Mount Pleasant Magazine Nov/Dec 2016

ow many times had i

been here? How many times had

I stared out through the branches

under the stars? Sitting in the tree

stand, I checked my phone: 9:47.

How much longer would I wait for

that phantom, that big boar I had

hunted for seemingly months on end?

Luckily, I stumbled across the landowner while out

riding my horse a while back.

“You see what those hogs have done to my field?” he

asked with indignation. “I know someone who can take

care of that,” I replied with a wink.

I am starting to fidget. I lean my head back against the

pine tree and close my eyes. In that instant, clear as an

oncoming train, I hear an animal laying tracks through

the grass to my left. Less than three seconds – I switch

off my safety, point the gun into the sky and turn on the

red light. Leveling the stock to my cheek, I look through

my scope and there he is: a big black boar trotting on

a diagonal toward me. Pull the trigger. No hesitation. I

was not going to miss this moment again – a moment of

judgment, precision and exhilaration all embodied by the

squeeze of a trigger.

After the recoil knocks my gaze from my scope, I

am again peering through the red haze created by my

accomplice, my .308 Savage. Had I even breathed? Had

my patient fortitude paid off? There lay my prey, my prize

boar who terrified my dreams and taunted me relentlessly

on foot or horseback. Always seeing his signs – teasing

tracks and obnoxious rooting. There were times I would

catch a glimpse of a shadow moving through the field or

between the trees, then he would vanish without a trace.

Now I have him!

I make my way down from the tree stand across the

60 yards to stand guard over my game. Tribal dancing to

celebrate shooting my first boar, I think now of my next

adventure, that of cleaning the carcass. It dawns on me I

have never field dressed a boar before. What is a girl like

me going to do with a 205-pound pig?

Going back through my memories of the previous

months, I think of the deer I had gutted and cleaned. The