Got the itch

[longcruise]

Got the itch to hunt so bad that it's going to call for a special trip to shoot ground squirrels just to scratch it. Maybe call a yote while at it.

 

[Carl Fowler III]

I used to scratch the itch by hunt'n for rockchucks when living out west...got me up into the beautiful high country...maybe do some scouting as well! :v

 

[Lonegun1894]

I do it by hunting hogs. Our season starts September 1st, and goes til August 31st of every year. No bag limit, no weapons limitations, day or night. It's almost like the hogs have caused enough damage that people want them gone or something...

 

[Carl Fowler III]

That hog season is way to short for me...and just think, every four years you git an extra day to hunt! :wink:

 

[flyfisher76544]

I do it by hunting hogs. Our season starts September 1st, and goes til August 31st of every year. No bag limit, no weapons limitations, day or night. It's almost like the hogs have caused enough damage that people want them gone or something...

Same here, usually we have to get down into the swamps when the weather turns a bit "warmer" but you can't beat it. Hog hunting and flinters just seem to go together.

 

[Lonegun1894]

Since I'm not the only one, do y'all get funny looks too when you show up with a flinter and a tomahawk and the other guy or sometimes guys in the group are carrying AR-15s? Used to have that problem. Now hunt either alone or with a couple different friends who use a bolt gun and a lever-action, and they're open minded about our old ways, so I may make a couple converts eventually.

And I agree. Having to wait four years for one extra day of hunting is just a mean thing to do. I mean, what other holiday comes around just once every four years?

 

[flyfisher76544]

Yep, when we run into other hunters or folks out fishing they usually stare. Right now though I am running with a group that mainly hunts with flinters, sidelocks and some traditional bow hunters.

 

[flyfisher76544]

Forgot to add, have a bud who is looking for a flinter once he gets some funds together. So at least there is one more to add to the group.

 

[Tony Logan]

I am feeling the same way, I am out of school for the summer and got the "itch" to do something. Today, I salted and fleshed a deer hide and an otter hide that had been in the freezer, cast about 300 round balls, made a new powder measure out of a turkey wing bone I found in the woods this spring. I have to go to north FL this weekend to pick up my wife and I am going to try to work in a wild hog hunt with my flintlock smooth bore. I have never taken a wild hog, its on my list of things to do with a flintlock.

 

[flyfisher76544]

Well hope ya get your hunt in when you are down in Florida, look into the bottoms and find which ones are holding some water!!!

 

[George T.]

It took me a minute to figure out the season you were talking about! My Bad! They are thick for sure but getting access can be a challenge! Geo. T.

 

[Lonegun1894]

Exactly the problem I usually have. I finally found a place to hunt, just trying to not wear out my welcome.

 

[stone knife]

We have a ton of woodchuck to shoot around here, hay is coming down so it's time to get after them.

 

[hoochiepapa]

Kill some for me!!

 

[Loxahatchee]

Our hog seasons like yours too. No rules or regulations (for private property) Kill as many as you want, how you want, day or night. There was an incident a few years ago that my dad heard about, where some guys that worked for some chicken farm that owned a lot of surronding woods, got permission from the farm owners to kill as many hogs as they could. They killed almost 500 hogs, and left almost all of them where they shot em. Legally, it was not against the law. But that is a TON of meat gone to waste

 

[Supercracker]

I have to go to north FL this weekend to pick up my wife and I am going to try to work in a wild hog hunt with my flintlock smooth bore.

What part are you headed to?

 

[Lonegun1894]

I take all I can until I run out of people willing to take the meat. I know they are a pest, but leaving them to rot would open up the landowner and his animals to other problems, such as diseases, so I haul off all I take. Yes, I could take more, but I think I will do the landowner, and myself, and everyone who takes any of the meat more good by taking fewer animals but providing healthy meat, than I ever could by providing diseased meat and spreading disease to the landowners cattle and horses due to the rotting carcasses. I also try to stay in touch with the people I know can use meat, or at least to ask them if they can use meat IF I get anything, before hunts. That way, I don't take more than I can use myself and get to people who will use it, because my freezer is only so big. But on the other hand, between me and my dogs, we can put a lot of meat away, so a 200# hog gets completely eaten within a month easy, and sometimes only lasts 2 weeks, depending on work and everything else with my schedule. I know I could take more hogs, but like the rest of you here, I don't hunt for the sake of the kill, but rather to provide for me and mine, and it doesn't hurt any that I just like being outdoors and doing things myself. I figure if I take a hog, even it I only get one, I can spread the meat around easily enough that eveyone involved gets a meal or two out of it, and that way I don't have to worry about it going to waste--and I get to go get another soon. But if I get several, well, that just measn I can be lazy during the work week and not have to go shop for meat at least. And the landowner gets rid of a hog or hogs, so everyone wins.

 

[flyfisher76544]

I know a lot of folks consider them a nuisance and all that, myself...... heck I love em. Great hunting year round, great eating, you can't beat that.

 

[Lonegun1894]

I love that the State considers them a varmint, and I consider them an edible varmint. Then again, I'll eat just about anything that isn't either smart or fast enough to run away.

 

[Tony Logan]

Actually going to be in south GA.