Editor’s Note:  Dudley McGarity is the CEO of Blackpowder Products, Inc., owner of the CVA brand.  He is an avid muzzleloader hunter and has taken game all over the world with various CVA muzzleloaders.

I have been lucky enough to hunt hogs in a lot of different places and they are for sure one of my favorite big game animals.  However, when my friend O’Neill Williams called and invited me on this particular hunt, I knew that it would be different from any swamp rooter chase I’d ever done before. 

We were headed to the Georgia coastal marshes, near Savannah, Georgia.  The folks we were hunting with run the famous Dorchester Shooting Preserve, one of the finer quail plantations in all the piney woods of southern Georgia.  Of course, the game we were after was not quite so dignified as “Gentleman Bob.”  And we would not be hunting on the manicured confines of the plantation either.  Rather, we’d be accessing thousands of acres of tidal marsh that adjoins some of Dorchester’s deer hunting leases, which are composed of several high ground peninsulas and islands – known as “heads” – surrounded by the sometimes wet and sometimes wetter tidal marshes. 

When the tide is out, these hogs will move out into the marsh grass to feed on all of the tasty morsels that the sea has left behind — not really any different than the way the black bears feed in the tidal areas off the coast of Alaska.  Such was the case when my guide, De French, pointed the shooting sticks toward the horizon where, even at about 1000 yards distant, a good size serving of fresh pork stood out like a bump in a bog.  And when we got the Konus binos on him, there was no doubt that he was a good one. 

By the time we got to within 200 yards and I came up on the shooting sticks we were wet to waist and more than a bit chilled from the rapidly dropping temperature.  However, I was shaking so much from the cold and the excitement (okay, mostly the excitement) that I could not hold steady enough to feel good about the shot.  I told De that we needed to get closer.  As the boar put his head down to feed we crept and crawled until the distance was cut to about 96 yards.  This was close enough.  As the boar moved across a high spot, I leveled my .50 caliber CVA APEX muzzleloader and aimed the shot at top of his back.   The 250 grain PowerBelt AeroLite took him hard in the spine and he dropped in his tracks.

Editor’s Note: Carlos Vilorio of Vass, North Carolina, is an avid Muzzle loading shooter and hunter who truly loves the CVA Accura Muzzleloader.

Question: Carlos, in previous blogs, you’ve mentioned the types of groups the CVA Accura and the Bergara barrels deliver. But the real test of a blackpowder Muzzleloading rifle for most hunters is how well the rifle performs in the field. What type of results have you and your customers had with these rifles and barrels?

Vilorio: I was hunting last deer season here in North Carolina, and one morning, while sitting in a tree stand, I saw a number of does early. At 9:55 am, I decided to leave my tree stand and go home. But I thought I’d give the stand at least 10-more minutes. In a few minutes, I looked to my left and saw this really-nice-sized buck coming out of the woods in a shooting lane. I ranged him at about 250 yards. I made the decision not to shoot that far. The buck started to cross the shooting lane, but then saw the does, stopped and started walking down the lane straight toward me. When he was at 225 yards, he started feeding. All I could see was his rear end. I thought, “Carlos, either you’ll let this buck walk off, or you’ll have to take the shot through his rear end.”

About that time, the buck turned around and faced me. I checked him with my rangefinder and learned the buck was at 220 yards. I knew from shooting the CVA Accura on the rifle range that I could make the shot at that distance. I cocked the hammer and was ready to shoot when a doe stepped in front of the buck. I waited until she cleared the buck and then pulled the trigger. When the smoke cleared, I didn’t see my buck lying on the ground. I thought, “I can’t believe I missed that deer.” I got out of my tree stand, went to the spot where the buck had been standing and found a blood trail. The buck had run 50 yards and piled-up. He was a really-nice-sized 9-point buck. The bullet went through the left shoulder, destroyed the heart and came out the right shoulder. I didn’t hesitate to take the shot, because I’d seen the types of groups the Accura could produce at that range. So, I learned that the Accura not only would punch tight groups on paper on a rifle range, but that same rifle would deliver the same accuracy in the woods when a deer was in front of you.

Question: Carlos, you spend a lot of time on the rifle range developing loads and sighting-in rifles. Have any of the customers at Ed’s Gun Shop, where you’re the assistant manager, taken deer with CVA Accura rifles you’ve sighted-in for them?

