Hunter’s Helping Kids Hog Hunt with the Cesaro’s

Every year we donate a hunt to the Uwharrie Chapter of Hunter’s Helping Kids. This past year we donated a 2 Night Hog Hunt with the 704 crew for them to auction off at their annual banquet. There were several bidders interested in the hunt and wanted more information about locations, success rate, etc. Two of the people interested were the  Cesaro brothers, Jonathan and Craig. When the bidding started you could tell the Cesaro Brothers just had to have it! Once they won the hunt they shot on over and started talking about when we could schedule it. We worked on some dates and the hunt was put on our calendar.

The weeks leading up to the hunt we discussed with the Cesaro’s what equipment they needed and what to expect. They got set up with their Sniper Hog Lights and dialed their rifles in for the big weekend. Before you knew it the hunt was upon us and I never thought it was going to turn out like it did!

When I was getting out of work, I got a call from my wife asking me who the heck was in our driveway! I reminded her about the Hunter’s Helping Kids Hunt and told her to put her pistol back on safety and reholster that joker! She got out of the car and struck a conversation with Jonathon, Craig and his wife Sherri. When I pulled up we got our game plan together and everyone started loading up their gear in my truck.

Once we got to the property we were going to hunt for the night, we all geared up and went over the game plan one more time. I was going to sit with Jonathan to try to film his hunt and Craig & Sherri was going to set up in another stand. Everyone was on the same page so we started to ease in to get set up on some swine. After a short walk, we could see the first boxstand from a distance so I pointed Jonathan in the right direction to go ahead and get situated while I took Craig & Sherri to their stand. It was just starting to get dark enough where we almost needed a flashlight. I knew we were getting there right at prime time so I told everyone to stay on their toes and keep their eyes open. By the time stamps from all the pictures I got from our USA Trail Cams, I knew the hogs were going to show up any moment. However, I didn’t think it was going to happen the way it did.

We snuck up to the boxstand Craig & Sherri were going to hunt for the night and there was a steady breeze blowing right in our face, perfectly explains how things unfolded. I watched as they got in the stand and once they were pretty close to getting situated, I started on my hike back to the first boxstand with Jonathan. It is only a 3-350 yard hike, not far at all. Just as I was getting past the halfway point between the two stands, BOOM! Startled the heck out of me and I about hit the dirt! After I reassured myself that I wasn’t getting shot at, I continued on to the stand with Jonathan to see if he already knew what happened. Unfortunately we couldn’t get a hold of Craig because the cell signal was horrible. After about 15 minutes of silence and no texts from Craig, I had to go check it out to see what happened. Do we have a hog down or was it a miss?

As I got closer to the stand, I got the answer I was looking for! Craig was so jacked up he was telling me what happened from the window of the boxstand before he even started to get down. Big Boar Down! I waited for him to get down to fill me in on the details of how it all went down. He instructed Sherri to stay in the stand a shine the light in the direction where the hog was when he shot. Pretty smart I thought! Saved us from a lot of wondering around that tangled mess.

When he got down he told me that the hog was actually in the bait site when we walked up! He said once him and Sherri got in the stand, he went to check the bait site just to locate it and get his bearings right. When he lit the bait site up with his Sniper Hog Light 50LR, the big boar was eating up all the bait. The hog figured something wasn’t right and started to ease his way through a cutover. Craig kept his crosshairs on the boar as he moved through the brush waiting for an opening to get a clear shot. Just as the boar stepped into an opening, he paused to try to see what was going on, not realizing it was a deadly mistake! We walked towards the lit area that Sherri was holding steady for us. Craig had made a perfect head shot on the beast and he dropped right in his tracks. No blood trailing this hog. We both grabbed a leg and started struggling to get the heavy beast back to the boxstand. We didn’t have to drag him more that 60-70 yards but it felt like 1,000! As soon as we got him to where I could drive the truck to him, we dropped his legs and started sucking wind. Talk about a workout! I told Craig to hop back in the box and I was going to gather my gear and get the truck, another hog may come out.

Just as I got to the truck the night got interesting. I started patting my pockets and didn’t hear the jingle I was looking for.  I realized I had locked my keys in the truck! “That’s just great!”, I thought to myself. I looked in the window and sure enough, there they were. We were all discussing the game plan and during gathering all the gear I must have forgot to snatch them from the ignition. I may have used a few adult words, checked all the doors and then commenced to making phone calls for someone to bring me a spare key. I text Jonathon and told him just to stay put he may get a chance to shoot as well while I wait for someone to rescue us. My wonderful wife could not place the spare key so I ended up getting in touch with JBone to bring me some tools I had in my shop to help us break into the truck. He did just that and headed to the property. Just as he pulled up to the gate, BOOM! I could tell by the direction of the shot that it was Jonathon. What where the chances that I got both brothers on hogs within 45 minutes of each other! JBone and I made quick work of getting into the truck and off we went to see what Jonathon shot.

When we pulled up to the boxstand, Jonathon was excited but also unsure of his shot. We started to look around for blood, hair or some sign of a hit hog. Nothing. We started making big circles around the field, went where the hogs exited the field and rechecked the edge of the bait site where the hogs were standing at the time of the shot… nothing. Unfortunately it was ruled as a miss and that hog had a really lucky night but hey, we had one big boar on the ground for sure! We all piled in the truck and started heading to meet up with Craig and Sherri.

We all dived out of the truck and the brothers started catching up on how their hunt went. During the exchange of stories we began to wrestle the ‘ol boar to get it on top of the TruckVault. Talk about one heavy hog! I jumped on top of the TruckVault and the brothers handed me the legs of the brute. I tugged, they pushed and we got the beast loaded up. Time to get to work and get some pork in the cooler!

We had a great time with Jonathan, Craig and Sherri. We appreciate them bidding on the hunt from the Hunter’s Helping Kids Banquet . The Hunter’s Helping Kids organization is a great program and we are happy to help them anyway we can. We have an absolute blast hosting these hunts and it helps raise funds for them to do great things with kids from all around the Uwharrie area. We look forward to guiding next year’s winners!