This story about the weekend is too unreal not to share.  This is what the amazing stories about Texas are made of.  A couple of motivated individuals with good gear on 2,000 acres of un-hunted, overgrown, brushy terrain can have the following impact on an infestation of hogs.

The story starts about 4 weeks ago when we hiked in too start our initial scout of the property.  We worked our way in slow as we were checking the place out along the way.  The stipulations for the land are that everything is on foot.  No quads…….Nothing.  There is a severely worn down and overgrown gravel road that runs about 1.5 miles straight to the center of the property.  This only makes it slightly easier to get in as there are no fences to climb over or crawl under.  Brush is still a minimum of knee high all the way and the ground is very uneven from years of no up keep and cattle traveling back and forth.

We spotted a group of hogs crossing the path headed towards a tank and tried to stalk them at the tank, but they were gone by the time we got there.  We headed towards a larger tank we had seen on the satellite photos, and decided to make camp.  The next morning, we broke camp and headed North towards the back of the property, making our way to a large tank where the land owner had originally informed me that they routinely saw pigs.  This was approximately another mile into the property through brush, over fences, and through knee high, scrub pasture.  Pretty tough travelling with all of our gear on our backs.

Nothing at that tank, so I pulled up the satellite image and saw another tank due south of this one.  We crested a hill to be able to look down towards the tank and were walking across the top when I spotted a group of pigs directly south of our position and east of the tank.  We were able to approach using mesquites trees to cover our advance.  We shed our gear and crawled through the brush on our hands and knees as they were still around 150 yards out.  As we approached the 4 original pigs, we spotted a group of 8 more off to our right.  We split up and I continued my original approach while MicroSuck(MS) moved towards the other group.  

We reached our final firing positions, had not worked out our firing plan.  Mine were at 100 yards, and MS group was around 30 yards from his position.  We looked at each other, nodded, and took aim. MS fired first and I was off target.  By the time I got back on target, I was able to squeeze off three shots at my group.  2 of them made the telling Thump sound, but this group was four BIG pigs.  They kept going.  MS was running through his group, so I moved to help him clean up the runners.  I shot one TSX to the face.  Down.  I scanned for more movers, but the chaos was over.  
























MicroSuck was on his game this round and with targets at 30 yards, I would expect him to have great results.  We determined the official count was Me: 1; MicroSuck: 4.

Last weekend began with a hike into the property starting at 8 pm.  With no moon, this required navigation with NVD's.  Since we were going in on Friday, staying through Sunday morning, and nighttime temps of 36 degrees, we had to carry a lot of cold weather gear in addition to our standard gear.  We were both carrying Eberlestock Operator packs completely loaded down.  As I said above, the hike in is approximately 1.5 miles to the center and 2 miles to camp.  The weekend proved that it was not going to be a bust when we came up on a herd of pigs at the end of the road.  We shed our packs, and MS spotted for me while I did the shooting.  Results were as follows.  The Barnes 6.8 85 gr TSX does the job easily everytime.  






This is full packs and NODs on the 2 mile hike in to camp.




Here are the same four the next day in the daylight.

Official count was Me: 5; MicroSuck: 4.

So after we gathered the 4 pigs, got pics, and admired our luck so far on the trip, we headed on to camp.  We bedded down in our bivy's and slept pretty comfortably through the 36 degree night.  Woke up the next morning, heated up some coffee and breakfast, loaded our day packs, and headed out for the pasture where we shot the original 5.  We left camp a different direction and worked our way out way around to the west of the property in an effort to scout more of the area and for further sign of hogs.  We caught up with a bunch easing along side of some super brushy woods, but the cows would move with us when we moved and the herd spooked down into the brush.  We worked our way northwest and then headed straight back to the East towards the Big tank where we were skunked the first time.  We moved past the tank to ridgeline of the hill, and headed back South to the location of the original sounder we got into on the first trip.

