A tornado hit Fort Stewart! Well, not really. The whirlwind that swept through on a recent weekend was actually me. Being I haven’t been in the woods for nearly six months due to work travel, I hit Fort Stewart with a vengeance. Thank God there was somewhere in my part of the state open to hunt this time of year. I was about to blow a gasket!

Entering the woods at 10:30 a.m., I followed scattered pig sign in from a road crossing made the night before. Staying on the freshest sign, I looped and made figure-8s until I discovered where they had lain up for the day. They were in a head-high gallberry thicket situated in the inside turn of a ty-ty branch. As I stalked along the transition between the two, I caught some movement to my right. It was the top of a gallberry bush wiggling. Just an armadillo or a little bird bugging, I thought, as I eased forward.

Nope! It was two solid-black gilts rooting around as they eased out of their sanctuary for the...