PIG GIG--Week 1 ---***SNAKE PICS ADDED***

[mlmealey]

Gary, sounds like quite an adventure

[mancole5]

Guys, thanks for taking the time to share all of your stories. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

[JC]

At the bottom of the hill we split our respective ways. Don, Skyler and Curt would take the same route Don had the previous nigth...Chase and I would come up from the bottom.

As we walked through the snow down the road towards the spot we would enter the woodline in route to the river, I reminisced of grade school. Remember when you had  new pair of tennis shoes on a rainy day? He who could make the loudest, most obnoxious squeaks on the hallway floor wore a badge of honor. Sadly, in the woods it was about as welcome as the Principal stepping out just in time to catch your antics. So much for sneaking up on them in this snow...at least we had a good ambush spot and maybe they would be so busy rooting/foraging they wouldn't be able to hear us.

As quietly as we could, we made our way to our spot hidden a few yards from "the hole". A cursory search of the area quickly told us all the corn we had rebaited with had made it through the entire night untouched. Apparently, every critter in town had felt the storm coming and had holed up to see it through. The snow still fell...whispering faintly as it fell through the cold air only to land in the powder at our feet to become a blanket of white silence. I love the way the woods sound during a snowfall...the depth of quietude is intoxicating.

We settled into our hide and did our best to quickly pack down the snow at our feet and where we would need to move to shoot. To our left the river gurgled and sputtered in a muted voice....the snow around us absorbing its laughter as the muddy water mocked the starkly contrasting flakes that fell into it's depths... to disappear without a trace.

 

We sat a while as the snow began to pile on the tops of heads and our immobile arms and shoulders. I remember Chase's red face and his smile as he too realized how special the moment was. How I pity those remain constantly locked inside the false reality of civilization...of those who never get to experience the hundreds of sensations that cannot be fully explained or described unless you are graced by God with the opportunity to sit at the edge of a muddy river in Texas, during a freak snowstorm with a fine bow in your hands, a sharp broadhead on  a straight shaft, and your son smiling at your side. How fortunate I am indeed.

The minutes ticked by into an hour, maybe more, but eventually the predator's voice in my stirred me from my stillness. For whatever reason, I knew nothing would come of this ambush...we would need to take the game to the game.

We walked ever so slowly, glassing and scanning with our eyes for any movement that should so easily stand out in the whitewashed landscape. It really was a beautiful area and the snow only increased it's appeal.

 

 

[Guru]

Good stuff JC!!!  You are without a doubt a top notch storyteller...I wish I had your way with words bud      


Sorry to leave anyone hanging with my part of the story and pix....today I'll get caught up...been away for three days....

[K.S.TRAPPER]

I wondered Curt    

Everybody is doing a great job with this one, Great picks and story telling I'm enjoying this    

Tracy

[Gary Logsdon]

Barry flagged me down on the road one day and yelled. "Hey, I found you a hot spot if you want it; it's on the north side of the "McFadden Crossing."  Very funny . . . I can't repeat here what I called him:^)

[straitera]

Wow! You folks make me proud to be a bowhunter & more proud to be Texan! Stuperfundicatious (as GW might say)! More stories folks. JC, you have telling talent.

[Guru]

Like JC said earlier, Skyler and I got a chance to hunt with Thomas on Wed. afternoon. Thomas' area that we hunted was just perfect for a spot and stalk. He'd been corning a couple roads that looped back around to a common spot. Skyler got one, and I got the other.

Here's a few pix of the area I hunted. A lot flatter than where we'd been hunting. With great close access to the river.....  
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Most of the corn had been clean-up by the time I started my hunt, and he'd just corned earlier in the day!

Tracks of hogs, deer, turkeys, and coons littered the sandy roads.

Although I didn't see any hogs, I was grateful to Thomas for the invite to hunt with him and a chance to see another part of this incredible ranch...thanx again bud!

[Guru]

Of course, as you know by now we woke up to this the next morning!

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Thanks to Rob, and the use of his "beast of a truck" we were able to hunt Thursday.  For anyone who's never had the privilege of meeting Robtattoo, you owe it to yourself to try to sometime. I guarantee it'll be worth any effort it takes to do so. He's just an awesome guy that I'm proud to call a friend...Thank you again bud for helping us out!

Out into the Great White..."south"??
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[Guru]

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[Mint]

Look like a great time even with the weather gods against you.

[JC]

Great pics Curt! Man, those pretty, clean roads must have been somewhere else than the ranch we were on    :rolleyes:      

Back to my story...

The noise we made walking in the snow was more trace than I wanted to leave. Chase and I would creep along, scanning and glassing...listening. Only the hush of falling snowflakes, the burble of the river to one side and the "SQEEEAAAKKKK" of snow underfoot. We stopped frequently and sat, hoping to see a pig before they heard us.

 

On one such pause, a single coyote made a bark/yip/howl not too far from where we sat. Within seconds a another joined it....then another pair in another direction, further off...then a trio...then another...then another. I'll bet there were 10-15 coyotes howling from different positions from 9 to 3 oclock from where we knelt. Chase turned with a grin as wide as Texas and said "That, is the coolest thing I've ever heard. Kind of scary, but still fun at the same time." Talk about priceless moments...the snow is falling, the coyotes are howling, we knelt side by side in the snow just listening to their eerie, lonesome songs.

It was hard to capture with my little camera but if you turn your sound all the way up, you can get some of it. Trust me, nothing could do justice to the serenade we were blessed with.

 

Eventually we made our way to the point we felt was far enough but not to far as to not encroach on Don, Sky, and Curt. The river's stark contrast against the snow only seemed to increase as the snow continued to fall.

 

 

[wv lungbuster]

Wow more great pics.

