WhoCares
New member
Picked up a new property to hunt in June. Rancher called and said he had a Terrible hog problem and they were tearing up his hay fields. Sure enough I was able to find plenty of damage. I brought in a corn feeder, cameras, and made several pig pipes but over the course of the next several months I only got 1 picture of a boar, as well as a few coyotes which was my primary interest. There has been a few major flood events over the last few months so I'm not sure if that scattered the hogs but I really wasn't seeing much on my cameras. Knowing I needed to get this ranchers hog problem under control, I figured if I didn't get at least a few pigs I might not have the property to hunt coyotes come fall.
I spent a lot of time hunting over the feeder, trying different times , different mixes in the pig pipes and I saw absolutely Nothing. I was able to somehow convince my wife that I needed a Thermal scope so as luck would have it she said go ahead. So, after draining a large chunk of our savings I go out looking to kill some hogs.
First night I see nothing much except some rabbits and armadillos. I walked the roads and fields surrounding his 2500 acres and I spotted nothing. Getting a handle on this scope was tough with 97% humidity, light rain and 87 degrees at 2am. The scope settings are many and easy to screw up if you don't know what your doing, and I didn't.
Anyway, on night 2 I went directly to the field that had the freshest sign and low and behold there was this big boar right in the middle of the field. I setup standing with my tripod and observed him for what seemed like 10 minutes hoping to get that perfect broadside shot. Well I got the perfect shot but hit really low and broke his front left leg, I was aiming for the neck. He took off running and squealing and I managed to get off a few more shots hitting him a second time mid body. I spent the next 2 hrs in the dark searching for him but couldn't find him. Next day after searching another 2 hours I found him floating in a pond about 50 yards from where I first shot him. After pulling him out of the pond, if I was a betting man I would guess the boar was 200+ lbs but I have no way of knowing for sure. The rancher helped me recover the hog and he was very excited and said I can now hunt whatever I want on his property with no restrictions. Sorry about the long post, I was just excited after getting my first hog.
I spent a lot of time hunting over the feeder, trying different times , different mixes in the pig pipes and I saw absolutely Nothing. I was able to somehow convince my wife that I needed a Thermal scope so as luck would have it she said go ahead. So, after draining a large chunk of our savings I go out looking to kill some hogs.
First night I see nothing much except some rabbits and armadillos. I walked the roads and fields surrounding his 2500 acres and I spotted nothing. Getting a handle on this scope was tough with 97% humidity, light rain and 87 degrees at 2am. The scope settings are many and easy to screw up if you don't know what your doing, and I didn't.
Anyway, on night 2 I went directly to the field that had the freshest sign and low and behold there was this big boar right in the middle of the field. I setup standing with my tripod and observed him for what seemed like 10 minutes hoping to get that perfect broadside shot. Well I got the perfect shot but hit really low and broke his front left leg, I was aiming for the neck. He took off running and squealing and I managed to get off a few more shots hitting him a second time mid body. I spent the next 2 hrs in the dark searching for him but couldn't find him. Next day after searching another 2 hours I found him floating in a pond about 50 yards from where I first shot him. After pulling him out of the pond, if I was a betting man I would guess the boar was 200+ lbs but I have no way of knowing for sure. The rancher helped me recover the hog and he was very excited and said I can now hunt whatever I want on his property with no restrictions. Sorry about the long post, I was just excited after getting my first hog.
