Early in my writing career, I was invited to hunt the same ranch that the movie was filmed on. I actually killed a good-sized boar in the bottoms where the movie was filmed. What a thrill!
Through the years, I have had the opportunity to hunt with a great number of experienced hog hunters; I’ve also spent a lot of time in the woods hunting alone. I’ve guided hunts for hogs on both free range and I’ve never been seriously injured in the hog woods. Oh, I’ve had a few minor scrapes and bruises, usually from running away from what I perceived at the moment to be a dangerous situation, but never anything serious. I do recall several hunts that stand out in my mind mostly in comic relief rather than as dangerous situations. One involved a big alligator and a 125-pound boar. Let me tell you about it!
Back in the eighties, I used to spend a lot of time hunting a ranch up in Jack County, Texas. I wrote about the hunts in magazine and newspaper articles and the ranch owner who became a great friend pretty much gave me free reign to hunt his place. I had gained his trust and he knew I would never abuse the privilege. Ed had several big alligators in one of the ponds on the place. He also had an excellent tree stand overlooking a corn feeder about eighty yards below the pond dam. While driving the property with Ed before this particular hunt, Ed was carrying a bucket of trimmings from butchering in the back of his truck.
“Luke, I’ve got a pet I want you to see," says Ed as we bounce along the ranch road well back into the ranch. "We will use these trimmings to get him up close.”
I was wondering just what kind of cat or other predator my buddy was about to introduce me to. We pulled up to the stand where I was to hunt later that afternoon and then up to the top of the pond dam. Ed backed up to about 25 feet from water’s edge and unloaded the contents of the five-gallon bucket, he also “splashed” a couple of chunks of meat out into the water. I watched a BIG wake moving at a fast clip, heading across the pond and then I made out a wide head and long body trailing that appeared to be at least twelve-foot long. It was a gator!
This was Ed’s pet that he wanted to show me! The big reptile gulped down the chunk of meat that was in the water as easily as you or I would fork a fried shrimp off the plate and then, as quick as a flash, it rushed up on the bank, grabbed a 20-pound mouthful and dove back into the water. I remember asking Ed if the gator stayed in the water or could expect to see it around my stand.
I was assured that it never ventured far from its swimming hole. We filled a few feeders around the ranch and then Ed dropped me off at the “Gator Stand”. I remember I had just got my TC Contender pistol in 7/30 Waters and had it shooting half-dollar-size groups at 100 yards. I was impressed with my new pistol and was ready to put it to work on a wild hog.
Just about thirty minutes before dark, I spotted a dark-colored little boar working his way along the edge of the dam about 80 yards up the hill. When he got to the spot where Ed threw the “trimmings” on the ground, he stopped and began sniffing. I remember he was standing broadside on a long, flat rock that sloped into the water. I rested the barrel of the pistol on a branch, centered the scope’s crosshairs on the front shoulder of the boar, just a little below the centerline of his body and, nudged the trigger. The boar hit the deck and I knew the shot was a good one. There was one big problem though, he was about ten feet from water’s edge and he began kicking. Thanks to the slope of the rock he was laying on, he was soon in the water, still kicking. My mind was more on gators than hogs at this point. I remember a couple hours earlier when Ed summonsed the big gator by chunking meat into the water. I watched the hog disappear under the water; bubbles were coming up about six feet out in the pond.
Back then I all about the pork. I loved to barbeque and I was thinking pork chops! I wanted this fat little boar in my cooler! What to do? I found a stick and began dredging the bottom of the pond in hopes of somehow dragging the hog to shore. This obviously didn’t work but I did “feel” him lying on bottom in the four-feet deep water. I’m not sure if I would do this today but chances are pretty good that I would, I still love those wild pork chops!
It was August and it was hot. I stripped off, placed my clothes on the rock and tip toed into the water, barefoot. The gator never showed, I watched the still waters closely but no sign of a gator. Here I was barefoot and in my birthday suit, sliding my feel along bottom in the same manner a wade fisherman on the coast slides along to spook stingrays rather than step on them. I will never, ever forget the first part of that boar’s anatomy that my feet contacted first! He was not a big hog but he did have some good-sized choppers. My big toe landed right on top of one of his cutters! You know what my subconscious was telling me: GATOR… TEETH, get out of there, pronto! Well, I did flounder back up out of the water and onto the rock. The story ended well. After a moment to gain my composure, I waded back out, again found the hog with my feet and reached down and grabbing him by the snout, pulling him up onto the rock. As an old friend of mine used to say, “Anything can and usually does happen in the great outdoors!”
Listen to Luke’s weekly radio show/podcast “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends” just about everywhere podcasts are found. Email Luke through his website www.catfishradio.org
