The Hog Blog

I stepped through the door, out of the balmy, Texas spring afternoon, into the tiny, Mexican restaurant.  The only other people in the place were about four locals, including the waitress, all gathered at the kitchen table.  As the door swung shut behind me, I overheard a young lady in the group, complaining that, “I’ve been praying for God to send me a man.” 

A slight gust of wind slammed the door behind me, and all eyes turned to this stranger come to town. 

This wasn’t the opening scene of an old-style western (or a bad porn movie).  It was just my introduction to the good people of Leakey, Texas (pronounced Lakey, not Leaky), population 387, and located right in the heart of the Texas Hill Country… hard alongside the Frio river (Rio Frio). 

I was not here in answer to the prayers of the lovelorn.  I’d come to town to hunt exotics, with my friend and guide, Shane Hearn, of Borderbandit Outfitting.   This would be my third year hunting with Shane, but this was my first time staying right here in Leakey, and my first chance to get a taste for this awesome, little Texas town.  I’ve been a long time away from the small-town life, and every minute spent here reminded me of how much I missed it.

This hunt was originally slated to be the third annual, JHO Exotics Hunt.  For the past couple of years, several of us from Jesse’s Hunting and Outdoors Forums have gathered in Texas to hunt axis deer, blackbuck, and wild hogs.  Unfortunately, due to various conflicts, no one else from the forum could make the trip.  It would only be myself and my little brother, Scott. 

Since it was just us, we opted not to use the comfortable, ranch house/lodge accomodations Shane usually provides, about 30 minutes away, in the town of Uvalde.  We decided we’d all camp at one of the local campgrounds in Leakey, which would put us closer to the hunting.  Scott and his wife drove out from NC, towing their camper.  My mom had come out last year as well, and enjoyed the area so much she decided to come along with her RV and a couple of her friends.  I drove my own rig out there from CA.  It was practically a family reunion, with some great hunting thrown in.

In preparation for the hunt, as is customary with these exotics outings, we planned with Shane what we’d be targeting.  Each animal on these hunts comes with a specific price tag, so you always want to plan ahead.  You can add to the targeted animals during the hunt, but it’s a good idea to set yourself some limits, and to set the guide’s expectations.  Otherwise, it’s real easy to get carried away and rack up a huge tab. 

First on our list was a ram blackbuck (a kind of Indian antelope).  My mom had seen one mounted at a shop last year, and really wanted us to get one.  We were unsuccessful on the blackbuck last year, so we wanted to focus on it this time around. 

In addition, I was looking for a good Axis buck.  We were also both planning to shoot a couple of Axis does for meat.  Axis venison is some of the best game meat you’ll ever sink your teeth into, and the does are tender and delicious.  They’re also much cheaper than the bucks. 

As a bonus, on all of Shane’s hunts, hogs are free… all you can shoot.  We hadn’t had much luck with hogs on the previous two years, though, so they were kind of a hopeful afterthought.  Scott has feral hogs right on his property in NC, and I have pretty good access here in CA… so going all the way to TX to shoot hogs wasn’t really a big driver.  Even so, we both love that wild pork, and shooting them is a favor to the ranchers down in the Lone Star State. 

So there’s the setup. 

I finished my lunch without further moment, and headed on over to meet up with everyone at the campground.  We planned to set up camp and enjoy an afternoon of catching up before going to meet Shane at lunchtime the next day, Friday, to start hunting. 

They arrived later in the afternoon, with the news that Shane wanted to get started right away, since the Friday’s weather was looking doubtful, with high winds and possible thunderstorms.  Shane showed up about an hour later, and we grabbed our gear and jumped into his truck.

We decided to go after my Axis buck first, since we could find them on a nearby property.  I hopped into the front of the truck, and we started cruising and looking.  We spotted a couple of good animals, but nothing really seemed to be exactly what we were looking for.  Since I’m still a relative novice at hunting these animals, I was relying on my guide to let me know when we saw something  that was “worth shooting”.  They all looked pretty huge to me, but as we picked over a few bucks, I started to get a feel for what we were looking for. 

