# The Three Amigos



## DAGATOR16 (May 10, 2009)

Yesterday (5-9-09) the three amigos hit the woods in search of hogs. Dendy, Chase and myself (Clay) hit a local WMA seeking meat. We have several pictures to post, so it will take a few days of story telling, by the three of us, to get them all on here. Here we are about 1/2 mile deep in the woods. T


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## SOS (May 10, 2009)

With 2 sentences and one photo at a time...it really will take a long time to tell this story.  We're waiting.


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## hogdgz (May 10, 2009)

Come on Clay and go ahead and tell them the rest of the story, I dont want to steal your glory. LOL


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## Al33 (May 10, 2009)

SOS said:


> With 2 sentences and one photo at a time...it really will take a long time to tell this story.  We're waiting.



 I hope this isn't going to be one of those mini series episodes. Bring it one fella's, inquiring minds wanna know.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 10, 2009)

The afternoon started off fantastic. The high in the mid 80's with very little mosquitoe action. The landscape was ridges with many finger (creeks) running between the ridges. We stayed low following a creek bottom that had hog sign everywhere we looked. This was new area for all three of us so we did not know what to expect to begin with. Jackpot! we hit the mother load. 

After walking about 3/4 of a mile we lost sight of Dendy. Here is Chase taking a little rest while we tried to locate Dendy. Turns out at the time of this picture, Dendy was on two hogs just a little too far for a shot on the other side of a larger creek.


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## hogdgz (May 10, 2009)

I would tell the story but Clay and Dendy have all the pics. I will say that Hannahatchee WMA is Beautiful with all the ridges and has alot of hogs, and Clay knows how to put the bacon on the table.


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## fishndinty (May 10, 2009)

I hunted Hannahatchee once with my bro in law.  We didn't see any but there was a truckload of fresh sign.  Great hunt.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 10, 2009)

Don't laugh too much at my camera shots. It's just hard to zoom in without a tripod to steady the shot. As Dendy made his way back to us, he jumped another lone hog about 150lb. 

After regrouping we formed a little better game plan of attack. We had to have a better way to contact each other when hogs were spotted. We decided to have Dendy stay on the creek with Chase in the middle and me on the outer edge close to the ridge. Each man responsible for keeping up with the man next to him and turkey chirps for sound locaters. It was think in some places. 

Not long after the regrouping we came upon hogs feeding in the mud. As you can see from the picture of Chase on the stalk, we were in a cane thicket waist high. Perfect! The mud was "tore up" in that cane. I was trying to photo the stalk from behind, but all my pictures came out fuzzy.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 10, 2009)

Simply not enought time to set my ISO on 400 before each camera event. If I don't get it set on 400 my pictures take too long to take because there is not enough light. Thus, dark,yellow,fuzzy/hazy pictures.


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## Apex Predator (May 11, 2009)

Sounds like a great hunt!  I can hardly wait for the next installment!

I'm headed out in a few minutes on my last hunt of the season.


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## sawtooth (May 11, 2009)

the hunt, as it happened from my perspective, coming soon.......


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## sawtooth (May 11, 2009)

I've got a few pictures. I'll post them when I get home. now, the story...  as it happened.  we all met up and drove to the spot we wanted to hunt. I was immediately chastised for not wearing a camoflauge shirt. so if anybody goes hunting with chase, please be sure to be in full turkey camo. (just kidding dude, I had to say that).  chase , clay and i spread out between a narrow creek and a ridge. i was closest to the creek, chase in the middle, clay closest to the ridge. a short while into the hunt, I spotted two nice hogs across the creek and up a small hill.  I hurried to tell chase and clay what i'd seen. both of my hunting partners just looked at me with disbelief..  so on we press, and a short while later chase disappears from my sight. not long after that.. a smaller hog explodes from the palmettos and runs right by me and between chase and I. when I found chase again, I asked him if he'd heard that hog between us. I got that look again... As we walked farther still, we heard an unmistakable grunt and groan.. we had good wind at first and had closed the distance to within a few yards when the whole group of hogs became alert to our presence and relocated. they had obviously detected my gray t shirt. 
   we tried to get back on that group but it was all for naught. they had had enough. we lost clay not long after that and wondered what to do. Should we try to find him? should we keep hunting? we finally deduced that clay had a gps and wouldn't get lost. so we decided to hunt our way back out of the swamp. about a half our later and approaching dark, I heard some subtle whistles off to my right. thinking it was clay, I went to investigate. when I got to where i thought the whistle came from, I heard a lot of buzzing. fearing that it may be hornets or yellow jackets, I looked for the source of the noise. the buzzing that i heard was from blow flies that were hovering around a sow that clay had stuck. she had been dragged there so that clay could begin his search for the BOAR that he had stuck. So-- while me and chase were hunting clay, clay was hunting pigs, and doing a fine job. He smoked them both, one was just a little harder to find than the other. that's my story.... I hope to post some pictures soon.  D.


