Texas Hog Hunt

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TommyP

New member
This started in the hunt swap forum when some members wanted to trade a deer hunt for a Texas hog hunt. I offered up but had no takers. Then, some other forum members inquired and the hunt was on.
Trevor, Charlie, Glen and I from Predator Masters along with two others from Iowa and 3 guys from South Dakota all met at George West between the 19th and 22nd of Feb. We tried to stagger the times so as not too be crowded but time constraints had 9 of us for Sat/Sun. The South Dakota guys left camp on the 23rd,Charlie and Glen left on the 24th. Four of us stayed until Mar 2nd.
The ranches were lined up ahead of time. The South Dakota guys hunted hogs on the south ranch, Charlie and Glen hunted hogs over waterholes on two other properties, Trevor and I hunted another property for javelin and the two other guys from Iowa hunted waterholes on yet another ranch.
Friday saw the Iowa guys bag a hog and Saturday the South Dakota group got two hogs. Charlie and Glen saw nothing. Neither did Trevor and I. Saturday night had 4 of us heading to another ranch for a cookout and hunt, put on by a friend of mine. Brisket, sausages and rib-eye steaks made the meal. Trevor and an Iowa guy hunted there after dark but saw nothing.
Sunday saw the South Dakota guys head out, Charlie and Glen hunted waterholes as did everyone else but nothing was moving. Charlie and Glen left after breakfast Monday morning, work was calling.
Monday night, I took Trevor and an Iowa guy hog hunting with dogs up by Goliad/Beeville. We drove some fields but saw nothing.
We rode atop the dog box, in the back of a 3500 Dodge. 3 of us had AR's with NVD or lights. We pulled out on hwy US59 to get my truck when a Border Patrol drove the other way, made a fast U-turn and came up on our tail.After seeing what was in front of him, he pulled off. I asked my buddy Shane(county sheriff deputy) what was going through the Border Patrol officer's mind. He thought either he had seen we were not illegals or was calling for backup. Hah!!
Next we headed to Mathis and met my friend Jeremy. We hunted a cattle feed lot where hogs roamed the lot, eating cattle feed. Jeremy had FLIR and it was the bomb! He would see a hog coming, we got in position, lit them up and took them down. We shot around 6 but recovered 3. 213lb, 201lb and 163lb.
The big boar was not going down without a fight. We hit him 3 times when he ran into a cattle pen. Shane and I went in, cornered the big boar, snatched him up by the back legs and Trevor came in with a knife and finished the boar off.
Tuesday thru Friday was uneventful. Saturday, things started coming around. I put my tennis on, stalked a sendaro and spotted 3 coyotes way out in a field, feeding on a dead hog. I dropped one coyote, the other two took off but I barked one to stop and dropped it. Later that evening, the Iowa guys took a few javelin.
All in all, the Predator Masters forum guys were a pleasure to have at the camp. The South Dakota guys have been here before and will be back as well.
I will post some pictures below.
 
Here is our hunting camp, along the Nueces river, which is why it sits up so high.


Here is some of the brush country we hunted



Here is Nick S. from South Dakota with two hogs he shot at the south ranch
 
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Here is Trevor, from PM with his knife kill.



3 hogs taken at the feed lot.


3 javelina taken.

 
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Here's 2 of the 3 coyotes I shot off a hog carcass. The home camo job needs to be darkened a bit but was deadly.



Lastly, this pretty little girl is the barmaid at Hornys Bar at the Swinney Switch. Her name is Sully. Whatever you do, don't bet a skinny guy at the bar that he can't do 20 Marine chin-ups. I lost $10 on that bet.


A good time was had by all. Maybe the other PM members will post their trip experiences. I was glad to share my contacts with these guys.
 
First off - HUGE thanks to Tommy for being such a gracious host and inviting us down. This was the maiden hog voyage for these Missouri boys and while we didn't get to deflate any swine, we sure had a good time trying and learning a little about the program.

Like Tommy said most of our time was sitting on ponds - was dry while we were there (80's) and we did see plenty of sign at the water holes we sat, we just never managed to be there when they were coming to water. Did see quite a few deer, some jumbo Coons after the sun goes down, and one very aggressive skunk.
Waiting for dark and ready to light them up with the 6.8's:
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Part of the crew including the SD guys (and we thought we had a long drive:
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This shot was supposed to be us behind a pile of hogs (use your imagination). Did hunt some Sendero's a bit our last day there, and had a coyote come to the Foxpro but didn't stick around for a shot:
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So while we didn't do any good as far as hog muderage, had a good time, met some great guys, and got out of this never ending Missouri winter for a few days. It was so nice in fact, that some even snoozed out on the outside deck.

Anyway - thanks again Tommy, we really appreciate it and hope to give it a another try one day - maybe get together during deer season in Northern Mo this fall and catch up.

Charlie (02bfishn) and Glen



 
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Like Tommy said, we could have had better luck, but all in all it was a very satisfying trip with pretty good weather. Tommy and I tried to take some javelina the first few days w/o any luck but just being down there and away from Iowa's nasty cold weather was all I needed to make the trip worth it.
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While I did get to shoot a couple of the hogs at the feed lot the one night and got to finish off the big one with a knife into it's heart (see pic above), I had really hoped to get one solo hunting over the water holes later in the week and I had my chance, a couple of times, but no success.
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One evening I got to see 3 small hogs disappearing into the brush but it was just after dark and as soon as my red light hit them they scooted into the brush with no chance for a shot.

I did see a group of hogs with one really big orangeish colored hog in the lead the next evening about an hour before dark near the water hole but they were probably 170-175 yards away (because I set up farther away from the water hole because there were fire ants on/around the spot I wanted to sit next to the water hole) and walking briskly quartering away towards the brush and I could only get one shot off at the big one before they disappeared. I went over to see if I could find any blood sign and went into the brush and tried to cut tracks in about 3 different spots hoping to find some sign of blood but to no avail. I must say I was just a little bit nervous walking around through that brush with the possibility of a big wounded hog. I had the .45 in my hand at the ready just in case.
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Shortly after I went back to the water hole and stood in/amongst a small tree/bush and was watching the area to my left and ahead of me towards the water hole and out to the brush and wouldn't you know it, just before/at dark I hear something to my right and a hog pops out of the brush line not 20 yards away from me but I had the tree/bush limbs/etc in my way to the right so I couldn't swing in that direction. I was hoping he'd continue towards the water hole and get straight in front of me where all I had to do was raise the gun but he stopped short as he noticed me standing there and I decided to step forward and out of the stuff preventing me from swinging to the right and of course as soon as I moved it turned and was on a dead run back into the brush line so I tried the old hip shooting method getting off 5 shots in quick succession and there was dirt/dust flying all around it but I have no idea if I connected on any of the shots and I wasn't about to go into the bush at night chasing a possibly wounded hog. I figured I'd check it out the next day.

That hog went to the South and that's where Tommy found the coyotes feeding off of a dead hog the next morning a couple hundred yards away from where I was but there's no way to know if that was the hog I shot at or not.
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It was a black/tan hog but it was just dark enough the night before all I could see was a dark colored hog as there wasn't enough light to know if it had much other color in it.

I'd go back down there in a heart beat (if my wife and my workplace allowed it) to try again and hope to do so next year, if not before. I got to meet several new people and enjoyed their company and hope they enjoyed mine. My first experience hunting for Texas hogs was a great time and if nothing else I did get to draw some first blood using my new 6X45 upper and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
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Trevor
 
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