TEXAS HOG HUNT
.... I Re-Posted this from my old Blog...
November 2010 -
After receiving input from various sources, I designed a knife for hunting wild hogs. These Russian hogs are plaguing many areas of the Southern United States. Info: CLICK ME
My hunting buddy and long time friend Dustin had his 40th birthday in November, I booked a Texas Hog Hunting trip through these guys:CLICK ME. We scheduled the trip for mid April. Between November 2010 and April 2011 I made (2) Two of the pig stickers, one for Dustin and one for myself. The original hunt was booked as a rifle hunt 2 hogs each. I was hoping the opportunity of a knife hunt would present its self. otherwise these knives would sit in their sheaths unused. That would just be sad!
The Two Pig Stickers
April 10th - The drive there
Dustin and I rented a car from Enterprise (Thanks Erik for the great deal!) for the long trip to Waelder, Texas (just outside of San Antonio) We packed all our necessities and headed out. We drove through the Arches Nat'l park and Moab UT. I spend quite a bit of time in Moab riding my KTM motorcycle. So we didn't spend much time here, we did make a quick stop at "Hole in the Rock" for Dustin's benefit. I SCUBA certified a girl that came from the Christensen "family" (Interesting story on its own) that owns this tourist attraction.
We continued on to the 4 corners monument a 15-20 minute drive off the main road. The Navajo Indians own this land and there is a $3 per person entry fee. There is some debate if the site is actually in the right location? Click Me. I personally found the monument a bit underwhelming. The various Indian shops surrounding the monument had the usual goods: jewelry, bags, fridge magnets, etc... I did find one vendor interesting, he had "Tatonka" (Buffalo) Rib bones made into knives, I wasn't impressed with the bark wood handle they had fashioned to the blade so I asked if I could just purchase the rib bone from him. He produced an unfinished one from a bag and sold it to me for $20. Should be an interesting future knife project. We stopped in Cuba, NM for some "Authentic Mexican food" and continued on.
Buffalo Rib Bone:
We made a quick stop in Albuquerque, NM. at the Hard Rock Casino and played our hand at a few rounds of Black Jack. I came out $80 ahead and called it good. We spent our first night in Socorro, NM. My first impression of Socorro was not a good one, 1am I checked into the Motel 6 through a 3" thick bullet proof glass window, parked the car in the parking lot and opened the hotel door to check out the digs. We noticed signs posted every 20 feet "We are not responsible for damaged or stolen valuables" 5 minutes later a beat up Chevy van slowly drove through the lot peering into every vehicle. I stepped out and smiled at them, making a mental note of their license plate as they drooled over the contents of our packed to the roof rental car. Dustin and I decided it would be best to pull everything out of the vehicle and keep it in the room with us for the night. After a sleepless night we awoke and headed out towards Texas.
April 11th - Still driving there
We drove through El Paso, TX. this area was crawling with Border Patrol, it was unusual to see so many government vehicles. To the right you could clearly see the Mexico border and its construction influence on the US side to the left. Continuing on we came to a gov. checkpoint where we were asked:
Officer: "Where are you headed?"
Us: "Texas to hunt hogs" (Duh we were in El Paso, guess we should have said "Waelder for a pig and a poke")
Officer: "Are you US citizens?"
Us: "Yeah"
Officer: "Do you have any pets or animals in the vehicle?"
Us: "No" (this question confused me, did they expect us to have our Paris Hilton lap dog burred under the luggage?)
While we were being questioned a dog was walking around the vehicle by its handler sniffing for what I assumed was Illegal drugs? After the officer peered into our eyes searching our souls, we were on our way.
I recieved a call from my wife warning us of Large fires in West Texas and to be careful. We saw the smoke and on some occasions fire on the hillside in the Fort Davis, TX. area South of I-10. We pulled into Kerrville, TX around 1am and got a room for the night. Kerrville seems to be a very nice town. The drive was very Desolate and dry, we were now getting not the more humid and green part of Texas which was a very nice change. I had contacted Paul Long a week before we left, asking if we could make a quick stop by his shop in Kerrville. For those of you that don't know Paul he is one of the best sheath maker's in the business. Our visit was brief but very informative and I have to say Paul is one of the nicest people out there. I will be putting the cable Damascus bowie I am working on in Paul Long pants in the very near future! I purchased Paul's DVD's on sheath making and plan on working on my sheath abilities to improve my knife offerings in the future.
