17 June 2010, 08:20
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Pasture has finally dried out enough to hunt, so I went tonight. Drove by my other spot to check for pigs in the pasture--but nothing there. However, I did see this critter behind the high fence across the road. WTF? Surely it isn't an elk, is it?
Went on to the spot and this is where it gets interesting. I go thru the gate and load the rifle, and drive into the pasture. I was idling along looking at the new rootings and all of a sudden I hit a hole. Oh well, I'll just drive out of it. No go--my left rear tire was about 3" in the air off the ground and I was sitting on my differential/trailer hitch. This was a new gully from that last rain--so I walk back to the house, get Jim the landowner and his Dodge diesel and pull it off the hump. Drive on into the pasture to my normal parking place. Stop, look at a doe down by the feeder, roll down the windows, fire up the thermacell for skeeter control, prop the rifle on the window ledge, and pick up the binocs to look over the doe again. Still seems to be pregnant and it is late in the season. Put the binocs down and pick up my book. Take a glance at the feeder before I open the book and there are 2 pigs there! Before I can get my earplugs in, they walk into the tall grass. Dang. Oh well, open the book and glance back at the feeder--now there are 4-5-6 small to medium pigs at the feeder. Rifle up, safety off, aim, bang-flop. Rest of them scatter and I'm not in a position to take a running shot at them. Then I notice one standing in the weeds about 20 yds from the feeder so I hammer it--WOP!!! down it goes. So, I put the rifle on safe, turn off the skeeter thingie, and start the truck. Drive to the feeder and there's the first one.
Walk over to where the other one was standing when I shot and nothing--no blood, no pig, nothing. Spend about 20 minutes walking trails and clearing spider webs but didn't find any sign. Went back to where he was standing and went the other direction--no sign that way either. Must have missed maybe? Nah-not at 125 yds off a rest, surely not. But we'll never know unless I find a carcass in the next few days.
So, I put the first one on the tailgate and drive to the back of the pasture to gut it and leave the head. Driving out and turn the corner and there are pigs everywhere--two sows and probably 15-20 little ones. What to do? Landowner says if I don't kill 'em I'm fired, so I shut down the truck, poke the gun out the window, and they start moving off--I hammer the sow in the back of the line and she goes down, then gets up and staggers off. I walk over to the spot-blood everywhere, and see her in the cactus about 10 yds away. Pop her in the head and she's done. Roll her over and she has a nasty infected wound in her left ham--it even smells bad, so I just opened her up and left her for the buzzards. If I'd had the 12-ga with #4 buck I probably would have killed 7-8 of the ones in that wad. So, another hunt is in the books. 62-lb sow.
