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Yesterday morning (11/16/24) I went back out to my Louisiana permission to deer hunt without a plan. I decided to check areas of known activity. I posted in a couple of spots and didn't see much but a bunch of squirrels. They weren't worried about me nor was I concerned with them. I had my Benjamin Bulldog M357 topped with a Vector Optics Continental 5-30x50mm FFP IR scope, Primos Trigger Stick bipod, Eberlestock Gunrunner backpack, and my Alaska Guide chest pack with my rangefinder, flashlight, Sharpie, and flagging tape within the chest pack. I did a lot of scouting while I eased through the wood. I found some decent areas with signs of activity, but didn't see a deer. I heard one wheeze once, but I never saw it. I also intended to crow hunt, but my bird gun didn't fit in my scabbard and I really hate carrying two rifles on my shoulders. After about 2-3 hours of moving through the woods with a backpack on I got tired and restless. I decided to move back to the truck and get my crow setup. Now I brought my coyote night hunting tripod to shoot crows off of, but I didn't hear enough activity to justify breaking out that monster. So I dropped of the backpack, the M357, and the chest pack. I then grabbed my binoculars, Edgun R5M in .25 topped with a 4-16x50mm Hawke Sidewinder 30 FFP IR and my Trigger Stick bipod and headed in the direction I heard some crows calling. I saw one atop a tree and ranged it at around 75 yards. That's my limit so far practicing with this rifle and I had my DOPE with me. I lined up my rifle on the bipod, turned on my IR, then lined the red reticle up on the black bird. I held accordingly and let one go. I whiffed but it was close enough to get its attention. I shot behind it because I didn't know how to account for wind 40' above ground level. I took another shot that I think flew high over its head. That was enough to spook him. Now I still was hearing crow calls from these trees so I stalked in to get within maybe 50 yards. I decide to cut through the wooded area on a cattle trail and maybe snipe one from within the trees. As I walked through the area I caught something medium sized running through some undergrowth and up an embankment out of a brushy draw. I had to run through a list of possibilities in my mind before it registered....Dog? No. Fox? No. Coon? No. Pig? BiNgO!!!!
Now I'm on trail of a pig with an R5M .25 (it's mounted on a single-point sling across my body). No problem, it's enough for this little fella. I looked around and thought, "If I were a pig where where I be in here?" It was then that I noticed a hog trail going into the brush off the cattle trail. Now if you've ever seen a hog trail through brush it is low to the ground (for you city folk, we're talking about an arched-shaped trail though briars the diameter/height of a doggy door for a Rottweiler). Since it was in some pretty thick briars I was not able to walk though most of it. I got on my hands and knees and began crawling through the briars on this hog trail. I thought about taking photos but my phone was in my back pocket and I couldn't access it easily. I also couldn't afford the distraction because I realized how vulnerable I was. I was not prepared to hunt hogs. I didn't have my hog knife, but thankfully I had just put a fresh edge on my fixed blade skinning knife which gave me a little comfort as a last resort method of defense against these beasts. Anyhow I'm crawling down this trial while keeping my gun off the ground (I used that elbow instead of my hand to crawl) when I hear some rustling. To my left had to have been a bout 4 pigs. A rust brown and white one, a gray pig and a couple of black ones. To my right I saw a massive hog. Every bit of 150+plus pounds, maybe 200 lbs. This hog was swinging its neck back and forth and every throw of the neck sent soil flying. It looked like a combination of a bulldozer and a wrecking ball. This is my first time being at eye level and seeing this. My mouth was open. Directly in front of me was a small decaying deadfall tree trunk that I needed to crawl over in order to get off of my hands so that I could kneel. I get on knee over and a briar vine grabs my hat. I reach up and try to hold it up with my left hand as quietly and slowly as I can. I get the gun and my right arm over the deadwood. When I raise my right knee to bring it across when the part of the vine on the downside of the arch grabbed the back of my neck. Now green briars stick you. Then there is a different type that when they touch you, they grab you and easily start to wrap around what they grab as you move. This what's on my neck and I didn't realize they could grab my bare skin like this. so I set the gun down and grabbed the vine with my right hand to get it off my neck and it's now sticking into my gloves. While I'm trying to finish getting out of this mess the rust brown pig saw me or the movement of the vine and spooked. The group ran to the left a bit. A short quick sprint or so I thought. Then they resumed tearing up this patch of land. As I free my gloves I picked up my gun and raise my right knee and begin to straighten my torso. Now looking straight ahead I see what looked to me like a HUGE hog coming out of the briars right in front of me. I didn't know the hog was there. It may have been the bulldozer. I switch on the IR and shoulder the rifle. I ranged it at 20 yards. I'm on max magnification looking at this behemoth's face with its eyes situated close together and remembered what was in my hands. I