I was invited to this year's wounded warrior hunt on Joint Base Charleston this past weekend and it was a great time.
We had 12 hunters, each of us was assigned a local hunter each day and everything was coordinated through the game warden's office on base. I was originally scheduled to do a different hunt in South Carolina (rifle) but it was rescheduled at the last minute so all of the work I've put in with my Kimber Hunter 6.5 over the past few months was moot as on base is bow, shotgun and muzzle loader only.
Lots of good looking deer among the 12 hunters. I shot a 145 pound 4 point the first morning (I swear I saw 6 points through the scope, but I haven't shot a deer in about 15 years so perhaps a little bit of excitement came into play). We were shooting from stands over well traveled game paths that the local guys had been scouting for a few months. I was using the guide's CVA Optima, 150 grains of pyrodex and Hornady SSTs. Deer was hit towards the back of the shoulder blade and was DRT.
The second morning was hunting with dogs, I can see where it could be a lot of fun but to be honest, I spent all of 2004 riding around in a truck with a gun, jumping out to stare at a sector and hold security then running back into the truck to do it again so to me it felt like my younger work days. That being said if they were dogs that I had worked with and trained and I had a bigger picture of who was where and doing what I think I would have enjoyed it quite a bit more.
Second night I had a decent sized (175 pound) pig show up with about 10 minutes of shooting light left. He was facing me and I was shooting from a stand, downhill so I held right where the spine met the skull and he was lights out. Lots of twitching but he was dead as they come. Same bullet/powder combo. Recovered the jacket but not the core.
Had a positively great time.
October 24, 2022, 08:14 PM
