TEXASBOARS.COM

[MAVIS KELSEY]

Hey guys ... I'm new to the site and I suppose now is as good as any time to make my first post. Been hunting on a 1000 acre ranch (the owners lease it out for cattle and hay ... they only really use it for dove and duck hunting during the fall and winter) located right in between Katy and Brookshire (also in between I10 and 290) since October of 2011 and FINALLY killed my first batch of pigs ... killed 5 on Tuesday evening. Despite the fact it’s always been pretty easy to locate fresh roots and other telltale signs, pretty much all of my hunts have turned up empty. We typically hunt at night with ARs and NV (D740s) and drive/walk around checking on the areas that are regularly baited and/or have deer feeders and I have only seen pigs one other time following this strategy (1 time out of approx 20-30 hunts). I have a lease in South Texas and pretty much anytime of the day you can go out driving and you can find pigs in 20 minutes or so ... always. But in Katy, it’s like the pigs all went to Harvard or something. I'm not aware that they're under extreme pressure from other hunters and/or farmers, but I suppose they must be because these suckers are careful.

On Tuesday night, we hunted from about 11:30 pm to 3 am with no luck. Returned to the house and were about to go to bed. I’ve been installing a Buckeye Cam system out there over the past few weeks, which, in exchange for a small fortune, permits me to remotely monitor my trail cams (the cams are outfitted with RF antennas and transmit the images back to a computer at the ranch house … I can either monitor the cams from the computer or check a website, which will show me the most recent 90 pics from each cam). Well one of my cams (just happened to be the closest cam to the house, only about 300 yards away) showed the pigs had been by one of the baited areas and left an hour before I checked the pics. Seemed the pigs had been rooting around in a partially dry lake bed surrounded by a system of levees.

We decided to give it one last shot and stalked up to the levee and scanned around using a Flir thermal monocular and our D740s. Nothing except a coon. Worked our way through the lake bed (it’s probably about 15-20 acres) and nothing. Finally, one the verge of calling it quits, I looked out into a field adjacent to our lake and saw a HUGE herd of pigs, between 45-60 (mainly sows and smaller pigs, with a handful of impressively large boars). They were probably about 600 yards out. Then the strangest thing happened … almost doesn’t seem believable: While we were standing along the fence line deciding how to stalk the herd, the entire group started running directly towards us. They were making a full speed b-line DIRECTLY TO OUR POSITION. I can’t explain this behavior, but we kneeled down and steadied our rifles. We waited till they were 20-30 yards out and opened fire.

Unfortunately, my buddy and I only had 10 or so rounds in each of our mags (me, 7.62x40 WT and him 300 Blackout) … big mistake. We downed 4 pigs in the initial rush, but a bunch of the younger pigs scattered in small groups of 3 to 4 and continued to linger around for another 30-45 minutes, although they had distanced themselves from the ambush site by about 200-300 yards. One problem I always have when it is hot outside is that my glasses fog up which usually means my scope also fogs up; I was able to aim okay, but I couldn’t see enough to focus on any of the few big boars that were in the group (any advice on fog-proof hunting glasses would be much appreciated).

I felt the whole situation was pretty weird: these pigs had been clever enough to evade me for months and months, but now that I had them in my sights and had already knocked off a few of their kin, they weren’t smart enough to flee the scene. It’s like we had killed their leader and without her, they didn’t know what to do. Anyway, I still had 2 rounds left and successfully lobbed a 125 grain Speer TNT into the shoulder of a younger sow at about 250 yards, which felt pretty awesome (especially since it was now 4:30 am). Anyway, I’m new to this site and would love to compare notes with anyone hunting pigs in the same area.

[Burt]

I ran a search - anti fog for glass - and pulled up several products designed to deal
with fogging. Search engines can be very useful.

Hogs - only thing predictable is that they are unpredictable.
There are times when there's no telling why they do what they do.
Your biggest enemy is the wind, if any is present. Always keep the wind
direction in your favor if possible. You might have known that, but I had to
include it here.

AND, always carry lots of ammo, if you are control shooting - make
sure the mag is topped off or nearly so. You already found out the hard way...

[MAVIS KELSEY]

Thanks for your comments, Burt. And the craziest thing of all: I just checked my Buckeye cams and, low and behold, the same group of pigs was back feeding in the same spot last night ... less than 24 hours and not more than 50 yards from where we hit them the previous evening.

[Burt]

http://www.texasboars.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=23677
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Ban guns to eliminate crime ?
Let's ban cars, to eliminate drunk driving.
Makes as much sense.

[VTDW]

Fun ain't it Mavis? You be hooked real good now eh.

Dave
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2011 - 13
2012 - 13

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v354/vtdw1/
www.marlinowners.com

[kenneth justice]

Hogs make no sense. Dont hurt your head trying to figure them out. Feed them. Hunt the wind correctly and hope yoilu are there when they are.
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Give thanks in all circumstances.

[Mario Martinez]

Welcome... Great story and thanks for sharing.

We like pics!
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I never lie... I just tell you my version of the truth.