My first real hunt

I have been taking hogs at my place for a while now and have been pretty successful at it.

However I have never really considered what I do hunting but always called it harvesting. I go out and sit up in my ladder stand and wait for a hog to walk by and shoot it if it's what I want. I use other methods too like shooting them from long range when they walk along service road but it's always setting up and waiting for them to get in range. I don't always shoot hogs I see and usually let most of them go on because they are too large, too small, sows with tiny piglets, etc. I guess I see about 20 hogs for each one I shoot.

I spent last two days up at my place alone and wanted to hunt a hog. I went up in my stand waiting for a hog and when one came by I got down and started stalking towards the hog. I kept quiet and kept the wind in my face. First one was yesterday evening and I stalked a hog that was about 200 yards away. I spent almost 2 hours stalking him and following his hoof print but I never got close enough to see him clearly to shoot. This morning I saw another one so I got down and stalked him. It took me about 30 minutes to cover 150 yards distance between us. It was raining so that helped with noise and there was very slight wind on my face so he never scented me. I saw him several time during the stalk but never clear enough to shoot. Finally I got within 25 yards and saw his head so I got down on my knee and fired into his head... dropped him on the spot. I could not believe it, my hands were shaking and I was so nervous when I got close to shoot. Even from 25 yards it was hard to keep the sight on him as I was shaking so much. When I shoot them from distance I'm very calm and stable while my mind goes into overdrive making calculation on bullet drop, wind direction, etc.

Definitely this was a real deal hunt. I felt like I had accomplished something. I'll definitely do it more in future.