The day was winding on, and I started to wonder if we’d find what we were looking for today or not.  It was only the first day, but with bad weather possibly on the horizon, I was a little concerned.  Still, there are tons of Axis deer in the area, and a little patience would usually be rewarded. 

We rounded a curve, and caught movement through the mesquite and cedars.  The white-spotted, red hide of an Axis is pretty easy to spot, and we knew what we were looking at.  But what about antlers?  One animal lowered his head, and we saw thick, thick bases.  My heart started to race and I got ready to shoot.  The buck moved a little more, though, and we saw that he was still in velvet, and still had a good bit of growing to do.  He’d be a monster in a few weeks, but I needed something now.

Then, just behind him, we saw hard antlers.  (Axis deer do not follow an annual cycle for shedding antlers, but instead may shed or rut at any time of year).  Shane told me to get ready, as this might be the one we were looking for.  The buck gave us a clear look at the rack, and Shane hissed, “If you can, you should!”

That’s all I needed to hear.  I waited until the buck stepped out into a small opening, levelled my .243 just behind his shoulder, and let it fly.  The buck dropped like he’d been poleaxed, but just as the high-fives started, he leapt to his feet and bolted!  Fortunately, I could tell by the way he was running that it was a death-run, but we still gasped in disbelief at how tough these animals are. 

We gave it a couple of minutes, then went to find the buck.  There was excellent blood sign where  I’d shot him, and some blood where he first took off, but then we couldn’t find anything else.  There had been several other deer in the herd, and the ground was covered in running tracks… making it pretty difficult to distinguish my deer from the others. 

After spreading out a bit, and not having any luck, I walked back to the spot where he was standing and replayed the hit.  It looked like he had run directly at a patch of cedar, about 25 yards from where he first fell.  I walked the tracks, and then spotted the red hide in the shadows where he’d literally burrowed into the low-hanging boughs and broken branches.  The white spots and red fur made an ideal camoflage, and all three of us had walked right by him the first time. 

After dragging him out and taking a preliminary measurement, Shane realized he’d over-estimated the size of the antlers.  This was no “trophy”, but he was still a nice buck.  My disappointment wasn’t too overwhelming, since I’ve never really been all that crazy about trophy hunting in the first place, but Shane knew this isn’t what I was looking for.  He immediately accepted responsibility for misjudgement, and made it right by adjusting the kill fee.  He also offered me a free doe… but more on that later.  Point is, this is the difference between some guy taking your money for a hunt and working with a quality outftter.  Shane got big points for that gesture, especially since I hadn’t asked for it! 

By the time we got the pictures taken and the buck back into the truck, we were almost out of shooting light.  We covered the ranch again, hoping to get a shot on some axis does, but they’d disappeared.  We made a final circuit, and just as we started out the road to the gate, a dark shape meandered across the road.  Scott (hereafter to be called “Bloodthirsty Savage” or “BS”), Shane, and I looked at each other… was that a hog? 

We didn’t wait around.  Scott and I bailed out of the truck, rifles in hand, and started easing up the road.  There was a feeder just to the left, pretty close to where we’d last seen the animal.  Suddenly, Scott stopped and raised his rifle.  “Damn,” he muttered.  “I think that’s a calf.”

I put my Leicas on the shadowy form, and immediately realized that it wasn’t a cow but a really, hefty hog.  “That’s a nice hog,” I whispered.  “Kill it!”

The exclamation point had barely floated out of my mouth and into the air than the Bloodthirsty Savage’s 30-06 roared.  I saw the hog drop and flop, squealing to beat the band, then all went still.  BS started walking up the road, confidently prepared to collect his trophy.  As he did, I heard something running through the brush to my left.  Hoping for another hog, I cut over to intercept it. 

Sure enough, a hog came trotting fast through the cedars.  I got an opening, and touched off the Browning.  The hog dropped flat to the ground, shot just behind the heart.  He started struggling, but a second round behind the ear put the game to a stop.  As my senses slowed back to normal, and I replayed the shot, I realized the hog appeared to be limping pretty badly.  “Hey, Scott,” I called.  “I think I just killed your pig!” 

