My hunting partner and I were asked to help thin out the hog population on a large south Texas ranch recently
since the hogs have been spoiling supplemental feed troughs put out for the cattle and we've made 5 two to three day trips during the past two months.
So far, we have taken 30 hogs. The most hogs taken from any one group was four, shot at 150 yards. At that range, they were confused, not knowing where the shots came from, and milled around long enough for both of us to get follow up shots.
Most of our hunting was done overlooking water holes and the combination of thick brush and wind direction usually make these stands a short range proposition. Once the shot is fired, any remaining hogs exit the premises making second shots highly unlikely so most hogs were taken one at a time.
I slipped up on this hog at a feed trough in a corral full of cattle right at dark one evening. I had to get within 25 yards of him as there was a hog wire fence between us that I could not see to shoot through in the poor light. Once I got to the fence, the problem was that I still couldn’t get a clear shot due to all the cattle.
Suddenly, the hog ran through an open gate in the fence that I had not seen and I found myself on the same side of the fence, no more than 25 ft. from the running hog and he was running toward me! Fortunately, I could still see my crosshairs and all ended well.
These two came in to a water hole about 30 minutes apart.
The next evening this boar came in right at dark. He had to be in pain, as one testicle was the size of a football.
The last afternoon, we decided to check out a waterhole completely surrounded by heavy brush and found all the mesquite trees plastered with a heavy layer of mud. Unfortunately, we had only one evening left to hunt.
We did manage to get one boar there yesterday evening. It presented a bit of a recovery problem as the back side of the water hole is surrounded by heavy brush, so we had to use the jeep to pull the hog across the pond.
Looking forward to getting back next week to see what else is using this water hole.
Regards,
hm
since the hogs have been spoiling supplemental feed troughs put out for the cattle and we've made 5 two to three day trips during the past two months.
So far, we have taken 30 hogs. The most hogs taken from any one group was four, shot at 150 yards. At that range, they were confused, not knowing where the shots came from, and milled around long enough for both of us to get follow up shots.
Most of our hunting was done overlooking water holes and the combination of thick brush and wind direction usually make these stands a short range proposition. Once the shot is fired, any remaining hogs exit the premises making second shots highly unlikely so most hogs were taken one at a time.
I slipped up on this hog at a feed trough in a corral full of cattle right at dark one evening. I had to get within 25 yards of him as there was a hog wire fence between us that I could not see to shoot through in the poor light. Once I got to the fence, the problem was that I still couldn’t get a clear shot due to all the cattle.
Suddenly, the hog ran through an open gate in the fence that I had not seen and I found myself on the same side of the fence, no more than 25 ft. from the running hog and he was running toward me! Fortunately, I could still see my crosshairs and all ended well.
These two came in to a water hole about 30 minutes apart.
The next evening this boar came in right at dark. He had to be in pain, as one testicle was the size of a football.
The last afternoon, we decided to check out a waterhole completely surrounded by heavy brush and found all the mesquite trees plastered with a heavy layer of mud. Unfortunately, we had only one evening left to hunt.
We did manage to get one boar there yesterday evening. It presented a bit of a recovery problem as the back side of the water hole is surrounded by heavy brush, so we had to use the jeep to pull the hog across the pond.
Looking forward to getting back next week to see what else is using this water hole.
Regards,
hm
