TEXAS HIGH TIME, PART THREE

TEXAS, HIGH TIME

PART THREE

 

The next morning we were looking for hogs, the North American feral hog comes in many guises, some are almost true wild boar while others are almost pure domestic pig breeds, with most of them some where in between, our method would be the same as for the javalina, but Clay didn’t think we had much of a chance until evening.  We came to a very over grown section of road, and there were hog tracks everywhere, Clay flicked the switch and the spin feeder sprung to life, dispensing corn all over the soft sandy dirt road.  By the time we headed back for a late breakfast we hadn’t seen a single hog, we ate heartily and settled down for a long siesta, until the shadows were longer and the sun was sliding down the western sky.  At around 4PM we made our move, slowly cruising the desert roads looking for any sign of activity at our bait sights, the normal characters had been busy, deer and javalina had cleaned most of the corn up, so we replaced it with more of the same. 

 

As day light turned into twilight we parked the truck and quietly walked to a position where we could see down an over grown track, it was the one we had seen the most hog activity in that morning.  As it got almost to dark to see with the naked eye we spotted movement, looking through our binoculars we could see a group of hogs feeding on the corn.  Clay pointed out the biggest animal and I drew a deadly bead on it, I squeeze the trigger and down it went.  Photographs taken the hog was loaded up on the pick up, on the way back Clay switched on his spot light, and we soon saw some eye shine in the distance, Clay said it’s a racoon go ahead and shoot, I jumped out of the truck and fired at a spot just below the eye shine, I had my first racoon.  Over the next few days and nights we were to see many more racoons.

 

 

The next morning was almost a rerun of the previous one, we were up early driving the now familiar roads, spin feeding all the likely looking spots and a areas that had seen a lot of over night activity.  We did see a pair of coyotes, but by the time Clay had stopped the truck they had made it into cover.  The afternoon to was devoid of any hog sightings, as evening drew in we again got our selves into position to watch an area where there had been some recent activity.  Right on schedule just as the last rays of light were fading the hogs appeared, we quickly looked them over with our binoculars and picked out the largest boar.  I swapped my binoculars for my rifle and now watched through my scope for a chance to shoot.  I was using a Blaser R93 rifle in .243 Win with a 3 – 10 Swarovski scope, the ammunition was a home load firing an 85 grain Sierra hollow point.  I considered the .243 Win a little marginal for hogs especially if you shoot for the shoulder, but I had all ready decided that I would only take neck shots, and for that the .243 is very capable.  I had brought the .243 with me because I felt it was the best compromise for a hunt comprising of hogs, javalina and predators, e.g. coyotes, foxes, racoons, bobcats etc.  A couple of minutes later and shooting from a sitting position I fired at the largest boar, he dropped where he had been standing.  We loaded him into the truck and returned to camp, where I had Clay take a couple of pictures of me with my hog, before he got to work skinning and jointing it. 

 

 

 

Later the same night we set off for a few hours of predator calling.  I was given the job of driving while Clay worked the lamp and called from a raised platform he had attached to the back of the pickup.  He would direct me by flicking the beam of light in the direction he want me to drive, a flash over the wind screen and I would stop, another and I cut the engine and join him on the platform.  We used mouth calls and electronic calls to coax coyotes and foxes into rifle range; I particularly wanted a bobcat, but try as we might we never got one, still there is always next time! 

 

The remainder of the trip I hunted turkeys by day and lamped for predators by night.  We hunted on two other ranches and covered some 500-road miles; I ended up hunting on the banks of the Rio Grande close to the town of Sanderson in order to get the final trophy of a great hunting adventure. The accommodation like the temperatures had their highs and lows, but that said it just added to the whole experience, the sport and the level of effort on the other hand were a constant high, Clay pulled out all the stops attempting to put me on quality game.  I can highly recommend Pope Brothers Outfitters for their level of service and for the vast amount of land that they are able to hunt over; in the end it was this that gave me a chance to fill my tags.  In the second part of this story I recall my turkey hunting in South Texas, in Jakes and Hens.