Went back to this ranch with the near full-moon and clear skies. Set up against a big pecan in the river bottom as there is a sounder that is wreaking havoc there and the landowner asked me if I might be able to discourage them a bit--tough job, but someone's got to do it. Before dark, I spotted him about 400 yds away, upwind, so got up, put a big trunk between us and took off. However, he was moving faster towards the west fenceline than I could close the range (had my .25-06) and eventually went into a treeline I thought was the property/fence line. So, went back to my chair and kicked back. About an hour later, it's well after sunset, I'm dark-adapted, and I spot a bunch of pigs to the west, thru a break in the treeline. I decided to close the range a bit as the winds were right, so started out. Got close to the treeline and realized it wasn't the property line, which was another 200 yds west. So, kept on slowly walking towards the last spot I saw the pigs. Nothing doing in all the moon-lit areas so I hooked a left into the wind and got under the big pecans. Next thing I know there are 10-12 pigs in front of me as close as 10 yds. I fumbled with the shooting sticks and getting the rifle on them and the red-dot turned on, and they spooked and I wasn't willing to take a running shot at smaller pigs. So, re-shouldered the rifle and closed the sticks and started to take a peek thru the binocs when I saw another group of 10-15 coming from R to L. The stopped right in front of me, closest was 12' away! Got the sticks deployed and the rifle on them, turned the lighted reticle on, and got the red dot on the biggest one in sight. I paid absolutely no attention to shooting form, then touched off "Two-Bits" and was rewarded with a bright flash, pigs squealing, and a pain between my eyes. Turns out my poor form included tucking the stock under my arm instead of in my shoulder pocket and crawling the stock close enough to the scope to get kissed. Now, the .25-06 doesn't recoil heavily, but it does recoil way more than my usual pig rifle, a Winchester M70 Featherweight in .22-250. When I finally figured out I wasn't bleeding badly and could see, turned my light on and no pig! There was some low vegetation to the left, the direction the target pig was facing, so I walked over there and heard something thrashing around in the brush. When it stopped, gave it another minute or two and walked to the other side of the brush/weeds and there she was--a sow about 130 lbs with a penetrating high-velocity missile wound just behind her shoulder about 1/4th of the way up. So, another successful hog hunt. Too bad I didn't have the 12-ga stuffed with 3" mag #4 buckshot. Would have been a bloodier affair probably.

Went back to the bowstand/feeder two nights ago--they stood me up again. Most likely, although I'm 15' in the air, the prevailing winds are blowing sort of in the direction of the bedding area and they are sniffing me out. Might need to move to the east and set up with the rifle. Also, plan to move the trap to the river bottom and see if I can corral more than one at a time.