Just so you know that I don't just write about the good times... I missed a fine hog this evening. A group of boars walked past my stand and I missed a 60-yard shot at a 285 to 300 pound hog. I was shooting without a rest and jerked the trigger. The bullet went under it, just aft of the front legs and smacked a pecan tree right at the base of the tree. That 300-grain WFN BTB is now part of the tree.

This afternoon I fed a mile of road back into the place with a tailgate feeder. This road is really just tire tracks through the weeds. I was walking out very slowly in the dark and as I passed through a spot that has dove weed up to my arm pits I literally bumped into a hog that was eating corn. There was zero visability with the weeds and darkness. The hog backed up about 10' and was really growling. I just stood my ground and it turned and walked off. It was black & white MikeG and pretty close to where you saw that one. I went another 25 yards and almost stepped on a small pig that was laying on the ground! It got pissed off too and started growling at me. It shadowed me all the way to the Jeep. Interesting evening!

Michael

Sounds like the same one. We can fix that next week :)

Growling pigs??? :confused:

Man, what with them things being so hairy and big and all, growling and shadowing you back to the truck - you sure they ain't crossed with a griz somewhere along the line, RD??

Yeap kdub... these pigs of the coastal plain are mean, tough and agressive. Down here, they've spent the last 300 to 400 years learning to be the King of the woods. They fear nothing in the woods and all the critters fear them. Because of that fear some critter will just about always announce their presence. One of the funny sights is when hunting a bottom where the weeds and brush are as tall as a human you will see racoons scurring up tree trunks ahead of them!

It is really an awesome sight to see animals like the sounder that came in last night. I was sitting against that pecan tree waiting for the fireflies to show so I could get down. I was looking straight down and saw a racoon shoot up the trunk of the tree right past me. Kind of startled me! I realized the woods had gotten deathly still and started watching. Without a sound, these boars came racing in. There was over a dozen of them and the smallest hog was still in the 125 to 130 pound range. They circled the feeder and then worked back towards it. Their behavior is always very agressive towards each other and anything they encounter.

I did see something I've never seen before but have heard often. Right at dark you will often hear a hog "growl - moan". It's a hair raising sound that echoes across the brush and makes you think about what's really out there. One of the boars made this sound and it really shook the bottom. He kind of squatted down on his haunches with his front legs fully extended and his snout up in the air. The line of his back was at almost a perfect 45 degree angle out to the tip of his nose. He bellowed that noise out across the bottom until he was out of breath. I noticed he totally deflated his lungs because you could really see his ribs. He was very satisfied with the noise he made, you could see that written all over him.

MikeG... we are on for next week. I will email you more details. Mrs. Ranch Dog will be away at a business meeting so it is just us, the dog, and the hogs!

Michael

Sounds like a job for the .458 :D :D :D