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8 more down, with a ghost pig. #8243569 04/20/21 06:40 PM
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JTPinTX Offline OP
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This past Saturday helicopters flew 3 different parts of the county. I was on one of them and shot a lot of pigs and coyotes, mainly out in the area I normally coyote hunt. We killed over 100 pigs and 70+ coyotes. The other two helicopters flew my main hunting area (they killed 105 pigs just west of us) and my partners main hunting area (where they killed another 118 pigs).

Needless to say our main pig killing areas are going to be suppressed for a little while.

Last night we decided to try calling some secondary areas. We drove into the first area and before we even got to our calling spot we ran into a small sounder of 7 pigs. We were driving blacked out with thermal and turned a corner, and they were right there about 120 yards. We killed the truck and eased out, got set up without them sensing us. Put a 50 yard stalk on them just to make the shooting easier and let fly. Killed 4 of them. The initial shot of mine killed a nice white boar ghost pig. Not a huge pig by any means (maybe 130 or so) but a solid pig with nice coloration. 3 of the 4 pigs were boars. Here is the video.

https://youtu.be/XSs33iBz2rE

Next we went to a place and tried calling some pigs. Didn't call any pigs but called 5 coyotes using pigs sounds. Coyotes sure like a piglet in distress, especially that Glenn Guess Vampigra sound. Killed one, but missed another as he was blazing in in really fast and would NOT stop.

It was starting to get late but we decided to make a short loop on the way home and check a spot where the pigs had been rooting up nutgrass in a field my partner farms. We pop over the hill and there is another small sounder, with a lone pig another 100 yards past them up on the hill. We killed the truck and did another really short stalk of 100 yards or so, putting us 60-65 yards from the pigs. We counted down and opened up. 4 pigs on the ground with 4 shots. One got back up and had to get a little more persuasion, but I thought we did really well. We took a few shots on the 5th pig up on the hill as it ran off but didn't connect.

https://youtu.be/Cs-puRDeFWw

We left the guns there and walked down to check out the pigs. Shouldn't have left the guns, lol. First three were DOA. Number 4, a small 70-80 lb boar was not. He was sitting on his butt like a dog. I didn't really think anything of it. I walked up 6-8 yards away to take his picture. He was looking at me making a low growling sound. When the cell phone made the pre-flash, it triggered him. He woofed at me and came off the ground fast charging straight at me. It was not an accident. He knew exactly where he was going. He was small and hurt and didn't have cutters so it wasn't a big deal, but he sure took me by surprise! Got the adrenaline going no doubt. I sidestepped him (I think the flash blinded him, the real camera flash went off mid-charge), and he got confused and ran off a little ways. I turned to look for my partner and he was GONE! I think he takes me hunting with him because he knows if something bad goes down he can outrun me. I shined the light around and he was about 40 yards away, ready to hook it again if he needed to. We walked back to the guns and I put a finisher in Mr. Bad Attitude.

Anyways, a fun and interesting night. I killed 5 and my partner killed 3. All of them were quite a bit smaller than what were are used to killing, but pigs are pigs. I think that makes 39 pigs for me night hunting with thermal so far this year. Beautiful night to be out. North wind hit as we were driving home. Just a 10 mile drive so we barely missed getting the hard wind shift as we were stalking.

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Mr. Bad Attitude:

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Last edited by JTPinTX; 04/20/21 06:41 PM.
Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8243572 04/20/21 06:51 PM
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cheers Well done.


...and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen. 1:28
Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8243768 04/20/21 09:34 PM
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Good job!!!


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Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8243769 04/20/21 09:34 PM
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Good Stuff!

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8243816 04/20/21 10:06 PM
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Man you did good

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8243871 04/20/21 10:50 PM
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Real nice. Thanks for sharing

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8243884 04/20/21 11:02 PM
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You folks are really cleaning 'em up! Surprised there were very many left for you after all the pressure. Good work!!

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8243944 04/21/21 12:10 AM
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Just playing with some images stored on my computer. I used Photo shop until it went to heck, and then used Imjur for some time and it has changed to where I can't use it anymore. Maybe I'll get it together again.....it would be a lot easier if I had a knowledgable 5 yr. old to work the darned computer !!

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8243982 04/21/21 12:41 AM
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Good job .



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Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: mikei] #8244299 04/21/21 01:04 PM
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Originally Posted by mikei
You folks are really cleaning 'em up! Surprised there were very many left for you after all the pressure. Good work!!



