Mustang
01-22-2009, 10:33 AM
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/7024Hog.jpg
In November 2006, I had just returned from an 8 month "business trip" and decided to take some vacation. Went to my old stomping grounds (42,000 acre ranch) in the Davis Mountains of West Tx to do about 7 days worth of calling. Before I left NC my next door neighbor asked me shoot him a hog so he can have a shoulder mount in his "man-room". One day I was all guillied up and armed with a Rem 7600 in a 270 calling coyotes. Called for a good 30 minutes and was just about to get up and head for the pickup when I heard some pig squeals up on a small hill about 200 yards in front of me. Sat there a little longer in hopes of hearing it again and sure enough I did. The wind was right to left at about 5-7 knots so I slowly start making my way around the hill so I can make my approach into the wind. I walked extremely slow taking only a few steps a minute and after a full hour I finally catch a glimpse of a hog. There were probably 20 in this group. I was having fun watching them and I still keep my same slow steady pace. The hogs are working their way away from me slowly eating and turning over rocks and uprooting grass in the process. I was amazed how fast they tear up the land. A little background here: this ranch has, and has always had, a serious hog problem. I was initially hired by this rancher while I was in college to kill hogs and coyotes. Not bad for a college job, got paid $50 a day and he bought my ammo and gas. I also did a little welding and cattle work on the side. The first weekend I was there I killed 40+ hogs. The hogs tear up a tremendous amount of land and also tear up his roads and water troughs. The amount of pigs on this place is indescribable. To make it easy, the land owner set up all 6 of his deer feeders and had me keep them full of corn all year round. I shot a lot of hogs off of those feeders. Anyway, back to the hunt, I finally inch within 30 yards of the hogs and finally see the big daddy. I shot him then all hell broke loose as I was working that pump action 270 as quickly as I could and shot 2 more as they were running away. It was pretty intense. Getting this beast in the pickup was a heck of a lot of work. As you can see in the picture I have bailing wire wrapped around his feet. I would use that to inch him up then tie off one side before I moved to the other and did the same thing. Caped it out and brought it back for my bud to get mounted. When we picked it up from the taxidermist I was jealous and wished I would have kept it so Keith and I made a deal. He has never shot a hog so when he does I'm going to pay to get it mounted then we'll swap mounts. I'll sneak over there sometime today and snap a picture of the mount and post it on here. It really turned out nice. The hog was shot on the far side of the tallest ridge in the picture.
I didn't weigh the hog but I have my guess and I'd like to hear everyone's guess. For comparisons sake, I'm 6' 205.
Here's a hog my brother shot off of that same ranch. I took him to shoot his first hog and he comes away with this monster which is bigger than mine. This picture was from 2002.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/7024Pauls_Hog.jpg
In November 2006, I had just returned from an 8 month "business trip" and decided to take some vacation. Went to my old stomping grounds (42,000 acre ranch) in the Davis Mountains of West Tx to do about 7 days worth of calling. Before I left NC my next door neighbor asked me shoot him a hog so he can have a shoulder mount in his "man-room". One day I was all guillied up and armed with a Rem 7600 in a 270 calling coyotes. Called for a good 30 minutes and was just about to get up and head for the pickup when I heard some pig squeals up on a small hill about 200 yards in front of me. Sat there a little longer in hopes of hearing it again and sure enough I did. The wind was right to left at about 5-7 knots so I slowly start making my way around the hill so I can make my approach into the wind. I walked extremely slow taking only a few steps a minute and after a full hour I finally catch a glimpse of a hog. There were probably 20 in this group. I was having fun watching them and I still keep my same slow steady pace. The hogs are working their way away from me slowly eating and turning over rocks and uprooting grass in the process. I was amazed how fast they tear up the land. A little background here: this ranch has, and has always had, a serious hog problem. I was initially hired by this rancher while I was in college to kill hogs and coyotes. Not bad for a college job, got paid $50 a day and he bought my ammo and gas. I also did a little welding and cattle work on the side. The first weekend I was there I killed 40+ hogs. The hogs tear up a tremendous amount of land and also tear up his roads and water troughs. The amount of pigs on this place is indescribable. To make it easy, the land owner set up all 6 of his deer feeders and had me keep them full of corn all year round. I shot a lot of hogs off of those feeders. Anyway, back to the hunt, I finally inch within 30 yards of the hogs and finally see the big daddy. I shot him then all hell broke loose as I was working that pump action 270 as quickly as I could and shot 2 more as they were running away. It was pretty intense. Getting this beast in the pickup was a heck of a lot of work. As you can see in the picture I have bailing wire wrapped around his feet. I would use that to inch him up then tie off one side before I moved to the other and did the same thing. Caped it out and brought it back for my bud to get mounted. When we picked it up from the taxidermist I was jealous and wished I would have kept it so Keith and I made a deal. He has never shot a hog so when he does I'm going to pay to get it mounted then we'll swap mounts. I'll sneak over there sometime today and snap a picture of the mount and post it on here. It really turned out nice. The hog was shot on the far side of the tallest ridge in the picture.
I didn't weigh the hog but I have my guess and I'd like to hear everyone's guess. For comparisons sake, I'm 6' 205.
Here's a hog my brother shot off of that same ranch. I took him to shoot his first hog and he comes away with this monster which is bigger than mine. This picture was from 2002.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/7024Pauls_Hog.jpg