When we walked up to the animal, I was immediately impressed by the show of tusks.  I could see them in the dark from several paces away.  BS saw them too, and started whooping.  He’d been wanting a “trophy” boar, and here it was.  After a quick post-mortem, we determined that it was, indeed, the hog he’d shot.  The 180 grain bullet had hit as the boar angled toward him, and the bullet raked back through the body cavity.  It would have been a fatal hit, but the boar was sure moving well when I tapped him with the .243.  Another tough critter done.

Skinning and dressing took a while, and it was fairly late when we rolled back into the campground.  We visited briefly with the family, and then it was time for bed.  We needed to be at the ranch early for the next day’s hunt, since the property with the blackbuck was a 45 minute drive, north of where we were.

The second ranch, where we’d be hunting the blackbuck was comprised of 4500 acres inside a high fence.  This should be fish in a barrel, right?  Of course,  it’s not, as I knew from previous hunts on this place.  Most of the people who think so have obviously never hunted a place like this.  Sometimes a hunt on such a ranch may be a walk in the park, but there are times when getting on animals is practically impossible.

Things started well.  The wind hadn’t yet come up, and we could see game all over the place on other ranches as we drove in.  Once we got through the gates, we spotted a group of axis does.  We needed to focus on the blackbuck first, though.  The meat animals could come later. 

The property is cross fenced with regular barbed wire for cattle grazing, and there are a ton of gates.  We had no more cruised through the second gate than we spotted our blackbuck.  He was grazing beside two blackbuck does (ewes?), but the moment we rolled within about 200 yards the whole group went from zero to about 70mph in the blink of an eye.  The last time we saw them, they were still moving out at over 600 yards. 

As we watched them disappear, a real doozy of an Axis buck moseyed into sight at about 150 yards.  He appeared to be totally oblivious to us sitting there, as he grazed along.  Shane mumbled something about letting me trade my sub-par buck for this one, but it didn’t feel right to me so we just watched him graze… hoping some does would join him.  They didn’t.

As we started driving, the wind started picking up.  By mid-day it was blowing a gale, and the wildlife was about as spooky as they could get.  Typically they’ll continue to feed as long as the vehicle is still moving, but the wind had them all skittish.  The possibility of getting a shot was almost nil.  A glimpse here, a glimpse there, and then the next sighting would be at hundreds of yards on a dead run.  And these critters are fast!

Just before noon, as we were driving along and enjoying the sunshine (at the same time we were cursing the wind), I spotted something under some oaks a couple hundred yards away.  I got Shane to stop the truck, and put the glasses on the dark objects which, under magnification, became a group of pigs.  That’s right, hogs, at mid-morning on a warm, sunny day!

In a flash, we had bailed out of the truck for the stalk.  This time, Shane was toting a rifle too.  “Kill ‘em all,” that’s what the rancher said, so we’d have all the firepower we could muster. 

We worked around into the wind and crept up until we spotted the hogs.  I had a nice black one out in the open, but wanted everyone else to get a shot too, so we continued to close the distance.  At about 75 yards, the black one was still there, and there was a smallish red hog off to the right.  I told Scott to shoot that one, and I’d shoot the black one, but when he tried to get the pig in his scope, he couldn’t see it.  We moved even closer.

Finally, the black hog’s head came up and he made eye contact with me.  We were busted.  At the same time he started to trot, we all saw a much larger black pig come out from behind a little hill!  I lowered the crosshairs on this newcomer, and my finger tightened on the trigger. 

BOOM!

The big pig dropped right out of my scope.  WTF?  I didn’t shoot!  That bloodthirsty savage of a brother of mine snaked my hog. 

At this point, pigs were running everywhere, but all I had for targets was a bunch of hams… not a shot I was willing to take, even in the name of eradication.  Shane found a target in a suckling pig, and put it on the ground with his .22 mag.  I took off across the pasture, in hopes of getting another look at the fleeing porkchops, but they were long gone.

So, in two days of hunting, we’d already bested the record for the JHO hunts (one hog each of the previous two years). 