I spotted Hogs at 250 yards and yelled "Contact" to MS.  He moved to a position where he could see my view, and we put together our gameplan.  We could visually confirm that there were 3 hogs in this group.  The scrubbrush in this pasture is Knee high and as a lot of these pigs are 90-140 pounders, their back line is below or level with the brush.  This bunch was nosing through an old round bale pile, and I have historically had good luck with finding hogs in these locations.  There was a ridge that would allow us to stay concealed as we moved in to around 100 yards.  We now were behind a patch of Mesquites to conceal our advance.  At 100 yards, we now had a confirmed visual on 8 pigs.  We crawled hands and knees into approximately 65 yards, and decided we should fire from this position to keep our lines of sight open.  We set it up to where we had a three count and would both pop up and start firing from the outside of the sounder to the middle from our respective sides.  This process worked extremely well as they did not spook even when we popped up and started firing.  






This picture pretty much says it.  5 down to me.  1 down to MS.  It should be noted however, that in the middle of this turkey shoot with pigs running everywhere, we both had weapon issues.  My gun is blowing primers, and MS had Magazine issues.  




MS providing overwatch.







Official count was Me: 10; MicroSuck: 5.

We left these lay and worked our way back to camp.  We scouted some bottom areas, and walked some creeks, but didn't see anything or scare anything up.  We headed to camp and sat down for some lunch and rest.  We had a pretty nice set-up going.  







View from Camp........Some huge Bass jumping in this Tank. Hasn't been fished in a long time, so you can only imagine the potential.

 








After resting up a bit and eating some chow, we headed out around 4:30 to see if anything was moving.  As soon as we came up out of camp, we were in the middle of a herd in the exact same spot as the night before at the end of the old road.  They were moving slowly in southerly direction, so we split up and setup to push them towards each other as we shot.  There was LOTS of brush, mesquites and fences in this area, so moving and acquiring targets was not near as easy as earlier in the morning.  However, there was so much comotion for the pigs, that we both had pigs coming at us and taking shots at 15 yards.  It was definitely a dynamic situation.  We found three confirms, but are confident there are two more out there, just way too brushy too find them all in this location.  





As we were discussing which direction to go next, we heard hogs nosing around down in the bottom.  We headed off in two different directions to try and catch them coming out one side or the other as they were moving along the creeks.  I am not sure about MS story as he said that he took a knee and waited as the boar moved in on him.  I was on top of a hill by a small tree looking down through a ten foot opening in the brush. The boar and sow moved through this opening and I fired on the biggest one at around 100 yards.  







MS shot the Boar that was with this sow, and It was one of the coolest boars I have seen yet.  He was pretty excited.  The dates are actually Sunday as we got a call from a neighbor about a sounder of 15-20 on another part of the property, so we left them lay and headed out as it was already dusk.  









Official count was Me: 13; MicroSuck: 7.

We found the Sounder, but due to fences and distance, we determined that we wouldn't be able to move in on them without spooking them and everything running off, so we left these for another trip.  Back to camp for the night and start again Sunday morning.  

We headed out Sunday morning to check the pasture where we had so much luck, and wouldn't you know, another sounder of about 5.....We used the same strategy and moved in close.  We watched for a while, and the Large sow in the bunch moved towards us behind a mesquite tree.  We definitely tried to use the available cover to our advantage.  We worked out our shooting scheme, and put it in to action as soon as she came around the tree and saw us.  MS fired, and that was my sign to pop up and start on the others running off.  I shot one at around 50 yards and he rolled.  I shot at his buddy, but missed him.  He stopped at the top of the ridge to look for his buddy and I moved.  Staying below the ridgeline, I was watching his backline as I closed the distance at a crouched jog.  Once I got to a point where I could no longer stay hidden,  the little sucker hauled ass.  I sprinted to the ridgeline and had a quartering away shot at 100 yards.....missed again.  One more shot before he's in the brush.  I held about 8-10 inches off his snout and fired......Holy crap.  Legs and nose and legs and nose and then flopping all over.  That sucker went nose first in the dirt and summersaulted himself twice before flopping around off several small trees.  Blood everywhere.  Definitely my shot of the trip.  The following pictures also show the damage of the Barnes 85 gr. TSX....

