Pig Gig week 3 (more snow)

[paleFace]

Week 3 of the Pig Gig has come and gone.  It was another week with difficult weather conditions for pig hunting to say the least.  We had snow on Tuesday, high winds and cold for most of the week. There were some hogs taken however. I'll be back with the story and pictures from my hunt soon.

not the snow the week 1 gang had, but it was enough to cause the pigs to hunker down.
 

[jcar315]

[xtrema312]

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Looking forward to stories and pics.

Wait is that a hog I see in your pic?

[Fletcher]

Having been there for week 2, I watched the weather and saw it coming.  Not the usual winter for sure.  Glad to hear that some pigs were taken, tho.  A little snow shouldn't stop some of the Yanks.

[Matty]

Seriously What was with the weather this year??? It would have Been really Great hunting had the weather been more favorable..

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Lookin' forward to this one unwinding.

[mancole5]

Can't wait! Bring on the stories!

[twitchstick]

     Thank for sharing.

[paleFace]

I'm wishing I was back in Texas already.... anyway I'll spare you the details on the travel to Texas, same old stuff when trying to fly any where these days.  Somehow I missed the notice from said airway informing it's passengers of the new baggage size policy. Old rule was 72" length new rule 60".  Needless to say I was 1# over weight so I had to removed some items and stuff them in my carry on. Nothing I could do however on my duffel bag that measured 63".  Cost $49. extra.

Not to ruin my trip, I paid the fee with a smile on my face and continued on. We arrived in camp just as the sun was sitting.

 

Not long after we arrived the Twins (Barry & Gene) showed and they gave us our assigned area and told of the plans to meet in the a.m. to get a quick tour of the area.  Sharing camp for this hunt: Ron Tandy from Florida, Bill Terry from Connecticut, Bo Slaughter & his son Buddy and myself.  The rest of the hunters had been scattered around the ranch due to the previous weeks weather.  John Nash did join us on the final night.  

The rest of the evening was spent unpacking and getting our gear ready for the first day of hunting. Some where in there we gulped down some chow. If memory serves me we had Chicken & Dumplings.

Day 1
we meet with Barry & Gene around 7:30 and followed them out to our hunting area. They showed us some bait sites and we helped them pull some tree stands and freshened up all of the active baits that had been started in the weeks before. Due to all the snow and rain in the previous weeks many of the areas had not had very much hunting pressure.  We didn't see any hogs while getting our tour of the hunting area but there was plenty of good sign and spirits were high and we were all chomping at the bit to get in the bush.  

After our tour of the area Bo, Buddy and I hiked to the top of the highest point in our assigned area to get a better look at the terrain and lay of the land. The peak you see in the background is where we hiked. The base of this hill runs right down to the base of the Brazos River.

   

After glassing for close to an hour we started down on the west side of the hill where I found the first of several sheds. Then we headed back to camp for some lunch and to prepare for the evening hunt. Next time we will have topos of the hunting area. The maps provided by the ranch were, well let's just say not worth the paper they were printed on.

Back in our hunting area Buddy was dropped off first. He was hunting a site across from Stone House that the Twins had showed us. It was very active and the wind was right for it to be hunted. After dropping off Buddy, Bo and I headed towards the river crossing (we named it that).  As we were coming up on a cattle gate Bo said "Pigs".  I stopped the vehicle and we watched as the made their way down into a draw, crossed the bottom and headed up the opposite side. The wind was wrong for us to follow and even if we had, I doubt we could have caught up to them.

We quickly crossed the cattle guard and made our way up on tip of a ridge that parallel to the direction the hogs were traveling. Once on top we were able to see them just for a second as they dissapeared into a thicket. Looking at the terrain we decided if they continued in the same direction they would most likely cut through a saddle about 300 yards to our North West. So grabbed our bows and beat feet behind the ridge that separated us, down through the bottom then we had to climb over the barbed wire fence and travel along the edge of the thicket just below the crest of the ridge.

As we made our way around the ridge to the saddle there were several well used game or cattle trails that were used by game to exit the thicket. Bo took up a position behind some brush at the first trail and I went about 50 yards farther just past the next game trail. The wind was perfect blowing from the draw up to us. If the pigs were coming this way we would have the advantage.

[DHR]

       

[paleFace]

Now the wait began.  There were an infinite number of directions these hogs could take, but I was holding my position. Something inside told me this was right so I tucked in behind a clump of brush and waited. The wait wouldn't be long.

The wind was blowing in gust and then would settle down for a bit then gust again.  During a lull a flock(does flock work with doves)of doves got up about 75 yards from my position. They had erupted from the thicket as if startled by something. Knowing the hogs had been traveling in this direction I felt certain the doves had been spooked by the group of pigs. Then I heard a few sticks pop and I went on red alert. I could hear them coming up from the bottom headed right to us. If they stayed on course they would exit the thicket right between Bo and I and we would both most likely have shots.

