Rossi Rifleman

Had a bunch of hogs tearing the hell out of my cattle pens this evening, #6 this year and second with the 454 Casull.
Was getting ready to go to bed, looked down the road leading to my house with a spotlight and there was another large hog walking towards my yard. "Night of the Living Dead" feeling here...

Yikes! It's all fun and games until they start stealing the beer from your garage fridge.

I actually was out hunting a stretch of bottom near the highway where hogs stage on my place to move across the road into a improved pasture at night, hoping to tear it up in search of onions. My friend was coming up the highway, and saw the hogs, and sent me a text message. I texted back that I was moving towards them and told him to pull into my next gate and work back to me knowing that he always has a "hog gun" with him and that he would be willing to chase them. I took off at a run towards the pens which where about 300 yards away. When I got there, I looked around the pens inside and out, but it was quite as a mouse. I moved around a bit and could see Joe's pickup about 300 yards down the appropriate sendero so just stayed put. Soon I heard the feeding "beeping" that a sounder of hogs makes so I went back into the pens. As soon as I got in, they where slipping through the fences going back to work at what they were doing. There was a beautiful appaloosa hog standing right at my gate but to shoot him would have put the bullet out the other side and across the highway. This sow was standing almost vertical on a mound of dirt that had been dozed back, tail high, affording a perfect backstop but an unusual shot angle. You can see the point of entry on her shoulder, the 454 and that .325" meplat is cutting quite a hole!

As soon as I shot her, I ran back down the hill to the bottom where I was originally and ran smack into another sounder of large hogs waiting to cross the highway. Think goodness I smelt them before I bumped into them. By then it was pitch dark and the bottom affords no background for contrast when shooting. I had left all my stuff sitting on the ground so I worked around them in the darkness to my pack which was quite interesting. I pulled a flashlight out of my pack with the red LED that I bought for this type of situation and held it on the hogs while holding it against the forearm. Well, it didn't illuminate anything; black night, black background, and black hogs equals nothing. I tossed it to the side and dug back through my pack and got a real flashlight then started easing closer to them. At about 20 to 25 yards I could make them out but still not enough to shoot. I figured this was close enough as these hogs where as big as they get around here and you can never be sure how they will react. I turned on the light, put the crosshairs on the eye of one and shot. They did what big hogs do in dense cover, they started to look for me as they are not sure what happened or which way to move. I had one large hog get with 3 to 4 yards of me but I still could not see it well enough to shoot. It was really dark in that bottom. Once they moved off I looked for blood from the one I shot at and could not find anything. In the heat of the moment and given the distance, I think I shot high. Oh well, plenty of other opportunities for sure.

Never watched one of those zombie shows but your story certainly sounds like an episode from one.

I miss those hunts, but not the hogs, I have only seen a few around my place but havent seen any damage to my property yet. Thankfully (for me at least) there is a lot of farm land around my place so I think that keeps them busy. Let me know if they get too bad around there and you need a helping hand. Im only a few hours away, which as you know is around the corner in Texas.

Just curious. I come from the Pacific Northwest where, to my knowledge, we don't have this wild hog problem. What's the meat like if you do kill one? Worth butchering?

Clarkie46 wrote:Just curious. I come from the Pacific Northwest where, to my knowledge, we don't have this wild hog problem. What's the meat like if you do kill one? Worth butchering?

Oh yeah, my freezer remains full. I like it over whitetail.

Ranch Dog wrote:Had a bunch of hogs tearing the hell out of my cattle pens this evening, #6 this year and second with the 454 Casull.

hog_130213_03.jpg

Was getting ready to go to bed, looked down the road leading to my house with a spotlight and there was another large hog walking towards my yard. "Night of the Living Dead" feeling here...

Doesn't look like this enterprising little "Arnold Ziffel" left much of a blood trail either.