MS's Sow








Barnes TSX Damage








And the Runner....







We grabbed the Backstraps out of these three and A ham off of one of the little ones.  Headed back to camp.  Grabbed pictures of the big sow and boar, loaded our crap and hiked out.  We were out by Noon.  

Forgot to mention.  MicroSuck hiked the entire two miles out carrying a 15 lb. boar head in a trash sack.  LOL.  It will make a badass skull once it gets cleaned up.  

I will post a dinner pic a little later as the Ham just came out of the oven.

ETA: Official count was Me: 15; MicroSuck: 8.  

Frickin awesome!!! Ruckin, sleeping outside, roughin it, killing piggies with canned ARs...don't think it gets any better than that. Where were you guys at?

Looks like Burnet County or western Travis?

Wow! i need to join you guys up; I miss roughing it in the bush. Can i tag along? Will need a can on my AR though.

Great work! I really need to move to Texas.

DUDE!  HOOK A BROTHER UP!  I need some pig meat!!!

Have can, will travel!

Karma told me about your success; nice AAR!

That was a real fun hunting trip, congrads to you guys, you worked for those pigs.

what are the specifics on the weapons used?

This s is SO fucking kick ass!!!!

Great fun - doesn't get much better than that!

you should retitle this as "good times"

enjoyed your tale/post.  thanks for sharing.

good stuff.

Nice hogs, and very nice equipment! I thought I had alot of money in gear!  

We regularly bust into packs of 30+ hogs where we hunt.  Our hunts are much LOUDER than yours.  I would love to go at them with a can!

I hunt for 6-10 day stretches so our camp is a little more comfy:

Camp:






Hogs:

Good write up good pics  


GM

Nice head count..thats the way to hunt a new spot, you said y'all scouted but I see it as hitting the ground hunting...

meaning not setting bait out the first time in. If so prolly would of prolonged contact.

Killer trip yall, thanks for sharing I enjoyed the read.

Looks like fun.

Pics of Hollywood?

TRG

That sounds like a great time. Good AAR!

Now that's a hog hunt!  

Absolutely awesome, guys...

you guys are a  hog apocalypse tag team.

DoubleTap

I remember those pics from a while back.  I also remember being jealous of your setup there.  It looks like you have a pretty nice place to hunt out of there.  I would love to be able to hunt this place for 5-6 days straight, but the stipulations are pretty strict as it is an operating cattle ranch and they work everything horseback.  Therefore, they do not want anyone hunting the place during the week.

MicroSucks Rifle built by Atwell Tactical:
12.5" 6.8 SPC WOA
Acog
Gemtech Titanium 7.62
Haynes Research IWAL 2 IR Laser aimer (For Sale)
Standard M4 Stock
Noveske adjuustable gas block
I think he has JP trigger springs and an Atwell Tactical modified Trigger
PRI Mags shooting SSA 110 grain Barnes TSX and Pro Hunters

My Rifle built by Me:
12.5" 6.8 SPC Ko-Tonics
Aimpoint
Aimpoint 3X magnifier
YHM 7.62 Phantom
MI 12" rail
CAA adjustable Grip
Magpul CTR stock
Rock River 2-Stage Trigger
DBAL A2 IR laser illuminator
Surefire 6P in midwest Industries mount
Vikings tactics sling
PRI Mags Shooting SSA 85 gr Barnes TSX

I tell ya....Not being able to get in there other than hiking and humping everything, it would be next to impossible to routinely put out corn.  Absolutely not allowed to put out feeders of any type.  I do have permission to shoot anything on the place as far as Deer, Bobcats, Coyotes, Hogs.  Have not seen a SINGLE deer yet.  May be too many hogs pushed them out.  I am working on talking my way into a key, but have to be careful how much I push.  

