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

Are you keeping the or feeding the buzzards and coyotes?

We have taken a few home and given the rest to ranch hands and friends. Main objective is to get rid of as many hogs as we can, but the meat doesn't go to waste.


Regards,
hm

That's great stuff. While I'm glad we don't have the problem of hogs here (yet), it would on the other hand be some fun hunting. But, our hog population is beginning to increase in certain locations here, so I'm sure it's just a matter of time. Then, most likely they will be here to stay.

that boy had a sack on him, probably did him a favor

Yep, the picture doesn't really show the extent of the enlargement; you should have seen it when he was standing upright. Since he fell in the mud, couldn't get right angle until he was hanging on the boom.

Regards,
hm

Those are big nuts.

Did you investigate the cause of the enlargement?

No, we didn't. This was shot the last evening of the hunt, right at dark and was hog #30 taken in the last few weeks. We were getting tired of dressin' hogs so gave it to a ranch hand. We were curious, just not that curious.

Regards,
hm

He appears to be ruptured. Have seen it in domestic hogs on more than one occasion. Usually not life threatening, they carry on like nothing's wrong, if left alone. And, like that one, simply appear to have one really large set of gonads!!

Does present problems when castrating however; has to be stitched back up or their intestines slip out, if you stitch it then it doesn't want to drain properly, and needless to say hogs ain't real high on payin any attention to "keep it clean and sterile!" For that reason most are left in tact, fed out, and put in the farmer's freezer, or thumped in the head and put in the trash pit. Feedlots don't want them, so they bring next to nothing in the sales ring.

Got back today from our 6th and final hog hunt of the year, adding five more hogs and another coyote to the tally.

The hogs are apparently feeling the pressure as they have abandoned some of the hot spots which produced results earlier in the year.

Not surprisingly, what with 95* temperatures, the severe drought and steady hunting pressure, the most productive spot was this water hole located in the middle of some heavy brush which showed lots of hog sign:




It gave up these two boars the first evening of the hunt and another Wednesday evening.




Mornings were pretty dead but did shoot a mangy coyote which came to another water hole about 9 AM Wednesday.

Last night my partner picked out a small sow that he figured would fit his grill just about right, then he slipped up on another at a coral on the way to camp.

The final tally wound up at 35 hogs and three coyotes.

Regards,
hm