Hunt

I’ve heard a lot of nasty stuff about feral pigs in Texas. They’re not native and their population growth is akin to rabbits or rats. Hogs are capable of reproduction at 9 months and they can have two litters a year. Apparently the hog population in Texas is 2,000,000. They also demolish crops, they ‘root’ around and make new growth near impossible. When growing stuff is hard enough in this soil type (clay) wild hogs are the bane of many a farmer. 

Still, I’m not sure they deserve to die for it, but I did shoot two last saturday. It was the first time I’ve hunted. Gary and I got into the first blind on a ranch near Piedmont, TX about 5am. A large boar appeared like a shadow in the dark about 6am and Gary shot and killed it. We saw a skunk, a bobcat, two cardinals and a bluebird but we didn’t see another hog until 4pm when we moved to another blind. A group of 20-30 (herd?) came out of a timberline and trampled down right in front of our blind. I shot a medium-sized sow with a rifle and Gary shot a sow with a muzzle loader. After tracking them down to their retreat, we returned to the blind and waited. Again, a large group came down from the same spot in the timber but this time stayed on the other side of the pond (about a 190 yards away). Gary noticed one limping and said if they got closer I should take a shot at the injured hog. They didn’t get closer but I took a shot anyway. This is the picture:

Afterward, we went back to the lodge where a cowboy and the owner quartered the hogs while we drank beer and talked about the hunt. My nerves were still settling down and my face was wind-burned.