I wasn't sure if anyone would enjoy the long post or not, but figured what the hell.  I like reading peoples stories to learn from their tactics.  Plenty of pics to scan through for those who don't want to read.  There should definitely be more stories coming.  

Hollywood said no.  She is an incredibly hot MILF now though.  If only the Hun Farm was still part of our lives.......

TIER 1.

Great write-up!  Keep up the good work!

Never said where yall were hunting. What county, approximate area?

tagged for reading later

This is the very shit that gives sportsmen a bad name.  23 hogs harvested, yet you took 6 loins and a ham.  That falls into the slob-hunter category.

Nice hogs and nice pics, but I can never condone wanton waste.

Hmmmmmm.  Let's talk about this.

Nice post.  Before you judge me, lets ask a few questions.  Were you, or are you currently privy to the stipulations that the land owner gave me when they contacted me to eradicate this ranchland of hogs?  My guess is no, but thank you for judging me on the internet.  Of the many stipulations that were imposed upon me, the two most important to the landowner were 1) No vehicular access.  Hike in and out.  2) When you shoot hogs, I PREFER YOU JUST LEAVE THEM LAY.  

Now, I have a hard time leaving all of that meat behind, but you must remember that this is a process of the landowner trying to cut down on the hog population tearing up his pasture and wheat fields he uses to graze his cattle, which is how he still makes his living.  On our first trip out, when we got the five, the landowner rode out in the pasture on a kubota UTV to check up on us and make sure than we were getting around okay.  He saw the five dead pigs.  We offered right then and there to butcher them and provide them to him for his freezer.  He declined and said agian, I prefer you just leave them lay.  

So once again........When you are given the opportunity to eradicatet hogs to help a fellow rancher whos livelihood they are affecting, are you going to decline based on the fact that you consider that wanton waste????  

And I don't know anything about you, except that you throw your uninformed opinion around, but please educate me on how you would have slaughtered, cooled, and packed out 23 hogs worth of meat over a 2 day eradication from 1.5 miles all the way to 3 miles back into this property, with no vehicular access?  I would really like to hear your solution to this problem.  I have numerous people that I could give every bit of this meat away to, but again, hauling all of that meat out creates exposure that the landowner does not want.  Maybe an airlift.  DO you own a helicopter?  Are you offering your services?  Accepted if so.  

My next question would be this.  I see at least 4 other posts on the first page of the hog forum where people have been shooting pigs and not making reference to keeping the meat.  If you are going to sit here and judge me about this, I would love to see you go into each and every one of those threads and ask the OP if they butchered the hogs and used the meat.  

REMEMBER, THIS IS NOT HUNTING, THIS IS ABOUT ERADICATION...........

UPDATE:  

So, with Thansgiving approaching, MicroSuck and I schemed with our wives to get out one more time before all of our time is taken up with holiday events on the weekends.  We worked it out to where we would leave by 6 a.m. to get in to the property, and be back to the house by noon.  This worked out with our wives and let us get in a little more hunting.  On our previous two hunts, we had discussed bringing along a third shooter.  We have several individuals that we are comfortable with as far as firearms safety in a dynamic shooting environment.  Two shooters can fairly easily watch each other and maintain safety.  Adding a third shooter creates an entirely different scenario.

We had previously invited another buddy, but his work and match schedule would not allow him to attend.  As this was going to be a quick in and out, we thought it was perfect to bring along another friend, MOS2111.  We are both comfortable that Mos has his stuff squared away and knew that he would be an asset to the hunt even with out any prior hog hunting experience.  As an aside, I truly enjoy helping people stalk and take their first hogs.  



