Posted By: ccreyeder
My Labor Day Hog Hunt and Lessons Learned - 09/08/15 08:43 PM
Just some light hearted fun, no serious lessons. Just wanted to share the weekend. The best part was just the bonding and the fun had and the memories made.
So, took a long weekend for Labor Day.
Me, my two teenaged boys, one of their friends, and my dad, all down at the lease for filling feeders, clearing some brush, hog hunting, do some shotgun practice with clay pigeons, etc...
I've had sort of mixed feelings the last several times we have been hog hunting there recently about not seeing ANY hogs... day or night... Bummed that no successful hunts, but happy they weren't there tearing the place up...
Get to bed early sat night, up at 3 am... me and the boys load up into the mule.. head out to stake out a feeder that we have set to go off at 4 am.... sit around, nothing.. boys getting bored, looks like another strike out... I say "lets go check out one of the tanks and see what shows..." Get to a tank that had looked promising earlier a little before 5 am... Me and one son in the front with our rifles, other son and friend in back, sharing thermal monocular and scouting....... I had just enough time to put a chew in and our spotters whisper "hogs!".... I take thermal and look... a large sounder at the water's edge about 50 yards in front of us, drinking, wallowing in the mud... Us "shooters" getting our shots lined up... we shoot... 2 hogs down, the rest run off before we could get second shots... We do silent high 5s.. wait a few minuets, and then decide to go look at our kills and get some pix...
Normally, I carry a pistol with me as well, but with it being so crowded and close quarters, I left it behind this time.... So, we all pile out, leaving our rifles in the mule, taking just the thermal and one flashlight.... slogging through the mud between the water's edge and higher ground... when hogs appear again! Ruh ro! They weren't really charging us, but they were in a rush to get to the water and either didn't notice us, or didn't care... we must have looked pretty funny as we beat it out of there all the while trying to turn our backs on the hogs and not get stuck in the mud or into the water... A couple got so close that I actually yelled out to try to scare them off.... get back to the mule safe and sound... we wait until the coast is clear again... nothing on thermal, don't hear anything... okay... let't try this again! This time we take our rifles... about 3/4ths of the way there this time.... we hear something moving.... gulp.. ... spotter with the thermal says there are hogs above us on the bank... I'm using a photon XT fixed 4x mag... can't see anything that close.. son using a day scope with green light... he shines light on it and we all have a staring contest.... Shoot him" I whisper... He shoots.. . hog jumps straight up.. all 4 feet off the ground like a cat and takes off for about 10 yards and collapses....We decide the heck with pix, let's get the heck out of here! lmao....
Lessons learned that night....
1. Like American Express... don't leave home without your pistol
2. If you don't heed lesson 1, at least take your rifle with you
3. If using a fixed power scope, get yourself some kind of offset/ canted back ups "just in case"
4. Water is where the action is when it is hot
Having had so much fun, we do the same thing the next night/morning.....chastising ourselves for not getting any video, we decide to take the mini-recorder to hook up to thermal to video the action... Take pistols... take some back up batteries for every thing.... go check out a different tank... not too long before something shows up... can't get a good ID but looks like a family of raccoons... while sitting in the dark, I give my son's friend a description on how to hook up the cable between the thermal and recorder.... I think he does it correctly.... we wait... I notice my battery level on my scope is down to one bar, so taking advantage of a lull in the action, I switch out batteries.... go to turn scope back on... nothing... hmm.. recheck placement of batteries and tightness of battery cover... nothing.. Rats! Put old batteries back in and decide I won't turn it back on until absolutely needed...
nice night to be out.. stars are bright, humid as heck though... no action.. boys are getting sleepy.. we get out of mule and mill around, scanning with thermal now and then... AH!! a lone, big hog is walking up on the other side of the tank... we silently get back to our shooting positions... I tell the friend to to turn on the recorder... BUZZ... BUZZ... BUZZZ... "No connection the recorder is warning!!.. Dang it! just turn it off! Finally get recorder silenced... check the thermal.. hog is quick stepping away.. no shot available... Ah well.. it was still a fun night... We are all getting hungry.. it is about 15 min before light and I say we will go at light... just as we are about to leave, either the same, or a different lone hog is back at the waters edge, wallowing in the mud.... I get ready.... I double check the elevation setting on my digital scope to make sure I had moved it to account for the suppressor.... Hmm.. that's odd... it is at 0.... It should have been -20 something... "its fine" I tell myself, "the reticle stayed put, just the number changed, after all the type and color of reticle is still the same".... Take the shot.....TWACK!! I hit mud! Hog takes off running... can't get a bead on him for a follow up shot... Sun is up, so we go back to camp for a breakfast of sausage wraps and left over fried backstrap...
Lessons Learned that night:
1. Take back up batteries for your back up batteries
2. If you change batteries on your photon XT, double check your 'X" and "Y" settings.. Turns out mine had reset and not held zero, confirmed by testing at shooting bench later that day
3. In the dark, in the back of a mule, is not the time to teach your camera man how to operate the equipment
4. Water is where the action is when it is hot
Bonus Lessons:
1. Teenaged boys eat WAY more than you think... I didn't get any left over backstrap
2. When you take beer, take some specialty craft beer so your dad won't like it and thus not drink it, thus leaving more for you
3a. Do NOT try to adjust the fan motor of your trailer's A/C while it is running... Ours was a little out of balance so I thought I would l just tweak it.... uhh... dropped the socket wrench, broke a blade off the fan, and almost chopped my finger off ....oops!
3b. Your A/C motor will REALLY wobble with a fan blade missing...
4. Do NOT grab an eyebolt that your son just finished welding to a piece of steel that you plan on hanging as a rifle target in order to check its sturdiness unless you want to teach him new curse words.