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## Al33 (May 11, 2009)

Thanks Dendy for the details and I'm looking forward to the pic's. Congrat's to you Clay on the double!


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## SELFBOW (May 11, 2009)

sawtooth said:


> when I found chase again, I asked him if he'd heard that hog between us. I got that look again...



I've only met Chase once but for some reason I think I know the look you're talking about


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## hogdgz (May 11, 2009)

buckbacks said:


> I've only met Chase once but for some reason I think I know the look you're talking about



Hey guys what is that suppose to mean!!! LOL


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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)

This is Chase's face when he walked up on my hog.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)

Okay...here is the payoff picture. Like Dendy said, I drilled two but we only found one. The reason is because they both "busted out" down the same trail after taking my arrow. We could never find where the boar angled off.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)

Not totally clear what Chase was doing to this sow? Hmmm...


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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)

Dendy thought it would be nice to post a pic by pic of my quartering job. I'll post about 8 or 10 pictures of the process. Not all are going to get posted tonight.

First, I am right handed so I lay my game on it's right side. This allowes me to make my first skin cut up the neck to the backbone then 90* cut down the backbone to the tail (one big "L" shape cut). Then I skin the hide off the shoulder and a little past the backstrap. Don't have to skin the stomach area. The first piece to come off is the shoulder. Notice how I use the animals weight to hold the shoulder in place as I skin it and then cut it off. 

I love quartering my game this way because there is no blood, guts, or smell. I can use the anuimals weight to help me do the job by myself. And it's all done on the ground!


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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)

I locate the "elbow" on the front shoulder. I make a cut directly behind it. This will expose the "elbow cap". I cut down the back side of the elbow cap to expose the ball-in-socket. The object is to remove the lower leg from the shoulder for easy transport and packing out.

The shoulders have an "elbow cap" just like the hams have a "knee cap".


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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)




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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)

Here is a close up of the elbow cap and ball-in-socket.






Once I get the ball-in-socket exposed, I cut the ligaments on both sides till the leg gives way.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)

The above picture only shows the elbow cap. The ball-in-socket is still covered with tissue, but you can see where the two leg bones hinge at the ball-in-socket.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 11, 2009)

Note- I take extra care to use rubber gloves on both hands and also a steel mesh glove on my left hand. I can't tell you how many times I have knicked my hands with a knife while quartering game. The steel mesh glove is a fish cleaning glove found at Bass Pro or Kmart. I actually stuck my mesh glove twice during this job. 

The meat will be put into a pillow sack for easy transport when the job is done.


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## Sharptop (May 11, 2009)

Thanks for the tutorial on butchering.


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## sawtooth (May 11, 2009)

hey! thank you for posting those. I was having a problem with photobucket, plus my computer is sloW. those pictures came out really good. But I don't remember taking that one of chase giving that sow a neck massage. D.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 12, 2009)

Next, I move to the backstrap. I only have to skin the hide back just enough. Clean up the fat and tissue then remove the backstrap. I'm not goint to give details on this part as I think it is straight forward and everyone has probably done this.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 12, 2009)

Backbone cut.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 12, 2009)

If there is one thing you remember about this post let it be this shot. Here I'm removing the ham. See how I lock my leg under the hogs leg? I'm using the animals weight to help me skin and work on the removal. Being able to do this on a large deer is wonderful! You will have to try it yourself to see what I'm talking about.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 12, 2009)

The ham also has a "knee cap". Here I'm making the cut to get behind the "cap" to expose the ball-in-socket. I like to do this with the ham attached to the animal as I get to use the weight of the animal to help me. Then I remove the ham (without the hoof part of the leg) so that it fits in my pillow case easily.




Here is a shot of the inside of the ham as I cut into the ball-in-socket.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 12, 2009)

That finishes one side. I give up the inner tenders in order to stay dry had have no mess to deal with. The tenders are so small anyway on this hog anyway.
Now I fold the skin back over the hog an grab the legs and flip over to do the same thing on the other side.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 12, 2009)

Hope ya'll enjoyed the photo post. I have had a few PM's and I will get back to those soon. It seems the PM "return" is having issues right now.
Clay


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## Apex Predator (May 12, 2009)

That one is fat! 

