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PAGE 8 A SightmarkTactical Triple Flashlight! Duty

COYOTE TIME! HUNT THE BREEDING SEASON

DECOY DOGGIN’

CALLING CONTESTS

ALSO INSIDE Chasing Black Bears Dixie Swamp Hogs Covert Airguns

Cover digital.indd 1 12/17/12 9:01 AM PASSPORT TO ADVENTURE Mark Olis HEART OF DIXIE HOGS

Butler, AL

GROWING UP AND HUNTING IN , I’VE NOTICED THAT SPECIFIC TERRAIN AND BIOLOGICAL FEATURES SEEM TO EXIST IN across the coastal plain to GOOD HUNTING AREAS THROUGHOUT THE STATE. For example, where it turns northwest into the Mag- big hardwood swamps surrounded by pine thickets will nolia State. The Alabama and Tombigbee get my blood pumping, especially if Spanish moss adorns rivers flow through much of the Black the limbs of the giant oaks rooted in the moist, fertile soil. Belt, and the many swamps, sloughs and And if the meandering tea-stained sloughs and streams are oxbow lakes located throughout this home to alligators, then I’m ready to hit the woods! This region help keep it isolated and remote. might sound crazy, but if swamps, Spanish moss and ga- The same fertile soil that supported the tors are all cohabitating in Alabama, it can only mean one cotton boom of the late 1700s through thing—you’re either in or near the famed Black Belt! 1800s also provides the nutrients to The Black Belt is a fertile section of south Alabama below produce record-book bucks, huge flocks the Appalachian fall line that runs from the Georgia line west of turkey, and a burgeoning population

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DD1.indd 86 12/12/12 8:48 AM FAST FACTS private bathroom and shower. SKILL LEVEL: OUTFITTER: HUNT INFORMATION: The same skills required for Plantation Most hog hunting is done from hunting deer from a tree stand Owner: Mark Ezell tree stands and shooting houses. or shooting house are needed P. O. Drawer 595 Outside of deer and turkey sea- for this hunt. Hunts are typi- Butler, AL 36904 son many of the choice stands cally morning and evening. (800) 906-9663; (205) 398-3000 are baited to help ensure hunter alahunt.com success. There is no shortage of EQUIPMENT USED: wild hogs at Pushmataha and no Ambush Firearms 6.8 SPCII LOCATION: limit. We had shot opportunities (www.ambushfirearms.com) Butler, Alabama. The lodge is about on every sit. Stands are set up for Code Blue Hog Attractants 35 minutes from the regional rifle or bowhunting and there is a (www.codebluescents.com) airport in Meridian, Mississippi or cleaning station and walk-in cooler Hornady 6.8 SPC 110-grain V-max 1 2 ⁄2 hours from airports in Birming- at camp to field dress and cool the ammo (www.hornady.com) ham, Montgomery and Mobile. meat for processing. I processed Moultrie Game Cameras seven hogs from our trip and the (www.moultriefeeders.com) ACCOMMODATIONS: cleaning station and walk-in cooler Summit Tree Stands Pushmataha has outstand- were topnotch facilities for the job. (www.summitstands.com) ing accommodations. The main Winchester Razorback XT .223 lodge is 12,000 square feet with LICENSE REQUIRED: Rem. 64-grain hollow point a spacious 2,700-square-foot To hunt feral hogs on private (www.winchester.com) great room with flat-screen TVs land you’ll need a small game and dinning tables overlooking a license. A resident license is HUNT THE BLACK BELT: fully stocked private lake. The main $16.70 for the year. Non resi- For info on hunting lodge has 15 hotel-style private dent license is $41.75 for a three Alabama’s Black Belt region, visit rooms each with two beds and a day, up to $94 for an annual. alabamablackbeltadventures.org

