I had been talking to JJ about wanting to hunt on one of his places but my schedule has been pretty busy so I had not booked anything yet. Then I got the call...Chuck I have hogs hitting one of my fields heavy, can you come out tomorrow? Hmmm...do I have the time? Not really...but I made it work. So I drive through the wind and hail and make it out about 6..a few hours of daylight to work with. JJ tells me that this wheat field was recently harvested and lots of hogs have been hitting it including a huge (Estimate over 300lbs) boar. So..we head out and as soon as we see the field...300lb boar about 50 yards from the stand! He sees our cars and hauls butt out of there. DAMN! OK... maybe he will come back. So I get set up in the blind, I have a feeder to my left at about 100 yards and a spot in the field to my right about 100 yards where they have been rootin it up. Behind me is the edge of a treeline where JJ thinks they have been coming in from. So I wait. About 8:15 I see them about 400 yards away. Group of about 25 some black, some spotted, most are little ones but there are about 7-8 that are in the 100lb range. I watch them and wait..300 yards...200 yards. Now I start to debate.. do I take the shot now or wait? I still have some daylight and I havent shot this gun for a while...I can probably hit one but would it be a kill shot or would I just wound it? I decide to be patient. They move off to a fence line and now they are about 300 yards off again. Did I miss my chance? Now they are working back down the fenceline towards me and towards the feeder. Light is fading fast. They get to about 200 yards again and I decide it's getting too dark to wait any longer so I start looking to see which one I will shoot at then....out of no where a grey blur! A damn coyote runs righ past them (almost through the middle of them) and spooks them. Off they go back to around 400 yards or so. They are getting hard to see but I have a green light on my gun so maybe they will make their way back again. So I wait. Then I see ANOTHER group come to the fenceline near the same spot that the coyote ran through and these are BIG pigs. All of them black, kinda hard to tell for sure but I swear another 300lb hog in the group. The fenceline is full of brush, can barely see them, black hogs mixed with brush and almost no light now at 200 yards. I wait another hour and no more sign of hogs. Had 3 chances but never fired a shot. Mixed feelings. They were there, had my chances, did I do the right thing? I probably could have hit one, was I too cautious? I don't have a ton of experience as a hunter but I didn't want to rush a bad shot on an animal with a gun I haven't owned for long and that I'm not 100% sure about at 200 yards so I think that was the responsible thing to do. And others hunt these lands as well, no sense spoiling a good thing. So....JJ you were right, !The hogs are there and there are lots of them. It just wasen't my day. Now I need to get out to the range again and make sure that gun is like a laser at 100 yards so I'm willing to take the 200 yard shot.

Not sure what gun you are hunting with but I usually use a 200 yard zero on most of my hunting guns. with not a whole lot of experience and wanting a clean kill you did the right thing. The only way to have confidence in shooting is to shoot. Confidence is gained through practice

The places I hunt Hogs get shot at as well as Coyotes when they are seen.

Yep, I need to hit the range more for sure. I shoot a .270. Where do you find a 200 yrd range?

Where ya at?

If in the metromess here is one that gets that and further.

http://topgunshootingclub.com/

leonard, tx

I'm in Rockwall. I might shoot at the Garland range for a while on their 100 range then move to the Leonard range.

Depending on yout load set it 1.5 high at 100 with your 270 and you will be on right at 200. Well within minute of hog

Great story, I agree you did the right thing.

You did the right thing, but your decision sucks. The last two times I have spied hogs, I made the same decision and it sucked. Twice now I have had a hog walk out of the woods and into my food plot. They have come out where I have had a sounder come out several times. The sounder is smaller not, but think these are more from the sounder.

Both times, they stood almost completely still for nearly a minute. In the first case, the hog was a good sized sow, but knowing there were others in her group that were potentially larger, I waited. Then there was some loud crash in the woods behind the sow, pig squealing, then a bunch came out and I watched 6 hogs run in 12 directions. One even ran toward my stand, closing 80 yards to 40, and I was so amazed by the show of motion going on in front of me that I never got a shot off. I keep telling myself that I was waiting for whatever monster made the loud crashing noise and drove them from the woods, but I probably didn't really want to see it. :-)

Last week, one small pig came out at the same place, stood still, then advanced a few yards into the food plot and ate some grain, and then for no apparent reason, turned and trotted into the woods.

Well screw that. Next time one pops out of the woods and is within good range, I will pop it. Big or little, I don't care as I am not after trophies. I just want them gone. I might miss chances for bigger hogs, but that is just the way it goes.

Range off Lawson in mesquite has 200 yard range

I had forgot about that range being 200 yards.

Are you talking about JJ Evans from good times?

Great story.

I am scheduled to hunt JJ's property July 14th. I hope to see hogs within 300 yds. I am sure of my 7mm mag. I am sure next time you step out to hunt with your .270, you will be too!! That being said, given the facts you presented I completely agree with your decision to refrain from taking a shot you weren't sure off. Much respect to you for your hunting maturity. There is still room for a couple more to hunt with me on the 14th of july, if you would like to join me and try again. Paul

He has a ton out there. I saw about 10 pigs within an hour of being at his place. I finally shot this 110 lb sow around 10 pm.

Chuck,

You did the right thing.

I would much rather have an ethical hunter, that is 100% positive about the shot, than to have a guy spraying a field with lead, to only wound animals.

Only thing about that night that I would have changed, would have been us to be able to stalk that BIG BOY!! He was every bit of 300#'s!

Robert and Chris, hunted that same field the night after you, and they had a pack of pigs root around their Jeep Cherokee (exactly where you parked your suburban)!!

They had another group come out by the hog-pipe, which Robert shot that 110 pound sow in the picture above!

Don't worry, we will get you on another hog Chuck!

J.J.

There are as many hogs in Texas as there are fish in the sea so I'm sure I will get more chances. This is a good lesson learned.

Nice harvest!!!! I am excited about going out to his place for my first Texas hunt. We moved the date up to the night of July 7th. It appears to be just me going, my "friends" all backed out. I figured better for me, less noise and whining when I get one and they don't.

well, it turns out i am a prophet, cause i did manage to get one and the "super hunter" that went with me traveled 800 plus miles from alabama to go with me, only to smoke in a pop up blind and fall asleep. Yep he got nuttin. No, i am not still gloating, well maybe a little bit.lol I shot a nice 140lb sow about 7:15 in the am. ( i haven't figured out how to post pics yet. it is posted under his other posting stream though)

nice, looking forward to your pis

Heard he has shut down the hog hunts for the season. Too bad to. Needed to try the new rifle.

yes, i think he has. what is your new rifle?

R15 in .30RAR.

oh damn, sweet set up. have ya tried it out yet?

Supposedly the outpost in Mesquite has one. A .270 win that is sighted in ~1.5 " high at 100 yds will be dead on at 200 yds. There is no deed to hold high even if your rifle was sighted in for only 100 yds. With the limited number of 200+ yd ranges make sure you have a good range finder in the blind and have picked out some range markers in the field. Ive known too many people that think 200 yds is 300 yds etc. Also, you can play around with Winchester's ballistic calculator on their website.

Congrats