Part 2 - Hog’n Down Texas Style - Texas
Scott and his Texas Hog.
Steve and Jay.
Bringing home the bacon!
Hunter: Scott Wolfe
DAY #3
We were all exhausted by now but wanted to squeeze out every bit of action possible. It was the start of our last day and I was the only one of five that hadn’t shot a hog yet. The plan for this day was to hunt as a group and just have fun.
It was still dark when we found ourselves staged on the edge of the wheat field where Bucky, Steve, and Kevin put the smack down on hogs the day before. As soon as we could see shapes in the field, we spotted a MONSTER hog in the next field over. Normally this would be a good thing but we didn’t have permission for that ranch.
Once a little more light reached the wheat field, we spotted a nice boar and just had to wait for some camera light. Once I had the green light from Bucky, smoke filled the air and I had my first Texas hog on the ground. There was no time to celebrate though because a big group of hogs was spotted at the far end of the field. My shot had stirred them up and we had to hurry to get in front of them.
After my 4th 5k run of the weekend, Bucky and I were in position again to film my second hog encounter of the morning. I was still breathing heavy from my run as I tried to settle the crosshairs behind the shoulder of another nice boar standing broadside at 150 yards. I guess I was still breathing a little too heavy because I shot clean over his back.
Now it was time to regroup and make a plan for the rest of the morning. It was gonna’ get way too hot for the dogs soon (if needed) so we wanted to take advantage of the time we had. We decided to split off into two groups and I soon found myself alongside Bucky and Steve as we slowly made our way to another known hotspot on the ranch.
Bucky had a great day the day before and decided that he would spend this day behind the camera. I was now armed with my Katera and Steve had the Triumph. As we approached another wheat field, I knew we were fixin’ to have more action when Jay’s eyes got as big as saucers. He spotted a “Volkswagen” with hair and tusks feeding with other hogs at the far end of the field. (Have you spotted a pattern by now???....the hogs were always at the OTHER end of the field)
As we worked on a plan of attack….a smaller group of hogs off to our side busted us, spooking the big hog and the race was on. This is where my new buddy Steve “hooked” me up. It was his turn to shoot the Triumph but he quickly handed it to me because he knew I was looking for a big hog for an off-season taxidermy project. What a guy!!!! This was a huge hog and he passed it on to me. In whitetail “lingo”….he just put me on a “booner”!!!!
Before I go any farther….I need to describe this hog in greater detail. When we were spotting hogs in the wheat, we normally could see only the top 3” to 4” of them. Some of the bigger ones were big enough that we could see most of their bodies. On this hog….there was daylight between the top of the wheat and the bottom of his belly!!!
As we closed the distance on the big boy, Jay stopped in his tracks, pointed to the left and said “take him”. We had stumbled upon a big 250 pound porker that didn’t know we were there. The huge hog would have made a nice trophy…..but I would have been a fool to pass up this gift. Besides, I was out of gas and don’t think I could have caught up to the BIG one anyway.
Bucky quickly got into position behind me and I squeezed off a shot. When the smoke cleared I could not see the hog. I don’t see how I could have missed….but I couldn’t see him. I quickly reloaded and we slowly made our way to where he was standing when I shot. My shot had found its mark and the hog had just fallen in a way that made it impossible to see from where I shot from.
This is where we would normally take some time to check out the hog, shake hands, high-5, etc…but this wasn’t deer hunting, this was Texas hog hunting at its finest. Before I could even begin to reload the Triumph for the fourth time in about 30 minutes, the guys were in hot pursuit of another batch of hogs.
By the time I had reloaded and caught up with the guys, they had given up on that group of hogs. This gave us a chance to regroup again, rest, and get a drink of water. Steve then grabbed his bow and I carried the Triumph. I had my fill of hogs and decided to carry the muzzleloader just in case Steve needed to reach out a bit farther than what his bow would allow.
It didn’t take long at all and the chase was on again. This time Jay released a dog and it performed flawlessly, keeping the hog at bay, until we could catch up. Steve came to full draw and waited for the OK from Jay before he shot. Once the OK was given, Steve shot high and the hog ran off. Steve did a great job of keeping his composure. He could have beat himself up for missing, but instead, he knocked another arrow and got ready for a second chance—a chance that didn’t take long to present itself. Steve made a perfect shot and another Texas hog was ready for the meat pole.
By now it was getting way too hot so we decided to head back to the ranch house. On the way there we ran into Joe and Kevin and they were quite excited as they explained their second half of the morning. After a long chase across the ranch, which included a walk through a swamp, Joe had arrowed a nice boar to add to the total.
On our way back to Jay’s place, we talked about what our plans would be for the evening hunt. You could see it in everyone’s eyes and hear it in our voices that we were tired. There wasn’t much gas left in the tanks…and we had several hogs to butcher before we could finally take a nap.
When we finally hit the rack for a snooze...the plan was to take it very easy for the evening hunt. We were gonna’ split up again and hunt from ground blinds.
This sounded like a good plan—but plans change…..HINT HINT!!!
TO BE CONTINUED………