TOPIC:

I had the opportunity to head down to Texas for some hog hunting on a 44,000 acre ranch that is actively managed for QDM. The owner wants as many hogs killed because of the damage they cause to his property.
We arrived on Friday afternoon and scouted several locations. The first night didn't produce any hogs, but I saw more deer then I was able to count.
We had horrible weather for Feb which included snow, freezing rain, sleet, rain, fog and unusually cold temps. This was not ideal hog hunting weather! The hogs were not as active as they should have been, but neither were the scorpions and snakes.
Sat night I sat in a blind where we saw lots of sign. Around 6:20 50-70 hogs came out of the woods into the feeder. I took aim with a 30-06 with night vision at the largest on. I fired and the pigs scattered. I went to fire another round, but the rifle was jammed. I picked up the AR-10 and started lighting up the group. I hit 5 pigs before they were gone.
When the dust settled down I went to inspect the carnage. On hog was dead under the feeder with a complete pass through through both eyes, and there was a blood trail heading away from me. I followed the trail 20 yards to the wood line where I was charged by an extremely angry pig. I let loose with a few rounds and retreated. This was the one I was aiming at at the feeder. The 30-06 round went completly through her before striking the second pig in the eye.

I then went to the area where I opened up with the AR-10 and found several blood trails. Because I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed I decided to follow the blood trail into some thick woods in the dark. Not 20 yards in i heard a horrible noise and a huge balck blur came charging at me, I let loose with a few rounds and ran like a little girl.

Common sense finally took over, and I decided to wait until the morning to continue my tracking. When we arrived we found several blood trails. We followed the closet one where I was charged the night before. All of a sudden this pig jumps up and charges, I brought my gun up, but my friend Rich dropped her in her tracks 5 yards in front of me. We found a ton of blood but only recovered 3 pigs.

That night Rich and Rudy(our host) doubled up and killed a 200 plus pound boar.

The rancher was happy to have a few less pigs on his property, and we all had a blast. Rudy owns a house down there, and I will be going back at least two more times before he heads back home to Michigan.

Wow!

Looks like a blast. Where were you at? Was there a fee to hunt the ranch?

We were hunting about 60 miles east of Austin. Our friend Rudy has been hunting and staying at the ranch as a guest for years. 3 years ago he bought a house across from the main ranch.I am able to hunt there for free with Rudy.
These ranchers hate the pigs and would like to see them all gone. Rudy has been killing about 125 a year, but he said the population continues to rise.

That is so interesting. I know there are ranchers importing hogs from other ranches in Texas so they can have another source of income. Last time I was in the Austin area I checked on a few places and the fees ranged from 300 to 500 bucks to kill a hog, depending on the size. No one ever said come out and kill all you want. Made me wonder if the hog crisis is as big a deal as we are led to believe.

No one is importing hogs...if they are then they are stupid. Why would anyone pay to hunt them? I can name a dozen public places you can hunt them for free. You have to kill 70-80% of them a year to keep the population from growing