We loaded up and drove back to Leakey for lunch, then went back to the original ranch to skin and quarter the pigs.  We decided we’d set up pop-up blinds on Friday evening, in hopes of getting some axis deer at the feeders.  The Bloodthirsty Savage had also decided that he’d shoot an axis buck too, if he could get on a good one. 

By the time we got the blinds set up, the wind was truly howling.  After about an hour, my blind was hopping up and down like a camoflaged Pac-Man, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be seeing any game.  However, BS had just radioed that he was watching a good group of Axis, so I stayed put to hear how things would play out. 

Finally, with about a half-hour of shooting light left, I couldn’t stand it anymore.  I had seen a total of one whitetail doe (and this place has hundreds of whitetails on it), and the noise of the blind popping and scraping was too much.  I radioed Shane to come pick me up. 

After he collected me, we headed over to where Scott was set up.  We stopped a little short, to wait for full darkness before rolling into his setup.  As we sat there, we heard a shot, followed by the smack of a bullet hitting flesh.  I just knew he’d whacked a big Axis buck.  But then there was another shot, followed by yet another!  We gave him a minute, then radioed.  He said to come on and pick him up.

When we got there, his grin was brighter than a flashlight.  “What the heck were you shooting at,” I asked.

“Did you get that big, wide buck,” Shane asked.

The BS just stood there grinning and shaking his head.  “Well, what was all the shooting?,” I challenged. 

“Pigs.”

Sure enough, about 100 yards down the road, right in the middle of the road, was a big, dead sow.  He said there were two more about another hundred yards down, but he wasn’t sure if he’d hit them.  We drove up and looked for sign, but couldn’t find anything. 

We loaded this one into the truck, and this time I didn’t even take pictures. 

Saturday morning found us back at it.  The wind was still screaming, though, and the animals were crazy-skittish.  Shot opportunities were few, and far between, and the one good shot I had… well, that hog is fine and unscathed.

The afternoon turned a little better, and the wind was beginning to drop out.  The wildlife was still fairly skittish, though.  I clunked yet another shot, this one on an Axis doe, and really started to worry about my shooting.  I blame it on rushing to shoot before the Bloodthirsty Savage shot it out from under me, and as a result, neither of us got it.

Shortly afterward, though, I got redemption.  We were down in a canyon, when the BS brought us up short.  “There’s a hog under that tree.”

At first no one else could see it, but when I spotted it I realized it was completely motionless.  “That’s one you shot yesterday,” I said.  “It’s dead.” 

He was pretty sure it wasn’t, though, and after a couple of moments, I put a 95 grain bullet through its eye. 

At the shot, the “dead” hog flopped over, thrashing its last, and a large boar leapt up behind it and took off through the cedars. 

Tally up one more for the weekend… five hogs total. 

Sunday, everything was on the line.  We still hadn’t tagged our blackbuck, or Scott’s Axis buck.  Neither of us had killed an axis doe yet either.  Despite the fact that we had plenty of fresh pork, we were feeling a little desperate.

Fortunately, the wind had dropped to a light breeze.  We rolled onto the ranch shortly after first light, and immediately spotted a good blackbuck.  Neither of us could get a good shot on it though, and it didn’t wait long.  It took off at a sprint, so we took off to find another one. 

As we cruised around, Shane spotted a group of axis deer.  We made our way into position, but most of the herd scattered.  I got the crosshairs on a straggler, but it seemed kind of small.  As I was debating, I heard the all-too-familiar roar of the Bloodthirsty Savage’s 30-06 again.  The doe I was looking at bolted, but Scott trotted over to the clearing and came out with a small doe. ..  a little too small for some, but tender and tasty to the meat hunter. 

Shortly afterward, we spotted a one-horned blackbuck that we’d been seeing all weekend.  We didn’t shoot it earlier, for obvious reasons, but after some discussion we decided that a good taxidermist could probably reconstruct the missing horn.  This time, if it let us get close enough, it would die. 

Shane knows that ranch pretty well, and after a couple of pretty ugly little roads (the place is covered in limestone), we found ourselves about 300 yards from where we’d last seen the ram.  We glassed the hillside, until someone spotted the doe that had been with the ram.  He must be around somewhere.  Just as we were about to move on, he stood up.  

