I went out again this past weekend with by friend across the street from my place. We got set up in the blind about thirty minutes before dark. We hadn't been there five minutes when three large sows came out about 120 yards down the pipeline. Mind you he calls this a pipeline, but its only five yards wide with very thick brush on both sides. The hogs were past the feeder and he told me to wait until they came in. Well you know what happened they went back into the brush, never to be seen again.
Fast forward a whole five more minutes and six fifty to sixty pound hogs came right out to the feeder from the opposite direction of the first group. Again he tells me to hold off for the bigger hogs to come in. Again these went back into the brush never to be seen again. At this point I tell him I'm not used to seeing hogs and not shooting them. We got a good laugh and I almost threw him out of the stand.
A short time later I see movement where the first group came out. Several football pigs were running across the road to the first group which I assumed are still there. Still no visible hogs.
Right at dark I tell him I'm going to check the field next to the blind. It's only ten yards away, but you can't see it due to the brush. I climb down and walk to the fence. Out with a bunch of cows are about twenty hogs of all sizes. We cant shoot on this place, but I still wanted him to see them. He comes down and we watch the hogs for a while. Then we climb back up into the stand and put on the NV. After all of this activity I'm sure we are going to score. Two hours later, Nada.
He decides to go check the area where I killed the 262 pounder the week before. We park the UTV about 100 yards away and start our sneak in. We round the corner of a trail and two fairly large hogs are feeding twenty yards in front us, but directly in line with a residence. Now we are stuck. The wind is to our backs and I know we are about to get busted. From out of the brush to the right a very large hog comes blasting out making the racket you don't want to hear that close at night. He has winded us and is pissed off. My buddy gets upset when they are that close to him. The hog does not know exactly where we are at and comes to stop ten yards from us in some brush. My buddy can see him and puts one in him using his visible laser. At the shot the woods explode and hogs are running everywhere. The big boy comes out at a dead run and I did a point and shoot. My ITAL had malfunctioned earlier and would not come on. I could hear the pop thud and see him slightly move from the impact of the bullet. He ran off in some very tall grass and I'm not going in there until the morning.
The next morning I went back on the four wheeler and did a grid search of the pasture. No hog was found. We will see what the buzzards find for us.
Morale of this story: A hog in the hand is better than the fifty or sixty we saw in the brush.
Fast forward a whole five more minutes and six fifty to sixty pound hogs came right out to the feeder from the opposite direction of the first group. Again he tells me to hold off for the bigger hogs to come in. Again these went back into the brush never to be seen again. At this point I tell him I'm not used to seeing hogs and not shooting them. We got a good laugh and I almost threw him out of the stand.
A short time later I see movement where the first group came out. Several football pigs were running across the road to the first group which I assumed are still there. Still no visible hogs.
Right at dark I tell him I'm going to check the field next to the blind. It's only ten yards away, but you can't see it due to the brush. I climb down and walk to the fence. Out with a bunch of cows are about twenty hogs of all sizes. We cant shoot on this place, but I still wanted him to see them. He comes down and we watch the hogs for a while. Then we climb back up into the stand and put on the NV. After all of this activity I'm sure we are going to score. Two hours later, Nada.
He decides to go check the area where I killed the 262 pounder the week before. We park the UTV about 100 yards away and start our sneak in. We round the corner of a trail and two fairly large hogs are feeding twenty yards in front us, but directly in line with a residence. Now we are stuck. The wind is to our backs and I know we are about to get busted. From out of the brush to the right a very large hog comes blasting out making the racket you don't want to hear that close at night. He has winded us and is pissed off. My buddy gets upset when they are that close to him. The hog does not know exactly where we are at and comes to stop ten yards from us in some brush. My buddy can see him and puts one in him using his visible laser. At the shot the woods explode and hogs are running everywhere. The big boy comes out at a dead run and I did a point and shoot. My ITAL had malfunctioned earlier and would not come on. I could hear the pop thud and see him slightly move from the impact of the bullet. He ran off in some very tall grass and I'm not going in there until the morning.
The next morning I went back on the four wheeler and did a grid search of the pasture. No hog was found. We will see what the buzzards find for us.
Morale of this story: A hog in the hand is better than the fifty or sixty we saw in the brush.