Wanting to do another pig hunt this fall and would like some suggestions that meets my criteria.

The wife will be coming along, so I would prefer the box/elevated blind type. She would like to be able to photograph some exotics/African game in addition to the hunting. I would also prefer to be able to be dropped off at the blind and then picked back up. I don't want a "guide" to keep me company while waiting on pigs to show up. Thompson's lodge does it exactly how I prefer, but I've also heard that the pig hunting is on the decline....
so Thompson's is out.

I did give the Ox ranch a call, but "your guide is to stay with you at all times" and the blind has TV, air conditioning, a bar, and a poker table...GTFO.....

Anybody know a place?

I hear good things about these folks.

https://www.huntsintexas.com/

Thanks for the link, Ed.

I think some of "the boys" are heading there soon for axis.

Yep and I'm at t-minus 29 days until I'm back in Texas hunting there. Can't wait.

What are you hunting? Im headed back in 2 weeks...

Four of us from the Hog Hunt group plus Stoney G. are hunting Axis plus maybe some night time predator work. My 6.5x300 Weatherby might not be fur friendly.

Very cool! Enjoy!

Im checking out new places to pig hunt, leaving the axis alone this year, and looking to fill the freezer with nilgai...

Good luck on your hunts, kill all the pigs in Texas please!!!

Nilgai is great eating.

Keep us posted on your hunt.

Some outfitters want you to use heavy ordinance. I don't think there's a Nilgai walking that wouldn't get whacked out by an '06 or such with suitable bullet.

Placement, of course, is important and they do tend to run.

DF

I hope you are right....Ive only killed one nilgai, and that was with a .30-06..absolutely DRT with a heart shot.

Im taking my .275 Rigby this time...Nilgai are about the size of an elk, and I wouldn't hesitate to shoot an elk with it, and indeed have done just that a few times....

Texans are often under the impression their game has Kevlar skin, but I've yet to experience that.

That round with the right bullet will do the trick. I know that. You know that.

But, depending on your outfitter,....

Not saying those Texicans are a hard headed bunch....

Had a Nilgai outfitter carrying a .340 Wby, thinking anything less wasn't adequate. I'm sure that's just a select sample of Texicans, no reflection on the good ones I know....

What bullet are you considering?

DF

150 gr. Trophy Bonded Bear Claw.


Ive been using 150 gr NBTs and they've shot clean through critters up to #300, so Im thinking a stouter bullet MIGHT work....

That's a great choice from what I've read about that bullet.

Midway had them, but of course, they're now on BO or not available, as is about everything else.

I would think your outfitter would agree, or if not, maybe you need to find another outfitter.

DF

ingwe,

With a good hit. you will have no problems with your 275 Rigby on Nilgai. Rio7

Pretty much what I figured. As I said I wouldn't ( and havent) hesitated to use it on elk...

What's your outfitter saying about round and bullet?

DF

Ingwe, what part of TX are you going to on your hunt? I would assume central or south.

They know me from a previous hunt, and havent even asked what I'm gonna use....

Gonna hunt some pigs in N. Texas around Graham and breckenridge, then hunt Nilgai down south of Pearsall.

Graham isn't too far from me, maybe about a 3 hour drive or so. Pig hunting should be good there. I know as you go north and west of there an hour or two it is some of the best pig hunting in the state.

I am NW of Graham in the SE corner of the panhandle, just above Childress. We will probably start having peanuts being planted next week, for sure by week after. It will be all out war on the pigs with thermal then. I will hunt a lot. There is about a 2 week window just after planting when the peanuts are very prone to pig damage. No idea if they plant peanuts down by Graham. I don't think so though, I imagine the ground is too tight. Peanuts have to be grown in a more sandy soil so you can dig them and harvest them.

The Nilgai will be fun for sure. I would like to to that sometime. It is going to have to be several years in the future though.

Sounds like you are going to have a fun trip.

I bet the pigs go nuts over peanuts. That would be fun shooting them at night with thermal and suppressed 308. Mine sounds like a BB gun.