April 12th - Alamo and the Arrival
We gassed up and headed toward San Antonio. we punched into our TomTom (Thanks Dustin we would have been lost without it) the coordinates of "The Alamo" and followed the nice ladies voice turn by turn until we were there. I was surprised at the location of the alamo, right amidst the tall buildings of downtown San Antonio. I have to admit I was not as familiar with the details of the Alamo as I thought I was. I purchased the books: "Three Roads to the Alamo" and "Jim Bowie" that I will get through when I have a bit of down time. The most interesting part of this history to me is the role that Jim Bowie played, due to my interest in knives. We were excited to get to Waelder, TX Ranch. We still needed to pick up our non-resident Hunting license and 4 bags of deer corn (I was not familiar with deer corn, due to the illegal use of bait in Utah). so we headed past the ranch to Gonzales, TX and hit up the WalMart where you buy both license and deer corn.
THE RANCH:
Disclaimer: If you are one of those people who don't want to see Photos and Video of feral nuisance hogs being hunted, bitten, chewed on, shot or dispatched by knife, you should probably Click HERE for the Rainbows and Butterflies area of the Internet....
On arrival at the ranch we entered the large red gate, drove down a dirt road. I love this area, the trees and shrubbery remind me of the African Safaris you see on TV. There were misc. buildings scattered around an opening. We parked the car by the other vehicles and said Hello to a few of the patrons sitting at the picnic tables. They told us Cameron was the person we were looking for and that he would be back shortly.
We were excited to get our trophy hogs (No we did not pay for the upgraded trophy hog hunt), we had taken advantage of the buy one get one free 3 Day 2 night 2 hogs per hunter package. Also included was all the varmints you find during your travels. We heard a ATV coming around the bend, sliding to a dusty stop near the skinned Hog was Cameron. Now flash back to booking of the trip, I read through the website and was slightly concerned about the amount of "Religious" content. I am not the most religious person in the world, and was not interested in getting a sermon during my hunting experience. I thought it might a bit awkward and I may have to walk around on egg shells the entire time. Turns out the owner of the Ranch "Paul" was a Deacon and offers religious outings at a discount in order to "Bring our brothers and sisters to Christ". We were there to hunt! Cameron was very funny and like able, I feel we hit it off from the very beginning. He asked us if we needed to sight any rifles in. I brought my AR-15 in .50 Beo and custom T&C Contender 7-30 waters. after a few shots of each everything was dialed in. Dinner was being served, so we joined in and had some great food before being escorted to our bunk house. The accommodations were meager, but adequate. it was a bunk room with 2 bunks (4 beds) no bedding, we brought our sleeping bags and pillows which worked perfectly. Dustin and I were the only ones in the room due to the fact the ranch was not at full capacity. Bathrooms and showers we located behind the lodge. We found scorpions, and beetles in the showers so it was always important to look closely before shampooing up.
Jason was also working on the ranch, he had a dog named Zeus a 15 mo. old Pit Bull that was MASSIVE! this dog was already famous in the hog hunting community. he will be featured in the upcoming Sportsman's Channel program called Hunting Freaks that should air in July 2011.
7pm - Jason and Cameron asked us for our bags of deer corn, we loaded them into the back of a truck and they headed down one of the dirt roads. 20 minutes later they came back with a bunch of empty bags. Cameron told everyone to go to their pre-determined blinds, then told Dustin and I to follow him in our car to the "Mushroom Blind". Our blind was only 100 yards from the lodge, it was a wooden box a few feet off the ground with open spaces for us to look/shoot out given the opportunity. Corn was spread all over the ground and dirt roads in an attempt to draw the pigs in. I think the corn is actually there to feed the many other animals (Buffalo, Elk, Axis deer, Fallow deer, Blackbuck, Big Horn Sheep, White tail deer) I never saw any pigs eating the corn the entire trip.
We got settled into the blind on the chairs provided, within 30 minutes a small group of hogs came through the area, most were small piglets, but there were a few 120+ lb hogs. We decided that we would wait for that huge hog so we passed on them. We did not see any the rest of the night, but we heard shots from the other blinds in the area. Turns out the 120+ lb. hogs are the ones we want.... more on that later! Dustin and I headed back to the lodge empty handed and planned on getting up at 6am to head to the blind when the pigs were moving back to their hiding spots.
