So gang ever have one of those moments where you could push the undo button or slap yourself in the back of the head and say "I could have had a V8"!
Well here's mine. I was hunting out at the ranch in Santo TX two weeks ago. I had killed a nice 9-point on my evening hunt. I decided around 11:00 PM to go for a night hog hunt. Took off on my 4-wheeler and 10 minutes later was parked and put a round into my .243 win Model 70 featherweight with 4.5 – 14 x32MM Burris short mag scope. On top of my scope I have a green laser genetics spot light. With my scope dialed all the way down to 4.5 I started down the dirt road. It was in the mid 30’s and dead calm outside and I mean calm. I had traveled about 250 yards and crossed the deep ravine/dried creek on my way to the stand. I came up the up other side of the ravine and could hear lots of animals walking and milling around just inside the wood line. I shined my laser to see if I could see anything. It’s very dense with briars and brush and the green laser light reflected off of everything right back into my eyes. I even tried my surefire flashlight with red lense and still couldn't see anything.
I traveled another 50 yards or so and whatever was in the woods was still paralleling me. I couldn’t tell if they were hogs or cows. I walked ahead for another 25 - 30 yards and I found an animal trail leading into the woods and quietly walked in. I shined the laser a couple of times but it was still too thick to see. I was in the woods about 40 yards or so from the dirt road and finally found a spot where I could shine the light between trees for about 30 yards or so. I was standing next to a small 4” diameter tree and stood quietly in the pitch dark for a 3 or 4 minutes listening the animals moving around and headed my way. It didn’t take long until I was completely surrounded by the animals and some were just mere yards away.
I flipped the laser on as I heard something walking very close to me and what should have been almost right in front of me. With the laser on I saw nothing. Finally I caught movement, I had a hog snout sticking out from behind a tree just 10’ (yes feet) away just to my left. I moved the laser to the right off of the hog and heard him take another couple steps. I moved the laser back and it was a very large white and black spotted hog standing broad side just 10' away. I've got to say that's the closest I've ever gotten to a live wild hog while standing on the same ground. I lifted my rifle but at 10’ the hog was just a blurrish blob in my 4.5 power scope. I lowered my rifle to make sure I was aiming at his head, put the crosshairs back on blob and made an almost tragic mistake. This was that very moment where I wish I could hit undo button or could of have had a V8! I pulled the trigger! The gun went bang, huge flash of light from the end of the barrel and the very moment all holy heck broke loose and there was just absolute total chaos happening! I had hogs running every which way and bunch of them right past me just a few feet away in just about every direction. The hog I shot, hit the ground and in a blink of an eye was back on his feet and blew past me like a freight train just 4’ away just on the other side of little tree I was standing next to. I hugged that little tree for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only 10 or 15 seconds of pure holy cow what on earth did you just do! Finally the woods quieted down and hogs began to move off. I said to myself, "well that didn't go according to plan dummy, HERE'S YOUR SIGN"!
I search for my hog for about 10 minutes and decided it was nuts to do this in the pitch dark. I went back to the camper, heart racing, adrenaline still pumping and tried to go to sleep. BTW, my wife was rolling in the bed laughing her rear end off at the story! She did manage to say I'm glad your alright honey through all her giggles! It took a while but I fell asleep until 7:30 when my alarm went off. Finding blood the next morning was no problems and trailing the hog the first hundred yards was pretty easy. Then the blood began to run out and finally stopped, 90 minutes later I had lost the trail all together. I walked the area in a grid for another hour and gave up. I have no idea where I hit the hog but it was hard enough that it went down, but not hard enough to keep him there.
I had to say that was the most exciting and dangerous hog hunt I’ve ever been on. I’m very lucky I wasn’t run over, hurt or even killed. Next time I may rethink my plan about entering the woods in the pitch dark and stalking hogs. Seems to me my tripods and box blind work very well and are much safer!
Well here's mine. I was hunting out at the ranch in Santo TX two weeks ago. I had killed a nice 9-point on my evening hunt. I decided around 11:00 PM to go for a night hog hunt. Took off on my 4-wheeler and 10 minutes later was parked and put a round into my .243 win Model 70 featherweight with 4.5 – 14 x32MM Burris short mag scope. On top of my scope I have a green laser genetics spot light. With my scope dialed all the way down to 4.5 I started down the dirt road. It was in the mid 30’s and dead calm outside and I mean calm. I had traveled about 250 yards and crossed the deep ravine/dried creek on my way to the stand. I came up the up other side of the ravine and could hear lots of animals walking and milling around just inside the wood line. I shined my laser to see if I could see anything. It’s very dense with briars and brush and the green laser light reflected off of everything right back into my eyes. I even tried my surefire flashlight with red lense and still couldn't see anything.
I traveled another 50 yards or so and whatever was in the woods was still paralleling me. I couldn’t tell if they were hogs or cows. I walked ahead for another 25 - 30 yards and I found an animal trail leading into the woods and quietly walked in. I shined the laser a couple of times but it was still too thick to see. I was in the woods about 40 yards or so from the dirt road and finally found a spot where I could shine the light between trees for about 30 yards or so. I was standing next to a small 4” diameter tree and stood quietly in the pitch dark for a 3 or 4 minutes listening the animals moving around and headed my way. It didn’t take long until I was completely surrounded by the animals and some were just mere yards away.
I flipped the laser on as I heard something walking very close to me and what should have been almost right in front of me. With the laser on I saw nothing. Finally I caught movement, I had a hog snout sticking out from behind a tree just 10’ (yes feet) away just to my left. I moved the laser to the right off of the hog and heard him take another couple steps. I moved the laser back and it was a very large white and black spotted hog standing broad side just 10' away. I've got to say that's the closest I've ever gotten to a live wild hog while standing on the same ground. I lifted my rifle but at 10’ the hog was just a blurrish blob in my 4.5 power scope. I lowered my rifle to make sure I was aiming at his head, put the crosshairs back on blob and made an almost tragic mistake. This was that very moment where I wish I could hit undo button or could of have had a V8! I pulled the trigger! The gun went bang, huge flash of light from the end of the barrel and the very moment all holy heck broke loose and there was just absolute total chaos happening! I had hogs running every which way and bunch of them right past me just a few feet away in just about every direction. The hog I shot, hit the ground and in a blink of an eye was back on his feet and blew past me like a freight train just 4’ away just on the other side of little tree I was standing next to. I hugged that little tree for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only 10 or 15 seconds of pure holy cow what on earth did you just do! Finally the woods quieted down and hogs began to move off. I said to myself, "well that didn't go according to plan dummy, HERE'S YOUR SIGN"!
I search for my hog for about 10 minutes and decided it was nuts to do this in the pitch dark. I went back to the camper, heart racing, adrenaline still pumping and tried to go to sleep. BTW, my wife was rolling in the bed laughing her rear end off at the story! She did manage to say I'm glad your alright honey through all her giggles! It took a while but I fell asleep until 7:30 when my alarm went off. Finding blood the next morning was no problems and trailing the hog the first hundred yards was pretty easy. Then the blood began to run out and finally stopped, 90 minutes later I had lost the trail all together. I walked the area in a grid for another hour and gave up. I have no idea where I hit the hog but it was hard enough that it went down, but not hard enough to keep him there.
I had to say that was the most exciting and dangerous hog hunt I’ve ever been on. I’m very lucky I wasn’t run over, hurt or even killed. Next time I may rethink my plan about entering the woods in the pitch dark and stalking hogs. Seems to me my tripods and box blind work very well and are much safer!
