I was getting pretty stoked about going out last Friday afternoon when we had storms move through the area where the farm is located Thursday night. A quick check of the Oklahoma Mesonet revealed that the property I usually hunt had received nearly 2” of rain. @$%! I don’t have 4WD and if it rains very much, I can’t reach the property as the roads are not paved and barely have gravel on them. Friday afternoon after mulling it over I decided to go ahead and go out, if nothing else I could check on my grandmother who had lost power the night before due to the weather. I left home around 3 pm and checked on my grandmother and found that the power was back on and she had gone to town. Having done that, I continued on to the farm. Miraculously, when I arrived there at about 5 pm the roads were almost dry. I knew I wouldn’t have long to hunt but figured that I’d have at least 4 hours of light. I changed into my camo, loaded the rifle, grabbed my backpack and headed out At this point I should probably mention that the rifle was my Win. M94 Trail’s End in 45 Colt loaded with 240 gr. Hornady XTP Mags over 27.5 gr. H110 for an avg. vel. of 1900 fps. Anyway, about 200 yds. from the truck I realized I didn’t have my flashlight. *&%@ Turn around, go back and get the flashlight. (something about wandering around in the dark where wild pigs roam makes me nervous…) With flashlight in hand I headed back out to the draw where my corn feeder is located to hunt. The draw runs north-south so I had to walk the fenceline to the west and then approach the draw from the side to avoid having my scent blow straight down the draw. I crept in cautiously glassing for pigs down the draw which was thick with brush and trees. No pigs so I found a good spot and made myself comfortable. About an hour into the hunt I decided to go ahead and download the photos from my trail cam with the laptop computer I brought when I realized: Double !#%@, I left the key to the lock on my camera back at the truck. This really wasn’t looking like my day. I took a moment to clear a few branches to gain a better view and returned to my spot to wait patiently. At 9:05 I decided that I had been patient enough, that I wasn’t going to see any hogs and I was tired of being drained by the local mosquito population so I packed up and started toward the truck. About half way there I topped a rise in the wheat field I’d been hunting next to and saw 3 black lumps in the wheat about 50 yards away. Were those pigs or bedded calves? The neighboring pasture has angus and black-baldie cattle and the fence is in less than ideal condition so it was entirely possible that those could be calves. I took a knee, set the rifle against the other knee and started to pull up the binoculars when the largest lump lifted its head – PIG! I quickly lowered the binos, brought the rifle to bear and aimed for the biggest of the three but held my shot. I took a moment to compose myself because I was more than a little excited and I didn’t want to rush and blow the shot. I steadied myself, drew a careful bead on the hog’s boiler room and squeezed. At the shot, I saw an orange fireball the size of a softball at the muzzle and a split second later the hogs took off at full tilt back toward the pasture from whence they’d come. I took two more follow-up shots at the hog for insurance but neither one connected and I thought to myself that I really don’t want to chase a wounded pig into the brush and I really don’t want to have to come back in the morning. With that in mind I started walking toward where I had last seen them and found the pig laying about 5 feet from the edge of the wheat field, he'd only gone 30 yds. Woohoo, first pig!! And with a levergun to boot. I walked back to the truck, got an 8’ cam-buckle tie-down strap and headed back to the pig to drag him out. I had to drag it 300 yds. before I could back the truck up to it and drag it another 300 yds. to a place where I could load it up. Once loaded the hog was as long from snout to rear as the bed was wide. I gutted it, packed it with 6 bags of ice and headed home. I dropped it off at the processor the next morning where we put it on the scales… 150 #’s field dressed. Not bad.
After boring you with the story, now we get to the good part: The photos!
Good job, congrats. Kinda wish I knew where to go to hunt those.
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