April 13th - Walk and Stalk
We slept through the 6am alarm and got up at 9am for breakfast. We were told that we would be paired up with another 2 hunters and should head South until we hit the fence then work around the compound in a Clockwise direction similar to pheasant hunting. We cam across a few Hogs on the run, but were unable to get decent shots. One of the other hunters was first to get his with a Black Powder rifle (I was impressed), it was a 130lb boar. around the fence line were poles with N,E,S,W and numbered 1-30 for each direction so N1 - N2 - N3... E1 - E2 - E3.... and so on. So we call Cameron and tell him we have a hog near W21 (Just an example) they come out in the truck grab the hog ask you what you want done with it and take it away. If you signed up for the 1 hog deal you are done, otherwise you continue the hunt until you fill your tag. I was the next to get a hog, I saw it in the trees on the East side (Where the HUGE 420 lb hogs are... NOT) of the ranch. It ran back behind us and stopped in a clearing. I felt like I got a good shot off, but the hog ran without making a sound. I checked the area and found some blood. 30 yards from where I shot the hog had dropped due to a lung shot. He ended up weighing 140lbs. I made the phone call and waited for Jason to pick up the hog. After 30 minutes of waiting the other two continued looking for their last hog (they signed up for 1 hog each) 1 hr. later Jason came and apologized for the miss communication and delay. We jumped in the truck and headed back to the lodge for lunch at 1pm.
Finally THE KNIFE HUNT:
After lunch all the hunters headed out to their assigned areas. Jason, Cameron, Dustin and I were the only ones around, I saw the opportunity to get some input on my knife designs from some experienced hog hunters... I feel the loved them. Jason (the more experienced knife hunter of the two) said "This is the perfect Hog Knife" Cameron said: "They have had people come through claiming to have the perfect knife but, they didn't work out so well because they were usually the Common Bowie design and not thin or sharpened on both sides." I explained that I initially wanted to come out and test them on some hogs, but knew that was an extra $499 per hog Upgrade. I could see the wheels turning in Cameron's head as he handled the knife. He then said "What do you sell these for?" I told him I wouldn't know until I saw how they worked. He then said "How about we trade a knife for a hog, so you leave the two knives when you are done, and we will take the dogs out and get you each a hog with a knife!" Hell Yeah!
Cameron then said to me "Ryan grab MY KNIFE" then turned to Jason and said "Lets go get Stinky"! Turns out that Zeus was not the only hunting dog Jason had there. Stinky was an ornery Mountain Cur Dog, I was unfamiliar with the breed. We loaded Zeus (Had to be lifted into the truck bed) and pulled over to an old horse trailer where and excited dog peered between the bars excited to have some company. Jason said grab a hold of Zeus' collar and hold him TIGHT. I grabbed Zeus and questioned whether this was such a good idea? Stinky ran and jumped into the truck bed, greeted Zeus with a growl and a bark. Jason yelled at him and pulled him away. Jason told us that Stinky was a B team dog, he had broken teeth and a broken tail but could find hogs as good as any. We were obviously in for an interesting afternoon.
Hog Hunting With Dogs Basics:
I was unfamiliar with the procedures of hunting hogs with dogs. Normally there are 5-6 dogs used some are Bay dogs and some are catch dogs.
Cameron was driving, Jason, Myself, Dustin and Josh (another ranch hunter) were in the back of the truck with the dogs. We headed to the infamous S.E. corner of the Ranch. We quickly found a hog and let the dogs run. Stinky quickly bayed the hog and started barking. Zeus nailed the hog and held him by the back of his spine. I moved in and made the kill. I know I got the lungs due to the pink froth and air passing through the wound. The pig stopped squealing immediately, the knife was performed perfectly for the job, slid in easily for a humane kill. Everything happened very quickly and was over within a few minutes, the hog ended up weighing 150lbs and was known as Gimp. He only had 3 legs and I was unable to keep the meat because it was unknown what caused the deformity, so this hog was a freebie and I still had one more hog to get with a rifle! Thanks to Josh for videoing the whole thing.
After receiving input from various sources, I designed a knife for hunting wild hogs. These Russian hogs are plaguing many areas of the Southern United States. Info: CLICK ME
My hunting buddy and long time friend Dustin had his 40th birthday in November, I booked a Texas Hog Hunting trip through these guys:CLICK ME. We scheduled the trip for mid April. Between November 2010 and April 2011 I made (2) Two of the pig stickers, one for Dustin and one for myself. The original hunt was booked as a rifle hunt 2 hogs each. I was hoping the opportunity of a knife hunt would present its self. otherwise these knives would sit in their sheaths unused. That would just be sad!
