Arnold Galvan
Mckinney, Texas
My Son has been on leave and we were finally able to get him on his first hog hunt with the help of some very good friends and my cousin. I will always remember that weekend.
We were in west Texas and it was a cold weekend, but my Son was so happy get to face to face with some big hogs ( literally ). Another friend allowed my Son and I to demo some Yankee Hill suppressors on our ARs. For the weekend, they took one big sow and 7 of her pigletts. I say they because the one I hit in the butt, we could not recover.We arrived in West Texas on New Years Day, there was ice on the roads since it had been sleeting for a couple of days. We went out that night and drove around, but we only found some big jack rabbits for my Son to shoot at.
Friday morning we head out to Walmart and do some shopping and get back to the ranch and my cousin takes a look at the field with a couple of feeders and what do you know, there were hogs out at 11am. Ranch is across the rode so we pack up our firearms in a hurry and head back to the feeders but there is no hogs in sight. Drive up to the feeder and we see lots of hogs running through the brush, we all jump out and head into the brush. Mind you we were just at Walmart, so I am wearing my vans shoes no boots or anything like that. Ice is melting and starting to have mud on the ground. We get into the brush and there are the hogs and they starting to run, we are using electronic headsets so we could here the hogs. Our friend is in front with my son right behind him and in 20 yards, we run into a big boar and my Son wasn't ready. Brush is very tight and there are small shooting lanes in the trails the hogs created. Walk another 25 yards and my son is trying to walk up a little hill and there is a loud grunt, big sow comes out of the brush and right towards us, then stops and runs with about 15 pigletts and another 4 large hogs. No shot for my son, but damn that scared the hell out of us. There is a river bank to our left that has a drop off of about 10 feet and there is a thin layer of ice. We walk a little farther and that's when we hear a loud splash, the hogs jump in the river and broke the ice. We run to the edge of the river bank and see the large hogs already made it across, but there are five pigletts still in the water. My Son takes out two of them and then we get two more just as they crossed the river. First two sunk in the river and we had to find a place to cross to recover the other two. We walk along the bank for about 50 yards and find a crossing and make our way back to recover the two hogs. Well we end up getting a little separated and I am in front and run into the group of hogs again and I miss the first three hogs that were running, but I hit the last one in the rump. Not a great shot because we never found him. Recovered the two SMALL hogs and called it a day. Couldn't believe that we kept running into the group and they didn't just keep running out of the area. Go out late in the afternoon and my son sees a large buck in the middle of a field about 500 yards out and watch him run.
Saturday comes around and we decide to head back through the brush again and what do you know, large sow is standing about 10 yards behind the feeder. Our friend was about to take the shot but she is not running, just standing there looking at him. So they all got together and counted down and dropped the large sow. We walk up to her and figure out why she didn't run, she was caught with the snar they set up. The snar had her on the tip of her nose, can't believe it held. We walk into the brush and there is the group of hogs once again and they run right into the river and cross. Go to the crossing point in the river and we can hear the pigletts making noise close by. We fan out a little and those pigletts start to run and we take out another three. This time we didn't see the bigger hogs so they must have kept running. Decided to call it a day and had to get the four wheelers to recover the large sow, there was too much mud for the trucks and no way they would make it out of the field. No action on saturday night.
It was a great weekend and just glad my Son got to experience stalking hogs through the brush. The smile I saw on his face was all I needed to know that the weekend was a success. One thing I would have liked to have seen, was for a camera to have been facing them to see their face when that large sow came at them and then stopped. I saw my son unsafety is side arm an AR fast. Owner of the ranch removed the hams for my son and then cooked them over night so he could take them over to his Mom house.
Of course, I fogot about the LSB/************** contest. But that's okay, we had a great weekend.
My Son and I
We were in west Texas and it was a cold weekend, but my Son was so happy get to face to face with some big hogs ( literally ). Another friend allowed my Son and I to demo some Yankee Hill suppressors on our ARs. For the weekend, they took one big sow and 7 of her pigletts. I say they because the one I hit in the butt, we could not recover.We arrived in West Texas on New Years Day, there was ice on the roads since it had been sleeting for a couple of days. We went out that night and drove around, but we only found some big jack rabbits for my Son to shoot at.
Friday morning we head out to Walmart and do some shopping and get back to the ranch and my cousin takes a look at the field with a couple of feeders and what do you know, there were hogs out at 11am. Ranch is across the rode so we pack up our firearms in a hurry and head back to the feeders but there is no hogs in sight. Drive up to the feeder and we see lots of hogs running through the brush, we all jump out and head into the brush. Mind you we were just at Walmart, so I am wearing my vans shoes no boots or anything like that. Ice is melting and starting to have mud on the ground. We get into the brush and there are the hogs and they starting to run, we are using electronic headsets so we could here the hogs. Our friend is in front with my son right behind him and in 20 yards, we run into a big boar and my Son wasn't ready. Brush is very tight and there are small shooting lanes in the trails the hogs created. Walk another 25 yards and my son is trying to walk up a little hill and there is a loud grunt, big sow comes out of the brush and right towards us, then stops and runs with about 15 pigletts and another 4 large hogs. No shot for my son, but damn that scared the hell out of us. There is a river bank to our left that has a drop off of about 10 feet and there is a thin layer of ice. We walk a little farther and that's when we hear a loud splash, the hogs jump in the river and broke the ice. We run to the edge of the river bank and see the large hogs already made it across, but there are five pigletts still in the water. My Son takes out two of them and then we get two more just as they crossed the river. First two sunk in the river and we had to find a place to cross to recover the other two. We walk along the bank for about 50 yards and find a crossing and make our way back to recover the two hogs. Well we end up getting a little separated and I am in front and run into the group of hogs again and I miss the first three hogs that were running, but I hit the last one in the rump. Not a great shot because we never found him. Recovered the two SMALL hogs and called it a day. Couldn't believe that we kept running into the group and they didn't just keep running out of the area. Go out late in the afternoon and my son sees a large buck in the middle of a field about 500 yards out and watch him run.
Saturday comes around and we decide to head back through the brush again and what do you know, large sow is standing about 10 yards behind the feeder. Our friend was about to take the shot but she is not running, just standing there looking at him. So they all got together and counted down and dropped the large sow. We walk up to her and figure out why she didn't run, she was caught with the snar they set up. The snar had her on the tip of her nose, can't believe it held. We walk into the brush and there is the group of hogs once again and they run right into the river and cross. Go to the crossing point in the river and we can hear the pigletts making noise close by. We fan out a little and those pigletts start to run and we take out another three. This time we didn't see the bigger hogs so they must have kept running. Decided to call it a day and had to get the four wheelers to recover the large sow, there was too much mud for the trucks and no way they would make it out of the field. No action on saturday night.
It was a great weekend and just glad my Son got to experience stalking hogs through the brush. The smile I saw on his face was all I needed to know that the weekend was a success. One thing I would have liked to have seen, was for a camera to have been facing them to see their face when that large sow came at them and then stopped. I saw my son unsafety is side arm an AR fast. Owner of the ranch removed the hams for my son and then cooked them over night so he could take them over to his Mom house.
Of course, I fogot about the LSB/************** contest. But that's okay, we had a great weekend.
My Son and I
If it wasn't for my Son loading up all of our pistol and rifle mags, we would have needed to buy ammo at Walmart. Good thing that small town Walmart carries 6.8 ammo. LOL
