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  1. #1

    No Fear...Hog Factor

    I grew up hunting but had to put it on the back burner while I got caught up in the rat race providing an income for my family and raising my kids. So I kinda missed the initial hog population explosion but had heard the many stories from my buddies about the big and mean hogs they had been encountering while out hunting. A few years ago I had the opportunity to join a lease with some family members, but had been warned that it was infested with Russians that have a particularly nasty disposition. So needless to say I was a little weary about walking through the dense brush of the river bottoms at night. Until one night that changed my fear to pure adrenaline. It was a typical deer hunt sitting in the blind until just after dark. I hadn't seen anything at the feeder but had heard a large group of hogs snorting and rustling through the underbrush nearby. Because there was a bright moon, I waited for an additional ten minutes after dark to see if they would come to the feeder but to no avail. So I gathered my gear and headed back to the truck without using a light because the moon was sufficient for me to see the trail but not much else. I got about 50 yards from my blind when a group of about ten hogs stepped out on the trail in front of me where I stopped in my tracks. Before I could do anything, more came out behind me effectively surrounding me on a trail in the dark without a light. This being my first "close encounter" with wild hogs my adrenaline starting kicking in.Without enough light to see through my scope, I raised my gun to the largest black spot I could see and pulled the trigger. Hogs scattered in every direction including some I hadn't seen yet. I assumed I had missed as all the hogs had vanished and I saw no visible blood trail, when I finally pulled out my flashlight! Once I made it back to the truck I checked my phone messeges to find that my son-in-law had shot a deer and a hog but that the hog had got back up and run into the brush leaving a solid blood trail. I made my way down to his blind to find him and my nephew getting ready to track into the brush after the wounded hog. They enter into a "hole" in the briar patch struggling to get ten feet in while carrying a lantern and small flashlight. I had a large flashlight and figured with a blood trail as heavy as this, the hog couldn't have gone very far. So I enter behind them. We make our way through the briar and grapevines following this blood trail for nearly 75 yards when we could no longer follow because of the density of overgrowth. I elected to stay where the last blood drops where while they try to make their way around the dense brush and come up from the rear. Once they had started around, I knelt down to shine my light into the opening where the hog had dissapeared. About 20 feet away, my light reflected back from from a set eyes looking back at me, and they were blinking! I yelled to my nephew and s-n-l that I see him and he's still alive! I told them "Bring me your gun!" to which they replied "We didn't bring one!" Holy crap! I'm on my knees in the dark staring face to face with a wounded hog twenty feet away...without a gun. Did I ever feel stupid. Anyways, they made their way back to me and I back tracked out to get some firepower while they waited there near the hog. Before I could get out of the briar patch I heard them yell "We dropped the latern, bring some light too!" Once I was out, I gathered some more relatives, flashlights, another latern, a 9mm, and a .308. Now that I had a location fix on the hog, I knew we could circle the briar patch and come in from the rear much easier and quicker. Once we located where I had left my nephew and s-n-l, we approached the hog with the 9mm and the .308 as backup. My s-n-l fired 2 shots from the 9mm and the hog starting charging. The hog ran past them while he fired a couple more shots. By now the hog is charging straight for me when my s-n-l's father fired the .308 hitting the hog in the shoulder causing it to change direction into another thicket to hide. We could still see it through the brush and fired another .308 in the hog's back. It moved out to the other side and was trying to crawl further until a single 9mm to the head finished this ordeal.In all, it took two hours in the dark, a .270 shot to the head, a 9mm shot to the head, shoulder and body, a .308 shot to the shoudler and back, and final 9mm to the head. But we got the hog! My adrenaline had been maxed for two hours to the point I was shaking from excitement. Since that night, I have had a respect for the hogs but have not been nervous or afraid to encounter them. I wouldn't recommend everyone face their fears this way, but it has surely hooked me on hog hunting for life!

  2. #2
    That is quite a story!!! Sounds like a great experience to me!!!

  3. #3
    I had a similiar situation happen to me after shooting a pig in the ass and he ran into some thick brush just off the road. My hunting partner refused to go after the wounded pig, we could still hear the pig crashing around near the road, so I was determined to bring the pig home and went alone armed with a .22 pump riffle and found the pig extremly upset just a few yeards off the road, I pumped a few more rounds into him and he ran further into the brush, needless to say, I came home empty handed that day!!!

  4. #4
    hell of an experience, it gets your blood a pumpin

  5. #5
    good reading! my wife and I were both laughin.

  6. #6
    Yall should try hunting with dogs down in south Texas!!

  7. #7
    Got alot of buddies that hunt with dogs, specifically pitbulls, but I just dont have the time to train or care for a crew of dogs. Already got a chocalate lab for bird hunting and he is a handfull. Our property in South Texas is really not big enough to run around with dogs also, but I sure would like the opportunity to try it one day.

  8. #8
    All I can say is "WOW" you guys got guts, tracking a wounded hog in dense underbrush at night without a weapon. You are some lucky guys!

 

 

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