I do them the same if I can't hang them.  I was hunting out of the boat once and there was no real dry ground.  We had four hogs in the boat!  We only had about 3" of freeboard.  We dressed them all like this.  My buddy would sigh in relief every time we dumped a carcass, because the boat would sit a little higher in the water.  A 12' alumimum doesn't do well with over 1,000 pounds sitting in her!


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## robert carter (May 12, 2009)

I do mine the same as well bit I don`t remove the ham at the joint. I remove each ham "section" or muscle from the bone seperate.It seems easier to me and if its hot the meat cools faster.I also hang the smaller pigs to get them out of the dirt but the larger ones which is rare for me I skin on the ground.RC


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## hogdgz (May 12, 2009)

The pics turned out good, thanks for posting Clay.


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## Al33 (May 12, 2009)

Very well done Clay! Thanks for the tutorial and thanks to Dendy for the photo's!


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## SOS (May 12, 2009)

Excellent hunt and tutorial.  If I just lived a little closer to some hog honey holes....ya bums.


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## DAGATOR16 (May 12, 2009)

robert carter said:


> I do mine the same as well bit I don`t remove the ham at the joint. I remove each ham "section" or muscle from the bone seperate.It seems easier to me and if its hot the meat cools faster.I also hang the smaller pigs to get them out of the dirt but the larger ones which is rare for me I skin on the ground.RC



RC-
I would really like to see a pic by pic of the ham muscle removal. The ham on a deer has an "H" bone sticking out close to the tail. This "H" bone as I call it, is a pain in the butt (no pun intended). If I could section out the ham muscles easily, I would be in hog heaven.

You guys are welcome for the post. Dendy did a good job on the pictures. 

Clay


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## swampstalker (May 13, 2009)

Congrats Clay, Nice work. And thanks for the pics!


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## Sharptop (May 13, 2009)

Great job. Not having done it before I had envisioned doing it just like that but it really helps having confirmation. Not a whole lot different from a deer.


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## elise (May 20, 2009)

Like those Three Amigos! Them's some hog huntin heroes!


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## robert carter (May 20, 2009)

Heck of a good idea on the mesh glove on the left hand.I have cut my hand several times .RC


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## Necedah (May 20, 2009)

*Hog cleaning*

WOW, great pics! I'm going to print them off and laminate the series so I have something to go by if I ever kill a hog.


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## stick-n-string (Apr 5, 2010)

You know some great stories are worth bringing back! Way to go clay!


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## TNGIRL (Apr 6, 2010)

Thanks Jonathan for bringing this one back up, I agree with you!! very informative for me!!!! And it's great knowing these three friends!!!!! I really liked the pics Clay, good for me to see what you are saying and showing!!!
One of these days, I'll post some pics of my hog!!!I hope!!!! I really enjoy hunting with baldfish and JakeAllen. I get the Dendy roll, right up the middle!!!!Was on one last Sat, it grunted loud at me once, I kept after it and it grunted a second time then crashed thru brush to go up the hill to my right. Never put an eyeball on it tho. At one point, while crawling on all fours and pulling my bow, I did have a moment to pause and think about what I was gonna do if it popped up to look me eyeball to eyeball!!!! Couldn't climb a tree, jump, or even get my bow to draw on it. Sorta glad the moment passed. I believe I need to plan further ahead on this!!!!  What a blast tho!!!!


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## hogdgz (Apr 6, 2010)

Good times with good friends!!!


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## Tikki (Apr 6, 2010)

Awesome hunt guys and Dendy, I could barely see you in the pictures.  You blended in so well...I have no Idea what they are talking about!


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## Barry Duggan (Apr 6, 2010)

Wasn't that men in tights...or something like that?


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## Flatbow (Apr 6, 2010)

Thanks for the post.  Them hogs are tough for sure. 
My son lost two hogs in Hawaii in the last 3 weeks but scored saturday.  Same thing as your situation....good hits but he just couldn't find them.
That was some neet pics .  Thanks for sharing them.


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## sawtooth (Dec 13, 2017)

Hey People- I'm bringing this back up to the top for a fella that wanted to see how to 1/4 a pig. Good times with good friends--this is one of my most memorable hunts. no doubt. To me, this is what it is all about.


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## EJC (Dec 13, 2017)

Thanks Dendy, very helpful!


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## hogdgz (Dec 13, 2017)

Man D, you went in the archives for this one. We had a great time that day!!! And none of us had grey hair back then.


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