The Original Designs
The Two Pig Stickers
April 10th - The drive there
Dustin and I rented a car from Enterprise (Thanks Erik for the great deal!) for the long trip to Waelder, Texas (just outside of San Antonio) We packed all our necessities and headed out. We drove through the Arches Nat'l park and Moab UT. I spend quite a bit of time in Moab riding my KTM motorcycle. So we didn't spend much time here, we did make a quick stop at "Hole in the Rock" for Dustin's benefit. I SCUBA certified a girl that came from the Christensen "family" (Interesting story on its own) that owns this tourist attraction.
We continued on to the 4 corners monument a 15-20 minute drive off the main road. The Navajo Indians own this land and there is a $3 per person entry fee. There is some debate if the site is actually in the right location? Click Me. I personally found the monument a bit underwhelming. The various Indian shops surrounding the monument had the usual goods: jewelry, bags, fridge magnets, etc... I did find one vendor interesting, he had "Tatonka" (Buffalo) Rib bones made into knives, I wasn't impressed with the bark wood handle they had fashioned to the blade so I asked if I could just purchase the rib bone from him. He produced an unfinished one from a bag and sold it to me for $20. Should be an interesting future knife project. We stopped in Cuba, NM for some "Authentic Mexican food" and continued on.
Buffalo Rib Bone:
We made a quick stop in Albuquerque, NM. at the Hard Rock Casino and played our hand at a few rounds of Black Jack. I came out $80 ahead and called it good. We spent our first night in Socorro, NM. My first impression of Socorro was not a good one, 1am I checked into the Motel 6 through a 3" thick bullet proof glass window, parked the car in the parking lot and opened the hotel door to check out the digs. We noticed signs posted every 20 feet "We are not responsible for damaged or stolen valuables" 5 minutes later a beat up Chevy van slowly drove through the lot peering into every vehicle. I stepped out and smiled at them, making a mental note of their license plate as they drooled over the contents of our packed to the roof rental car. Dustin and I decided it would be best to pull everything out of the vehicle and keep it in the room with us for the night. After a sleepless night we awoke and headed out towards Texas.
April 11th - Still driving there
We drove through El Paso, TX. this area was crawling with Border Patrol, it was unusual to see so many government vehicles. To the right you could clearly see the Mexico border and its construction influence on the US side to the left. Continuing on we came to a gov. checkpoint where we were asked:
Officer: "Where are you headed?"
Us: "Texas to hunt hogs" (Duh we were in El Paso, guess we should have said "Waelder for a pig and a poke")
Officer: "Are you US citizens?"
Us: "Yeah"
Officer: "Do you have any pets or animals in the vehicle?"
Us: "No" (this question confused me, did they expect us to have our Paris Hilton lap dog burred under the luggage?)
While we were being questioned a dog was walking around the vehicle by its handler sniffing for what I assumed was Illegal drugs? After the officer peered into our eyes searching our souls, we were on our way.
I recieved a call from my wife warning us of Large fires in West Texas and to be careful. We saw the smoke and on some occasions fire on the hillside in the Fort Davis, TX. area South of I-10. We pulled into Kerrville, TX around 1am and got a room for the night. Kerrville seems to be a very nice town. The drive was very Desolate and dry, we were now getting not the more humid and green part of Texas which was a very nice change. I had contacted Paul Long a week before we left, asking if we could make a quick stop by his shop in Kerrville. For those of you that don't know Paul he is one of the best sheath maker's in the business. Our visit was brief but very informative and I have to say Paul is one of the nicest people out there. I will be putting the cable Damascus bowie I am working on in Paul Long pants in the very near future! I purchased Paul's DVD's on sheath making and plan on working on my sheath abilities to improve my knife offerings in the future.
