(Apr 27, 2000) I hog hunted for 2 hours this afternoon. No wild hogs showed up but I saw something definitely worth mentioning. Two bucks walked by and both of them had starter Antlers. They look like Button bucks, but of course they are not. And I managed to take a picture of one. Buck with starter antlers.
(April 26, 2000) Actually I've hunted the hogs 4 times since the 17th, but no hogs showed until this afternoon. I sat quietly in one of my tripods in the Hammer Hole and watched a group of small pigs flile by in the brush. They didn't make a sound. Not much later it started getting dark and I saw a hog cross the road as I headed back to my truck.
(April 17, 2000) I hadn't been at the Hammer Hole long before figuring out how the hogs have made me here, the tripod's seat is a padded boat seat and the vinyl is squeaking. Whenever I move the vinyl makes an audible squeak that I was not aware of when I was trying to take the wild hog pictures. I thought about changing stands but didn't want to disrupt the area. Good thing too, in minutes I heard the deep, extended grunt of a wild hog as it got closer. I spotted the dark legs moving toward my left shooting lane where I could take a picture. I got the camera focused and ready.
Nothing entered the opening ... I leaned forward (squeak) and searched the underbrush for the hog. Jaws popped loudly 7 yards away. Lately I've seen several big wild hogs. But there stood a totally enormous hog. (Splotches of brown, tan and black all spattered around on it.) It heard me move and stood there clopping it's jaws together. The tusks were really visible, too, they looked like the ones some taxidermist use that have the long plastic teeth. And it had a huge head -- cow size. Wow. Then it ran off. It was really big around; like a long, round barrel with legs. I tried to get the camera on it but no luck. I sat there in my tripod with my heart beating like a run away train. What a special day, just to see such a magnificent wild animal as this wild hog.
The sun dropped to the horizon and danced into the treetops. More hogs were coming. But this time they were on my right.
Two
black hogs walked out into my shooting lane. A larger one stopped in the
brush and I zoomed to it and clicked a picture. (I know it's not that
great a pic, but it is definitely smokin' hot off the press and this hog
is "the" key player.) Other hogs came up behind it. I let my camera
hang on it's lanyard and got my bow in my hand as the larger #3 hog entered
the opening. Hog sounds were all around in the brush now. I looked at my
pins to see if I could see them ok, all was well, but darkness would come
fast now. It was better to take a good shot right now than to risk a low
light shot at another hog in 5 or 10 minutes. I held on the #3 black hog,
it turned just a bit, perfect. And a perfect shot as well. The wild hogs
scattered and I followed the sound of my arrow clicking on brush, and crash,
the clicking stopped, the hog was down. Everything got quiet and soon it
was dark so I started out looking for it. In 10 yards I was in a tunnel
of brush too low and too thick to stand up in, crawling along on my hands
and knees, shining my flashlight on the ground that was literally chopped
to pieces from rooting, and suddenly I wised up. I've faced wild hogs eye
to eye before, but I was standing up, not crawling on all fours. I decided
to look for it in the morning when I can see...
(April 18, 2000) A little after daylight I drove to the Hammer Hole to recover the wild hog I had arrowed the night before. I believed the hog was down nearby and wanted to make a visual search for it before using the slower blood trailing method. First, I went to my tripod and got a straight line bead on the direction of the sound when the hog crashed down. Then I started in the brush. In the daylight I quickly found a trail heading in the right direction. In 25 yards I came out on the woods road I had used to come to the Hammer Hole.
There
were two trails entering the brush on the other side and both of them were
eat up with hog tracks. I started down the trail to the left and walked
along it for 40 yards. Nothing.
I looked for a place in the brush where I could cut over to the other trail, found one, and cut over. Again, nothing in sight. Because I was sure the hog had not gone far I turned right on the trail, toward the road. I ducked through a tunnel of low limbs and the hog was laying in the trail 15 yards away.
Picture time. I got my digital camera and camera tripod from my truck, set them up, cleaned up and propped the wild hog up so it looked nice and pressed the delay button on the camera. In ten seconds it took a pic of me behind the black wild hog. One of the cool things about the digital camera is you can preview your picture, so I did. A few pics later (my head was cut off, etc.) I had some pics I felt would work. And here we are...
I pulled the hog to the road and hauled it up to my tailgate. Next I loaded up my tripod with the squeaky seat (gonna replace it with a quiet plastic boat seat). Three other tripods are in the area so I moved the 10 foot one into a group of cedars so I can overlook the cross trails where I have been seeing the hogs most of the time. Ahhh, live is good, there'll be pork chops in my skillet tonight. And then there is the matter of that Splotchy hog with long tusks. We'll see if it comes to the dance this afternoon.
To the other wild hog hunts (pics & scouting) this year...