# Went on my first Wild hog hunt! AWESOME



## Moby76065 (Jul 31, 2012)

Keep in mind I'm a new hunter. Not a new shooter, to toot my own horn I'm pretty fair with firearms. But shooting paper bad guys and game are very different. This is the "McDonalds" of hog hunting. A 235 acre ranch with a high fence and tons of Hogs. "Real" hunters may scoff but for me, this was a good time. The hunts are assigned (Blind hunting at night and walk & stalks on assigned roads during the day). My thinking is to learn in a place where hunting is relatively easy. This ensured I could focus my shooting skills on moving game while stalking, and longer range (relatively easy picking) from the blind ensuring I didn't go home empty handed. Blind shots were at approximately 100 yards. So I focused on shot placement. Head shots. Walk & stalks were surprise shots at startled moving targets. This was a GREAT place for my third hunt on more cunning game, they knew they were hunted daily. Yet still controlled enough that I increased my hunting skills and took home the bacon!

My experience at Hog Hunting - Free Texas Hog Hunting 
Drove to the Ranch east of San Antonio.

Three days of hog hunting was really a 3pm check in with one night hunt from a blind, one full day hunt with a morning blind hunt, a walk & stalk, lunch, other walk & stalk, dinner, a second night hunt, and evening snack. Morning blind hunt, and check out by 1pm. Total cost with gas approximately $500.
However all costs were openly and honestly posted on the website. There were no surprises. I knew the budget before I went.
Day one:
I get to the ranch and am met by the owner Paul. Great guy. I follow him to the ranch house where because I'm alone he give me a private bunk house. Normally and $80 per night cost. No charge!
I get to the room and the beds have no bedding and that is explained on the website. If you fly in they provide bedding. 

I unroll my Army sleeping bag, unpack my toiletries and clothes and go back to the ranch house to peek around. 


There are mounts all around the walls of exotic game on the ranch. 12 BIG leather recliners two 60 inch wide screens, pool table, fuse ball table and an open kitchen. Nicely laid out. Paul shows up and we go through the rules of the ranch. Only three rounds in a firearm as fools with 30 round magazines have in the past sprayed herds of hogs praying for a kill shot. They want aimed hunting not hog warfare. Stay in your assigned area so you're not in range of other hunters. Shoot a hog call Matt (owners son and ranch manager) and he'll come pick up your kill and take it to the skinning & quartering station. While walking &stalking you must wear an orange vest and ball cap. Seems reasonable so far. I'm excited. Then I met the three gents from California. Dennis, Eric, and Abraham. We hit it off immediately. 

First hunt:
My first hunt was a night hunt. At 6:45 I assigned the "Tripod" blind and given directions. I drive down the dirt road, a couple turns, and approach the area. Right smack dab in the middle of the road is a Cape Water Buffalo. NO KIDDING! He's just standing there looking at me. I wait. He seems unthreatened so keeps eating grass. When he's damn well good and walks off the road. Feeling safe I grab my camera (I'm a professional photographer) and readykeeping my truck between him and I shoot some pictures. I swear this massive fella was posing!! Cautiously I get a little closer (plenty of running room and my AR10 (.308) slung and loaded (safety on, Glock .45 fully loaded on my hip) and shoot a few more shots. He seemed like he could care less. I did keep a good distance as he is not domesticated, just desensitized to people walking around hunting all day.

I climb up in my blind a short while later Paul the owner drives by (I told him I'm a new hunter) to check on me. I told him about the water buffalo and he just smiled. He said they would be laying down my corn in a bit and they did. More exotics show up. Big deer, antelope Rams, other critters I am unfamiliar with and my buddy the Water Buffalo. They munch on the corn a bit. I snapped pictures. No hogs show up.



