Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Texas Hogs and Dogs 2006 (pics)

The trip was a total blast as per usual, but the hogs were scarce. The drought has killed most of the pigs, due to starvation. The ground is so hard that they can't root for food, what little food there is. My 8 year old daughter joined me on the trip this time and couldn't wait to get a pig in her sights. She has been a ball of energy from the day I asked her if she wanted to go with me. She is always asking how long before she gets to go deer and elk hunting. She has constantly been asking me, "How many more days until we get to go to Texas?" After a 16 hour drive, we finally arrived at the bunkhouse in Post Texas (thank heavens for protable DVD players and Walt Disney) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

The first morning out was a beautiful blue sky 75 degree day with a slight breeze. We started glassing a HUGE flat from atop a bluff. Right off, I spotted a big boar about a mile away. He was milling around under a quail feeder for the little bit of grain that was left over....."GAME ON"! We jumped in the truck and drove to a low lying area about 400 yards from the hog. Toby, my nephew, Cheyann and I put the sneak on him in the dry brush.

Cheyann was toting a .357 Magnum Marlin lever action rifle with an 18" barrel, with Harris bipods attached. She calls this rifle "hers" and shoots it REALY well. I have a fabulous load worked up for the rifle that shoots the 180 grain Hornady XTP bullet at 1,500 fps. The little rifle shoots consistent 1.5" 5 shot groups at 100 yards with the 4x M8 Leupold mounted on top.

We closed the distance to 90 yards on the hog and could get no closer, due to lack of cover. The brush was too high and thick for her to sit down behind the rifle and still see the hog. Time was running out and the hog knew something was up. She had to stand and shoot, that was the only way it was going to get done, but the rifle is too heavy for her to hold up. I let her rest the rifle in my hand as I kneeled next to her. She fired and a loud "Thwap" was heard. I knew she made the hit, but the boar took off into the brush. Toby fired a quick shot at the hog, but missed. Badger and Mike, fellow Campfire members, saw the whole thing from the truck parked off in the distance. We looked for blood, but found none. Badger and Mike came over and told us the pig ran in a tight circle to our left then dropped about 50 yards from where she shot it. Toby and I were both going in the wrong direction, hence no blood. The ground was so hard, it didn't show any tracks. We caught up to the pig a few moments later and it was still kicking....a little. Cheyann put another round into the shoulder and it was over. We were all hooping and hollering and she was all grins.

Her first shot had fully penetrated the boar and caught the back of the lungs. Her second shot shattered the front shoulders and the bullet was found under the hide on the off side....even after penetrating the thin, yet present 3/4" gristle shield. I am very impressed with this bullet. The hog was thin, but still weighed around 200 lbs. He should have easily gone 300+ in a normal year. He had HUGE tusks, especially for a Texas pig. I couldn't have been a prouder poppa.
(to be continued) Flinch

Flinch, Great tale! Sounds like your young daughter is a true hunter!
The Hornady XTP bullets are excellent..I have occasionally reloaded the 180's and used them in my .357 revolvers..:)
A rifle silhouette type load but if worked up properly they work very well on game.
Now, where are the pics?..:) jim

The rest of the day was spent glassing and looking for pigs....which seemed to have vanished off of the ranch. Last year, they were thicker than flies. What a difference a little water can make.

Day two, we decided to take a ride in a helicopter to look over a good portion of the ranch and to take out a few coyots. The rancher/helicopter pilot is nice enough to provide a 12 guage Benelli tactical shot gun and an AR-15 in .223, plus all the ammo you care to shoot. Boys, this is some serious fun!!!!! Cheyann, My Nephew, Badger and myself armed ourselves for the air assault and lifted off. I was first up in the gunners seat.

Shortly after liftoff, a coyote busted out of the brush. Bob, the pilot, swung the Bell Jet Ranger III to the side and came in low on the dog. I gave the running dog a good lead and laid him flat with a charge of BB shot from the Benelli. Flinch 1, dogs zero. What a way to start a cool crisp morning.