I had the crosshairs on him, but the angle was terrible as he was turned away from me.  I was waiting for him to turn when, you guessed it, BS did it again!  The ram hunched up and took off, obviously hit in the gut.  I had no chance to put a killing shot in him.  All I could hope was that Scott’s shot had angled far enough forward to hit vitals.

Thus began the tracking job from hell.  Most people who’ve never seen the Hill Country think of Texas as this big, pancake-flat, prairie land.  But the Hill Country… well, it looks like a practice run for Tejon Ranch, with steep canyons, thick chapparal, and rocky ground that really doesn’t take a track very well.  It’s not as lofty or deep as Tejon, but it’s rugged… and that’s exactly where that blackbuck ran, leaving little drops of blood all along the way.

After a couple of hours, we topped out of the canyon.  Shane was about 20 yards ahead of me, and I saw him suddenly shoulder his rifle.  “There he goes,” he shouted!

I took off up the hill, and we jogged along the blackbucks backtrail, each catching glimpses as it dodged around cedars.  Finally, it broke into the open ahead of me and I put a shot into it and knock it down.  At this point, I didn’t care that it was a “Texas Heart Shot”, as all I wanted to do was get the animal down.  A final shot to the heart at powder-burn range closed the chapter.  All that was left was to get the ram back across the canyon to the truck.  There were no roads way over here… a sad surprise to the Bloodthirsty Savage.

The blackbuck loaded, we started cruising for more Axis deer.  The Bloodthirsty Savage finally stumbled, shooting at a fat Axis doe and missing.  Soon afterward, as we rounded a bend in the road, a true monster of an Axis buck lay napping in the shade of an oak tree.  Scott kept asking Shane, “is it a shooter,” and I leveled the rifle on it… seriously contemplating taking the shot myself.  That would teach him.

But I didn’t, and after a moment, BS whacked yet another critter…

Sunday wound down without much more opportunity.  I could have shot another hog, just at dusk, but I thought Shane was trying to shoot one too, so I let it go.  Neither of us fired and the hogs disappeared.  Just as well, though, I’d seen enough bloodshed for one, long weekend.

It was a heck of a great time, both the hunting, and the time spent with my brother, sister-in-law, and my mom. 

Managed to get in some swimming in the Rio Frio, and yes, it is MUY FRIO!  But it was a warm day, and once you got over the shock, it was actually kind of nice. 

Even swung from the rope swing a bit, and enjoyed the looks from the young folks, shocked as the old guy acting like a danged kid.  I gotta grow older, but I never have to grow up!

A quick note here about guns and ammo selection. As I mentioned, I’d chosen to use my Browning BLR, chambered in .243 Winchester. Axis bucks are about the size of big mule deer, with bodies that may go in excess of 200 lbs. The does are a good bit smaller, generally on par with a whitetail deer. They have thin skins, like any deer, but they are tough, tough animals. While I know there are a lot of Texans down there killing these things with .22 magnums and such, I would say that the .243 is about as small as you should go… particularly if you’re on a paid hunt. A lot of operators consider a hit a “kill”, whether you recover the animal or not, so you really don’t want to handicap yourself.

The main reason I chose to hunt with my .243, besides the fact that I haven’t used it in ages, was that I wanted to try out Winchester’s new Supreme Elite, XP3 ammo. For the .243, they’ve loaded the new 95gr bullet, which is a twist on the Accubond (which I love), at a muzzle velocity of about 3100fps. That’s a pretty screaming round, and with my zero at 1.5″ high at 100 yards, keeps me within six inches at 300 yards… which is all I think anyone should be shooting at big game with this diminutive round.

As we’ll see, the new ammo performed like a charm. It’s not lead-free, but it is what I consider “lead-safe”, since the bullet holds together exceptionally well, and the bonded lead core stays with the rest of the projectile… passing clean through the animal, in the majority of cases. From the weekend of hunting, I only recovered one bullet.

Editorial Note:  Sorry for the delay on this story... it's taken some time to get back on track after an excellent trip! 
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