slim_shady
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2017 has been very good for me, & last night was the kind of hunt we all hope for. Lots of pigs and action that is over with in 30 seconds.
Back in June I got the call from the neighboring corn farmer. He got the call from his trapper, the pigs have started hitting the young corn fields, at the time waist high. With most of the neighboring property's being pastures or large wooded areas right on the Colorado river, there has been no shortage of hogs since I started hunting them.
This year I placed a 16' tripod stand some 5oo yards north of the river on the fence line between the hay and corn fields. This so far has been my best investment this season. Many times I was able to spot hogs crossing the hay fields, and a few times was able to take hogs in the mature corn field. The damage was enough in spots I was able to see out as much as 150 yards into the corn, and identify hogs from the deer who also frequent the area at night.
The long awaited harvest was weeks ago. With several different spots hit on the 600 or so acre farm, there was plenty of corn on the ground. I knew all the different sounders and lone boars would continue to return night after night.
For several weeks with the temps in the high 90's to 100's I've opted for early Sunday morning hunts for the most part & have gotten lucky every weekend. However, having hit them hard for weeks in a row after 4 am, and several times up to 11 pm, movement slowed down during those times. This weekend I opted for a stay up as late as possible hunt, and my goal was 2 am. I've never been one to getup at 6 m-f then stay up late fri and sat night.
For the last 3 weeks I saw sign of 3 different sounders crossing in 3 different spots 800 or so yards apart. With the hay field cut and bailed last week, I knew they would be easy to spot, and the action would be fast. Brian from the San Marcos lease was at the gate just after 8, and we were both suited up and in the Polaris by 8:30. The plan was to head to and start from the new tripod stand, and go from there. I made the normal spot checks along the way, but nothing had popped out yet as it had just got dark.
Once down to the tripod, I spotted something along the fence line 300 yards south. It appeared to be a lone boar so we started our first stalk of the night. Within seconds he disappeared into the tree line near the river. We continued to the spot, and once there Brian climbed up into my 12' deer stand to get a look into the corn field. Nothing. Back to the Polaris.
Next we elected to back track in the corn fields to a spot we had seen a large sounder on the last hunt 5 weeks back. While stopped to make a spot check on the way, my phone dinged with a text from my Covert camera on another property 10 miles away. A 125 ish lone boar who had hit the feeder 5 nights in a row. The night before he bonked around the feeder for 5 hours. I looked at Brian and asked if he wanted to pack up and head over there to get him? "Yes"
We took our time getting back to the truck, spot checking along the way. Once in the truck it didn't take long to get to the other place, and we drove within 500 yards of the feeder before we began our approach on foot. This hay field however had not been cut, and has several patches of Johnson grass that is between 5' & 6' tall. I knew it would help with the approach, but could also hurt, not having much of any visibility up until we got inside of 25 yards to the feeder. Just inside 40 yards I told Brian to take the lead, setup and take a shot when he was in position.
I held back 15 ft or so to reduce the noise of our approach, and looked up to Brian on his Tripod and seeing the muzzle flash of his 270 to our left 90 deg away from the feeder. And then the thud of his 150 gr sp hit my ears, and the sound of the lone boar crashing through the tall Johnson grass. It only took a min to find his trail in the heavy dew, and Brian spotted blood.
The boar made it 50 yards in the tall grass. We never would have had a chance to find him without the dew on the ground. Pictures, get the truck, drag him to the edge of the hay field, pack up and head back to the river place.
Its now just after midnight, we are in the Polaris and making the trek back to the tripod stand, this time partially through the corn fields. Once at the crossing point into the corn field, I stop to take a look, sure enough sounder #1 who hits the most northern spot between the 3 groups. This sounder is all 80 pounders, 6 to 8 members strong. We approach, a few cross in and out of the hay field 2 times. We waited for a few min, the 3 that were out started to go back into the corn fields with weeds now 3' tall and would disappear instantly.
This time I count, shoot on Zero. 3,2,1 , once on 0 I was just off target but we both pulled the trigger at the same time. We both shot a few more times. Brian said he heard 2 thuds. But nothing on the ground, and didn't see anything standing on top of the Polaris in the weeds. I'll check back later today for buzzards.
It took another hour to make it back to the tripod deer stand, spot checking along the way in the corn fields. Once at the stand, I decided to climb in to get a good look around. It wasn't 5 min, and I spotted movement near the river just on the other side of the hay field in the other neighbors property. Oh Oh, its sounder #2 or #3. Sounder #3 crosses about 20 yards of the spot I was seeing movement. Nothing, Nothing. Still in tall grass, they should have been out and into the hay field by now. Scan, scan, scan, wait 400 yards north just on the other side of the fence, more movement, yep its group #2 "Brian turn the Polaris around we need to move". Sounder #2 crosses the hay field about 700 yards north of the river, to a spot in the corn/hay field 300 yards north of our position. We had to get moving.