of feral hogs. I came for the hogs. manages all of the property for in with feed when it’s not deer This past August I drove wildlife. With more than 200 or turkey season—making this southwest from my home in food plots interspersed among the perfect off-season retreat for central Alabama and hunted with the swamps, thickets and hard- fresh pork and the main reason the gracious folks at Pushmataha woods, and more than 350 tree I ventured into the swamps of Plantation in County stands and shooting houses Bama during the heat of summer. located on the Mississippi line in strategically placed, guests have southwest Alabama. The planta- a great opportunity to harvest tion is named after one of the deer, turkey or wild hogs. THE HUNT great Choctaw Indian chiefs who The wild hogs are as thick as Sitting quietly in a two-man fought alongside the Americans the vegetation in this hot, humid Summit ladder stand, I scan the in the War of 1812 and many corner of Alabama. Using the river woods in front of me as first light other skirmishes and battles. He’s systems as their highways, the struggles to filter through the also the only Native American feral pigs are entrenched in every lush oak canopy and drifting fog. chief to be buried in the Congres- creek, slough and swamp at Push- The dim morning light reveals sional Cemetery in Washing- mataha. Feral pigs are destruc- cypress knees jutting up from ton—with full military honors. tive and considered a non-native the forest floor and water stains Pushmataha Plantation invasive species by the Alabama several feet tall on the lumbering consists of 16,000 acres of prime Department of Conservation and trees. While lush swamp bottoms hunting land located in the Black Natural Resources, which means make great habitat for wild hogs, Belt region. Owner Mark Ezell that on private land they can they make even better habitat for takes special care of the land and be hunted year-round and lured mosquitos. With early morning

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temperatures hovering near 80 degrees, I ignited my Thermacell Bringing mosquito repellent while exiting home the bacon! The the truck earlier that morning. setup at The Thermacell’s magic renders Pushmataha the bloodsuckers to a buzzing is great if you’re background noise instead of looking to a maddening attack squad. score some An hour into my sit a barge delicious wild hog belts out its mournful horn blast fare. You’ll from the Tombigbee River not fi nd a solid a half-mile away. As the sound hoist to skin and dress retreats through the landscape pigs and a I catch sight of a critter moving spacious low through the cypress slough walk-in cooler to to my right. It’s a brown-colored hang your hog and there are more behind kill until your it! As the pigs advance on my departure. The author position I grab my Ambush AR- took seven 15 chambered in 6.8 SPC II and hogs home rotate in the stand for a steady to butcher in his wife’s shot. I pick an opening between kitchen. two cypress trees about 60 yards out, and as the first hog enters my lane I place the crosshairs on it, but it doesn’t stop. The sec- That evening on a different of hogs feeding in a field. I slide ond did the same. As the third stand located on the bank of the off of the Mule and ease within pig steps into the lane I center Tombigbee River I drop two more 80 yards and drop a 100-pound the crosshairs on its shoulder 50-pound pigs and Mattly does boar, bringing our final total to and squeeze the trigger. The the same, bringing our first-day nine feral pigs in three hunts. 110-grain Hornady V-max slams total to seven feral hogs between Pushmataha Plantation is into the target, which drops and two shooters! We didn’t hunt the loaded with wild hogs—both thrashes on the forest floor. The next morning because of rain, big and small. You have the op- four other pigs quickly hop into but were in the stands before dark portunity to shoot them during the underbrush and disappear that afternoon. I relinquished deer and turkey hunts or you can without offering another shot. my rifle to my cameraman, Scott do like I did and plan a sum- I quickly gut, skin and hang Brown, and he kills his first mertime hunt when all other the hog in the walk-in cooler, hog—another perfect eating-size edible game animals are out of and we are back on the hunt. pig! On the way to get the truck season. Bring plenty of ammo My hunting partner Mike Mat- just before dark I spot a group and cooler space. You’ll need it! tly and I are riding around on a four-seater Kawasaki Mule with our guide Billy Moore. Just before WATCH THIS 11 a.m. we spot a group of hogs heading toward a wallow in the HUNT ON VIDEO! back of a 100-yard food plot. Mattly and I grab our ARs, take aim and fire—Mattly dropping a big boar with long tusks, and I getting the smaller one. Again, we clean and hang the hogs in the cooler and head back to the Scan this QR code with your smart phone to lodge for a buffet-style South- watch or check out the video at ern lunch with all the fixin’s. www.predatorxtreme.com.

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