For Christmas I booked a hog hunt for myself, son, and son-in-law with Blaine at Hog Creek Outfitters in Desmedona Tx. My brother-in-law ended up going with us also.
We arrived on Thursday afternoon and settled in to our cabin. It was comfortable and clean. 2 rooms with 4 bunks in each.
The weather last Thursday was just awful. Rained part of the day with thunderstorms forecast for the night.
We had a ribeye dinner and headed out with thermal equipped rifles.
Matt (my son) and I hunted together the first night and David and Tyler were together.
We shot 4 hogs during the 40 mph winds and at times torrential rain. It would have been a couple of more, but chose the same hog once and I missed one or two. the other guys shot 5.
Over and over we saw multiple herds of 20+ hogs and many lone hogs.
The last hog of the night, it was raining hard and very windy. Blaine and I hiked to the hog because it was only 1. We set up and 1st shot was in the shoulder. It went down, but tried to get back up. My 2nd shot was goofy and should have been a chip shot. the wind gusted really hard and blew me off target and missed. Finally, put a round in the butt as it was facing the other way.
It was across a fence and we wanted a picture, so left my rifle behind.
When we got to it, it jumped up and tried to attack us. Blaine got it by the back legs, but it was difficult to manhandle due to the back leg being broken.
Fortunately I had a folding buck knife. Got a stab into the lungs as he tried to bite/slash me. Still didn't go down. Finally got behind him and cut a 6 inch gash in the throat and it died.
An exciting 1st night.
The next day, we headed out with dogs and knives and killed 4 more hogs during the day. 1st time for us and it was just awesome.
Awesome supper of thick chops on the grill and we head back out for another thermal hunt.
Better weather, but not as many herds of hogs. Tyler and myself were shooting together and came up on a group of 30+. We killed 1 that was much closer than the others. (others were 300 yards). We left but found no others so came back and the hogs were back in that field. I killed one first shot, then (likely luck) killed another running at 200 yards.
Drove around some more, but finding no hogs we came back to the same field and at about 400 yards there were too many to count.
Matt and David had not gotten a shot opportunity yet though, so we called them over.
After walking 200 yards we had 2 pigs at 100 and the others at 200 yards. all 4 of us lined up to shoot.
I shot the close one on the left, Tyler shot one at 200 yrds, Matt and David both shot the one on the right. Then mayhem and David and Matt each shot another hog at long distance.
The one I had shot was struggling but not dead, so Tyler and Blaine went over and they wrestled him and Tyler dispatched it with a knife.
So, we ended up with 20 hogs all together.
I've killed a few hogs near home and on Texas deer hunts, but never went on a dedicated hog hunt.
The thermal hunting was really cool once I got used to the equipment.
The dog and knife hunt was really awesome to me though.
Blaine and his other guides were all great and obviously loved what they do.
I would highly recommend them for a hog hunt for thermal or dog/knife hunt.
