Trophy Boar Hog killed by black Bear!

.
Over the last 35 plus years of stomping around in the woods I have seen a lot of interesting and incredible things but what I ran across while scouting for turkeys last Thursday ranks right up at the top of the list.

I had knocked off work early to head over to the hunting club to locate some gobblers for opening weekend. I had covered a portion of the road system looking for sign and it was about fly-up time so I stopped at a couple likely spots to owl and listen for a gobble. However, it was overcast and not ideal conditions to hear a bird on the roost. Since there was still a lot of road to cover I decided to push ahead and keep tracking in the dark. Probably not to many people scout for turkey sign at night and it sounds a little strange but tracking the roads for strut and track sign is without a doubt the best and fastest method for locating as many gobblers in the shortest amount of time there is. I have located a many a gobbler in the headlights of my truck.

I was actually on my way out of the woods, tracking a long sandy stretch of road that separates a creek drainage from a high sandy hill. The woods along the creek are super thick and almost impenetrable with palmettos over your head, ty-ty’s and bay heads. I have been on two or three crippled deer tracks into this hell hole and it is about as rough as it gets.

As I was easing down the road I noticed something black lying half in the road. As I got closer I realized it was a hog and it was not getting up. Not just any hog either, a brute of a hog! Probably 275-300 lbs.. He had been dead about 24-48 hours and the buzzard sign had stomped out all other sign for 30 yds either side of the carcass.

Of course I was curious as to what had killed him and why he was in the road. I looked him over a little and as best I could tell he appeared to be killed by a black bear! His head and neck were ripped up with deep claw marks. Part of his neck and shoulder and a ham had been eaten. The claw marks to the top of his forehead were all the way to the bone. Unfortunately for the hog his teeth had grown at an odd angle that did not allow them to wear against his top teeth and keep them sharp. He was actually pretty defenseless.

Here are some pictures of his body and some of his wounds. 

It was pretty amazing to find something like this but even more incredible was the teeth on this old boar. I have not measured them yet but they are the largest I have ever seen in person. The cutter on the right side actually grows back into his mouth and down into his gum. Its so deeply embedded I cannot find the end  of it. I am going to boil and clean his skull and  I’ll post some pictures when its done.

There is no way to know for sure if this same bear is responsible but two deer dogs have been kill by a bear in the club in the last two years. That is pretty unusual it self.

Another interesting point about the hog is how old he was and how he managed to survive so long with all the hunting pressure there. A big boar hog can be even harder to kill than a trophy buck and even more nocturnal. This hogs front and jaw teeth were just about worn to the gum line. As far as I know, no one ever laid eyes on this old brute, amazing.

Just another day in the woods!

Larry

.

.
post script:N
This is a follow up post to this story. I decided to clean the skull on this beast as he had such an amazing set of teeth. What I found was nothing short of incredible!

This boars right lower cutter curved back into his gum and actually grew right thru the middle of his jaw bone and was rubbing his tongue! There was cartilage built up around the tooth's entrance and exit as though it was a normal tooth. I don't know how he survived, Surely he developed an infection from the penetration of the bone. Anyone that thinks a hog is not one tough critter dot know much about them. What a survivor this brute was.

Absolutely unbelievable! I've never seen anything like it. Have a look at this.

Notice the mass, unusual bone formations below and behind the penetration and the amount of ware on the teeth compared to the jaw on the right from a boar I took that weighed about 175#.

L.S.  

A Rare Find on an Easter Morning Turkey Hunt!

.

This morning was the last day of a 3 day quota hunt I had drawn for a management area hunt here in Central Florida.

The hunt started out really promising, I had found a good bit of strut sign and there were gobbler tracks on just about every road I tracked.

Unfortunately, the birds were not gobbling very good and I was not able to roost a single bird. Pretty unusual really.

I decided to scout another section of the management area Saturday afternoon in hopes of finding a more workable gobbler than the one I had been hunting. I was tracking the main grade when I started picking up some turkey tracks in the road. Really don’t know why I was tracking that road, most of its limerock and to hard to see sign on. Just as I came around a bend in the road I noticed a gobbler track on top of the days wheel sign. Naturally I stopped to investigate.

