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I've noticed feral hog hunting in Texas mentioned in a number of topics across the forum so I thought I would open a like topic here. Post your pictures, stories and info about the hunt to share with others!
On MarlinTalk and over a trade of Lee Loaders, a friendship developed between a fellow in NJ and myself. We had a number of things incommon and we often checked each other via email and telephone. We finally decided to hunt together and on the last weekend of January he traveled to South Texas to hunt feral hogs and javelina around my hometown.
This wasn't to be a big time outfitted hunt, just hunting like I normally participate in. On Friday morning we started off by driving from Cuero into Karnes County to hunt my 115 acres on the San Antonio River. Hogs and javilena aren't really morning critters and hunting from tower blinds all we saw where deer and lots of Rio Grande turkeys.
We went into Kenedy for breakfast tacos and then back to Cuero for an afternoon hunt on the Lost Creek Ranch. This is a 1000 acres of hog country where Lost Creek runs into the Big Sandy Creek and from there into the Guadalupe River. It is just west of my house on the edge of town but on the other side of the river. A good friend of mine, Joe, gave us access to the place.
We did some driving around to give Mark a lay of the land and then right at dark we split up and still hunted in opposite directions along the Big Sandy. We weren't apart five minutes and while I was standing on the edge of a ravine that leads to the creek, I heard a clue about the presence of some hogs. I heard a flight of morning doves leave the ravine I was along and then a mockingbird started to scold something. I quickly crossed the deep ravine and came up on the opposite side sitting down where a road parallels the creek. About two seconds later, I saw a large hog step out into the road and turn around. Sitting where I was I knew that I wouldn't have a good clear, steady shot so I crab crawled two quick moves into the middle of the trail. The hog reappeared immediately and from a braced sitting position the shot was off. I was shooting my Marlin 336D with the 180-grain Speer FN being pushed with 38.0-grains of H4895. I shot the big sow right through the heart at 100 yards! My GG has a 1.5 X 4.5 Bushnell Banner scope mounted on it.
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While I was field dressing the animal, I saw a number of hogs including a boar that probably would go 400#. He cross the trail, stopped and looked at me from only 20 yards! When you are hog hunting always pack about a 2.5' length of 4x4. It sure makes the gutting easier. Lay the animal on it's side and the 4X4 along it's back and roll the hog into the 4X4. The hog will lay perfectly on their back for field dressing. I didn't have my timber and there is nothing in the field in Texas that diameter so as I was trying to dress the hog it kept rolling back and forth. What a job when you have a bad shoulder!
We hunted Lost Creek the next morning and Mark didn't see anything. I hid from the wind and damp weather by sleeping with in the Jeep and my dog Sheila kept watch. She woke me up twice; once to look at four coyotes and then to checkout 10 feral hogs walking about 15 yards in front of the Jeep. Later that day we ventured back into Karnes County to another friends 1000 acre pasture to hunt javelina. While sitting in a tower blind, Mark shot this fine boar.
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This is what a typical tower stand might look like. The brush down here is thick and if you do any walking you are not going to see a thing... period. We use stands to watch over senderos... these are typically pipeline right-of-ways or siesmic lines.
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That's it for now... I will add more pictures as I continue to hunt through the Spring.
On MarlinTalk and over a trade of Lee Loaders, a friendship developed between a fellow in NJ and myself. We had a number of things incommon and we often checked each other via email and telephone. We finally decided to hunt together and on the last weekend of January he traveled to South Texas to hunt feral hogs and javelina around my hometown.
This wasn't to be a big time outfitted hunt, just hunting like I normally participate in. On Friday morning we started off by driving from Cuero into Karnes County to hunt my 115 acres on the San Antonio River. Hogs and javilena aren't really morning critters and hunting from tower blinds all we saw where deer and lots of Rio Grande turkeys.
We went into Kenedy for breakfast tacos and then back to Cuero for an afternoon hunt on the Lost Creek Ranch. This is a 1000 acres of hog country where Lost Creek runs into the Big Sandy Creek and from there into the Guadalupe River. It is just west of my house on the edge of town but on the other side of the river. A good friend of mine, Joe, gave us access to the place.
We did some driving around to give Mark a lay of the land and then right at dark we split up and still hunted in opposite directions along the Big Sandy. We weren't apart five minutes and while I was standing on the edge of a ravine that leads to the creek, I heard a clue about the presence of some hogs. I heard a flight of morning doves leave the ravine I was along and then a mockingbird started to scold something. I quickly crossed the deep ravine and came up on the opposite side sitting down where a road parallels the creek. About two seconds later, I saw a large hog step out into the road and turn around. Sitting where I was I knew that I wouldn't have a good clear, steady shot so I crab crawled two quick moves into the middle of the trail. The hog reappeared immediately and from a braced sitting position the shot was off. I was shooting my Marlin 336D with the 180-grain Speer FN being pushed with 38.0-grains of H4895. I shot the big sow right through the heart at 100 yards! My GG has a 1.5 X 4.5 Bushnell Banner scope mounted on it.
While I was field dressing the animal, I saw a number of hogs including a boar that probably would go 400#. He cross the trail, stopped and looked at me from only 20 yards! When you are hog hunting always pack about a 2.5' length of 4x4. It sure makes the gutting easier. Lay the animal on it's side and the 4X4 along it's back and roll the hog into the 4X4. The hog will lay perfectly on their back for field dressing. I didn't have my timber and there is nothing in the field in Texas that diameter so as I was trying to dress the hog it kept rolling back and forth. What a job when you have a bad shoulder!
We hunted Lost Creek the next morning and Mark didn't see anything. I hid from the wind and damp weather by sleeping with in the Jeep and my dog Sheila kept watch. She woke me up twice; once to look at four coyotes and then to checkout 10 feral hogs walking about 15 yards in front of the Jeep. Later that day we ventured back into Karnes County to another friends 1000 acre pasture to hunt javelina. While sitting in a tower blind, Mark shot this fine boar.
This is what a typical tower stand might look like. The brush down here is thick and if you do any walking you are not going to see a thing... period. We use stands to watch over senderos... these are typically pipeline right-of-ways or siesmic lines.
That's it for now... I will add more pictures as I continue to hunt through the Spring.
