Pssst…cover your ears, I'm gonna shoot

I like hunting by myself, but since my wife has seen every episode of The Walking Dead, she doesn't like for me to go by myself.   So I usually get someone to go with me.   But on this day I couldn't find anyone and for a while it looked like I wasn't going hunting this night.   My wife works and on her lunch break when she called, I told her it looked like I wasn't going hunting and that's when she said, I'll go with you if you want.    YES…..  So I picked her up from work,  brought her home to change and we headed out once the truck was loaded with gear and rifles.   We stopped by a fast food restaurant and picked up something to eat and drove to the property.    I'll have to give her credit for wanting to go hunting after she got off work.    She has been up since 6am, went to work and was on the phone for 8 hours and now she was going hunting with me.   What a champ.

As usual I'll drive the entire fence line trying to locate good trails where hogs are coming through so I can sit up on a good trail.   I found what I thought was a good trail and made sure the cows and horses were nowhere around by locking the gates entering the field.   With all the rain we have been getting the last few weeks the weeds and grass was getting pretty tall.   Alma loves sunflowers and was admiring the sunflowers the rancher has grown in the neighboring field.

There are thousands growing throughout the fields and as big as they are, they are beautiful.  Maybe I'll sneak over during the night and cut one or two for her.   

Before the sun went down, I threw some corn down where I thought the hogs would be coming from and then we parked about 200 yards from the corn.   I bought a new Ruger American .243 rifle and had a Nikon 3-9X50 scope mounted on top and after working, and perfecting some reloads I sighted it in for a 200 yards zero.  I was hoping since the moon was going to be full tonight I would be able to see without a green light.   For backup, in case I couldn't see, I also brought my Ar with night vision scope on it.  As the sun went down and the moon started to rise it was clear enough for me to see with my scope without the assistance of any light.  At 2130 hours I could see a good size hog crossing the field next to us and tearing up the ground where the cows were.    I decided against going after it since it was in the same field with the cows were, and I don't need a hog the bad.   But I kept glancing at it with my binoculars and watched it work the field amongst the cows.   Around 0030 hours I noticed a hog working its way from that same field towards the field I was sitting in.    By this time Alma was sound asleep.  I kept watching the hog work its way towards my field and saw when it went under the barb wire and was in the same field I was in.    Once it was apparent it was heading in my direction, I woke Alma up.   Well I tried.    Even though the wind is blowing in your direction and the sound will carry away from the hog,  I kept whispering, trying to wake her up.   pssst…psssst……Alma….Alma, wake up….nothing.    psssst……pssssst.   Finally, she woke up and I told her there was a hog coming our way and she needed to cover her ears, because I was going to shoot.   She said ok and covered her head with a pillow she had brought and it looked like she went back to sleep.   

I looked through my binoculars and continued watching the hog, and then noticed there were several hogs with it and some what looked like 8 little hogs (footballs) working a line in my field.   They were not coming right towards me, they were working straight across the field from east to west which is the same direction the wind was blowing.    In a few minutes they would be directly in front of me around 200 yards.    I picked up my rifle and had a perfect view of them as they worked the field.   I picked one out and started tracking it through the scope and whispered to Alma, cover your ears I'm gonna shoot.  She said ok and I continued following this one hog and watched as it went behind a small mesquite bush.    I could see it behind the bush and for a few seconds it stayed behind it like it was trying to hide from me.   I placed the cross-hairs slightly to the right of the bush and waited for it to step out, and once it started to move into the cross-hairs of my scope I pulled the trigger and heard the loud boom of the rifle which was followed on the other end by a whack and one downed hog.   I could see all the other hogs running like crazy trying to get out of that field.        

Thanks for going hunting with me sweetheart.