Once in the Polaris, I knew we had to get going, but didn't want to make too much noise, so I elected to keep the speed down. Once I turned off the key, I flipped on the thermal while moving around the back of the Polaris, and grabbed the tripod out of the back to get a quick peak to see if they had began to cross.
The sounder was in the native pecans just north of the old farm house 200 yards away. Between the old house, and the neighbors property we nearly had 90 deg of open shooting. They were milling around the pecans a bit, but a few were moving towards us, then they shifted moving towards our right. We staked sideways strait south while watching there approach to us. In hindsight we should have stood put at the Polaris, and just let them pass in between us and the old farm house to another wide open shooting lane.
We moved a little, they moved a little. Brian says "I'm going to take the lead sow" All of a sudden I realize directly behind her 300 yards away is a 500 gallon propane tank and a big block 454 that runs one of the wells for irrigation. I blurt out "Do you see the 500 gal propane tank?" Brian says, "they can hear you", I say "Can you see the 500 gallon Propane tank?" He never did, but said yes. Thankfully at this point the lead sow did hear me, stopped turned around and started to move left, the rest followed. Once they were moving in a safe direction and no longer in line with the propane tank I said OK.
Its at this point I'm now very sad I didn't hit the button for the DVR. It was Brian's turn to shoot first, I hear click, and pull the trigger myself. HWG! Brian is on my left, the hogs are running left. This is a case where its more fun to hunt with someone, but more difficult considering you have to attempt to stay aware of the positions of other shooters. It didn't take but a few seconds to ring off 7 or 8 rounds watching 2 drop. All of a sudden I hear a rumble on my left, and Brian shuffling around. Boom, on my left and behind. I flip up another boom, and am back down on the tripod to see a large sow come to a skidding stop, and a bunch more 10 yards away moving from right to my left. MAG DUMP!
I heard a few more "thuds" but only one more hog was on the ground in front of us 20 give or take ft away. A total of 4 were on the ground. We drove around to the corn field to see if any had dropped on the other side of the fence, but the weeds are too high to easily see anything.
By the time we drug them off, took pictures, & drove back to the barn it was 3 am. One of the best late night hunts to date!
Back in June I got the call from the neighboring corn farmer. He got the call from his trapper, the pigs have started hitting the young corn fields, at the time waist high. With most of the neighboring property's being pastures or large wooded areas right on the Colorado river, there has been no shortage of hogs since I started hunting them.
This year I placed a 16' tripod stand some 5oo yards north of the river on the fence line between the hay and corn fields. This so far has been my best investment this season. Many times I was able to spot hogs crossing the hay fields, and a few times was able to take hogs in the mature corn field. The damage was enough in spots I was able to see out as much as 150 yards into the corn, and identify hogs from the deer who also frequent the area at night.
The long awaited harvest was weeks ago. With several different spots hit on the 600 or so acre farm, there was plenty of corn on the ground. I knew all the different sounders and lone boars would continue to return night after night.
For several weeks with the temps in the high 90's to 100's I've opted for early Sunday morning hunts for the most part & have gotten lucky every weekend. However, having hit them hard for weeks in a row after 4 am, and several times up to 11 pm, movement slowed down during those times. This weekend I opted for a stay up as late as possible hunt, and my goal was 2 am. I've never been one to getup at 6 m-f then stay up late fri and sat night.
For the last 3 weeks I saw sign of 3 different sounders crossing in 3 different spots 800 or so yards apart. With the hay field cut and bailed last week, I knew they would be easy to spot, and the action would be fast. Brian from the San Marcos lease was at the gate just after 8, and we were both suited up and in the Polaris by 8:30. The plan was to head to and start from the new tripod stand, and go from there. I made the normal spot checks along the way, but nothing had popped out yet as it had just got dark.
Once down to the tripod, I spotted something along the fence line 300 yards south. It appeared to be a lone boar so we started our first stalk of the night. Within seconds he disappeared into the tree line near the river. We continued to the spot, and once there Brian climbed up into my 12' deer stand to get a look into the corn field. Nothing. Back to the Polaris.
