Tradgang/Mule Creek 1st Annual Hunt

[Terry Green]

We stopped by twice to say hey but you guys were out.  With hunting so late every night it was hard to hook up the schedules

I stopped by yalls cabin twice and yall werent there...bout 2ish both times...you missed out on the chilli!!!

[Terry Green]

Terry, did you get to go see the Marfa lights?

Have no idea what those are....no one informed me 

what did i miss?

[Terry Green]

We're leaving Friday,can't wait,hopefully you guys left a few,(lol) maybe next year we'll get on with the Tradgang hunt..

Sure would like to hear about it.

[Terry Green]

Now that I have more time on my hands, I'll have to join you fellas next time.   

   

I hope so Sir.

[Terry Green]

Im going to get this wrapped up tonight guys....getting caught up from being gone is ruff.

[Terry Green]

Jacob and Joe showed up not too long after that, and they saw what I saw. So  Jacob  went to the truck to get out a young pup so   He could get some training in. .... And away he went.

The blood trail got better as we went along a little better and a little better. Soon we came to an area with a lot of blood were he had evidently laid down. Now we never heard anything but something must have got him up I don't know if it was coyotes or not,  But it took us a while to find the trail again,  though once we found it everyone was sparse and then it picked up the further we went along.  Then he laid down again and it looked like he thrashed his way out due to ground disturbance and broken  misquite branches.....then we found the trail again ...

 I'm sorry to say that we had to put an end to the tracking due to the fact the hog crossed over to someone else's ranch and they don't allow any trespassing whatsoever. 

 I do hope that you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed reliving. Not all hunts are fairy tales.....  regardless, I won't ever forget that night....

Now back to camp for half pound  Garlic cheese burgers...

[pdk25]

Enjoying the story.  It is a blast to stalk up on hogs at night, whether using moonlight, a bow light, or feeder light.  I find it to be a little more challenging shooting hogs after dark compared to during the daylight, and it can be very difficult to tell exactly where you hit.  I use all sorts  of cheating regarding reference points on my site window for aiming.  I sure wish the hogs around here would tolerate a bow mounted light better.  Looking forward to hearing the rest if the story. 

[Terry Green]

It really was a great day.....just a few 'what ifs' and we could have had two javies and a hog.  I was an adventurous day that I needed bad....

[Terry Green]

The next morning Joe and I we t through the same block of woods on we clipped of a area 100 yards to the west of yesterday's path.  As we noticed from our view of yesterday's path that this section was thicker and a little more undulating.

 All was quiet this morning, and I could not believe we didn't see anything, nada, zilch...... But being that visibility was about 1/3 of the day before, our stalk through this area was much slower and deliberate.   But even though it looked gamey from the top ....the ground didn't show it. There was only sparse sign on the ground..... But it was a beautiful morning perfect weather full of  anticipation....

 Now to re fuel and gather our thoughts for the evening..... With a twist I sure wasn't expecting....

[Terry Green]

My evening hurt would be at the ugliest place I'd ever hunted in my life. The most non gamey abandoned scorched Earth place I'd ever could imagine... We were set to hunt till 11 tonight.

Again, Looks can be deceiving....

I got set up in this pit blind with a bunch of sticks piled up behind me around a misquite tree.

 What's I got everything ready to go I took the kill light that Joe loaned me and posted it up on a fence post facing the direction the hogs were to come from... The light would come on with a sensor at dark.

Nothing happened until after dark, And at dark he was mostly just sounds not a lot of  Sightings... Until about 9:20.....

[Wudstix]

and???

[smokin joe]

While Terry was set up in his blind, I was hunting a spot called "the tanks" -- so called because there are two big, rusted-out, abandoned water storage tanks there.

There were a lot of hog tracks at the tanks, so I was excited about that.

There was also a recent cougar sighting at the tanks about three yards from where I was set up -- and I was nervous about that.

I spent a lot of time in that blind at the tanks looking over my shoulder.

[smokin joe]

I saw nothing that night at the tanks.

The next night I went back to the cattle pen blind. I took a couple of camo t-shirts to mask my silhouette on the brush behind me.

At about 9:30 I heard a huffing noise to my left maybe 10 yards behind a mesquite bush that was maybe 6 or 7 feet away. I was sure it was a lone boar based on the sound. Then I heard a popping noise and figured he was popping his teeth. He huffed again and again, and kept popping his teeth. It sounded like he was spoiling for a fight. The wind was in my favor, and I thought that perhaps he had another boar over there that he was challenging.

He popped his teeth and huffed louder and louder for 45 minutes without moving toward me, trying to get downwind of me, or exposing himself in any way to the possibility of getting shot. I finally figured out that he knew I was there but was unsure of what I was, so he just stood in the same place and made noise. at about 10:15 he stopped.

By the sound of his deep, bass-tone huffing he must have been a beast of a hog. And he was smart enough to not expose himself to me. It was a pretty exciting night that I will never forget. I would love to get another crack at that hog.

[Terry Green]

AND.... I heard grunting coming from the wrong side of the fence.... Yes the side of fence that was least likely for them to come from and not expected by Jacob. Animals, You never can predict them.   Anyway this hog approaches from the wrong direction on the other side of this big water tank, And it stops and snorts and grunts and blows and stops and I'm not sure why because the wind was deathly in my favor. And it was a healthy wind.

All I could figure was when I put the kulot on the fence post it cast a shadow on the other side of the tank. Now the hogs are mot supposed to see the green light,  But maybe that can see the shadows they create And it didn't look normal to him and his partners.

This went on for about 20 minutes and I just stayed in my pit blind with this pile of sticks surrounding the mesquite tree I was against.

 Back-and-forth back-and-forth this hog carried on...... And then I see a glimpse of something that catches my eye and I look...

Mid thigh high...straight horizontal top line..... buckskin colored ghost ....moving from right to left like on a rail.....

Yep....Mountain Lion.

Un-freakin believable!!!!

 He moved out of the range of the kill light and disappeared. What an  Experience!!!

[goobersan]

 

 

[pdk25]

Great experience!  Never saw a Mountain Lion in the wild!

[Terry Green]

About 10 minutes after the mountain lion the hog starts up again snortin and stomping and walking around just on the other side of the gate.

 I had enough of this so, I eased out the pit toward the gate with my  Hog light on.... Still grutten still snorting....

I caught movement with my hog light as he eased back down on the other side of the tank never to return.... But  Snorting all the way.....

Joe wouldd hunt this site a couple of nights later.....

 The  Mountain lion made the trip for me!!!!!

[mj seratt]

Terry, just Google Marfa lights.  That will explain it better than I could.  I have never seen them, but was in Marfa back in the 1970s.

[Terry Green]

The next more in Joe and I went to a new block of woods.  This  Block was a stretched version of where we were hunting.... The misquite  Trees were much further apart and the tan grass seemed less clumpy. You could literally see for 200 yards in some directions.

 The   highlight of this  Morning was seeing a picture as pretty as a postcard. The biggest Coyote I'd ever seen in my life was staring at me as the Sun was to my back and he was lit up just perfect for a photograph..... This guy was absolutely beautiful. He was facing me at 60 yd And I could not believe how clearly I could see him. I didn't move I wasjust enjoying the view ...

 We finally decided he didn't like me and he turned tail and  Trotted off.

The rest of this morning we spent jumping Quail and doves....  Bunches and bunches.

Like I said it was like a safari this trip was...

 Our bearing was set on an oil well And the name on it was big bear.

Maybe we can get Joe to post a picture of big bear.

[smokin joe]

Here is the "Big Bear" that we saw -- it is the Big Bear oil well.