First Pig!

Interesting weekend of hunting! My dad has been hand-corning an 18' ladder stand for me and told me the deer were 'cleaning up the corn'. Knowing we had a few hogs around, I doubted it was deer, but Saturday morning I took my crossbow and headed out. I debated taking my 6.8 with me but couldn't figure out how to comfortably carry both it and the crossbow. As I exited the truck, I thought about the hog stories on here and how many of you were now carrying a side-arm. At the last minute, I put my 9mm Shield in my pocket and walked towards the stand.

The moon was incredible and as such I didn't use a flashlight. I got to within about 30 yards of the stand and could hear them. Grunting, squealing, snorting - HOGS! They were working the corn hard. I sneaked a little closer and suddenly, about 10 yards ahead of me on the trail was a little black basketball-sized critter. I laid the crossbow down and pulled the Shield. Only problem, I couldn't see the standard 3-dot sights at all! As I stood there contemplating, a larger hog joined the little one. I used the moon as best I could to line up the sights, then raised the pistol and fired at the big hog at roughly 12 yards. Man, what a muzzle-flash! I apparently missed, as the hogs scattered about 50 yards into the brush, but then started grunting to one another to let each other know where they were. I picked up the crossbow and approached the stand. A hog came back out in the draw at about 20 yards, but I decided not to shoot at him. He saw me climb the ladder and ran off. I ended up seeing 14 deer that morning and had a spike in range, but I didn't see any of the larger bucks I had on camera. The hogs did not come back while I was there.

Saturday evening I re-corned the spot, hoping that maybe the hogs wouldn't be back after being fired upon. Sunday morning I did everything the same, but carried both the 6.8 and the crossbow. The draw was empty when I arrived and I would find out after the sun rose that it was empty of corn as well. They had cleaned me out overnight.

Well, that didn't sit well, so I decided I would re-corn and wait for the hogs. Sunday evening I got out there at 7pm and put out about 10lbs of corn. I climbed the stand with my 6.8 and waited, hoping that they would either come while it was light or wait until the moon came. Around 7:45 I heard them squeal about 500 yards off and I knew it was about to be on. It took them about 20 minutes to get there. The sounder was probably 4-5 larger hogs and about the same number of piglets. They came south-to-north up the draw, just as I expected, and settled in on the corn at 25 yards.

There was no moon yet; even with the illuminated Burris reticle I could not pick out my target very well. I have a green light on the rifle and would have to use it. Listening to the noises in front of me and seeing very faint shadows, I slipped off the safety and lined up what I thought was one of the hogs. Finger on the trigger, I turned on the light. PERFECT! I was lined up exactly for a high-shoulder shot on a hog. The rifle popped and all hell broke loose as hogs went every direction. I fired a couple more shots at running hogs but I don't think they connected.

I safed the rifle, turned off the light and sat there in the dark, listening to the noises of the outdoors. I waited nearly an hour in case they came back or another group came from another direction. I was shocked at the amount of adrenaline that had hit me during all this, and was now feeling the after effects. Having spent most of the day working stock at the place, I was worn out and very drained. I slowly climbed out of the stand and approached the dark mass laying across the draw.

He isn't the biggest pig in the world, a small young boar about 80-100lbs. He is hopefully the first of many, and we don't want them in any way, shape or form. Sadly, I left him laying as I had no way to get the truck up to him and didn't have any help to drag him out. After a long day, I also had no energy left to clean and quarter him.

A good feral hog is a dead one! Congratulations; don't worry about the "missed meat" opportunity. You will have a lot more chances!!

Congrats on your first pig, awesome when a plan comes together! Doesn't look to be 80lb to me but a great size to eat for sure! Sounds like you got some more to kill good luck!!

congrats.

I turned him over and tried to move him to see if I could possibly drag him out. He seemed to be about the same weight as most of our does. He was very solid. I mean, could he have been 68? Maybe, but I don't think he was 50.

That's good stuff. You must have liked it with that adrenaline rush. Before too long, you may find yourself hoping they show up because you'll be itching to shoot another one. I got started shooting pigs about 12 years ago when they showed up on a lease I had been on. We had this place about 10 years, never saw a hog, then a few, a few more and it was on. Moved to a panhandle lease where there were plenty of hogs and really enjoyed hunting them. They are so unpredictable. Right about the time you think you have them figured out, they do something counterintuitive. I shot a buck on the river once, was in full camo right out in the middle of a 100 yard wide, sandy river bed gutting him, kneeling over the buck. I look up, a sounder of probably 20 were on a fast walk right down the river bed coming right to me. They had no idea what I was, camo'd up and on my hands and knees working on the buck. I picked up my rifle and shot one at about 50 yards, they busted like quail.

That first morning, wading in with the Shield was pretty tense, knowing this guy is out there and I'm standing in a bunch of cedars amidst the group:


This speckled pig's group was the group that I shot one out of, but I couldn't locate him when they got in the shadows:

You may be hooked. You can hunt year round, go get em'.

The good news, now that you have pigs, is that you have much more hunting opportunities. The bad news is, now you have pigs. I read somewhere recently that you have to consistently shoot 66% of the pig population just to keep the population at an even level.

Well written story. Congrats. As was stated, don't worry about the pork you missed, plenty more where that came from. Just last week I left one overnight and drug it to the bird feeder in the morning. When I was thinking of cutting off what I wanted, I thought of all the pork already in my freezer. Would have been cool to take your first with a pistol.

Thank you sir, may I have another

Congrats

Congratulations on your first. Soon you will be an old hand at killing pigs. I enjoyed reading your write up on the hunt too. Almost felt like I was there with you as it happened.

Congrats. Maybe it’s just me, but I still get amped up when a hog steps out.

Excellent write up!

They are great target practice

Cool.