"We done kilt em all"

So we thought.  The last five times Carlos and I have gone out hog hunting we were not able to see anything.  Nothing was moving except jack rabbits.  They make for good target practice but not all that great to eat.  One weekend Carlos and I decided to change it up and instead of getting out into the field before sunset we decided to hit the field before sunrise.  

Normally getting up at 0400 or 0500 to go into to work is downright painful.  When the alarm goes off it’s like the sleeping demon is slowly pulling you back into the bed as you’re fighting to get out of bed knowing that once you make it to the sink and splash water on your face the demon disappears and you’re good to go.  I’ll have to admit, there have been quite a few 0500 wake up mornings when I’ve fought the sleeping demon and told myself, “you know, you’ve got 28 years on and it would be much easier to get back in bed, go to sleep and wake up like normal people at say, oh 10ish and just retire”.    But then reality hits and I say to myself, self, just go in because Joey or Elliott or someone is gonna say or do something funny and it’ll make your day.  It doesn’t have to be a lot, just a little bit to make you laugh with them or at them.  

But it’s funny when you set the alarm for 0330 so you can leave the house by 0400 and be in the field by 0430 and the sleeping demon is nowhere around.  Like I said earlier, Carlos and Ieft early.  My alarm was set for 0330 and right around 0300 I woke up, not fighting a sleeping demon, but just a hunting demon.  I couldn’t get into the field fast enough.  We were in place by 0430 ready for the sun to come up and for the pigs to show up.  But they didn’t, and the trip wasn’t a complete failure since we spotted a mangey coyote digging up something.  We had to wait to get a clear shot since there were cows in the same field around it, watching it.  After 10 minutes of shot, don’t shoot, shoot, don’t shoot, the opportunity camd when all the cows around it were gone and Carlos took the shot knocking the coyote down.

Since that shot, Carlos and I have been out several times but did not see anything.  The trails had gone dead, and there were no trails at the water tank.  We talked about it and came to the the conclusion that one of three things are happening: 

  A-  As you country boys would say, “we done kilt them all”

  B-  Somebody else done kilt them all, or

  C-  As hot as it’s been they might be staying in the shade close to a water tank and at nightfall they are not moving much from the tank.  

With as much damage as these roving tilling machines do, farmers would love for it to be either A or B but I think it’s probably gonna be C.

So Carlos and I decided not to hunt for a few weeks and instead work on getting some reloads ready.  I worked on perfecting my .308 and after several trips to the range I think I got it where it should be.   Carlos worked on a load for his 7mm-08 and today we went out.  After sighting in my Rock River LAR.308 I was shocked at the accuracy of the load and the rifle.   I am loading a 130 grain Speer hollow point bullet which is being launched at 2600fps by 45 grains of Varget Powder.  If I can keep the rifle steady I can get three holes touching at 100 yards.   

On this day we setup in the middle of the field.   After riding around the field we found tracks where the hogs were coming into the field.   The wind was strong out of the east so we were on the west end of the field.   Around 2100 hrs we spotted a group of 12 hogs working their way into the field from where we thought they would come from.   Perfect, they were up wind from us, it was getting dark and if we needed to we could stalk them and get closer since there would be no way for them to smell us since the wind was strong.  We watched them for about 20 minutes as they tilled the ground and worked their way through the field getting closer to us.   Now it was dark and distance is hard to judge but it looked like they were within 100 yards.  Carlos was ready and with the full moon I also could see the hogs through my Leupold scope without a light.   We both looked through our scopes as the mobile tillers worked their way towards us tearing up the field. I whispered to Carlos who was standing next to me, “you got them in your sights”, and he said yeah let them get closer.   As I looked through my scope I caught movement on the right side of the scope.  I eased my rifle to the right and to my shock there was a hog about 20 yards away working it’s way to us.   Somehow we had missed this one and Carlos hadn’t seen it yet.  I whispered, “there’s one right in front of us coming at us, can you see it”.  Carlos said no but he thought I was talking about the group which was still 100 yards away.   I forgot about the group and now had my eyes fixed on the hog working it’s way to us.   It’s right there in front of us, not too far from my jeep I told him.   Now it was about 20 yards still working towards us and I said get ready I’m gonna shoot.   Since green lights don’t have much of an effect on hogs as a white light, and I have one mounted on my rifle I turned on my green light and immediately fired hitting the hog on the shoulder and it was down.   Carlos said he never saw that hog, and he thought I was shooting at one that was in the group. 

After letting the backstrap marinate for a day I tossed it on the grill and it was great.   I had some seasoning that I had either picked up at Academy sporting good store, or H.E.B and it was great.  My wife wanted some shrimp also so they were tossed on the grill and it make for a great combo.  Until next time.

This is some great seasoning and I'll have to stock up on it.

That seasoning gave it an excellent flavor.   Another seasoning was used on the shrimp and it was great also.   This is my version of surf and turf.