April 12th - Alamo and the Arrival
We gassed up and headed toward San Antonio. we punched into our TomTom (Thanks Dustin we would have been lost without it) the coordinates of "The Alamo" and followed the nice ladies voice turn by turn until we were there. I was surprised at the location of the alamo, right amidst the tall buildings of downtown San Antonio. I have to admit I was not as familiar with the details of the Alamo as I thought I was. I purchased the books: "Three Roads to the Alamo" and "Jim Bowie" that I will get through when I have a bit of down time. The most interesting part of this history to me is the role that Jim Bowie played, due to my interest in knives. We were excited to get to Waelder, TX Ranch. We still needed to pick up our non-resident Hunting license and 4 bags of deer corn (I was not familiar with deer corn, due to the illegal use of bait in Utah). so we headed past the ranch to Gonzales, TX and hit up the WalMart where you buy both license and deer corn.
THE RANCH:
Disclaimer: If you are one of those people who don't want to see Photos and Video of feral nuisance hogs being hunted, bitten, chewed on, shot or dispatched by knife, you should probably Click HERE for the Rainbows and Butterflies area of the Internet....
On arrival at the ranch we entered the large red gate, drove down a dirt road. I love this area, the trees and shrubbery remind me of the African Safaris you see on TV. There were misc. buildings scattered around an opening. We parked the car by the other vehicles and said Hello to a few of the patrons sitting at the picnic tables. They told us Cameron was the person we were looking for and that he would be back shortly.
Front Gate
Our Bunk House
Other Sleeping Quarters
Hanging up in the skinning area was a HUGE 420 lb. hog skinned and halved. The head was sitting on the ground, this was one of the ugliest creatures I had ever seen, next to the hog stood a 13-15yr old boy beaming with pride over his trophy pig. Next to the boy stood his Father? in his boat shoes, white Pants, dress shirt and tie conducting business on his Blackberry. I took the opportunity to talk to the boy and asked him to tell me the story of how he got the HOG! He had booked the Trophy hunt months ahead, had spent the previous day scouring the 265 Acres for the 300+lb hog to no avail. The nights were spent in a blind waiting for that all to well known sound of snorting, grunting, squealing pigs, a few small groups containing only 20lb - 150lb hogs passed through, He was there for a monster and went to bed empty handed! The next morning the ranch hands (Cameron and Jason) told him they would send him to the South East corner of the compound where the hog he is looking for hangs out. What would you know, there under a large oak tree hidden in the shrubs was what looked to be one of the many Elk scattered around the ranch (available to hunt at a price). On a closer look this was no elk but the ass end of the huge hog he was after. He shouldered his weapon and fired, the hog jumped and squealed then dropped a few feet from where he sat, kicking and grunting another shot was fired and the grunting ceased. Dad hung up his blackberry (I am just Assuming) and called Cameron telling him they had successfully killed their Hogzilla. Cameron and Jason drove to the location, chained the hog to the back of the truck and drug it behind the truck back to the lodge.
420 lb Hog
7pm - Jason and Cameron asked us for our bags of deer corn, we loaded them into the back of a truck and they headed down one of the dirt roads. 20 minutes later they came back with a bunch of empty bags. Cameron told everyone to go to their pre-determined blinds, then told Dustin and I to follow him in our car to the "Mushroom Blind". Our blind was only 100 yards from the lodge, it was a wooden box a few feet off the ground with open spaces for us to look/shoot out given the opportunity. Corn was spread all over the ground and dirt roads in an attempt to draw the pigs in. I think the corn is actually there to feed the many other animals (Buffalo, Elk, Axis deer, Fallow deer, Blackbuck, Big Horn Sheep, White tail deer) I never saw any pigs eating the corn the entire trip.
We got settled into the blind on the chairs provided, within 30 minutes a small group of hogs came through the area, most were small piglets, but there were a few 120+ lb hogs. We decided that we would wait for that huge hog so we passed on them. We did not see any the rest of the night, but we heard shots from the other blinds in the area. Turns out the 120+ lb. hogs are the ones we want.... more on that later! Dustin and I headed back to the lodge empty handed and planned on getting up at 6am to head to the blind when the pigs were moving back to their hiding spots.