At the ranch house Paul asked me how it went. I told him no hogs. He said try it in the morning. I did, no hogs. After the morning blind hunt Paul said he had a spot for me to hunt. We went to the "honey Hole". Normally a $50 dollar add on. No charge. He gave me directions to "Bobcat ally" which is the back fence line of the property. I drove there passing exotic critters everywhere. Once on site I got out of my truck and started down my assigned road. Hogs jumped up from the brush (scared the crap out of me) and ran off. I realized they were along the side of the road. Moving 20 feet in from the road I followed it moving careful;; through the forest floor foliage. A black hog was awakened by my movement and as he jumped up to run he turned to jump away from me. I tagged him behind the left ear and he dropped. I continued down the road a ways and Paul rides up in an electric golf cart. I jump in and he takes me to the back fence line. There are two chairs there. He said several hundred yards in either direction are other hunters assigned to their roads. As they shoot the hogs will run right to me. As I was sitting there a heard of dear came running through the woods. I sat a bit longer and saw no less than 100 hogs cross the road but farther than I felt comfortable with a 12 ga. So I watched them go around the bend and followed carefully. No joy. I got nervous as I was now 100 yards out of my assigned area. As I turned to go back 50+ hogs were 40 feet from where I was sitting. DAM IT!


Time was up and I walked back to my truck and found Dennis and Matt (owners son) walking looking for a hog for Dennis (his first hunt ever). I told Matt about my first kill and he said he would get it on the way back. Shortly I hear shots. Not long after Dennis and Matt show up in the jeep with a 165 lbs hog on the game carrier. We load up my 140 lb hog and go back for lunch. GREAT food. Hog of course and all the sides. Hunters were talking about their hunts and kills. One family from Nebraska had multiple hogs. 3 over 400 lbs. We all set out on the second walk & stalk of the day. 
Dennis, Eric, Abraham and myself are walking along. Eric and Abraham on the road with Dennis and I walking 40 yards off road (careful to keep in eye sight) to flush hogs to Abraham who had yet to get a hog, no joy. We went farther down the road. Dennis and I were in the woods and heard shots. We hid behind a tree knowing hogs would be running at us soon. 2 minutes later 40+ hogs are in full run right at us. Dennis fires and drops one. With all the excitement I missed. Hogs ran right by us! Back to the ranch house for dinner. Sloppy Joe's as big and meaty as you could handle. Excellent sides and drinks.
Out for the night hunt. 
Abraham and I are at the Windmill blind. Bid pond on our right. The jeep comes by laying corn. Exotics come to eat. BIG Elk show up to enjoy some of our corn. A bug buck goes into the water to drink. I;m snapping pictures.
Then the hogs come. I take aim with my .308 at about 70-80 yards. Slow squeeze, bang a 70 lb. sow. I tell Abraham to wait, the hogs will come back. 10 minutes later they do. He has a shotgun and at 70-80 yards I feel he will not make the shot so I give him my AR 10. He takes aim and misses the first shot. I tell him to be patient and wait for the hogs to come back. They do. He aims and I tell him to squeeze the trigger slowly. The shot should surprise him. BANG.. he nails a 60 lb piglet!!! He was so excited.

Later back at the ranch house for dinner. Hog meat balls in a sweet sauce. It was so good I asked for the recipe. The cook happily wrote it down for me. I told her she needs to write a cookbook.
The next morning since I had shot my twp hogs an additional hog would be a $100. Dennis gave me 40 lbs of meat as he could not take all 11 hogs he shot on the plane with him. 

With about 40% of meat per animal I took home about 120 lbs of meat. (including what Dennis gave me) Comes out to about $4 per pound. Not bad when you consider the friends I met, the hunting I had, and the great service and food the ranch provided. They took great care of us. I'm sorry some guys had a bad experience. This was simply not the case on my trip. I'M GOING BACK!!!

I'm absolutely going back!!!


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## MD1Tx (Jun 16, 2014)

Really a fantastic review and well written. It sounds like so much fun that I looked up the website, and wow, do they have alot of hog down there!


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## millertimedoneright (May 13, 2013)

Very nice write up


Sent from my iPhone using Survival Forum


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Sounds like an excellent spot to get your feet wet at hunting.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Thanks for weighing in again, Moby! 

Glad to hear you are still out and about!


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Good to see you again, Moby! Glad you had such an awesome time! Now everyone knows what to get you for birthdays, Christmas, etc! Or if the wife just wants to get rid of you for the weekend


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## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

Good Timing on Post I was thinking about doing the same thing here.

It is $225.00 for a day's pig hunt and the price is the same for any weight or trophy. Includes cleaning. 99% success rate.

http://www.westshoreoutfitters.com/main/central-florida-hog-hunts


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