Another night vision hog hunt

[gstoneberg]

A good friend of mine contacted me early this week asking if I was interested in a quick hog hunt during the week (he's on vacation).  Of course I said sure.  He does a lot of you tube videos on his night vision hunts  and had been contacted by somebody with a hog/coyote problem on his deer lease.  Thursday night was the only chance we had so we left about 5pm after work and arrived at the lease about 7:30pm.  I'm sure Ed will be putting together a youtube video on the hunt, and took copious pictures.  I didn't take any.  We parked in the center of the big cut wheat field and set up looking different directions.  I had my trusty Remington 742 in .308 and Ed was shooting an AR in 7.62x39.  Both guns are topped with Pulsar Digisight night scopes.  We only saw a couple deer come in the field in the light, right befire dark.  After dark a few more deer came out along with a couple yotes which didn't give us shots.  We could hear hog squealing in the brush on the neighboring property but they didn't come out until after midnight.  The first sounder to come out was about a quarter mile away.  There were likely 20 or so in that group.  It was extremely dry and walking in the wheat stubble was like crunching egg shells.  We decided to wait and see if they'd feed our way.  About 20 minutes later a group of about 20 came out straight west of us and crossed at about 150 yards.  We waited until they were behind the only tree in the field and then stalked towards them.  Amazingly they didn't spook and we moved to about 60 yards or so from them.  We got set up and Ed counted 1-2-3-shoot.  Here's both our scope sight pictures at the shot.  Ed's first:



and mine:



Those of you that know hog anatomy realize that both those shots are too far back.  At the shot, the hogs scattered like quail.  I was so engrossed in trying to find the hog I'd shot at that I missed the opportunity to take more shots.  Ed got off several more rounds.  The hog we recovered and several more ran right at us before spooking and running off.  We're not really sure which pig we found, but I suspect it was Ed's.  The sow was about 150lbs and the only picture I have of her is this one with Ed and I.  Yes, Ed has the longest dreadlocks I've ever seen.  He's a youth pastor at his church.



That picture was taken about 2am. We quickly quartered her and pulled the loins without gutting her and headed for home.  I crawled into bed at 6:30 am, slept for a little bit and went to work at 9.  That was a long day.

Once Ed finishes the video I'll post it up.  I just finished processing the front quarters.  Will get to the rest here soon.

George

[mullet]

 I don't care how you get them, hunting pigs is always fun. Nice one.

[gstoneberg]

Thanks, I agree.  I'd always rather chase them with a bow, but out there in the big field there's no way.  If I have to use a gun, this night vision hunting is the coolest thing ever.

Here's the conclusion to a Texas hog hunt, 15lbs of ground pork ready for sausage and pork cutlets on the grill.




There's also 2 small and 2 large roasts for hams, 2 shoulder roasts for pulled pork and 5lbs of pork loin cutlets (well, 4 now).  I called a friend from church who's out of work and he's going to take most of it.  I'm glad.

George

[ken75]

George that looks like good clean fun

[neuse]

George that ground meat looks good.
Did you add some fat to it or is there that much fat on wild hogs?

[gstoneberg]

Thanks, it is fun.  And that is how much fat was on that sow.  Had I skinned and butchered her like I would've at the lease, I'd have had more fat off the belly.  Where they have grain like this wheat to eat, the pigs are very fat.  The only time I've seen a lean hog is when a sow has recently weaned her litter.  They can be in pretty poor shape then if the local food sources aren't doing well. 

Every pig in the area is hitting this particular wheat field.  I might go back and do another hunt this week to try and get more pigs before the farmer disks that field.  For awhile after the disking the hogs will keep coming to root in the dirt for wheat.  We were able to hunt because the farmer nearly tipped a tractor over in a hole the hogs had rooted in the field.  I wish we could have gotten more, it would have helped him.

George

[beetlebailey1977]

Nothing wrong with that......got to get them hogs with any means necessary.  Way to many of them around.

[gstoneberg]

Ed finished the video of our hunt, put our 2 digital recordings together.  Quite a few hogs together out in this huge cut wheat field.  This is the hog that provided the hams for my other thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaSnMVOTzk8

George

[iowabow]

Gstoneberg. Is there any way to hunt them during the day with a bow?   That was cool video thank you for posting it.

[gstoneberg]

Gstoneberg. Is there any way to hunt them during the day with a bow?

If they're coming out during the day and there's some cover you can.  There was no way in this field.  Here in Texas you can set up red LED lights aimed at your feeder and shoot them at night with a bow.  However, it is very hard to see where you hit in the dark unless you use a lighted nock.  Then, tracking a wounded hog in the dark is problematic.  I hate to say it, but I'll use a modern arrow and a lighted nock to shoot them at night and use a firearm on the recovery.  At my lease, the best chance you have is first thing in the morning at the blue feeder.  I tried it last time but they didn't come in.  To be honest, the largest hurdle to a morning hunt is fatigue.  We check the trail cams and then hunt when the hogs are coming in.  If they're coming out mostly in the 10pm to midnight timeframe it is hard to get up at 5am for a long shot hunt with the bow.

George

[iowabow]

Thanks for the reply.  I think it would be fun to take week and go on a hog hunt where they could be taken with a bow.  I think that would be a fun summer trip somewhere.  I read a little about GA and FL hunting but don't know enough about it yet. Your video was real interesting.  Did you ever figure out why the group spooked early in the video?

[gstoneberg]

There are places where you can spot and stalk them, and that would be fun.  However, most (not all) of those places are high fence where the pigs need to come to feeders for food.  Archery-only areas are going to have more daylight hogs as bowhunting them does not seem to modify their behavior as much.  Free range hogs are like free range deer.  If you could find an unhunted free range herd of hogs they would likely be out in daylight at least part of the time when temps were mild.  The minute they realize they're being hunted they will change their behavior.  Where I hunt I shot pigs in daylight the first couple times out.  Since then every successful hunt has been at night.

Hog sounders spook all the time.  They may have seen us move (the moon was very bright that night) or the wind might have swirled, who knows.  They only ran about 50 yards and we just moved with them, staying downwind.  At the point they spooked they were about 125 yards out.  We moved in to about 75 yards before we shot.  I'm surprised it worked, it was incredibly dry and noisy as we stalked.  One of the more fun hunts I've been on.  Wish I'd shot better.

Plan to come down and go after them between Feb and May next year.  That's my favorite time to hunt them.

George