We got into the property as planned and spotted 17 hogs in a wheat field 1/4 mile in.  We doubletimed it to the treeline, crawled under the fence and stalked the treeline to the corner.  We developed our firing plan and moved to position.  The hogs were moving out to cover as the sun was really coming up.  We revised our plan and moved along the treeline continuing to stalk the pigs into another pasture.  They went into the brush and we decided to not trail them all day.

Moving back to the main path into the property, we hunted and worked our way through the property.  Our ultimate goal was to hit the pasture where we had always had contact around mid morning.  It was approximately 7:30, so we decided to move in that direction the long way around. There were plenty of cows in the normal shooting grounds, but using our standard approach, we saw backlines again and the level of excitement grew in all of us.  As we moved closer, we made out that these were cows further out that were concealed by the ridgeline of the field.  Skunked in this pasture for the first time.  

We Hung out for 15 minutes and glassed the 350 acres or so that we could see from our position and nothing showed up.  Moving out, we decided to stalk through some other areas that we had not been through before.  Lots of sign, but no hogs.  We stopped at a fence and I was pissing, looking over into a field to our West.  Contact....700 yards.....Microsuck and Mos scanned for them as I finished getting my junk put back together.  We moved out along the treeline of the field at a doubletime.  There were cattle in this field as well that were challenging this sow and her sounder of 8.  They had her attention which allowed us to move quickly along the fence without being detected.  As we approached within 200 yards, the younger cow challenged the sow and she ran off.   We stalked them for a while through the brush and actually ran up on them again, but they spooked this time and took off before a safe effective shot could be put together.  I was starting to worry that we might get skunked on this property for the first time, and not help Mos get his first pig.

We decided to work our way back North and head back over to the east again and see if the pigs had come in.  It was now approximately 9:45 and we knew that we would have to be heading out soon to meet our noon deadline with the wifes.  We worked our way to the north and were at our point in the treeline overlooking a 200 acre pasture where we were to change direction and move East.  We decided to fan out and move through the middle of the field along the ridgeline in order to watch for activity on our North and South treelines.  We moved approximately 40 yards when we spotted movement from North to South at approximately 800 yards.  We glassed, confirmed, and moved South.  There was a thick patch of brush to our south.  We jogged to this brusha nd moved through it into a flanking position.  No time to work out a firing plan.  We had discussed with Mos on the way in, our normal methos for these situations.  Microsuck and I were together with Mos approximately 20 yards back to pick up the rear of the group and the ones that would squirt his direction.  

MS and I fired at the same time with hits and moved to acquire more targets.  My first shot dropped a 70 pounder in her tracks and then I hit a bigger Sow twice and she went down.  I scanned to acquire more targets, but everything was on the move.  I looked back to the big sow, and she got up and was running.  Two more in her through the brush at 80-90 yards and she went rolling.  MS had allready headed out on their trail, and came over the radio that he was trailing them moving out at a trot.  Mos and I moved South to reacquire, but the hogs moved out and decided to not face the same fate.  

Went back to the area of the engagement and gathered the pigs for pics and more backstraps.  


Dragging them in to central location.


Mos checking out the handiwork




Pretty cool looking bunch of pigs this time.


Mos's Ridgeback looking kill









We pulled the straps on the three large sows, and field gutted the 70 pounder.  Doubletimed it out of the property with extra weight of meat and the body of the smaller pig.  Still made it out by 12:05.  Wives were cool with that as their expectations were not to see us until far later in the day then that.  

We had a great time.  Covered tons of ground and did a lot of jogging in our packs, so we were all tired to say the least.  Ended up being a great hunt.  

Official count now: Me: 17; MS: 9; Mos:1.

I'm one of the shooters.  I am NOT a sportsman.  I treat hogs like cockroaches.  I just stomp them out.  They arent game animals dude.  If they were id be different.

