It was all very promising. I have been having these small hogs show up at my place, apparently unaccompanied by any large sows, and they have been coming on and off for a couple of weeks. They were there yesterday morning and so I showed up last night with the hopes that they would return.
It was a beautiful night with a nice breeze out of the south. As such, I picked my north-most stand that is about 100 yards north of my north-most feeder. My stand backs up to the property line. Before anybody says anything about hunting property lines, I am on good terms with the neighbor. He has given me permission to chase down wounded hogs on his place, but not to actively hunt there. He knows about the stand and doesn't have a problem with it.
So there was a beautiful sunset. The storms bypassed my location and I could even see the thunderstorm over Wichita Falls from where I was in Forestburg (the image in the video is for Afalex1). So I was off to a good start. Then soon after it got dark, I spied my first significant animal and got everything adjusted while watching a big bobcat cross my field. I was set and ready! Optimism abounded.
Then virtually nothing for hours.
Finally a deer came in to the feeder and I was watching it with the thermal scope. As I watched, the deer suddenly took a distinct posture change and pivoted around to stare at the woods to the west and acted like it was about to run. Given the timing, I thought my hogs were coming in...and they were...only the deer was either confused or startled by something else. The hogs were behind me and directly down wind of me at that, only about 50 yards away - to the NORTH.
The first that I realized that they had shown up was when a big sow let loose three loud and long bellowed grunts followed by several shorter ones. This is basically the long grunt sounds I heard. Some of y'all probably know what I am talking about. It isn't a happy sound. Note that his is not my video and not the video from my hunt.
As I turned and could see the hog making all the noise, the whole group turned and started to run and it sounded like a small stampede. Unfortunately, they were all running away. They ran about 100 yards off and slowed down. By that time, I had my rifle on them and got the following video. There was more footage as I tried to get a good head count, but it was with the rifle tilted at odd angles like that of an old Batman TV show fight scene. I edited out that portion of the video. Anyway, the hogs did not return.
I picked the best spot on my place given what I knew about the hogs' previous behaviors and prevailing winds and it turned out to be the very worst place I could have been and the big sow let me know all about it. It wasn't good enough that she just guide all the hogs away. Nope. She had to be all mouthy about it. I can honestly say that it hurt my feelings.
It was a beautiful night with a nice breeze out of the south. As such, I picked my north-most stand that is about 100 yards north of my north-most feeder. My stand backs up to the property line. Before anybody says anything about hunting property lines, I am on good terms with the neighbor. He has given me permission to chase down wounded hogs on his place, but not to actively hunt there. He knows about the stand and doesn't have a problem with it.
So there was a beautiful sunset. The storms bypassed my location and I could even see the thunderstorm over Wichita Falls from where I was in Forestburg (the image in the video is for Afalex1). So I was off to a good start. Then soon after it got dark, I spied my first significant animal and got everything adjusted while watching a big bobcat cross my field. I was set and ready! Optimism abounded.
Then virtually nothing for hours.
Finally a deer came in to the feeder and I was watching it with the thermal scope. As I watched, the deer suddenly took a distinct posture change and pivoted around to stare at the woods to the west and acted like it was about to run. Given the timing, I thought my hogs were coming in...and they were...only the deer was either confused or startled by something else. The hogs were behind me and directly down wind of me at that, only about 50 yards away - to the NORTH.
The first that I realized that they had shown up was when a big sow let loose three loud and long bellowed grunts followed by several shorter ones. This is basically the long grunt sounds I heard. Some of y'all probably know what I am talking about. It isn't a happy sound. Note that his is not my video and not the video from my hunt.
As I turned and could see the hog making all the noise, the whole group turned and started to run and it sounded like a small stampede. Unfortunately, they were all running away. They ran about 100 yards off and slowed down. By that time, I had my rifle on them and got the following video. There was more footage as I tried to get a good head count, but it was with the rifle tilted at odd angles like that of an old Batman TV show fight scene. I edited out that portion of the video. Anyway, the hogs did not return.
I picked the best spot on my place given what I knew about the hogs' previous behaviors and prevailing winds and it turned out to be the very worst place I could have been and the big sow let me know all about it. It wasn't good enough that she just guide all the hogs away. Nope. She had to be all mouthy about it. I can honestly say that it hurt my feelings.
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