Small hog but fun hunt on the Northern Waste lands of Texas

[H&Hhunter]

Small hog but fun hunt in the Frozen Northern Texas Arctic

I met up with an old friend last week in Texas just south of the Panhandle for some hog hunting on his lease. The first days was balmy with temps in the 60's and lots of blue sky and dust as one would expect in that part of Texas.

The next day however we awoke to a howling "blue norther". All in all we got about 15 inches of snow with drifts across the road approaching 3 to 4 feet in areas. We were able to get out of camp late in the after noon and do some tracking. Tracking hogs in fresh snow is a hoot.

We tracked this little feller for about a 1/2 mile or so when my buddy jumped him from where he was rooting. My buddy headed for high ground. I watched the whole thing unfold from my downwind position on the other side of the draw. The hog, and a crafty little devil he was, headed up the hill but just as he got out of sight of my buddy he circled and went right back to rooting in his original spot.

Unfortunately for him he didn't see me standing about 80 yards down wind and I quickly ended his worries with a 250 gr TTSX out of my .375H&H. This hog was about 150 lbs or so and pretty young, probably approaching 3 years old from looks of his teeth.

 

[hoghunting]

I'm in the N Central area of Texas and watched on the news as Amarillo was hammered by the cold front, glad you were able to enjoy it!!! Your hog should make some good eating meals. Congratulations.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

While I don't envy getting caught in a blue norther, I do envy getting to shoot a hog in the snow, something I have not done yet. You did well!

 

[LeonCarr]

H&H,

I normally agree with everything you say, but I have to disagree in this case.

There are no wastelands in The Great State Of Texas .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[MCgunner]

Leon, you ever been to Van Horn?

Bout the only thing that grows out there is windmills.

 

[Art Eatman]

I dunno, Leon. You ever drive from Ft. Stockton through Pecos to Orla?

 

[chas08]

There are no wastelands in The Great State Of Texas

Ditto! Just places we'd rather not live! Good job ridding our lovely state of another of these vermin. Please come back and do it another few million times!

 

[nathan]

http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/03/06/4665868/sutton-county-is-boss-of-hog-contest.html

 

[LeonCarr]

Art and MC,

I have driven to and from all of those places, and I like places where there is not another human being for several miles .

I love West Texas, and IMO it is not a wasteland, it is a treasure. Guadalupe Mountains National Park is one of my favorite places.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[H&Hhunter]

I normally agree with everything you say, but I have to disagree in this case.

There are no wastelands in The Great State Of Texas .

Leon,

I attempted to change the title in a feeble attempt to un-insult the great state of Texas and all who dwell there. Please don't put my passport on the do not enter list I couldn't bare to live the rest of my life without Texas and all she has to offer...
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Good job ridding our lovely state of another of these vermin. Please come back and do it another few million times!

chas08,

Yes sir!

I had a lease down around Paducah for 12 years or so and was on a full time campaign against these vermin. We'd generally kill a 100 or more a year between the family and our friends. But the price of diesel kind of put a kink in my ability to continue to wage war against the evil porcine. Unfortunately I let my lease go about 4 years ago. The same time that fuel was getting up around $5.00 a gallon making that 1,000 mile round trip drive to the lease from the house very painful indeed!

And what a beautiful lease it was too, I had over 160,000 acres at my disposal for hogs and varmints. It now been broken up, last of the good deals I guess....

 

[Texan Scott]

I feel bad for those unfortunates so enamored of concrete and paint, guardrails and chain link, that they have come to view unexploited land as "wasted"... I prefer to think of it as "unspoiled."

Few things would make me so happy as to have a home in several hundred acres of that wasted space.

 

[LeonCarr]

H&H,

I won't tell anyone...this time . Since you came to Texas and shot a hog, you've earned your pass.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[MCgunner]

I have driven to and from all of those places, and I like places where there is not another human being for several miles .

I love West Texas, and IMO it is not a wasteland, it is a treasure. Guadalupe Mountains National Park is one of my favorite places.

Well, I actually agree with you. Love the Guadalupes, hunted the NM side of 'em, tons of Mulies up there. I had a lease for a while out in Pumpville. Now, pumpville has one house that I know of and maybe a pump, not sure, but this was a 13,000 acre lease and it was heaven on earth for the whitetail/mule deer/scaled quail/dove/javelina/ even turkey hunter. I never left that lease without meat and I killed MY nicest buck out there, which ain't sayin' much mind you, but there were some nice deer out there. You'd never know it from looking at it from Hwy 90. Bleak ain't the word. LOL! And, NO, unlike Art, I don't really wanna live there.