April 13th - Walk and Stalk
We slept through the 6am alarm and got up at 9am for breakfast. We were told that we would be paired up with another 2 hunters and should head South until we hit the fence then work around the compound in a Clockwise direction similar to pheasant hunting. We cam across a few Hogs on the run, but were unable to get decent shots. One of the other hunters was first to get his with a Black Powder rifle (I was impressed), it was a 130lb boar. around the fence line were poles with N,E,S,W and numbered 1-30 for each direction so N1 - N2 - N3... E1 - E2 - E3.... and so on. So we call Cameron and tell him we have a hog near W21 (Just an example) they come out in the truck grab the hog ask you what you want done with it and take it away. If you signed up for the 1 hog deal you are done, otherwise you continue the hunt until you fill your tag. I was the next to get a hog, I saw it in the trees on the East side (Where the HUGE 420 lb hogs are... NOT) of the ranch. It ran back behind us and stopped in a clearing. I felt like I got a good shot off, but the hog ran without making a sound. I checked the area and found some blood. 30 yards from where I shot the hog had dropped due to a lung shot. He ended up weighing 140lbs. I made the phone call and waited for Jason to pick up the hog. After 30 minutes of waiting the other two continued looking for their last hog (they signed up for 1 hog each) 1 hr. later Jason came and apologized for the miss communication and delay. We jumped in the truck and headed back to the lodge for lunch at 1pm.
Finally THE KNIFE HUNT:
After lunch all the hunters headed out to their assigned areas. Jason, Cameron, Dustin and I were the only ones around, I saw the opportunity to get some input on my knife designs from some experienced hog hunters... I feel the loved them. Jason (the more experienced knife hunter of the two) said "This is the perfect Hog Knife" Cameron said: "They have had people come through claiming to have the perfect knife but, they didn't work out so well because they were usually the Common Bowie design and not thin or sharpened on both sides." I explained that I initially wanted to come out and test them on some hogs, but knew that was an extra $499 per hog Upgrade. I could see the wheels turning in Cameron's head as he handled the knife. He then said "What do you sell these for?" I told him I wouldn't know until I saw how they worked. He then said "How about we trade a knife for a hog, so you leave the two knives when you are done, and we will take the dogs out and get you each a hog with a knife!" Hell Yeah!
Cameron then said to me "Ryan grab MY KNIFE" then turned to Jason and said "Lets go get Stinky"! Turns out that Zeus was not the only hunting dog Jason had there. Stinky was an ornery Mountain Cur Dog, I was unfamiliar with the breed. We loaded Zeus (Had to be lifted into the truck bed) and pulled over to an old horse trailer where and excited dog peered between the bars excited to have some company. Jason said grab a hold of Zeus' collar and hold him TIGHT. I grabbed Zeus and questioned whether this was such a good idea? Stinky ran and jumped into the truck bed, greeted Zeus with a growl and a bark. Jason yelled at him and pulled him away. Jason told us that Stinky was a B team dog, he had broken teeth and a broken tail but could find hogs as good as any. We were obviously in for an interesting afternoon.
Hog Hunting With Dogs Basics:
I was unfamiliar with the procedures of hunting hogs with dogs. Normally there are 5-6 dogs used some are Bay dogs and some are catch dogs.
- Bay Dogs: do just that they bay the hog, in other words they are usually tracking dogs with the ability to run long distances. They find the biggest hog they can and hold it in one place by barking and circling it. Some bay dogs will even catch to a certain degree.
- Catch Dogs: Catch the Hog. These are usually Pit Bulls or other muscular fearless dogs, they stay back until the bay dogs start barking, announcing that they have a hog bayed. The catch dogs will plow into the hog and bite the head area and hold down the hog. This causes the pig to Squeal! Because of the tusks hogs have the dogs need to wear Cut Collars and Cut Vests to avoid serious injuries.
- Knife Hunter: Once the bay dog barks, the catch dog catches and the Hog squeals the hunter heads in for the kill. The proper knife is placed right behind the front leg, and slid through the rib cage into the chest cavity. then slid down severing the heart and lungs for a humane quick kill. It helps to have someone grab the back legs of the hog and spread the hog out.
Cameron was driving, Jason, Myself, Dustin and Josh (another ranch hunter) were in the back of the truck with the dogs. We headed to the infamous S.E. corner of the Ranch. We quickly found a hog and let the dogs run. Stinky quickly bayed the hog and started barking. Zeus nailed the hog and held him by the back of his spine. I moved in and made the kill. I know I got the lungs due to the pink froth and air passing through the wound. The pig stopped squealing immediately, the knife was performed perfectly for the job, slid in easily for a humane kill. Everything happened very quickly and was over within a few minutes, the hog ended up weighing 150lbs and was known as Gimp. He only had 3 legs and I was unable to keep the meat because it was unknown what caused the deformity, so this hog was a freebie and I still had one more hog to get with a rifle! Thanks to Josh for videoing the whole thing.
