Oh yeah, that'll work

It's hard to believe that something so rough and ugly looking can be so tasty.   Check out the teeth on this guy, they're almost razor sharp.  He gets them that sharp by chomping or I guess grinding his teeth and if you're unlucky enough to get hit by them it can open you up.

Whenever I shoot one of these guys I usually check them over.   This hog, like most of the others I've shot had mud on it's sides and belly.   It apparently just out of a mud hole somewhere.   On the right side of it's neck it had some scrapes and puncture marks, which means it probably just recently just got in a fight with another hog.  On the previous post I posted a picture of the shield that starts at the spine on both sides of the hog and extends downward and covers most of the ribs.

But like I said earlier, it's hard to believe that something so rough and ugly looking can be so tasty.  My neice Brenda took one of the hind quarters from this guy and seasoned and cooked it.   It smelt great in the crockpot and I can't hardly wait to sink my teeth into it.  Here's a picture, and I'll post another picture on the plate later.

You can run if you want,

But you're just gonna be dead tired.  After a good thunderstorm brought in by the cold front this morning, Carlos, Andrew and I decided to take our chances and try to knock down some hogs.  We were going to try a different technique since the wind was blowing pretty good from the north.  We usually set up in the field on the south or southwest corner since the wind is out of the south or southeast.  Carlos and Andrew were in a pop up blind in another field by a mud hole that had signs of hogs wallowing in the mud.  I was i the next field sitting on top of a tripod Carlos and I had set up earlier in the year.  I was sitting about 7 feet up on the tripod and ha a fantastic view of everything for about  500 yards around me.
  Earlier I had driven my jeep about 200 yards along the fence line and saw where the hogs were coming in from, so I set up and waited for them.  Little did I know at that time that I would be facing the wrong direction!!!

As I looked through my binoculars checking the fence line in front of me anticipating the arrival of sunday nights supper.  I heard a sound behind me and  as I slowly turned the seat to look behind me I noticed 12 hogs in the next field working their way towards me.   CRAP!!! I'M FACING THE WRONG WAY and my rifle is not up and ready.  They were only 20 yards from the fence line and they're moving into my field at a good pace.  As I  turn towards them I reach for my rifle and very slowly start to bring it up. Two or three hogs are now walking under the fence and they keep coming.  I can't move fast because it's still daylight and only 30 yards from me, but I tell myself, "self you better hurry up".   The wind is blowing north to south and I'm 20 yards north of them.  The first hog is not 15 yards directly behind my jeep and lifts his nose smelling the wind.  I freeze because he's looking at me. Don't move a muscle.   At this point I'm going full Marty Feldman on them.   I have one eye on the hog that has his nose in the air checking the wind, and the other eye on the two hogs that are making their way into the path where my scent is blowing with the wind.  The 2 hogs get my scent just as I look through the scope and they are staring at me trying to figure me out, and in a split second it's like being at the dog races.  Hogs are running everywhere and I pick one of the two who are running straight away from me.  It sucks to be multicolored because you stand out in my scope.

I get one in the crosshairs of my scope and follow it as it runs in a straight line away from me then BANG, at about 50 yards out this hog is hit and starts tumbling like a bad pass from Tony Romo, followed by loud squealing.   Time to find another target.  I follow another one that's running to the right and I fire.   It's a miss and now it's running faster.  At this point I decide that's it for now and watch as the other hogs are still scrambling for cover.

After retrieving the hog I decide to change things.  Because of the cold blowing wind I decide to sit in my jeep and watch the field and if I have to, I can shoot from the window.  I can also get some Facebook time in.  You know, like uploading pictures of the hog I just shot.  That's some kind of hunting huh!!

So I reposition my jeep and it's nice and warm.   I am out of the wind and occasional rain and I'm uploading pictures and it's dark.  Life is good.  Then I hear something to my left and as I glance back I see more hogs coming in.   I reach for my rifle and make too much noise and the hogs are gone.  Darn.... As I check the fence with my Bushnell night monocular I see another hog by itself coming under the fence about 60 or 70 yards out.  I look through my scope and because of a very bright half moon I can see the hog.  It must have caught my scent because it runs back to the fence and stops and turns just looking at me.  Mistake!!! I turn on the green flashlight attached to my rifle and immediately fire striking him right between the eyes.  No squeal, no kicking, no running.  After that 130 grain grain sierra hollow point, .308 bullet hit, it was light out.

Before I had fired I hadn't really noticed how big this hog was, but now with the green light off I could see it laying there close to 70 yards away.  At night the size of an object is hard to tell with no lights and the closer I got the bigger it got.  It was way to big for me to lift and when Carlos and I tried to lift it, to put it on the carrier on the back of y jeep, we still couldn't lift it.  So we tied it to the bumper and drug it.


While cutting the back strap to we noticed how thick the shield was so I attached a picture in case you have never seen it.

In some of the earlier stories I have shot hogs in the shoulders with my .308 and have had them run off only to die in another field.  Would this hog have died right there if I would have shot it on the shield?  I don't know.  I do know one thing though.  He was D.R.T., from a .308 between the eyes.   See Ya on the next hunt.