Vilorio: Yes, they have – quite a few actually. I had a customer who said he’d be hunting central North Carolina when muzzleloading season started in November. The season began on Saturday, and this customer came in on Tuesday. I showed him the different muzzleloaders I had, and the patterns they’d shoot. He chose the CVA Accura and the Bushnell Dead On Arrival (DOA) 250 riflescope. He asked me to set-up and sight-in the rifle for him. I’m off on Wednesdays, and that’s generally when I go hunting in another area of North Carolina where the season starts early. I didn’t really want to give up a day of hunting to sight-in this guy’s rifle, but he wouldn’t buy the Accura, unless I put it together with the scope, sighted it in and had it ready to hunt. So, I decided to hunt Wednesday morning and then sight-in this customer’s Accura. Then he’d have it ready to hunt with on Saturday. The rifle was shooting a three-bullet group at 0.485 at 100 yards. I took it back to the shop on Thursday, the customer picked it up, and I told him to shoot the rifle himself before he went hunting. He came in the following Monday with a picture of a huge buck he’d taken at 180 yards with the CVA Accura I’d set-up for him. I asked the hunter where the bullet hit. He said, “Well, the deer wouldn’t turn sideways, and he was facing me head-on, so I shot him through the front. You can see where the bullet hole went through the front of his chest. When the bullet hit him, he dropped dead in his tracks.”

Question: Do you have another customer story?

Vilorio: I sure do. I have a customer who helps me out at gun shows sometimes. He selected a stainless-steel, camouflaged Accura with a thumbhole-type stock. I took it home, mounted the scope and sighted-in the gun for him. That gun shot a three-shot group that measured 0.3085. This customer took the gun home and shot it to make sure it was dead-on before he went hunting. About 2-weeks later, he took a monster 10-point buck with his CVA Accura at 150 yards. The shot went through the buck’s shoulder. The customer told me the buck only traveled about 10 yards before he piled-up. The Accura certainly can prove itself on a bench at a rifle range, but the real test of the gun is in the woods when you have a monster buck standing in front of you. I’ve learned, as my customers have, that you can bet-on the CVA Accura when that buck of a lifetime appears in your sights.

Hunting’s over, well for a while‚Ķ‚Ķnot really. How so? Hog hunting. Cool‚Ķ‚Ķ.not really. Temperatures are rising, making the woods and swamps unbearable‚Ķ‚Ķnot really. You can stand it.

The cool thing about hog hunting is this: you can do it year-round and what with the shots being so close, usually less that 50 yards, a muzzleloader is perfect; big bullet, terrific knockdown power, great sport, one shot challenge. Muzzleloading. Perfect.

Two places I go this time of year are both south of Atlanta and Macon along the Ocmulgee River.

One is the Bond Swamp Wildlife Management Area, 12,000 acres of swamp, river, a few dry sandy hills about 3 feet over the water line and plenty of hogs. A few of the adjoining hunting clubs have some deer stands and some roads in, around and through the areas that are passable. On that passable subject, please let me pass along a bit of a warning. I say ‚Äòpass along’ because the warning was given to me by one of the ‚Äòregulars’. Don’t go in with an ordinary 4-wheel drive truck. I drive a 4-door Toyota Tundra, 5.7 liter V-8, a biggun and was told it wouldn’t be enough if it rained. The ‚Äòregulars’ drive oversized, mud bogging monsters. I listened. You should too just incase it gets wet while you’re there.

Anyway, you can plan on seeing a goodly number of resident hogs every morning and then every evening before dark. Sows with piglets, juvenile females and boars will splash through the shallow waters signaling the influx to the small openings along the roads and food plots. You can hear them coming.

On my last trip there, on the way to a stand along a road, I spot-stalked a small family rooting in the muddy vegetation. Now, you may be surprised by this but I rarely shoot the largest of a group. Listen, dragging out a hog from the swamp can be a challenge, so usually I look for and take one no more than 70 pounds. 300 pound specimens are not my choice.

I use a CVA Optima Elite, 50 caliber muzzleloader, a 270-grain PowerBelt Platinum bullet and 100 grains of American Pioneer Powder. For this type of hunting, a CVA muzzleloader is just right. Perfect again. Slowly maneuvering from tiny openings to brush lines, to standing trees to taking cover behind an old log, I get to within 40 yards. See? Hog hunting’s fun. Can you do that with Deer? Turkeys? Elk? Forget about it. You can’t.

Now, I’m there. Where to shoot the critter? Well, I don’t like tracking wounded hogs through the swamp in 6 inches of water, so my shot is always a brain shot, or not at all.

I did that. Bar-B Que’s on the way, made with wild whole pig back-strap, shoulder, ham and ribs.

More later on the second spot for summer time, or anytime, hog hunting.

O’Neill Williams