The area of the county I flew in this past weekend gets flown twice a year no matter what. Numbers stay fairly well in control up there. We had two helicopters up all day working an area of around 100 square miles. We had to work pretty hard to kill what we did.

The other two areas just had one helicopter flying for about half a day. Those areas are more agricultural. 3 years ago out by my BIL's farms they just about had the pigs shot down to the point of being insignificant. They would fly every weekend until they quit seeing pigs. The first year they flew they killed over 2000 pigs in that area (in a year). The last year they killed about 1400. When they flew two weekends in a row without seeing a pig they quit. But then they stopped flying for 3 years. It went from not hardly being able to find a pig to being worse than it was before. Used to be it was specific areas of our county that had the problems. Now it is county wide. So even though pigs were hit hard this weekend it won't take long for them to filter back in.

They hit them at the right time though. Peanut planting time is here in 2-3 weeks. I will be busy then. May or may not kill a lot of pigs. I guess we will see how good they did flying. But for sure I will be out there a lot for a 2 week stretch while the seed is sprouting.

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8244347 04/21/21 01:50 PM
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Great job 👍

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8244363 04/21/21 02:05 PM
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Originally Posted by JTPinTX
Originally Posted by mikei
You folks are really cleaning 'em up! Surprised there were very many left for you after all the pressure. Good work!!



The area of the county I flew in this past weekend gets flown twice a year no matter what. Numbers stay fairly well in control up there. We had two helicopters up all day working an area of around 100 square miles. We had to work pretty hard to kill what we did.

The other two areas just had one helicopter flying for about half a day. Those areas are more agricultural. 3 years ago out by my BIL's farms they just about had the pigs shot down to the point of being insignificant. They would fly every weekend until they quit seeing pigs. The first year they flew they killed over 2000 pigs in that area (in a year). The last year they killed about 1400. When they flew two weekends in a row without seeing a pig they quit. But then they stopped flying for 3 years. It went from not hardly being able to find a pig to being worse than it was before. Used to be it was specific areas of our county that had the problems. Now it is county wide. So even though pigs were hit hard this weekend it won't take long for them to filter back in.

They hit them at the right time though. Peanut planting time is here in 2-3 weeks. I will be busy then. May or may not kill a lot of pigs. I guess we will see how good they did flying. But for sure I will be out there a lot for a 2 week stretch while the seed is sprouting.



When they fly the farms down here, I've seen the hogs go more nocturnal, so, you may still have some decent night hunting.

Hope you do!

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8244420 04/21/21 02:40 PM
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Barry, if you get some random helicopter videos on your phone you will know who they are from.

For sure the flying will make them more nocturnal. Ours are pretty much really that way anyways though. I only hunt pigs at night.

The key up here is flying the right time of year, before the plums, mesquite, and shinnery get leaves on them. We were pushing it a bit flying as late as last weekend, but wanted to be as close to planting time as we could get. For the ones not familiar with the country up here we are very open country. As long as there aren't leaves yet it is really hard for the pigs to hide. For sure there are some areas they can, but it isn't like later in the summer where they can just lay up in the plum thickets and not move, and you fly over without seeing them. Done correctly aerial gunning is very effective in our part of the world. Our topography and vegetation are well suited to it. Having said that though, even though a weekend helps quite a bit, it will take a whole lot more than that to have any kind of long term effect. Mainly these flights were about a temporary suppression effect in some specific planting areas.

My BIL won't have peanuts on the same fields he did last year. One field is moving a little further from the hog bedding areas so he may get some relief there. But he is breaking out a different area to plant some organic peanuts, and I can't believe he is going to try and plant them where he is planning. Unless they really knocked the crap out of those pigs, I am going to have a busy time once they start planting I think.

I think about 10 days, 2 weeks at the latest, and peanuts will be going in the ground.

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8246696 04/23/21 06:13 PM
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Great jobs! cheers

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8247483 04/24/21 05:41 PM
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Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8248091 04/25/21 02:53 PM
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Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8248121 04/25/21 03:31 PM
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Good shooting, good video, and good killing ! Always enjoy your posts. texas


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Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8248749 04/26/21 01:48 PM
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Thank You!

Re: 8 more down, with a ghost pig. [Re: JTPinTX] #8252551 04/30/21 02:17 AM
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Good show. Thank you for doing what you do to help reduce the damage the hogs are doing. And for the videos and write ups on the hunts. Good shooting too. Much appreciated, keep on keepin on. Can you imagine what would happen if we all quit shooting hogs.? I don't think the public realizes how important this is .


"When a man's ways please the Lord, HE makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" Prov 16:7
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