[JC]

We turned and slowly made our way back, walking in our previous tracks in an attempt to diminish the noise of our passage. Nothing had passed through since we had...time was growing short for our meeting back at the truck but we still had a few hours to look around, just in case we might stumble on a one-eyed, blind, deaf, and suicidal pig.

We crossed a few more tracks downriver of our favorite spot. Sometime recently a hog had spent considerable time rooting not more than 30 yards from where we sat the first night. The tracks had not yet filled with snow. I laughed to myself at the irony....once again, we "zigged" when we should have "zagged".
 
 

As Chase tracked the pig with high hopes of at least seeing one today, the trail turned away from the river and back towards the road. Picking our way through the thinning brush, I glassed lest we bust the hog out of his serenity while rooting or taking a nap. As we got further from the cover of trees, I thought I heard a truck running on the road....not long after I could see the road and Skyler standing on the truck box of Rob's truck...looking in the direction of "the corral."

Apparently, Don had the same idea I had. The temps had only risen a few degrees but enough that the snow was now slush...in the mud it was going to be interesting getting back to camp up and down those hills. In the process, they decided to check out the corral and see if there was any sign...of course, you saw the devastation in the pics posted earlier. Seemingly every pig in 5 miles had decided to converge on the corn at that site while we were all somewhere else. Welcome to hunting 101...where no matter what you think you know, you'll soon realize you don't know that much at all.

Curt smiled and said "I think it's time to go get some snakes..." that was about all the impetus we needed. We folded ourselves back into Rob's truck, slid it into 4wheel low and crawled our way back up the mountain, through the mud, and back down out to the area where we initially found the snake pit.....

[JC]

Now I'll preface this next part for those that may be offended with the upcoming pics: I'm not a bloodthirsty killer that hunts out and kills poisonous snakes for the thrill of it. None of those in our party fall into that category. While some feel there should be a live and let live mindset for all those things you don't "eat", I've spent my life around farms in one fashion or another and "pests" can come in many different forms. If cattle is your lively hood, I know for certain a young calf hammered by a big snake is going to have issues. Not to mention the trouble they can cause to the cowboys and horses that work those cattle.   In addition, when we initially showed the pics to the Gene and Barry, they were adamant about the rancher wanting the snakes gone, albeit the slim chances of us encountering them in the current weather. I will also say that we wanted the skins for use as bow backing and integration into knife sheaths, armguards and the like. This is not a whining justification to make us feel better for the killing of these snakes, it's simply some background for my personal mindset and a portion of which was shared by those with me at the time (I cannot speak fully for them and their motivations).

So.....

Arriving at the hole we looked around the abandoned barn area and scoped out a pole and some heavy wire. Using paracord I keep in my pack, we lashed the wire to the pole and Curt commenced to "fishing"....while Chase and Sky stood ready with the shovel and a hatchet for quick dispatch of the snakes. Don and I did the camera work.

I have movies, but fear they may be too graphic for those with sensitivity towards the killing of these snakes. The end result was I believe 18.

 

So I will let Don and Sky tell the story in their pics as further detail...I know Don got some awesome shots of the expedition....

Don?

[hunt it]

If it slithers Kill It! Good job guys on the snakes. Looks like you guys had a great trip even with all mother nature could throw at you. Some good trad gang buddies is all it takes. Thanks for sharing your adventures.

[Guru]

Tryin' to get caught up with Joe on the story....

On the way over the "mountain", we stopped at one of the many overlooks to check out things below us. With all the snow it was easy to see that the "pig bomb" hadn't been detonated yet. I sure was hoping that the hogs had found it.

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 We had others plans today anyway as JC has already spoke about. We would would split, Joe and Chase hunting one end.  Don, Sky, and me  hunting the other end, and working our way toward Joe and Chase.

 Just like Joe has already said, the snow was not what you'd think it would be as far as sneaking around. Try as we might, toe first, heel first...no matter how we tried to step....it was disappointingly noisy!

 But we moved slow and used our eyes as much as possible. Although the noise factor had increased with the snow to our disadvantage, the snow would without a doubt increase our eye-site!

We hadn't gone very far along the river when I saw a hog and got Skyler and Don's attention. Then there was 2...3...4...5......then a smaller 6th pig could be seen!  

 Only one problem.....they were on the other side of the river!!!!!
  We watched for a while, and paralleled them while hunting our side of the river, but soon lost them as they went on with their daily quest to find something to eat.

A little further along Don came upon some tracks of a rooting hog from earlier in the morning...
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The whole "hunting in the snow in TX thing" was kinda surreal. If not for the occasional prickly pear sticking out of the snow to remind us we were in fact still in TX, it felt more like a hunt in CO. or WY....it was an experience I wouldn't have even come up with in my imagination...very cool!
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Spending time with Don and Skyler is always very special and something I look forward to doing a lot more of!

Skyler seems to have grown up right before our eyes here on TG...
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[bill langer]

Great pics and story telling by all. JC and Guru, you fellas have a gift.

JC - no excuses at the top of the food chain,
unless you want to end up at the bottom. GOOD WORK!

[JC]

Curt reminded me (getting old I guess), I left out the part where we saw pigs across the river too. I saw a sounder that had a sow that I'll bet would have gone 300#. How do I know it was a sow from that far a way? Well, if a 300#+ boar had turned it's hind end to me like the sow did, you would CERTAINLY know it was a boar.      Seeing those pigs across the river was the fuel the guys would need for their trip to the other side on Friday....but I'll wait for the others to tell that one.

[DW]

O.K. Everyone....I was kinda worried about how the Snake "Havesting" would be viewed but he hit it on the head......We don't mean to upset anyone and they will be put to good use including several St. Judes Projects....Here goes.......