Charleston woman knocks off huge Colleton County hog

Night scope helps Anderson put down enormous hog after dark on June 14

Amy Anderson of Charleston wasn’t aware of the stir she’d create when she pulled the trigger on her Savage 7mm-08 on the evening of June 14. Hunting with her boyfriend, Danny Buxton, near Smoaks in Colleton County, she saw “eyes” coming out of a swamp that borders the Salkahatchie River. They wound up being a hog, estimated at 414 pounds, which she subsequently shot.

“We were watching a small field on the edge of the tree line, and he came out by himself about 100 yards away,” she said. “I put the crosshairs on him and pulled the trigger. I didn’t think he was that big at first.”

Anderson’s gun carried a night-vision scope, and the property she was hunting is registered with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources for night-hunting hogs, which wreck her summer food plots if not kept in check. It was the third hog Anderson has killed in the past year while helping Buxton take hogs off the property.

After she shot, Anderson said the big boar ran off to the right, and Buxton immediately began to track it. He followed the animal into the undergrowth and came upon it a short distance away. The animal turned and made a brief charge.

“He had to put it down with his .357, then he started yelling at me to come look at it. Neither one of us could believe how big he was,” Anderson said.

“He had huge tusks on each side of his jaw, which we took out before we disposed of him,” she said. “I begged Danny to clean him because the other two I killed were delicious, but he said a boar that big in the summertime wasn’t good to eat.”