My eyes raced peering into the tangle trying to make out the animals. Then suddenly there was the first pig, only he had side hilled and was now paralleling us moving to my left. I hunkered down and frantically tried to signal Bo to move to my location. He had been watching the commotion below and hadn't seen me yet waving him on. At this point I made a move to try and flank the hogs and Bo saw my move and he headed my way.

I was about half way between my current position behind cover and the next available cover when a large white pig with back spots popped out into the open about 30 yards below me. All I could do is drop to my knees and hope he hadn't seen me. By now Bo had made his way to my previous location, but I was caught in the open with nothing more than a clump of tall grass about knee high between me and the group of hogs.

I was peering from under my boonie cap watching the top of the white pigs back when I noticed he had turned and was moving straight towards my location. I slowly laid my upper body over forward so that I was now lying flat on my stomach with my knees tucked under me. I was locked in on this pig watching it's every move now from behind the small clump of grass that was all that separated us. At 20 yards it stopped and I could hear it sucking in air trying to get a whiff of danger. Then it grunted and started to move forward towards me again. At 15 yards it stopped again to take in the air currents.

The pig knew there was danger or did it. Again it moved forward getting to within 10 to 12 yards of me. I could sense the shot but I was not in the best position to shoot and I knew I needed to sit upright at some point in order to get above the clump of grass for a shot.  As the hog started to turn to it's left i began to draw my bow while lying flat. I made it to about half draw then slowly started to raise my upper body for the shot. I was almost at anchor the hog had had enough and it wheeled around swapping ends and in an instant was out of sight taking the rest of the pigs with it in a wild display of grunts and squeals. I stood trying to catch a glimpse of the retreating swine, but all I could see was the dust they left behind and hear the crashing and breaking of branches.

I looked over towards Bo with a big smile on my face, my heart still pounding from the close encounter. That was cool! That is exactly what I live for, those moments when it's just me and my quarry one on one. The pigs won this round, but it was only the first evening of a 5 day hunt and I would get my chance for redemption. Bo and I made our way back to the vehicle talking about the stalk and how we had done just about everything perfect except making the shot. There were no what if's, the pigs had survived thanks to the awesome senses god gave em.

I now had a score to settle with this white pig and it was game on. Pig 1 / bowhunter 0

[Biggie Hoffman]

[Biggie Hoffman]

Changed my mind....I don't know Rob that well 8-)

[hunt it]

Good story, you have us captivated keep it up!  

[Guru]

Originally posted by Biggie Hoffman:
Changed my mind....I don't know Rob that well 8-)

[FerretWYO]

good story so far Rob.

[paleFace]

By the time we got back to the vehicle it was getting late in the afternoon  and with only a few hours of daylight left we decided to forgo taking the chance of running hogs off of one of the bait sites and instead we would make a drive through our area hoping to catch some pigs out cruising.

Buddy had been sitting a bait that was just 2 draws over from where we had made the stalk so we were hoping they might be making their way past him. To keep from running them out of the area we circled around and then cleared the area. The rest of the afternoon came and went with no more pigs sighted.  Buddy had seen hogs but no shots were presented. Back at camp dinner was on the stove and we were reliving the days events. The weather forecast for Tuesday was not looking all that good, but we kept a positive out look.

[JohnV]

Don't forget, Thursday night is all you can eat shrimp night in town.  Guess where the twins will be that evening?

[paleFace]

John you are correct, Thursday night we did hit the Bee Hive for all the shrimp we could eat. We closed the place down.

Any way Monday was all but over, everyone was asleep before their heads even hit the pillow. When we awoke at 0' dark-thirty Tuesday morning the white stuff was already covering the ground. There was about an inch on the ground by the time we rolled out of camp headed to our hunting area.

 

We checked on the 6 different sites we had going we decided that with the wind blowing 20 knots and snowing a blizzard that the pigs were probably smarter than us and hunkered down for the duration. Well being the die hard bowhunters that we are we decided to climb back up to the top of the mound and do some glassing. If I remember right it was about 24 degrees with the snow blowing side ways. Perfect weather!

 

 

We made our way up to the top which was well worth the effort, the view with the snow covered terrain was beautiful. While glassing on the western side of the hill (the only place the wind was not hammering us), Bo found the match to the shed I had recovered the previous day. The buck had dropped both within about 20 yards of each other.  

   

We were able to tolerate the wind and snow for about an hour and then we had had enough so we decided to seek warmer surroundings and headed for the vehicle.  

Buddy making his way back down off the mound with the Brazos river in the background.