5 Minutes later and a pair of dogs busted out of the brush....."Yehaww.....just like Saigon!" One dog cut left and I rolled him quick, the othe cut hard right and Bob banked the chopper to inercept him before he made it out of sight. Bob is a heck of a pilot and the dogs just don't stand a chance. He cut in on the dogs high side and I rolled him as well. As soon as I rolled him, the shot scared another dog out of the brush. He looked bewildered and didn't know which way to run. He was yoyoing back and forth and I missed him with the first shot, but nailed him on the second. I looked back and the dog was up and running again, although a bit slower. Bob banked the chopper and the dog took a full charge from the Benelli. He didn't move after that.

A few minutes later I spotted a dog drinking from the river and Badger spotted one on a small bluff. We crossed over the drinking dog and he took off on a dead run, but couldn't stand the Benelli. He took a quick dirk nap as Bob circled hard for the dog on the bluff. This dog had definitely been shot at before. He offered quite a challenge. I missed him once, then he cut back the way he came. We over flew him and had to go back and get him. He zigzagged over and over again. I finally got a beed on him and let him have it. What a spectacular end over end pile up! A short time later, another one tired to dogde the shot, but ran right into a charge of BB's. He took a nose dive hard. Flinch 7, dogs 0 as we go into sudden death switching places with Badger on the Benelli.

I am now on the video recorder and Badger is grinning like an ant that just found a Hershy bar. We lifted off and headed for new ground. It was a bit slow for a while when Badger found a yote slinking through the brush. Bob banked the chopper as Badger chased the dog with a steady stream of buck shot. I think he was just having fun and liked shooting the gun <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> On the fourth shot, the yote went tail over tea kettle in a cloud of dust. Ahh....what fun!!!

We consistently saw tons of deer busting out of the brush, which kept the adrenaline charge up, as we hoped they were coyotes. Still, no pigs were found. A long 15 minutes later we flew over Toby and some other hunters that were trying to get an audad on some steep cliffs. A coyote busted out of the ledges and took off down a dry river bed. Badger was right on this time and rolled him with one shot. We kicked out some nice audads, but not the one that they were after. Time ran out for Badger as we landed and put my nephew in the gunners seat.

We flew around for a good 20 minutes with no coyotes being seen. We topped a small ridge that was thick with junipers, suddenly pigs erupted out of the trees. There were about 20 pigs in the herd, mostly very young "ham sandwich" type pigs. Lance handed off the Benelli for the AR in .223 and started chasing the pigs with rapid semi auto fire. There were puffs of dust kicking up all over the place. Lance has never shot an AR, nor ridden in a chopper while trying shoot running darting pigs. He was flock shooting them and we darn near fell out of the chopper laughing. One 90 lb. pig must have ran into a bullet, because it endoed and didn't get up. He switched his sights to another adult and took up chase with a steady trail of dust kicking up behind it with each shot. I swear that AR was on full auto <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> He finally rolled that one as well. We left the rest for seed, dropped an orange marker, so we could come back and pick them up and headed back to the hanger.

Gunning from a chopper ranks extremely high in the fun factor and can't seem to get enough of it.

Here are some pictures of the Rams and the extreme weather conditions. We went from 9 feet of snow in Colorado, to dry desert conditions and 80 degree temps. It was actually snowing when we left the house in Utah. I hated coming home.







The trip down was pretty eventful as well. We saw hundreds of elk, deer, antelope and big horn sheep. We managed to get a few pictures of some nice rams in a little bachelor herd in Colorado.

Here is a picture of the recovered .357 180 grain XTP bullet. It weighs 166 grains. Not bad for traversing a pig at 15 yards.

What about the "Goat Safari"? ...........

Flinch--thanks for the report. My father-in-law and I will be hunting with Toby Joe mid June. Hopefully there are more pigs to be had............

flinch, what powder you using on your 357 magnum?

SOUNDS LIKE FUNNNN

Ahhhhh, Life in Texas is great. Wish I could go to Utah. Did you come in thru Lubbock, Tehoka, Slaton? Were the Sunflowers in bloom yet?


Those were Bighorn's, right?

Looks like you had a great time. TobyJoe seems like the man to hunt with in Texas.

Now that sounds like WAY too much fun.

Tell the young huntress she did a VERY fine job of bringing home the bacon! Nice shooting!!!

yee-haw is right. that young-un of yours reminds me of my baby girl when she was that age - almost 20 years ago.

I'm green with a good kind of envy!.....helo's

It was fun reading about how much fun you had!

Good report.

