Bocajnala

Well, my first hog hunt was a good time. I went with Chappy's near Moore Haven, Florida. Started out in a box stand in the morning and saw a few deer. Around 8AM we got the dogs out, and before too long had a nice hog down. Had a really good time and enjoyed watching the dogs work. Ended up with a nice red colored hog, and lots of sausage to grind here tomorrow probably. The .30-30 performed as expected. One pass through of the chest and one shot that entered the neck and travelled right beside the spine almost to the back of the pig. I went this route because I only had a half day free at the end of the vacation. I was able to hunt in the morning before driving home and was loaded up with the quarters in the cooler and on the road by 9:30AM which was perfect for me!


Edit to add a full story*
Wanted to write up a review of my experience on a hog hunt with Chappy's. I started looking for a Florida Hog hunt when I got permission from the wife to go on a hunt on the last day of our vacation. The way everything timed out I would only have a half day to do a morning hunt so I didn't have time to scout myself or do anything other than show up to hunt. I did some searches through past posts on this page as well as on google. I saw many good reviews for Chappy's including several on here from Rebel Hog, who I had allot of respect for. I knew if Reb said good things about them, then I could trust them.


After a couple emails and a couple phone calls with questions I had my hunt scheduled with Chappy's. We arrived the evening before the hunt and Bret(The owner) met us in town and we followed him to the property. We stayed in their cabin located on property and really enjoyed it. It's a small, simple hunting camp with two beds and a cot. Also has tv, air conditioner, and a heater. There is a nice bath and shower house right near the cabin. There is a grill, fire ring, picnic tables, and chairs set up as well. It was a really nice set up and could easily accommodate more people if you brought tents as there is plenty of room to set tents up.


Bret made sure we were settled in and had what we needed for the night and told us he'd pick us up in the morning to take us to our stand. He arrived on his swamp buggy in the morning and took us out to the box blind we'd be hunting out of. we agreed that he would pick us up at 8AM to start hunting with the dogs if we didn't see anything prior to that. The stand overlooked a large clearing with a feeder at one end. We saw several deer pass through the field, but no hogs. Bret did tell us mornings are hit and miss and that the hogs would probably stay in the woods, but I figured since we were there we'd better be sitting to see what came out. I had my .30-06 for the morning sit.


At 8am Bret picked us up and took me back to the camp so that I could switch over to my open sight .30-30. We got back onto the swamp buggy and drove a bit down the dirt road and entered the property on another lane. Bret let the dog, Susie, out and the dog quickly got to work. The property is large(Around 1,700 acres if I remember correctly.), and we covered a pretty decent amount of ground. When Susie started barking we climbed down off the swamp buggy and took off through the woods. The hog was backed up tight against a thick patch of brush and was squared up facing the dog. Bret told me to go ahead and get ready and to wait until he said it was ok to shoot. When he gave me the go ahead( When the dog was clear) I shot the hog in the neck and the hog dropped. The dog was immediately onto him, the hog jumped up and disappeared into the brush. Pretty quickly the dog was bayed up again. Took us a little longer to get around the brush, but again the hog was backed into a tight spot facing out and looking mean. This time he gave me a nice broadside shot and that one dropped him. Susie was all over him again, and when we pulled her off she took off into the brush ready for more.


I was really happy with the hog. It was bigger than I was expecting, and I really like the red color. Also gave us a pretty good chase and was ready to fight the dog both times we caught up to it. We took some pictures, loaded the hog up and headed back to where Bret skins and quarters them. You can tell he does this allot because he had it in my cooler on ice in just a couple minutes. I rolled up my sleeves to help and quickly realized I'd just be in the way. So I took some pictures and enjoyed watching how efficiently he worked.


The whole experience was a good one. And I'd recommend this to anyone who wants, or needs, a fun hunt but doesn't have time to scout and such yourself. I'm typically a DIY hunter, but only having a half day to hunt, I knew that limited me. This hunt was fun, Bret and his daughter who also helped were good people and made sure we had everything we needed. They are also really flexible and will work to accommodate whatever method or style you want to use. So next time you're in Florida and have a free half-day, head on over to Chappy's!



-Jake