Next we elected to back track in the corn fields to a spot we had seen a large sounder on the last hunt 5 weeks back. While stopped to make a spot check on the way, my phone dinged with a text from my Covert camera on another property 10 miles away. A 125 ish lone boar who had hit the feeder 5 nights in a row. The night before he bonked around the feeder for 5 hours. I looked at Brian and asked if he wanted to pack up and head over there to get him? "Yes"
We took our time getting back to the truck, spot checking along the way. Once in the truck it didn't take long to get to the other place, and we drove within 500 yards of the feeder before we began our approach on foot. This hay field however had not been cut, and has several patches of Johnson grass that is between 5' & 6' tall. I knew it would help with the approach, but could also hurt, not having much of any visibility up until we got inside of 25 yards to the feeder. Just inside 40 yards I told Brian to take the lead, setup and take a shot when he was in position.
I held back 15 ft or so to reduce the noise of our approach, and looked up to Brian on his Tripod and seeing the muzzle flash of his 270 to our left 90 deg away from the feeder. And then the thud of his 150 gr sp hit my ears, and the sound of the lone boar crashing through the tall Johnson grass. It only took a min to find his trail in the heavy dew, and Brian spotted blood.
The boar made it 50 yards in the tall grass. We never would have had a chance to find him without the dew on the ground. Pictures, get the truck, drag him to the edge of the hay field, pack up and head back to the river place.
Its now just after midnight, we are in the Polaris and making the trek back to the tripod stand, this time partially through the corn fields. Once at the crossing point into the corn field, I stop to take a look, sure enough sounder #1 who hits the most northern spot between the 3 groups. This sounder is all 80 pounders, 6 to 8 members strong. We approach, a few cross in and out of the hay field 2 times. We waited for a few min, the 3 that were out started to go back into the corn fields with weeds now 3' tall and would disappear instantly.
This time I count, shoot on Zero. 3,2,1 , once on 0 I was just off target but we both pulled the trigger at the same time. We both shot a few more times. Brian said he heard 2 thuds. But nothing on the ground, and didn't see anything standing on top of the Polaris in the weeds. I'll check back later today for buzzards.
It took another hour to make it back to the tripod deer stand, spot checking along the way in the corn fields. Once at the stand, I decided to climb in to get a good look around. It wasn't 5 min, and I spotted movement near the river just on the other side of the hay field in the other neighbors property. Oh Oh, its sounder #2 or #3. Sounder #3 crosses about 20 yards of the spot I was seeing movement. Nothing, Nothing. Still in tall grass, they should have been out and into the hay field by now. Scan, scan, scan, wait 400 yards north just on the other side of the fence, more movement, yep its group #2 "Brian turn the Polaris around we need to move". Sounder #2 crosses the hay field about 700 yards north of the river, to a spot in the corn/hay field 300 yards north of our position. We had to get moving.
Once in the Polaris, I knew we had to get going, but didn't want to make too much noise, so I elected to keep the speed down. Once I turned off the key, I flipped on the thermal while moving around the back of the Polaris, and grabbed the tripod out of the back to get a quick peak to see if they had began to cross.
The sounder was in the native pecans just north of the old farm house 200 yards away. Between the old house, and the neighbors property we nearly had 90 deg of open shooting. They were milling around the pecans a bit, but a few were moving towards us, then they shifted moving towards our right. We staked sideways strait south while watching there approach to us. In hindsight we should have stood put at the Polaris, and just let them pass in between us and the old farm house to another wide open shooting lane.
We moved a little, they moved a little. Brian says "I'm going to take the lead sow" All of a sudden I realize directly behind her 300 yards away is a 500 gallon propane tank and a big block 454 that runs one of the wells for irrigation. I blurt out "Do you see the 500 gal propane tank?" Brian says, "they can hear you", I say "Can you see the 500 gallon Propane tank?" He never did, but said yes. Thankfully at this point the lead sow did hear me, stopped turned around and started to move left, the rest followed. Once they were moving in a safe direction and no longer in line with the propane tank I said OK.
Its at this point I'm now very sad I didn't hit the button for the DVR. It was Brian's turn to shoot first, I hear click, and pull the trigger myself. HWG! Brian is on my left, the hogs are running left. This is a case where its more fun to hunt with someone, but more difficult considering you have to attempt to stay aware of the positions of other shooters. It didn't take but a few seconds to ring off 7 or 8 rounds watching 2 drop. All of a sudden I hear a rumble on my left, and Brian shuffling around. Boom, on my left and behind. I flip up another boom, and am back down on the tripod to see a large sow come to a skidding stop, and a bunch more 10 yards away moving from right to my left. MAG DUMP!
I heard a few more "thuds" but only one more hog was on the ground in front of us 20 give or take ft away. A total of 4 were on the ground. We drove around to the corn field to see if any had dropped on the other side of the fence, but the weeds are too high to easily see anything.
By the time we drug them off, took pictures, & drove back to the barn it was 3 am. One of the best late night hunts to date!
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