That’s when I found it! The mother load of strut sign! This bird must have been there for several hours to make that much sign. The road was just cut to pieces. He had it tore up. As I was tracking up to the bridge at the creek a hen flew up to roost but she was apparently by herself and I was not able to pull a gobble out of the bird that had left all the sign in the road.

No problem I thought, he’ll gobble in the morning.

Wrong!

Well, after I could not strike him I decided to slip into the creek bottom and find a place to set up and call.

I was just getting into the hammock when I heard something get up ahead of me. I stopped to listen and in a minute a deer started blowing. I eased ahead and just as I came around a clump of palmettos I spotted a deer fawn lying in a shallow depression ahead of me.

The fawn had literally just been born and had not even stood yet. The fawn still had the wax caps on its hooves and there was a little blood where his mama had gotten up. He was just about dry.

There are not many critters prettier than a deer fawn and I ended up abandoning the gobbler hunt to spend some time there and take some pictures.

Have a look at this thing, most people and few hunters will ever see this!

Everyday in the woods is an adventure.

Larry

Monster Osceola Gobbler Spurs!

.

Now this is a limb hanger if ever there was one! "Better than money from home" as one of my old fishing buddies used to say.

My good friend Rick Edwards stopped by my office today to show me a set of monster Gobbler spurs he took a few years back. They were so large I wanted to share a few pictures of them with everyone.

They are the largest hooks I have ever seen in person with the longer spur measuring a full 1 11/16" along the curve. These are as long and sharp as they come.

Don't know how Ricky managed to take such a monster. Obviously, the bird was older than dirt and had to be in declining health. Probably just came limping by, looking for some hunter to put him out of his misery......sorry Ricky! couldn't resist that. Probably just my envy showing thru.

All joking aside, if your a turkey hunter, you know just how special a bird this is. A Gobbler that has lived this long has seen it all and is one of the wariest creatures in the woods. No sense of curosity. If something don't seem  right, he packs his bags and leaves, no questions asked. 

The following is a short recount of how Rick felled this magnum sized Gobbler.

Rick was invited to hunt a private ranch near Green Cove Springs, Florida. Recognizing this could be a hunt of a life time, he jumped all over the opportunity.

In the pre-dawn darkness, the ranch's hunt master took Rick to a promissing spot where he knew a number of turkeys were likely roosting along a large rolling pasture.

As daylight began to crack in the sky and the red birds started to sing,  Rick was able to just barely make out the gobble of a distant tom roosted all the way on the other side of the pasture. Eventually, the tom pitched down to a big flock of hens on the back side of a rise in the field. After a considerable time the hens finally began to top the hill. Ricky pleaded as loud as he could on his slate call to try to pull the flock his way. Just as the hens were nearing a road along the field, the hunt master showed up and split the hens off from the gobbler.

Rick was pretty worried that this had just ruined his hunt but decided to stay put and play out the cards he was dealt. At least the Bird was split up from his hens.

Rick let things settle down and started calling again. A period of time passed and a big white head finally appeared beyond the rise in the pasture. The old king made his way in at a painfully slow pace as many wary Gobblers will. Strut, step and look, strut, step and look.....Ricky was eventually able to hold out and coax him in close enough to roll him up.

As most turkey hunters do, Ricky raced to the bird to make sure he was down. He grabbed the still flopping gobbler by the ancle but the old bird managed to exact a measure of revenge before he gave up the ghost. The big beating wings rolled the gobbler's almost 2" dagger in Rick's hand and just about punched all the way through between his thumb and index finger.

Rick came out on top but he was bloodied!

There's something about a floundering gobbler that just makes a hunter want to grab a hold of him every time. His beating wings causes his body to spin in a circle. If he's got sharp spurs, they'll catch in your glove and before you know it your cut and bleeding and can't let go! Gobbler's revenge! I can't tell you how many times I've done it myself. Guess i'll never learn.

I hope when I grow up, I can shoot a turkey like this!

Great job Rick, a Limb Hanger to be sure!

Best of hunts,

Larry Stephens