Days GON By November 2015

Each month we turn back the clock to see what was being reported in the pages of GON, both 20 and 10 years ago. Here’s a look back at what appeared in GON. 

Mitchell Durden (left) with a 610-lb. Screven County hog that he and his dogs brought down Sept. 19, 1995. Bruce Rowell (right) used a 4-wheeler to help get the giant hog out of the woods. The hog was weighed on certified scales.

20 Years Ago: November 1995

“610-lb. Screven Co. HOG!: It’s 10 o’clock at night in a Screven County peanut field, and the dogs have roused a hog. Of all the routes the wild pig could take, he picks the exact row in the field where you stand. That’s the situation Mitchell Durden, of Sylvania, faced on the night of Sept. 19, 1995.

At Mitchell’s side was his 16-year-old son, Clay, and a bulldog that they use to contain a wild hog once their other dogs, a pack of Southern blackmouth curs, catch up with the hog and stop it. As the hog bore down on them, they didn’t even have a gun. 

“The dogs stopped him 30 yards from us,” Mitchell said, “and I released the bulldog. When I saw the size of him, I told Clay to go back to the truck and get the gun.”

Mitchell ended up killing the giant hog. It weighed 610 pounds on certified scales. They were hunting a Screven County farm near the Savannah River. The farm owner told Mitchell that the hogs have been raiding his peanuts and corn for seven years. A week after killing the 610-lb. boar, Mitchell caught another hog on the same farm that weighed 540 pounds.

FATHER & SON DREAM SEASON: Ten years ago, Lamar Banks and his son Loy had a sure-enough memorable dream season after shooting these two Morgan County bucks. What are the odds of two giant non-typicals—top bow and gun bucks in the same season—killed by a father and son? Loy’s buck, taken with a bow, netted 171 6/8 non-typical inches. Lamar’s giant buck, killed during gun season, had tons of total inches and netted 185 5/8.