Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

Post your hunting/trophy photos here, and tell us a little about your trip. WARNING: Some photos will be graphic.

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Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

#1

Post by TEA »

I'm hoping to get out to my father-in-law's place this weekend. He has 320 acres bottom land on the headwaters of the Navasota river that he leases to a cattle rancher. There is a large dry creek bed/gully bisecting the property that is heavily forested on either side and is completely over run with hogs.

Here are a few older pics until I can post some fresh ones.
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Sometimes my daughter goes with me.
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Sometimes we go fishing, too.
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My father-in-law let me build a hunting cabin out there.
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Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/thearmadilloranch

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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

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Post by TomV »

Great pics. Cute little girl.

She is going to be a boy magnet in a few years.
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

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Post by jmra »

Looks like a lot of fun.
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

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Post by Javier730 »

Awesome pictures. I just harvested a hog 2 weeks ago.
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

#5

Post by TEA »

Thanks. I'm just going to add to this thread rather than starting a new one.

Went out to the ranch today with my dog Max. My daughter didn't want to go with me, because she says her legs get too tired stalking through the woods with me. I was a bit torn over whether or not to take Max with me, since he tends to run up ahead of me and spook the hogs before I get in a good position to fire. I usually end up running up when I hear them grunt and squeal and raise my rifle up just in time to see them bolt off in the opposite direction into heavy brush. But, if I don't take him and try and train him some, he won't learn.

I got out about an hour later than I wanted to (14 month old twins always make getting out the door in a reasonable amount of time challenging) and got to the ranch right when my game movement calendar claimed the game was going to be moving (12:29 to 14:29). The wind was out of the south-southeast, so my plan was to drive to the south side of the woods and drop some hog slop (left over vegetable and fruit peals and cutting I've been saving up in a 10 gallon bucket for a while) down wind of the woods, then work the woods from the North end in a zig zag fashion towards the spot where I dropped the slop.
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As soon as we turned off the road into the East Pasture, I saw some movement along the tree line on the far end of the pasture. Sure enough, it was a couple of hawgs. I got my trusty M14 and Max out of the truck, slipped in through the gate, and angled to the East to get down wind of the hawgs. Once we were down wind and North of a big Pecan tree, I turned South and headed towards the hawgz, trying to keep the tree between me and them as much as possible.

Friggin' Max was so excited to be out of the truck and at the ranch that he started running back and forth and all around me. Luckily, the hawgs didn't notice him. I got up to the Pecan tree and used it to help steady my rifle while I sighted in the biggest of the two hawgs I could see. I put the cross hairs on his/her neck, slowly, I exhaled and squeezed the trigger. BANG! and no squeal. :( I looked back through my scope and saw the woods come alive with hogs all running flat out to get deeper into the woods and under cover. I thought about taking a shot at one of the flying pigs, but thought better of it.

Max and I then shlepped the rest of the way to the tree line and looked all around for bodies or blood. I was hoping that if maybe I got a solid neck shot that the hog might have dropped like a stone and been hidden by the under brush. No such luck. The ground was clear all around where the hogs had been rooting around except for the marks from their rooting. So, Max and I headed back to the truck to go back to Plan A.

On the way through the woods, driving South to head to the far South end to loop back around to where I wanted to drop the slop, we saw two of the hogs I'd spooked earlier running West by Northwest through the Mesquite and heading towards the center of the woods. We got out and looked around the dense brush we were driving through to see if any hogs were lying low, but found nothing. So, back in the truck for Plan A.

Once we got to where I wanted to drop the slop and spread out my load, we drove to the West fence line and drove North along the fence line as far as the terrain and mud would let me, then got out and continued to head North to the far side of the woods. Then we turned into the woods and headed East. Once we got to the big tank, we crossed the dry creek bed into the center portion of the woods and continued to work East a bit along the South side of the gully. Once we got to the center of the woods, we turned South and started to work our way slowly along the game trails back towards the South Pasture (overgrown with Mesquite and scrub Oak).

About halfway back to the South Pasture from the gully, I heard a loud grunt and some crashing in the underbrush of some deep brush to my right on the far side of a hog wallow. We tried to work our way around the North side of the brush and then back into it, but the hog was gone. We then continued on until we got to the South Pasture without seeing any hogs or any fresh hog sign. When we got to the pasture, there were not hogs on the slop, either. I was starting to feel like today was not going to be our lucky day.

We headed West a little bit, then went back into the woods and moved NW until we got back to the gully, then moved East along the gully again, but headed South a bit earlier this time and angled a bit more to the South East so that we ended up back in the South Pasture a little bit further to the East than we had previously. Still no hogs. I went and sat under a big Oak tree with a good view of the slop pile for a while and rested and waited to see if they might come to us.