Scout, you gotta tell about the goat safari. I was playing "head off man" in the truck, remember? Oh wait, that was only on Badgers goat....what did that take...six shots <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> You gotta tell it first hand. I told you I left you some room for a story or two. You have the pictures of the goats. I don't have them downloaded yet. Yes boys, we put the hurt on some Spanish goats as well, but the other boys gotta tell that story.

I was using Accurate Arms #9 powder in the .357.

Blaine, unless they get some water, there aren't going to be many pigs. We hunted and glassed hard and didn't see any, other than the one herd from the chopper and the one my daughter got.

Toby is good company, if you can get past the white legs and the white.....well, only when the moon comes out <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Flinch

Reloader, we went through Lubbuck and yes, those are Rocky Mountain big horn sheep. Flinch

Very cool photo of the sheep. Now tell the truth did TobyJoe yell "DONT Friggen MISS!" in you ear when you were ready to pull the trigger? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yah. Be sure to mention the "two cue balls in the Crown Royal bag."

badger

There is some truth to the statement..........."they get a little wild after you shoot the first one"........... I'll wordsmith this in another application and post it here soon, something with grammatical correction and spell check.

Badger, I'll send you the pictures and you post them.

Goat Safari 2006

Well as things often have a way of slowing down on adventures, this one certainly did, after Flinch�s prodigy slayed the hog beast, things came to a screeching halt. Nothing moved in the Texas midday sun, Siesta time. It was disappointing start after thirty hours of blacktop and highway signs, the East Coast Boy�s (Me and Badger) were ready to end the life of some poor downtrodden beast, powder needed to burn.
It was after a lunch of �Utah Peanut Butter� (We need an explanation or an apology from the Flinch Camp) sandwiches and leftovers, we set out for some real fun. TobyJoe had called a neighboring ranch about shooting some exotic�s. Corsican�s, Spanish Goats, creatures of great mystery. After traversing the countryside, we arrived at the unnamed ranch where stacks of coyote and bobcat skeletons were lining the driveway. We had a short but instructional conversation with the owner about �shooting Old Billy�s, and be careful of the lambs�, and we were off. Toby was the only one among us to whom this was not a new adventure. He had only two statements of great and profound circumstance����They get a little wild after you shoot the first one� and � I�m not going to touch those things after ya�ll shoot them�, words to live by. Soon we rounded a tank and before us were two herds, perhaps flocks, whatever, two separate groups of horned beast with permission slips, and a reasonable price tag. We all bail out of the truck and Alan dances around attempting to get the perfect angle, shooting position or whatever while I eyeball the other smaller group looking for the Bull. After some disparaging words, I announce enough is enough of this non-since and the 22-250 barks, this angora bearing beast creates a cloud of dust with his last display of life. Like shooting fish in a barrel, bang flop, the vertical run, meat-on-the-dirt, not-to-exciting, my hunt is over. After a 3-foot blood trail, the obligatory photo session and stink fest, load the dead beast in the truck and the HUNT was on. Those long-haired brush dragsters were in the next county.

I will insert a momentary pause for Alan to post his side of the shoot-em-up before I give a true and accurate description of the actual events�����I have photo evidence.

Yea, yea whatever��..we then set off looking for Alan�s Trophy Goat. We turn this way and that thru the thick Texas brush. After a while we find a �herd�, (I�m having trouble conjuring the correct phrase for a mediocre group of these creatures), hiding in the cactus and mesquite forest. Out of the truck we bail, leave the �Utah Gang to protect the conveyance, and to give navigational advice (Flinch and Lance Pointing towards the horizon). Who would have thought that you would have to sneak up on goats. Even had our guide climb trees (tall Shrubbery) to locate our quarry, like one of those African fellows you see on OLN. After several hundred yards of sticker bushes and dirt we �got-em-where-we-want-em�, Badger shoots it in the ass, broadside. Then shoots off a leg or three, we (the guide and I) express our dislike about the noise that a balling goats makes when shot to hell, and he, the shooter, surgically removes other parts of it�s anatomy with the .270�..

Another pause for the defendant to interject some commentary����.. Time�s up!

Alan�s hunt is over in dramatic fashion, the obligatory photo session and stink fest, load the dead beast in the truck and the HUNT was on once again.

I will insert a momentary pause for TobyJoe to post his side of the shoot-em-up before I give a true and accurate description of the actual events�����I have photo evidence.