Anyway, I never saw SNOW there! I did in the Guadalupes, but then, I never saw a hog THERE. Shot a nice mulie out there once, though.

I've found some good, affordable day leasing for hogs up around Lubbock, but it's a might far away just to shoot a hog. Be a fun adventure, I guess, but I really don't need the hog meat. LOL! That one looks pretty fugly, though. He'd make a decent wall mount even if he ain't that big.

Oh, and the bend is a beautiful place to visit, too...VISIT, Art....

 

[Art Eatman]

Yeah, we have a few canyons to mess around in. Deserts are fun. Sometimes it even rains.

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=148072&d=1314488166

 

[gbran]

H&H

Were you shooting a handload? Do you know the ballistics? Just curious and have been toying with a .375 for a versatile all-around rifle. Prolly no Africa, but Alaska bear, moose and all manner in the lower 48. It obviously works for 150 pigs.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Were you shooting a handload?

Yep I don't know that I've ever fired a factory load of .375H&H

Do you know the ballistics?

250 gr TTSX BC of .404, MV of 2875 FPS that is on top of 76 grs of RE 15 in an RP case.

It obviously works for 150 pigs.

I've killed everything from jackrabbits to cape buffalo with a .375H&H and have never been let down by it yet. I've used it from New Mexico and Texas to Alaska and Africa. From north of Agishakshak in the Arctic of Alaska to South of the Zambezi in Africa that truly is an A to Z round.

If I told you the the number of species that I've bagged with a .375H&H or the number of head of game it's killed for me you'd think me an exaggerator so I'll just suffice to say it's a goodly amount on both accounts. There are no flies on a H&H from close dangerous work on the biggest stuff on the planet, to cross canyon elk, to varmints.

 

[H&Hhunter]

That one looks pretty fugly, though. He'd make a decent wall mount even if he ain't that big.

MC,

He's a nice little hog and I took his skull home and boiled it out and bleached it and gave it to my Chiropractor friend who is a skull collector. It now resides in his office proudly displayed with a bunch of other bones including one Homo Sapien.

This is one of the biggest bodied boars I've ever killed. I've got his teeth on leather cord down in the man cave. That pigs skull integrity was compromised at short rage when he got pissy with me and I put a .375 round through the back of his head. I wounded him on the first shot and followed him up and accidentally cornered him, so he had a reason to get pissy....



The only hog that I ever shoulder mounted for myself was this guy. He was a giant too with really nice hair and teeth. (Gosh I was younger in that photo, I sure wuz purtty back then )



i also mounted both of my girls first hog kills and big warthog boar from Zimbabwe. So I figure I've got enough pork hanging from the walls for now.

 

[MCgunner]

He's a nice little hog and I took his skull home and boiled it out and bleached it and gave it to my Chiropractor friend who is a skull collector. It now resides in his office proudly displayed with a bunch of other bones including one Homo Sapien.

Eeewww, this guy is a Chiropractor in Colorado?

 

[chas08]

And what a beautiful lease it was too, I had over 160,000 acres at my disposal for hogs and varmints. It now been broken up, last of the good deals I guess....

It sounds like you had a sweet deal! I lost mine, it was only a 1000 acres but it was 12 miles from home! Just me, my wife, and daughter hunting it. It disolved when the landowner died and it was sold by the kids! I took a many of hog off that place, and we took at least one deer each, every year!

 

[H&Hhunter]

Eeewww, this guy is a Chiropractor in Colorado?

Yep,

Transplanted from the great state of Texas....

 

[Robert]

You could have at least smiled in the first pic. Also, you could have borrowed the Artic Oven had you asked.

 

[Paul7]

Nice hog, since when is a 150 pounder a small one?

 

[MCgunner]

Did ya see the other pix? Size is relative.....

 

[H&Hhunter]

You could have at least smiled in the first pic.

I was smiling..On the inside.

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Nice hog, since when is a 150 pounder a small one?

Paul,

I've killed a pile of boars that were mid 200 lbs and handful over 300 lbs maybe one or two that edged 400 lbs. So for me, and were I hunt hogs it's a pretty average hog and on the small side. Both of my daughters have killed much larger hogs on this ranch.

 

[Paul7]

How did the big ones taste?