What a fricking pain! This is down in Bosque County. This is the only major ag source for quite some distance. Everything else seems to be normal hay fields or unplanted. Several trails into this field from all directions. The problem is that most directions are unsafe to shoot because of housing. This was further complicated by the fact that the oats were too tall, that it was hard to see much from ground level. Our observation area was up on a hill, but unsafe direction to shoot. Getting to the hogs meant a long stalk of over 700 yards and there is no quiet way to walk through high oats. Even worse was that we had a full moon.
Once we left the back of the truck, we did not see the hogs again until we were within 200 yards. They knew we were there and as we advanced, they moved away. The closest we got was about 150 yards and could only see parts of the hogs at the time, and really only the bigger ones. There were lots of unseen piglets.
The vid shows two hogs go down. The Hessian says he downed his hog. We had trouble finding squat. The high oats tangled in our boots, blocked our views, and there were all sorts of low spots in the field as well. We finally found this sow (mine), left gear with her, and continued our search, only to lose the sow and gear. When we found her, we stuck a light on her, LOL.
Got a call today of buzzards in the field. So there are one or more hogs down that we did not find.
The next hog was great. We were leaving the property. I told the Hessian to keep his rifle as we may need it. He unloaded it. I told him to load it again because we may need it. He looked at me funny. We drove all of 75 yards before I stopped and told him there was a big old boar out in the field. We hopped the fence and moved to a safe shooting direction. The shot was his and he nailed it.
The landowner was pleased.
Takeways...Hunting high oats sucks. It is hard to spot animals in high oats. It is hard to get to animals far away in high oats. It is hard to locate downed animals in high oats. It is horrible to drag out animals from high oats, especially big hogs.
We had a great time!
