Day 2Wakeup was 05:00 and we were in field at first shooting light. On this morning Ben and I were hunting the north end of the Fort Davis Pasture. Ben was hunting the east side and I hunted the west side of the main road running through the pasture. The part of the pasture on the west side of the road is about (I’m guessing here) 300 yards deep east to west. West of this pasture (Fort Davis) is the Rough Pasture. Out of respect to anyone hunting that pasture I stayed at least 75 yards away from the fence line.
The terrain for this area has some gradual inclines with quite a few cuts or arroyo running through the landscape. Other features are the ever present mesquite and prickly pear. On the north end is the only water feature for this pasture and the cattle traffic shows this to be the only watering hole. The grass on the north end of the pasture is pounded flat and there are trails going in all directions from all the cattle using this area. This makes for easy and quiet stalking but I am skeptical whether I will see anything with as much cattle activity that has been in this part of the pasture.
The plan is to meet back up with Ben and Kevin at 09:30 on the main road. My initial thought, after seeing all the cattle signs, was 09:30 isn’t going to get here fast enough. Regardless of the conditions I figured I’d make the best of the situation. I still hunted my way through the pasture. Take a few steps, look, glass, listen and repeat. Within minutes of starting out coyotes broke out in song southwest of my position and they were close. Hmmm I thought “I wonder what pigs think of coyotes?”
The morning was uneventful so I parked myself, after about and hour and a half of still hunting, against a tree along the edge of arroyo. The vantage point was decent and I found the surroundings peaceful. Minutes later the song dogs started back up. Hmmm I wonder if I can call in a yote? “Ah what the hell” so I broke out the rabbit in distress call and gave a few blasts in their direction but it was to no avail the dogs weren’t interested.
After 20 minutes of sitting and glassing I continued still hunting to the south. As I stood in the shadow of a tree I looked to the west and lo and behold there stood a bobcat 40 yards away looking back at me. “Ha…how cool is that” I thought. For fun I kept moving towards him to see how close he would let me get. The answer to that is 35 yards.
The time at that point was around 08:45. The wind is out of the south and the south southwest and blowing around 10 or 15 mph. I continue hunting my way south and ahead of me I hear the repetitive popping of the natural gas powered oil pumping rigs. The popping is just loud enough that it is distracting and I found it difficult to pick out other sounds in the area. Around 09:05 I hear leaves rustling to the east northeast. Holding my position I glass over the area but see nothing moving. The sound reminds me of a squirrel on the forest floor but I hadn’t seen a squirrel the whole time that I had been in Texas so I figured the sound was being made by and armadillo or turkey.
Trying to keep my form small I crouched down and moved out into the open meadow and peeked over a small knoll to see down into a small grove of trees that are growing in a low lying area next to an arroyo. In that grove stood a large black hog rooting around in the middle of the tree grove. Holy Smokes! Just when I am about to through in the towel for this area I came across the largest pig that I had seen up to that point!
Checking the wind again I slipped down the northwest side of the knoll while being very aware of where I placed my feet. At that point I found the noise of the oil pumps to be a blessing. Ever so slowly I eased my way down into and through the arroyo.
The grass in the arroyo is broken over and semi compressed which makes for a silent approach. I check the wind again…perfect it’s in my favor and I could see the pig but I had to stay low because I was out in the open. I continued my advance very slowly closing the gap to 25 yards but there was still a lot of thick vegetation growing in the grove separating the pig and me. Another wind check shows that I still have a green light. I was on the north northwest side of the tree groove standing in the arroyo which put me about four feet lower than the pig. I advanced another five yards…
the wind blew and all hell broke loose! The small grove of trees exploded with pork action!
The pig I had been stalking busted out of the grove and vanished in the bush to the south and to my surprise five other pigs sprang up out of the under growth! Wow! Two pigs stayed in the grove behind thick brush, two ran out to the south southwest edge just far enough to poke their noses out of the brush but kept their bodies hidden and the last one a red and black sow ran completely out into the open and stood 15 or less yards from me! What dumb blind luck! All of these pigs were 175+ pounds! Had I known there was a sounder there I would have rethought my approach but at the time the single black pig was the only pig I knew about and the wind for that pig was perfect. Now what? The balls in their court now my recon mission is all but over. I need them to go back to a relaxed state so at that point the waiting game was on.
The red hog stood with her butt facing me. Because of my position, standing down in the arroyo, I was almost brown eye level with her, sort of speak. I was standing straight up at that point with my bow readied and tension being applied to the string with a split fingered grip. I was ready! My focus was concentrated on the level of her vitals area. All I needed was for her to turn to the west, her right, to give me a quartering away or broadside shot opportunity. The stand off seemed like an eternity. I watched her as she looked left and right and saw her ears move around as she scanned the area looking and listening for the threat that had spooked her sounder. She had no idea that I was standing behind her! The pigs were silent not a peep was coming from any of them. Then as quickly as the hogs had come into view the sounder exploded for the second time and vanished into the brush to the south without offering me a clean shot. Dang that was fun!
Further investigation revealed that the wind was blowing hard enough that an eddy affect had been created on the side of the grove where I had advanced to, which pulled my scent into the trees and alerted the hogs. Another lesson learned. A short time later I hear the sound of the diesel truck coming down the road. My ride was on its way.
Evening HuntThe evening hunt was an uneventful hunt but I’ll describe it anyway. I sat wearing a Gillie suit at the top lip of an arroyo along the northeast corner of the Macon pasture. This was one of the furthest places on our parcel of ground away from the main road so I figured it would be a place the hogs may find as a secure area.
Ben and I scouted this place our first day out and the area I picked had a lot of game trails coming from the south and heading to the wheat field to the north. After studying the area a little more I realized the animals were following the shallow draw that drops down from the south and ended at the arroyo and most of those trails converged at a single crossing point at the arroyo. North of that arroyo crossing was a well worn depression under the fence separating the Macon Pasture from the wheat field.
The dry arroyo snakes it way from the east to the west and ends at a ¼ acre pond that is about a ¼ mile from where I choose to setup. Of course like all the ponds this one is a lot smaller then it would be had the area be receiving average rainfall. I chose not to hunt the water hole because the cattle stay pretty close to it most of the day and I’m not sure if the pigs would intermingle with the cattle.
The wind for that night was fickle. When I setup I had southwest 10 MPH wind in my in my face. At the edge of the arroyo, where I setup, there was a mesquite tree that I used to breakup my form from the opposite side of the arroyo and a couple of mesquite trees behind me that would increase the breakup affect. The trail that I hunted was 15 yards to my right. Any animal crossing the arroyo would have to climb up the 10’ bank of the arroyo and that would block their view of my draw.
To bad I did’nt get to test this theory. Remember why I didn’t want to hunt the waterhole? Guess who came to visit about and hour before dusk? Yep…cows. And remember the SW wind? Well it turned into a west…no wait a northwest…no wait a north…northeast…north…northwest…west…northwest…okay I concede.
On the way out to pick up Ben and Kevin I came across a pig on the main road of the Macon Pasture and by design there happen to be a one million candle powered spotlight lying on the seat beside me. As I slowly drove up to the hog it nonchalantly stepped off the road and when I hit it with the light it went about its routine as if I wasn’t there. Hmmm…interesting.
When I picked up Ben and Kevin I told them “hey there is a pig north of here walking around on the road and it could care less about the truck being close to it.” “Do you want to try a get it?” Ben eagerly accepted the challenge so off we went. I’ll let Ben pick up this part of the story since he was the man on the ground.
Ben you're up!
Topic: Wensel Bros pig gig (Read 7427 times)
