Hunting at the farm has been rough. There are some feral dogs running off the wildlife, so today I drove an extra half mile to bow hunt on Corps land. Spot and stalk on public land. Cold north wind. As I walk in I see an exorbitant amount of rooting, some oldish and some very new. I know a couple of things about hogs... One, lots of recent activity means they're likely hanging out nearby. Two, they are eating fresh grass now as we come out of winter. Find the grass and you'll find hogs. Three - they start moving near dusk most days. I make my rounds in the area I want to hunt, doing a figure 8, working upwind. Bluebird sky and the pigs are not out yet. About 45 minutes before the kill I thought I heard one squeal as I work my way around, but heard nothing more. As I am sitting in the one pic, I thought I heard a grunt nearby. This area had a ton of very deep rooting over many acres. The thickets you see are briers and hogs can hole up in there during the day. Wind in my face as I head back towards the car. I work slowly and then I see one. Then another. Sounded like cattle grazing. Munch, munch, munch as they rip the fresh grass. Shot at 30 yards, no squeal, solid hit. I track it with my eyes. There were more hogs than I saw originally. I was still not busted. I made a rookie mistake by not reloading. As I work my way to start tracking, I see a hog to my right. My hit hog was on the left side of the trail. No shot. I listen for my hog to crash. Not yet. Then it walks out to the middle of the trail left to right and stops. It looks at me, stands there for 5-10 seconds as I look at him, then moves off into the thick woods to my left. I move forward and pick up the blood trail. Plenty of blood, waiting for the hog to crash as I hear it walking still. I follow the blood trail. It is after sunset by now, and I figure I'll trail it till I find it. I follow the blood and see a dead hog in front of me. The hog I shot was not the one I saw standing in the trail.😲 That was a different hog who was not totally alarmed. 🤷♂️. Moral of the story...always reload.
Congrats on the hog. There have been a few times in the past when I've put down my rifle thinking I was done shooting, but then either I saw more hogs or the one I thought was dead somehow resurrected.
Your gig, but if it was me, I'd focus on getting rid of the feral dogs before anything else.
I once caught myself entering a mesquite thicket following a VERY large wounded boar (I figure he was easily well north of 300 pounds), at dusk, and out on the lease all by myself carrying a bolt action rifle. It took me about a half a second to consider the possible consequences, and that's something I just will not do.
I once caught myself entering a mesquite thicket following a VERY large wounded boar (I figure he was easily well north of 300 pounds), at dusk, and out on the lease all by myself carrying a bolt action rifle. It took me about a half a second to consider the possible consequences, and that's something I just will not do.
The very reason I sprang for a Streamlight TLR 2 HL G. I also agree with your first comment.