PETA lover?

Doesn't that stand for People Eating Tasty Animals???? That's me, I'm in!! In my previous post i wrote about that stampede of hogs and how I was able to knock one down. Well, it's show time for that little piggy.

After hunting all night we got home around 0545 saturday morning, and I still had to clean and wash the meat. I then marinated it with some seasoning and placed part of the backstrap in the refrigerator. I then got to sleep around 0700. It was a long night but worth it.

This afternoon I put that backstrap in a crockpot and put it on slow cook, and after 6 hours, it was supper time. My wife and I chowed down on some really tasty, soft hog meat. We loved it!!! There's more where that came from.

STAMPEDE!!!!!

Well, that’s how it looked to me as I looked through my Bushnell night vision monocular (NVM) on that almost full moon, as a very nice cool breeze blew from the southeast. There hasn’t been any rain in quite some time so there was no problem seeing objects at over 300 yards away. A far cry different from last week as we sat in the same place, but it was humid and no wind, so it was buffet time for the mosquitos, but we were still able to knock 2 hogs down.

Tonight was great and we arrived early before sundown to see how the dove were flying since next friday is opening day for dove season in the south zone. They flew. Ok now that we got that out of the way lets get to the stampede.

We got set up before dark and when I say we, I mean Carlos, (my neighbor) and his grandson Andrew. Once again Carlos had his Ar15 and I had my Remington .221 Fireball that I’ve taken several critters with. Tonight I was gonna try for another coyote and a pig. The night was very slow and we had several deer come in to the corn we had thrown around the tank.

Around 2130 hrs, Andrew noticed a big dark spot in the field moving towards us at a pretty good pace. The huge dark spot about 15 yards in diameter stopped 40 yards in front of us. When I looked through my night vision monocular I distinctly saw piggies and it looked like around 25 of them. They didn’t make a sound as they had crept up on us and started eating the corn. Andrew grabbed the Ar15 and as he looked through the scope I turned on the red spotlight. There was a “mess uh hogs” (as you country boys say) in front of us. Andrew picked one out and fired, and that “mess uh hogs” was a “runnin mess uh hogs

”.

A couple of years ago I wrote about 2 hogs I had shot with my Glock 23 during dove season. I wrote of how all the hogs took off running along the fence and then they all tried to gounder the barb wire fence at the same spot. The same thing happened here after Andrew fired. I followed them with the spotlight hoping to see one drop and they all bunched up at one spot. I”m sure you’ll remember what it looks like when you go to a really good movie that is coming out and everyone is bunched up at the door and there is only one ticket taker taking your ticket so you can get in to the movies. That’s what it looked like here. You could see hogs running and hitting the barb wire fence and bouncing back. Before I could say shoot into the herd, someone opened the doors to the movies and hogs were going under the wire everywhere. There must of been a rebel in the bunch that didn’t like conformity, because now they were everywhere along that fence.

Hogs were hitting the fence and it didn’t sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn playing Lenny it sounded like me trying to play a guitar since we could clearly hear a twang everytime a hog it and bounced off the fence. I can't play a guitar.

When we tracked that hog later we found it had made it under the fence and went another 30 yards and died along the road. But the story’s not over.

We stayed longer and it was 0330 when I looked across the field through my NVM. I could see round dark figures about 300 yards away. They were stretched out in what looked like a straight line about 20 yards long, some bigger than others and they were running towards us. It’s amazing what you can see on a full moon with that NVM. The field is filled with a weed that I’ve heard other hunters call “goat weed”, and the dove love it. This stuff is a little higher than my knee. I continued to watch them come out of the weeds and some of them were pretty tall, but I noticed the group stopped about 200 yards out. Several of the large ones had their noses in the air and I knew they were trying to get our scent, but we were safe since the wind was blowing from them to us. I got my rifle ready and looked through the nvm and after several seconds of them sniffing the air, they continued

to run towards us. Dust was flying in the air and it looked like a stampede as we waited for them. I thought I heard the song Ride of the Valkryies as more and more hogs appeared out of the dust. Teeth were grinding, saliva was flying and lips were being smacked as they ran towards the corn. (I really don’t know that for sure but it sounds good huh). The dinner bell had rung and they were hungry and once they got to the corn the mad rush had stopped and about 40 hogs were 50 yards away eating. Carlos grabbed the spotlight but I told him I wouldn’t need it since I clearly could see the hogs with the aid of the full moon. I picked an average size pig out and fired hitting it in the ribs. They all ran back from where they came from, into the goat weed and after waiting 20 minutes we tracked it and found after running about 40 yards it dropped.

