Late one winter evening, I went scanning the internet looking for an early spring adventure. What I found turned out to be one of my favorite spring escapes to date. March or April is the perfect time for a shake winter off your back and welcome spring adventure. A friend and I drove 400 miles south to the swamps of South Carolina and went wild (feral) hog hunting on public hunting lands. South Carolina has a Special Still Hunting season for feral hogs each year in early March. During this season, a hunter slowly walks the state game lands in search of the wild hogs that roam the woods.
I quickly ran the numbers and realized how inexpensive the trip would be and after double checking the details, sent out a few invitations to see who would be interested in joining me on the hunt. Larry accepted and a month later we found ourselves tent camping in South Carolina chasing pigs in the swamps.
South Carolina Hog Hunting The Details
While the following details are particular to this Special Still Hunting season in South Carolina, there are many other hog hunting opportunities in South Carolina and other southern states.
- Based on the feral hog population maps, and large size of Woodbury WMA, we choose here to focus our hunt.
- The added feature to our choosing Woodbury to hunt was that it has free primitive camping along the Little Pee Dee River.
- The Special Feral hog hunting season ran from March 7, 2016 to March 12, 2016.
- There is no limit to the number of hogs a hunter may harvest.
- On Special Hog Still Hunts, weapons may include archery, crossbows, centerfire rifles, muzzleloading rifles, centerfire handguns and shotguns with slugs.
- The particular details of season dates and weapons permitted may be different depending on the Wildlife Management Area.
- A South Carolina hunting license is required for the hunt and a non-resident 3 day hunting license costs $40.00
- If hunting a WMA, a Wildlife Management area permit is required and costs $76.00
- Hunters are required to wear a hat, coat or vest of solid international orange color while hunting.
Hog hunting in the spring during the South Carolina Special Still hunt is a great way to shake off winter with an inexpensive hunting adventure. I had budgeted $400 for the total cost of the hunt including the cost of the license, gas and food. I used the camping gear I already owned and hunted with my standard whitetail deer rifle and equipment. In the end, the trip came in under the $400.00 budget. And of course a new map was within the budget. 
On our hunt, the Pee Dee River area was experiencing some high flooding and much of the Woodbury WMA was difficult to reach because of flooding on the roads. The camping areas around the river were not accessible and we adjusted our plans camping at Marsh WMA about a twenty minute drive away. Dealing with the high waters added to our adventure with deep water crossing in our trucks and kayaking to otherwise unreachable hunting grounds.
Thanks to some local intel, Larry and I adjusted our hunting techniques to include using our kayaks to reach and hunt the flooded timber and islands. By the end of the third day, we both had pork in the cooler. Each of us were successful in harvesting hogs. In upcoming blog posts we will describe our exciting hunts.
Unplanned, on the last day as we packed up and closed another Augie’s Adventure, I found myself wearing an old tee shirt with a quote from my favorite movie, Lonesome Dove. It simply said, “It’s not dying I’m talking about, Its living.” – Augustus McCrae. That pretty much sums it up, it don’t take lots of money, fancy equipment or the help from an outfitter to experience life. Adventure is out there, we just need to gas up and give it a go at living.
Larry’s story of his hog hunt
Augie’s story of his hog hunt