Second Warning... Some may feel this video is graphic, It contains the killing of a Feral Hog.
(It starts out like Blair Witch... Sorry! Hang in there it gets better around 1:00)
That evening we hit the same blind as before, and were surrounded by exotics but no hogs came in, we called it a night around 1am.
April 14th - Last Day
We got up at 6am and headed to the blind, the sun was coming up to a cloudy day. the usual Exotics were finishing up the deer corn that spread out. Not a single hog came in, we headed to breakfast. 9am came and they sent the hunters out to their areas and told Dustin and I to hold tight. It was Dustin's turn for the knife hunt. We loaded up in the back of the truck, I had my rifle because I still had one hog to get. we drove to the South East section again and worked our way around the compound. Cameron got a call that a Trapper was there to deliver 4 hogs. Turns out that many/most of the large hogs are trapped in the wild and brought to the Ranch and let loose. They dumped us on the West side and told us to try to get my hog while they took care of business. I immediately spotted a large hog running to my right. I slowly followed it and got an open shot, unfortunately it jumped right as I shot and I hit it in the hind quarters. She was still running so I fired again and got her in the jaw. She went down, I ran up and put her out of her misery.... I really wish I had made a better shot on this one. Jason and Cameron returned and we headed back to the lodge. This hog weighed 160lbs. I had it Quartered and de-boned.
I am going to have him write up his experience in his own words: (If he ever decides to Email it to me!)
We then thanked everyone at the ranch, showered, loaded our meat and headed out for Austin, TX. Dustin has a cousin named Mark that lives in a suburb of Austin that we planned on staying the night with before heading for home. We stopped at every grocery store between Waelder and Austin looking for dry ice to keep our meat frozen. Seems kids use it to make some sort of Bomb with it (Sheepish Grin). We finally a H-E-B (Here Everything's Better) Grocery store in Austin that carried it. TomTom found Mark's house and we had a comfortable nights sleep without Scorpions, Beetles and dirt.
April 15th - Headed Home
we left Mark's house around 10am. We had TomTom calculate the fastest way home and followed the directions. I started the driving in Austin, and continued North to my surprise we hit a sign that said "Welcome to Oklahoma" I found that odd then realize we had ignored the friendly lady of TomTom so many times maybe she was angry and sending us to Canada? Dustin checked the route and it had us going through Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado then Utah. I was game, I had never really been through Oklahoma and only passed through Kansas with my family years back on a trip to Indiana for my brothers wedding. unfortunately Kansas had severe weather warnings as well as tornado sightings we were unaware of. We fought a horrible headwind the entire way, Signs were all blown down along the route and we were getting a little nervous. Luckily we made it through Kansas and into Colorado safely.
April 16th - Home
The plan was to drive as far as we could get a hotel and head home the next day. I have a close friend that was celebrating his birthday on the 16th at 4:30 pm, Dustin agreed to take over the driving during the night while I tried to sleep and I would take over at 6am when Dustin was beat. we drove the entire way through and made it home around 2pm.
Summary:
This was a great experience, and I had a great time with a close friend. If you are looking for a challenging hog hunt in the wild this is probably not your best choice. The hogs are brought in and placed in an enclosed area. The "Trophy" hogs are brought in specifically for individuals that have paid for the huge hogs. Do not come to this ranch to get Varmints, the ranch is surrounded by a 8-10ft. fence. The hogs can't get out, the varmints can't get in! You will not get any "Chances" at varmints here, we were a little disappointed when we realized this. The website has a lot of hype about varmint opportunities that just don't exist.
The staff (Cameron and Jason) were great, I feel like I made two new friends in Texas. They both went out of their way to make everyone comfortable and are accommodating when it comes to getting everyone their hogs. My next hog hunt will be through the same outfit but will only Knife hunting on one of their other ranches. We were told they go through 4000+ hogs each year and can accommodate 32 hunters at a time, this seems like it would be very crowed but they assured us that it worked very well. Don't expect to get hogs over 150lbs unless you pay for the trophy hog.
They are doing something right, because 2 of the 10 hunters there with us were return customers. As I stated I would return but take a different Hunting Package (Knife Hunt). The price per hog is a bit more than I anticipated, expect to pay around $100 per hog for processing.
...Ryan
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