Well, I thought I better do an overview of our recent Pig-Gig. Barry and I finally got home the other day. I was glad to get home for sure. I started to read the multiple threads already posted but finally gave up in frustration when I soon realized there were so many photos. The pics I saw were excellent but unfortunately we can't get high speed here and I have to rely on dial-up, which loads photos at a snail's pace. Page one (of twenty) from the first week thread took my computer almost an hour to load those few photos. When I did the math, I soon decided I better wait until I go somewhere I can get high speed to enjoy the rest. In summary, the Texas weatherman threw just about everything he had at us. Yes, we had fun, but doing our thing was not easy and stressful. Most Februarys in Texas are fairly mild and dry. Last year we hunted not far from Lambshead when it hadn't rained a drop since October! This trip gave us two snow storms up to 5", heavy rains, swollen rivers, standing water everywhere, two hail storms, heavy thunder/lightning, fog, temperatures that went from 20 degrees to 70 degrees, some of the worst mud imaginable, very deep road ruts, very poor cell phone service where multiple guys had to walk miles to get help getting out stuck vehicles. We even needed a bulldozer to pull us out one time. I feel we need to apologize for some of the curveballs Lambshead threw at us. We paid a lot of money up front for access. We had to get several million dollars in liabilty insurance and then had to ask everyone to sign release forms. They told us we could use two houses and two camp grounds. When we got there, we discovered we couldn't even get to either campground in the mud. The two houses were twelve miles apart. One of them had a resident skunk living indoors that sprayed before he left and voided eight beds. The other house had four beds but no running water. We had to rent a camp house from a neighboring rancher. The place was nothing special but the guy wanted $500 per NIGHT for four weeks (do the math!) until we "struck a deal" with him at $4,000. Then we paid the state owned campground over $1500 for use of their facilties. Thank goodness they were there to help. Wild hogs are always a challenge. They are smart animals to begin with and get smarter when they realize they are being hunted. They moved a lot and were always moving at a trot. Our IR trail cameras showed lots of pigs. Many areas had pigs one day and not the next with hunting pressure. We moved three guys from one big area with little fresh sign. A week later we put three guys back in the same area. They killed ten hogs. Barry and I didn't get to hunt as much as we wanted, which is no big deal considering we are there longer than everyone else. Its often a no-win situation for us. If we kill pigs, some people can't help but think maybe we saved the hotspots for ourselves, when in reality, we just took whatever was left over and often gave up our stands to share with others. Considering the conditions, you guys did pretty darn good on Lambshead. Barry counted over 80 dead hogs I think. The three "top guns" were Volney Nash, Rich Charles and Mike Schwister with six hogs each. Rob Burnham and Kevin Shea both killed two hogs with one arrow, a feat not easy to pull off. By the way, I want to personally thank Kevin Shea and Thomas Burns (Hogdancer) for arriving two days early to help us organize, learn the road system, solve some of the housing/camping issues and help Barry and I put guys in various far off hunting areas. All in all, it was a learning experience for sure. We'll never again hunt any ranch two weeks in a row. I'm also going to strongly suggest 4x4 vehicles from now on in case of rain or mud. Those who fly in need to insist on 4x4 rental trucks at the airport or keep looking. We soon learned that when they say "we'll try but we can't promise a four wheel drive" that actually translates to "you ain't got a prayer for a 4x4." Speaking for Barry too, we want to thank you guys for giving it your best shot(s) and making the most of the nasty weather conditions. We met some new friends and saw lots of old faces. Traditional bowhunters maintain a special bond among the breed that makes a noticeable and much appreciated difference. Hopefully next year we can do it again under better conditions. We are already planning at least one road trip this summer back to Texas to check out three new ranches. I can't predict where we'll be but I promise we'll try to iron out as many wrinkles as possible to minimize stress and maximize the pig body count, both dead and alive. Thank you one and all for hanging in there with us.
Topic: Pig-Gig Final Overview (Read 584 times)
