, turned towards the pig, pulled the stock to my check to aim, and fired. I walked up to the dead pig and grabbed it’s front legs, and dragged it out of the thick vegetation. My Dad pulled out a smaller, darker colored boar. I looked at the pig I shot, he was a caramel color, I had never seen a hog that color. They were just older than piglets, it made me sad that we killed them. He gutted them, and we made our trip back to our kayaks. For a while I carried the rifles, and he carried both pigs. A few times I carried a pig, and he carried one, but I was struggling, and he carried them to our kayaks. Right before we were about to turn out of the woods, we saw something peering over the grass. My Dad pointed out that it could be a panther of a bob-cat. We didn’t see it’s tail, but just by the size of the cat, we guessed that it was a bob-cat. He said that if it were to show interest in our boars, he would leave one so it wouldn’t attack us. It eventually disappeared, but that left me even more worried. We didn’t see that cat ever again, but it was still an interesting sight. We eventually made it to our bright boats, and butchered the hogs before putting them on ice. Then we had dinner, consisting of ramen and stuffing, mixed to form a very filling concoction. After filling our bellies, we headed back to our “stealth camp”. We set up our hammocks, and my Dad put on the radio to a story about Mount Vesuvius. I just took a nap, and when I woke, I thought the night had already passed for some reason, but it didn’t. So I was disappointed when I had to go back to bed, as I didn’t feel tired. I thought it would be a pretty peaceful night, but a swarm (literally a swarm) of mosquitos just decided to stay put near our hammocks for the entire night, it was awful. Even the bugs-pray didn’t work against the horde of biting insects. I couldn’t fall asleep, so I felt really tired when we went hunting the next morning.
We walked the route again, and waited, but we didn’t see anything, so we headed back. We packed up everything into our kayaks, and returned to the boat ramp. He wheeled up the kayaks and we unpacked everything into his car (We did a lot of unpacking on this trip, it was very tedious). I bought another bag of ice, to make sure the pork didn’t spoil. Then, we headed to my Mom’s house. After a while, we both agreed that we were hungry. After a little while of searching, we decided to go to Arby’s. However, I really underestimated the size of the portions. I ordered a large meal, but I really should have ordered a small. The cups that the cashier gave us could fit an entire two-liter of soda in it! The food was good, but there seriously was too much. We discussed what we should do with our shares of the meat. He said he recommended to make pulled pork in a slow cooker, and to cut up chucks of pork, and wrap them in bacon, which is what he did with his. When he pulled into the driveway, I said goodbye and grabbed my backpack, waving as he drove away.
I loved my experience boar hunting, even though I had to deal with mosquitos. If you ever go boar hunting in Florida, I would recommend bringing an effective bug spray, because 15% deet did absolutely nothing against them.
Thea`s homeschool blog 