You’ll do good Ingwe. Take plenty ammo. I have a ranch in that area. Too damn many pigs. We shoot with helicopters. Can’t make a dent in the bastards. You may gut even stumble onto some free ranging aoudad in that area. Just like the hogs they’re taking over. Invasive species are hell. Looks like f#cking Mexicans invading are going to be even worse. Happy Hunting

Yeah just got notice today that 'bonus' hogs might be available. They hadn't been on this ranch before now, but of course, they've found their way in. As for the others, I'll be taking spare mags for the Glock, cause its close enough to the border...

Landowner must be naive. Throckmorton, Shackleford, Young counties have been saturated for years. As a retired outfitter I always had no limit on number of hogs my hog hunters could shoot. Only limit I had was I wasn’t going to gut over two of the nasty bastards. They had to gut the rest. Always some sob would shoot a wet nursing sow and want me to gut it. I’d rather gut a gut shot deer. Be careful driving at night, they’re everywhere.

Yeah I hit a small one one night up by Junction...I was driving an apparently all plastic rental car and almost totaled the thing on a small pig...

Even a small pig is bad news on a vehicle.

Whenever I see a big hog lying on the side of the road I am always glad it wasn't me that hit it. They don't give.

There's a video out there somewhere of a new model Mustang hitting a boar in the highway and rolling the pig way down the blacktop, only for it to get up and trot off. They are like little rhinos.

Hitti'n a Pig is like hitti'n a rock the same size, not good. Rio7

Ingwe, some big pigs in that area. Have taken and had hunters kill some over 500 lbs. Don’t know how to post pictures but if interested pm me and I can forward some. A really huge boar over 500 lbs Is one of the most underrated trophies in the hunting world.They’re smarter than a big whitetail and almost totally nocturnal. Most hunters don’t even know what a big hog is because they have never seen one. Hard to find and and kill a really big one. A lot more popular and easy to pay $5000 to kill an Aoudad. I didn’t post in the big pig thread. They wouldn’t believe me anyway.

Texson2, Your right, I don't believe you 500# hogs are few a far between, check the results of the big pig contests all over Texas, some pay big money, you will not see very many pigs close to 500# Rio7

That's a fact!

I've seen some barr hogs shot that would get close, but no true wild boars that hit the 500 pound mark.

I do believe HE may believe it. But I doubt scales and a camera were involved.

Of course, I'm always ready and willing to be proven wrong...

Hell Barry, I was wrong once but it was so long ago I forgot. Rio7

I have felt inadequate in Texas many times while talking to the natives.

It would seem that I'm the ONLY person hunting in Texas who has never killed a 450 pound hog.


But I keep trying...

ingwe, Just go forth and kill pigs, don't worry about all the Texas B.S. If BULLSCHITT, was snow it would be 2' deep on the Border. Rio7

I ain't never killed one anywhere near that big. But I own a scale and that makes it a whole lot tougher. I have killed one that was 325-350, and it was total luck. Only one that I have seen in person that broke 300.

Big pig contest out of Decatur had one last month that went over 400. That guy weighs a lot of pigs for a lot of big name contests, and he said as soon as he saw that pig he knew it was something special. You know how common big pigs like that are when a contest like that runs for a whole month every year, prize money runs in the tens of thousands of dollars, and is usually won by a pig that weighs 350-375.

Seems like that trip from the field to the scale usually knocks 100-150 lbs off a big pig.

This is my biggest in recent memory.

He's a bit shy of the 500 pound mark...

My largest hog, shot at the Boars Nest on OK and only for its size. It dwarfed the 300 pounder on the concrete behind it. Dog handler and owner estimated 500 t0 600 pounds,. I have seen hogs that big and heavier on the Red River near Wichita Falls, so I estimated 600 pounds. WE ate the back strap and some sausage and donated the rest to the local food bank - no complaints.

The owner of the Boars Nest raises hogs for his dogs to chase and for guest hunters like me to shoot. The dogs chase only boars , so this big old feral sow lived long and probably spawned many piglets. He also runs bears in SE OK with his dogs for fun and training.

Here is a typical 300 pounder shot with chase dogs:

crshelton, that's a very big pig, the pigs down here on the border don't get enough to eat to get that big.






We have a digital 2000# scale in our game shed. and we weigh almost every critter we bring in, for our ranch log books, no matter what it is, our current book goes back 21 years, and the biggest pig killed here was, 386#

Thats a big one. Any free range pig, who isn't fenced up and fed daily, over 200 lbs is a really nice one.