Hope every one had a safe and fun Labor Day !
So, took a long weekend for Labor Day.
Me, my two teenaged boys, one of their friends, and my dad, all down at the lease for filling feeders, clearing some brush, hog hunting, do some shotgun practice with clay pigeons, etc...
I've had sort of mixed feelings the last several times we have been hog hunting there recently about not seeing ANY hogs... day or night... Bummed that no successful hunts, but happy they weren't there tearing the place up...
Get to bed early sat night, up at 3 am... me and the boys load up into the mule.. head out to stake out a feeder that we have set to go off at 4 am.... sit around, nothing.. boys getting bored, looks like another strike out... I say "lets go check out one of the tanks and see what shows..." Get to a tank that had looked promising earlier a little before 5 am... Me and one son in the front with our rifles, other son and friend in back, sharing thermal monocular and scouting....... I had just enough time to put a chew in and our spotters whisper "hogs!".... I take thermal and look... a large sounder at the water's edge about 50 yards in front of us, drinking, wallowing in the mud... Us "shooters" getting our shots lined up... we shoot... 2 hogs down, the rest run off before we could get second shots... We do silent high 5s.. wait a few minuets, and then decide to go look at our kills and get some pix...
Normally, I carry a pistol with me as well, but with it being so crowded and close quarters, I left it behind this time.... So, we all pile out, leaving our rifles in the mule, taking just the thermal and one flashlight.... slogging through the mud between the water's edge and higher ground... when hogs appear again! Ruh ro! They weren't really charging us, but they were in a rush to get to the water and either didn't notice us, or didn't care... we must have looked pretty funny as we beat it out of there all the while trying to turn our backs on the hogs and not get stuck in the mud or into the water... A couple got so close that I actually yelled out to try to scare them off.... get back to the mule safe and sound... we wait until the coast is clear again... nothing on thermal, don't hear anything... okay... let't try this again! This time we take our rifles... about 3/4ths of the way there this time.... we hear something moving.... gulp.. ... spotter with the thermal says there are hogs above us on the bank... I'm using a photon XT fixed 4x mag... can't see anything that close.. son using a day scope with green light... he shines light on it and we all have a staring contest.... Shoot him" I whisper... He shoots.. . hog jumps straight up.. all 4 feet off the ground like a cat and takes off for about 10 yards and collapses....We decide the heck with pix, let's get the heck out of here! lmao....
Lessons learned that night....
1. Like American Express... don't leave home without your pistol
2. If you don't heed lesson 1, at least take your rifle with you
3. If using a fixed power scope, get yourself some kind of offset/ canted back ups "just in case"
4. Water is where the action is when it is hot
Having had so much fun, we do the same thing the next night/morning.....chastising ourselves for not getting any video, we decide to take the mini-recorder to hook up to thermal to video the action... Take pistols... take some back up batteries for every thing.... go check out a different tank... not too long before something shows up... can't get a good ID but looks like a family of raccoons... while sitting in the dark, I give my son's friend a description on how to hook up the cable between the thermal and recorder.... I think he does it correctly.... we wait... I notice my battery level on my scope is down to one bar, so taking advantage of a lull in the action, I switch out batteries.... go to turn scope back on... nothing... hmm.. recheck placement of batteries and tightness of battery cover... nothing.. Rats! Put old batteries back in and decide I won't turn it back on until absolutely needed...
nice night to be out.. stars are bright, humid as heck though... no action.. boys are getting sleepy.. we get out of mule and mill around, scanning with thermal now and then... AH!! a lone, big hog is walking up on the other side of the tank... we silently get back to our shooting positions... I tell the friend to to turn on the recorder... BUZZ... BUZZ... BUZZZ... "No connection the recorder is warning!!.. Dang it! just turn it off! Finally get recorder silenced... check the thermal.. hog is quick stepping away.. no shot available... Ah well.. it was still a fun night... We are all getting hungry.. it is about 15 min before light and I say we will go at light... just as we are about to leave, either the same, or a different lone hog is back at the waters edge, wallowing in the mud.... I get ready.... I double check the elevation setting on my digital scope to make sure I had moved it to account for the suppressor.... Hmm.. that's odd... it is at 0.... It should have been -20 something... "its fine" I tell myself, "the reticle stayed put, just the number changed, after all the type and color of reticle is still the same".... Take the shot.....TWACK!! I hit mud! Hog takes off running... can't get a bead on him for a follow up shot... Sun is up, so we go back to camp for a breakfast of sausage wraps and left over fried backstrap...
Lessons Learned that night:
1. Take back up batteries for your back up batteries
2. If you change batteries on your photon XT, double check your 'X" and "Y" settings.. Turns out mine had reset and not held zero, confirmed by testing at shooting bench later that day
3. In the dark, in the back of a mule, is not the time to teach your camera man how to operate the equipment
4. Water is where the action is when it is hot
Bonus Lessons:
1. Teenaged boys eat WAY more than you think... I didn't get any left over backstrap
2. When you take beer, take some specialty craft beer so your dad won't like it and thus not drink it, thus leaving more for you
3a. Do NOT try to adjust the fan motor of your trailer's A/C while it is running... Ours was a little out of balance so I thought I would l just tweak it.... uhh... dropped the socket wrench, broke a blade off the fan, and almost chopped my finger off ....oops!
3b. Your A/C motor will REALLY wobble with a fan blade missing...
4. Do NOT grab an eyebolt that your son just finished welding to a piece of steel that you plan on hanging as a rifle target in order to check its sturdiness unless you want to teach him new curse words.
Hope every one had a safe and fun Labor Day !
Thanks for shareing. Sounds like every one had good time... 
i tendta cross my eye's & dot my t's...