After a few minutes, I checked my watch. It was 2:25. According to the game movement calendar, game would start looking to bed down soon. We got back up and heading NE back into the woods following the road that cuts through the woods from the little tank by the East Pasture. Once we got within sight of the little tank and I could see that there were not hogs there, we headed South back into the woods and then headed SW back towards the South Pasture again. Just shy of the pasture, I heard some motion off to my left. Max and I froze. I slowly creeped a bit that way until I could see the dark shape of a hog in some underbrush about 20 yards away. I raised up my rifle and looked through my scope, but the hog was too close and the under brush too dense. So I used my iron sights and tried to line up a good shot. The brush was so dense, though, I couldn't really make out the head of the hog, just it's body. So, I aimed at what I could see clearly and took the shot. Bang! no squeal. But then I saw two hog legs paw at the air. I ran up and saw that I'd hit a medium sized sow high in the mid-section and broken her back. I think I also must have hit an artery, because she was bleeding profusely. I used my Bowie knife to finish her off (stabbed through the heart from behind the shoulder and then slit her throat from just behind her ear).
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I dragged her out of the woods then Max and I shlepped back to get my truck to load up the hog and take her to where I butcher them. Loading her up into the back of my truck by myself was a bit challenging.
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Not a monster hog by any means, but still fairly good sized.
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Selfie:
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

#6

Post by Jumping Frog »

TEA wrote:Thanks. I'm just going to add to this thread rather than starting a new one.
Nice post, I enjoyed reading your story. :thumbs2:

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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

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Post by TomV »

Thanks for sharing.

I have found the solunar calendars to be more accurate with fish than with game.
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

#8

Post by TEA »

Thanks. My game movement calendar is an app I put on my phone that is supposed to be keyed to deer. So far, I've found it works better with hogs than deer.
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

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Post by The Annoyed Man »

What kind of ammo were you using?
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

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Post by TEA »

The Annoyed Man wrote:What kind of ammo were you using?
Remington's new Hog Hammer load - 168gr Barnes TSX bullet in .308. I usually use plane Jane Core-lokt, but haven't seen any on shelves since the great ammo shortage of 2012 started.
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

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Post by C-dub »

TEA wrote:
The Annoyed Man wrote:What kind of ammo were you using?
Remington's new Hog Hammer load - 168gr Barnes TSX bullet in .308. I usually use plane Jane Core-lokt, but haven't seen any on shelves since the great ammo shortage of 2012 started.
I've seen that Hog Hammer stuff on the shelves and wondered if it would be any better than any other HP or FMJ rounds. My issue would be that I would be using the .223 round instead of the .308. If I ever get a chance to get out with anyone to do this I might find out. It's just not high on my list of things to do yet.
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

#12

Post by TEA »

I've only shot three hogs with the Hog Hammer load so far, so my experience is somewhat limited. However, from what I've observed so far, it does drop them in their tracks as if they've been hit by a hammer. Not sure how much of that is from shot placement and how much was from the bullet, though. Two were from about 30yards away and one was a bit under 200yds (178yds using the ruler feature feature on Google Earth). The bullet passed through in all three hogs, so I wasn't able to recover and examine the bullet, and left a very impressive exit wound with a lot of tissue damage based on the profuse bleeding. I've had hogs that I've shot with Rem Core-Lokt or Win Ballistic Tip ammo run a ways before expiring even with good solid chest shots. I'd like to see someone do some ballistic gel tests with it. The only video on Youboob that I could find was a pretty low tech experiment that demonstrated less than stellar results.

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With .223 on hogs, I'd would think that you'd want to be relatively close to maximize terminal ballistics and limit yourself to hogs under 200lbs.
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

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Post by The Annoyed Man »

The TSX is a tough bullet, but several manufacturers offer a "TSX-like" loading in .308. I know that Hornady has the 165 grain GMX in an SST offering. I've read that the GMX is harder than the TSX, but with the SST load it is going a bit faster for caliber and so it still opens up nicely. However, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable shooting the SST out of an M1A/M14. I tried it when I had mine, and it shot OK, but with the increased velocity and higher pressures of the SST load, I always worried about bending the operating rod.

But lots of people hunt hogs with 168 grain match and knock them down just fine. It is a .308 after all, which is pretty much perfect hog medicine.

For hogs over 200 lb, it may just be better to call in an arty mission anyway. :lol:
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Re: Hog Hunting on My Father-In-Law's Land

#14

Post by CoolBreeze »

Nice hogs! :tiphat:
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