I don't think you know your ass from a hole in the ground.  Shut up an go back to gd you holier than thou troll.  If nothing else, it slowed the breeding rate of ferrel hogs, but being an expert you can probably tell the class how fast they breed.  Since you are an expert, you can probably also tell us the estimated amount of damage hogs do in TX (not tn) in dollars and also the projected population size if breeding continues to go unchecked.  Meat was harvested from all the animals and I learned how to completely dress one, those animals got their use.  Funny you don't post this shit in the death from above thread where they destroyed hogs from an airborne platform.  Must be nice to just pick an choose you "critiques"of others.  
And just as an FYI the meat I brought out is going to feed Marines from my unit as we celebrate ones return from Afghanistan, in true infidel style.

I never once judged you.  You eloquently assumed the position on your own.

ETA:



Then you have posted it in the wrong section.  The title of the forum you posted in is: Hog Hunting

I could give less than a fuck what you think.  What is evident in black & white, is that you either can't comprehend what you read, or don't know the definition of a troll.  If you will check the join date(s), you will see differently.

No, you did with the last sentence in your fist post.  Own it.


Here, do some research before you presume to be a subject matter expert from states away.

Texas Department of Agriculture 4Oct10

Texas Parks and Wildlife information

Ferel hog breeding rates - TX has had a "good" year with rainfall

USA Today Article about soaring hog population in TX

And after some brief research, appears you might have to jump on this band wagon as well

TN wildlife Resources


Wild Hog woes in Mid South TN

Good for you.  What the hell are you talking about with comprehension and reading?  You show up here and voice an uninformed opinion, that you still have not placed weight behind and fail to actively post the same message in other pro eradication threads that originate from TX.  Your join date has nothing to do with being a troll, your lack of content and contribution in this thread does.  By the way, if your going to try to brag about your join date, buy a membership and stop leaching.   600 posts in 8 years - I bet all of those posts have really been chock full of technical informational....  Dont bother replying to me, your on the ignore list - not that you post enough for it to matter....

Lets get back to the topic at hand.
Killing Hogs



OP doing the dead hog drag.

I'm pretty sure that your calling my actions slob hunting, which I remind you again are based on the desires of the landowner, is a judgement.

I imagine you're one of those sportsman that considers shooting a deer standing under a feeder that goes off at a predetermined time everyday, Hunting.  that to me is far more unsportsmanlike than the actual stalking and hunting of game animals.    

We have stalked every one of these pigs, which I consider hunting, in order to get into position to be the most effective on our targets.

I think you are confusing the act of hunting with the act of harvesting meat when you say that this doesn't belong in the hunting forum.  Two very different and seperate acts.  We hunted these hogs.  We did not however, harvest all of the meat. Again, explanation of two different acts.  

Again, I give you the charge of challenging every other post in the hog hunting forum about people shooting pigs to get rid of them due to their nuisance.  Judge them in the same way.  

No matter what negativity you receive from select others, I think you guys did a rocking job.  You put in a hell of a lot of effort for that hunt.  And to me...it looks like a great time.  Great pics and write up.  Just don't wipe out the hog population in all of Texas.....I'd love to get out there and have a shot too someday.  Oh...and TAG

One thing more, and I am done here.

You have failed to convince anyone that you are qualified to make to make either decision.  Until this forum becomes www.MOS2111.com it is not now, nor will it ever be your decision as to whether I buy a membership.  The free membership that I use here is well within the TOS set forth by the staff/ownership of this forum.  Any reason why you can't mind your own fucking business?

Epic story, nice gear and great job on thinning out some hogs! Sounds like the two of you had a blast. Keep up the good work!
Keep the pics coming!

Hog going to waste today in practice for the big family meal next week.  Yea dillo dust

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

Seems to me you ought to be taking your own advice...

Enjoyed the hell outta it.  Just made me jealous.





 

I love me some irony.  That shit's funny right there.


 
 

all internet drama aside, if you need an extra shooter, you fewls have my cell.  Would love to try some overwatch PR teamwork on comms, and field craft.  

I tried to call you earlier this afternoon; now I know why you didn't answer!