That's gonna be tough to swallow!!

Tonight, ole Eagle Eye (Mark Johnson) brought a friend of his named “T” out to the killing fields. Johnson put a new scope on his 30.06 and he wanted to try it out, since he heard this was a target rich environment. T, wanted to shoot hogs and was looking for a rifle, and I had one for him. We set up about 80 yards from the tank and waited for the hogs to come in. I wasn’t going to be shooting tonight since I would be running the red spotlight, hoping they would knock down some pigs. Sometime after 2100 hrs we saw hogs come under the fence about 40 yards out from us. Eagle Eye spotted them first and went for his rifle. I grabbed the spotlight and told T to get ready. The plan was for T to shoot first then Eagle Eye would shoot, and hopefully we would get 2 pigs. It didn’t work out that way. I told both of them since the wind was at our back, once they caught our scent the lead pig would probably stop, look in our direction then run back to where they came from.

Well that’s exactly what they did. Fortunately Eagle Eye had his rifle up and on the lead pig as T was looking for them in the dark. I was turning on the spotlight when the lead one stopped and then looked at us. I whispered, he’s fixing to ---BOOM, Eagle Eyes 30.06 went off, then I heard the distinct sound of WWEEEEE, WWWWEEEEE,WWWWEEEEEEE. One was down and the rest were running everywhere. I followed a group of 3 pigs as they ran in a lar

ge circle then headed right back at us. Eagle Eye took 2 more shots at 2 other pigs on the edge of the tank, and these three were still circling towards us. I am now saying “they’re getting close, someone needs to shoot them, they’re getting closer, someone needs to shoot them, while thinking what a time not to have a rifle in my hand. Then T sounded off with the Ar, crack, crack, good they’re turning, crack, crack, what was that spark or ricochet, crack crack, CEASE FIRE< CEASE FIRE< CEASE FIRE. Wow that was close, heck that was about 5 feet from us, and they ran right past us. Ok that was exciting I thought, but what was that spark I saw off to the left. Better go look at the post. Hey T, I don’t care how much you tenderize or how much seasoning you put on this here post, it’s still gonna be hard to swallow.

Eagle Eye had one down and after loading it up we were off to the

back where we could clean it and get it on ice. I had to ask T, uh how big was that pig to you, because it didn’t even slow down as it ran under the first wire, and it looked about 8 inches high, and that hole is about 4 feet up from the ground? Oh, well as long as we got one. We waited for a few more hours but they never came back, I don’t know why, so we left with our one pig.

Working the Night Shift

After talking to the rancher where I hunt, I found out he has been having a real problem with hogs running hog wild through his property and tearing up the fields. His pasture land looks like little bombs exploded in different parts of the large fields that he has. Even driving though them with my jeep is a little rough. Holes everywhere are rough on vehicles, and especially rough on the legs of the cattle and horses he has, and he wanted me to knock down some of the hogs to help control the population of these critters. What was my answer???/ Hell yeah, I can take care of that. I talked to my neighbor Carlos, and he was up for the task at hand so he, along with his grandson Andrew and other friends on different occasions, accompanied me as we worked the night shift in the killing fields.

If you’ve never been hunting at night, well it isn’t easy but it is exciting. Judging distances during daylight hours is easy, but at night for me it isn’t that easy. Trying to find the crosshairs through your scope and putting them on target definitely is not easy. The first time Carlos and I went out we had a spotlight and rifles. About 15 hogs came in to about 34 yards. They didn’t see us and we didn’t see them since the moon wasn’t out but we could make out what looked like a big dark cloud next to the water tank. They were quiet until they started splashing around in the water. Excitedly

I grabbed my 45-70 as Carlos grabbed the spotlight. Ready with the spotlight, ready with the rifle, ok turn it on I whispered. This was going to be easy, only 35 yards away and it’s only 1930 hrs and i’m getting ready to knock down some pork. I had the scope aiming in the direction of the pigs and as soon as the light came on, it looked like cockroaches running when the light comes on. Man the were fast, I tried following one through the scope, but at night that’s hard to do. Carlos followed a big one as it ran towards the fence and stopped. I focused on it but it wouldn’t turn so I could get a broadside shot. After several seconds of looking at it and seeing it was almost as tall as the third strand on the barb wire fence I told Carlos, “I’m gonna shoot it in the rear end” all I heard from Carlos was “you’re gonna do what”, then BOOM, .325 grains of hot copper jacketed bullet was flying down range, and it smacked the big ole boar in the rear end. That hog ran towards the fence, bounced off of the fence then ran underneath the barbwire fence and into the weeds on the next prope

rty. We never saw it again. That is until a couple of months later, Carlos and I were walking on another part of the property and we saw a lot of bones scattered. At almost the same time, Carlos and I said wouldn’t it be something if we found that big hog you shot, then we found this hip bone with what looks like a round hole large enough to be a .45 hole in it. Is this the pig I shot?? I don’t know but it was found in the direction that it ran.

East Coast Crew report

Looks like the East Coast Crew has out done us, the Gulf Coast Crew. They're always trying to beat us at this game. After receiving their report yesterday I wondered how I was going to write this up. Heck I'm just gonna cut and paste so here goes.

Have an update from the East Coast Gang. So far after two full days, Deer - 1, Hunters - 0. Joe missed a doe. We aren't seeing alot of deer due to the condition of the woods after the loggers left. The other score: state of Tennessee wildlifeDepartment - $656, hunters -$658. The man sneaked up on us from over the ridge and wrote two $328 citations for not wearing orange.

Good news: I had on a vest only because I actually saw him before he saw me and I was able to get my vest on. Bad news: you need a vest and a hat in the blaze orange,

Good news is since I had an orange vest on, I only got a warning! How sweet is that? Bad news: Joe and Charlie didn't thus the aforementioned fines.

Good news: Dad didn't have to go to the hospital to get stitches after he got popped in his eye by his scope while checking the sights on his rifle. Bad News: he bled like a stuck hog and we ended up doing some home doctoring and putting on our own butterfly bandages on his head.

Good news, Joe saw a few does at around 100 yards. Bad News: he missed and so there will be another shirttail hanging next to the citations we got.

All of that in only two days, I wonder what the next 5 days holds in store for us?

Well there you have it folks, oh and I just received an email that Joe shot was able to shoot a 3 point buck. That's great, hopefully you can get a few more deer and no more tickets. Good Luck guys

Updates

Ok folks I know it's been a while since I've updated my blog, but it will get updated real soon. I've been out hog hunting with Johnson, T, Bob, and my neighbor Carlos and his grandson Andrew. At one time or another we've been out hog hunting and we've been knocking them down, and on a few occasions a couple almost knocked us down. I've got pictures and I'll start working on it.

It's that time of year again where the East Coast Team heads to Tennessee for muzzleloader season. I just got an update from Stephen and I think you're gonna be shocked. Maybe I can get some pictures also, we'll see.