It was a target rich environment

I finally got a day to get out and get in the woods. It had been a while, so I was really enjoying this night, and yet the sun still hadn’t set. My neighbor, Carlos, and I went out to this ranchers property just east of Lytle Tx, which is south of San Antonio. Our intentions were to knock some hogs down since the rancher had a problem with all the hogs digging up his fields. I decided to get there before the sun set since I also wanted to see how the doves were flying in the evening since dove hunting starts in a few weeks. Ok we saw the doves and they can fly so lets get on with the good stuff.

Two weeks ago we setup on top of the tank, thats a hole in the ground with water in it for you that don’t get out woods much, and had about 25 hogs of all sizes come in. I took a shot at two and hit one but he became buzzard food somewhere. We couldn’t track it much since it was midnight and it ran into some thick brush. We followed it about 60 yards and then the brush became too thick, so we backed out. Tonight we had a different plan. The last time we were out here, we had no moon, but tonight it was a full moon, and it was very bright.

As we scanned the field with our spotlight with a red lens, we could see some red eyes heading in our direction across the field. It’s close to 400 yards across the field and as Carlos tried to get his rifle (ar15) set up we had to let this coyote go by. We stopped all movement and made no sounds as it trotted past us about 100 yards away. That yote had no idea we were there and hopefully he would come back through. It was around 2040 hrs when we decided to stretch since sitting on those small folding chairs gets a little uncomfortable. After stretching and talking of how bright the moon was we sat back down when I turned on the red spotlight and about 100 yards away on the opposite side of the tank the coyote had come back and was drinking water. How it didn’t see us or hear us, I still have no idea.

As quietly as we could we tried to get set up to shoot it, but it took off across the field. It wasn’t because he spotted us or heard us, he just took off at a slow trot. An hour later we noticed a huge hog come out of the field behind us and stood on the with it’s nose in the air. There was no win

d and the I really think he smelt us as he started to walk away. I told Carlos to shoot since I felt he was going to leave since he smelt us, and Carlos shot hitting the hog in the ribs. The hog took off running and then ran into the field where the thick brush was. We thought that might be it for the night but decided to stay and see what would walk up next.

At 2140 hrs, I happened to glance at the opposite side of the tank with the spotlight, and noticed 2 coyotes at 114 yards. Carlos handed his ar15 to me since the yote was on my side and I immediately got set up. Carlos turned on the red spotlight and I found it in the scope quickly and saw the coyote facing me and I fired. That .223 round hit the yote in the chest and exited his left side and dropped him at the water line. It was then that we noticed another coyote with him and it took off running but I was not able to get it. After walking out and retrieving the dead yote we set up again and at 2200 hours about 20 hogs came out to our right. There were 3 big hogs and a bunch of lttle ones around 50 pounds, but they were holding out at 100 yards. The big ones had their noses in the air and after watching them for about 15 minutes they took off, never giving us the opportunity to take a shot at one.

But the story doesn’t end there and 30 minutes later they appeared to our left about 200 yards out. It was amazing how bright the moon was since I was looking through

the scope and could see them perfectly. They came in to about 100 yards but wouldn’t come any closer. I decided to take a shot and something spooked them and they ran across the field to our right side and gave me the perfect opportunity to pick a big one out, and fire. When I fired they were within 100 yards and it was close enough to hear the thump when that bullet hit. All the hogs took off running and the one I shot at dropped about 200 yards away.

At this time we decided to go retrieve my hog which lay in the field and then try to retrieve the hog Carlos shot at. Unfortunately the brush was too thick. It sure was a great night with one yote and one hog. Oh, and just to let you know, I grilled the backstrap on that hog and it was excellent. I can’t wait too get back out and take advantage of that moon, which might be this friday again.