A buddy and I got drawn for a muzzleloader quota hunton one of the larger WMA'sin Middle/Eastern TN this past weekend.The place is upon the Cumberland Plateau inMiddle/Eastern TN and isa pretty tough place to hunt; real thick pinesand with deepvalleys and steep hill sides. Thursday was wet butFriday andSat. were nice days.Friday at lunch, I decided to do somemid-dayscouting. I ended following an old logging trailup into some pretty thick stuff on an adjacent ridge. The pines were so thick, you could only see about 5-10 yards into them on either side of thetrail. I could hear the hogs rooting around in the pines well before I could see any of them. Finally, a pair crossed the path about 40 yards up from where I was kneeling;followed by this young fella.

Unlike the two pigs before him, he made the mistake of standing still long enough to catch a 410 gr. conical just behind the right ear. He dressed out at only 48#'s but, considering from where and how far I had to drag him, I'm not going to complain. He'll be some good eat'n.

Congratulations.. I bet he was on the ground before the smoke cleared.. That looks like some real good eating.. Not only that, drag #48 pounds for any distance and you would have swore that pig weighed #300 pounds when you got him back..

Nice going..and nice shooting!!!

Chris,

Congratulations. I would consider that little pig perfect for tenderness, and making forfast processing. I just keep picturing that pig at one of them Hawaiin luaus with an apple in its mouth!

Congrats, and that porker should be great eatin'.

Cayugad.....He dropped straight down in his tracks with not even a flinch afterwards. That big flat point conical caught him at an anglejust behind the ear at the base of the skull. While skinning him out, I discovered it destroyed the spine at that point. It exited out the off side,between the ear and eyeball, making a hole the size of a silver dollar. I'm sure he had no clue what hit him; just lights out.

My buddy said the same thing when he first saw it. It's definately about the perfect size for that. I got him skinned and quartered Sat. afternoon and I'll get some good chops out of him. He had a lot more meat in the hams and back straps than what I would have thought. My buddy's going to slow smoke the shoulders for me for dinner one night.The tenderloins are just large enough to make a decent breakfast when combined with a few biscuits and some gravy . I'm making myself hungry.

Good Job! Congrats

Great pig. Have fun eating him.