had a flashback of when I faced a coon coming out of the brush at the end of a squirrel hunt and I shot it between the eyes with a Polymag short from a Prod and I growled and ran off. I didn't want to shoot this monster in the skull with a 34 grain pellet through brush not confident in knowing the trajectory of the pellet (I wasn't sure it wouldn't clip a vine or a branch) and risk pissing this hog off and getting run over. Mind you it it rushed me personal injury is imminent. I either get knocked over, trampled, or gored if I remain in front of it. If I throw myself out of harms way I'll get cut up pretty badly and tangled up in a variety of briars leaving me vulnerable for a second charge if the animal desires to double back. Not to mention there another big one in there and I don't know who's a mom, which one is a boar, so I thought "aim for soft tissue." After concluding my thought the hog is at 15 yards. I held over 3 subtentions and placed the hashmark between the eyes and snout and pressed the trigger. *Ping* then, *smack!!* Yup, that's a soft tissue hit. The hog let out a slight squeal, cut sharp to her right (my left) and stirred the sounder. They all took off through the brush. I stayed kneeling just listening. Now there was a lot more that ran through my mind as this all played out and it's too much to type, but in my mind I'm playing back different scenarios that I have experienced trying to determine probable outcomes while observing animal reactions and my surroundings. I heard a lot of branches breaking and running. Then I heard something hit some water. I wondered, "Did she crash? Is she going to be able to make it out of the water?" We were on the backside of a pond. So after I didn't hear anymore movement I started trying to follow their paths, but it was much too thick. I was wearing regular hunting clothes. My briar chaps were in my backpack in the truck and I had nothing to protect me from the crotch up. So I turned around and exited back towards that cattle trail the way that I entered that thicket.
Here’s a picture of one of the thickets. I believe that is the cattle trail going through this photo.
I took this photo walking the cattle trail.
Here’s a look at some of the thick stuff the hogs were pretty deep into.
Back on the trail I walked back out to the pasture and around to the pond. No hog in the water. I walked around it a couple of times and didn't see a sign of a severely injured hog. I did find tracks in the mud on that edge of the water and thought "Here's where the splash came from. Some of them ran through the water." After seeing the trail I decided that I didn't have enough gun so I went back to the truck and retrieved my Bulldog M357. It was loaded with 140 grain boatail slugs from Griffin Airgun Ammo. It was around 2:30 - 2:40pm. I went back to the trail and followed hoof prints and found several areas with damage.Now I'm mapping the hog activity and taking photos of damage for the property owner. I made my way to the pecan tree pictured in my "The Squirrel Chronicles 2024-2025" thread. I thought I might grab some pecans since I was in the area. Nope. The hogs not only ate all of the pecans on the ground, but they rooted beneath the pecan tree.
Photo of beneath the pecan tree
The area I posted the photo of the fox squirrel that I shot as it ran on a branch overhead on the tree I was posted under for shade, remember that? Yea they rooted up under it too.
Photo area where I posted and shot the fox squirrel
Area where they rooted in front of one of the ponds.
So now I'm pissed. I keep following trails and damage. These things have been busy. I weaved back and forth across the adjoining properties, both of which I help the property owners with and hunt on. I was unable to track the sounder. I had to have documented damage across 50-70 acres. The amount of damage they have done is insane.
There’s a lot more, but I think y’all can get a decent idea from a few photos.
Around 4pm I headed back to the pond. As I'm midway across the berm I hear rustling in the same thicket where I shot the hog in the face. I took a few more steps and heat more rustling. This prompted me to take a knee. I deployed my bipod in front of me and made sure its feet were firmly planted. I then switched on the IR center dot (the only part of the scope I'm not too fond of. I wish the entire reticle lit up). Finally i lifted the rifle to rest on the yoke of my bipod and I;m waiting to see if anything come out of the brush. It didn't take long. Within approximately 2 minutes a big black hog emerges from the brush. I line up my reticle and focus my parallax knob. I look over at it and it read 30 yards. This hog is in my point blank range and it's broadside, I can't miss. I reduce the magnification to around 8x-10x and put the dot on her as I track her. She doesn't see me and the wind is in my favor. As she walked the clearing at the end of the berm, she paused. BIG mistake because that's when I let the lead fly
BANG then **THUNK!!** I hit her solid while standing broadside. She trots forward a bit and enters another thicket. I rack the lever and chamber another slug. As i reposition the bipod I see her head through some vines. She stopped just inside of the thicket. Just as I prepared to get off another shot she takes a few steps forward and stops, but it's too thick to see what I'm shooting at before she completely disappear in the brush. I can hear her moving slow, she's hurt. Since I aimed for her lungs I stayed on the berm. I figured I'd give her a good 15-20 minutes before going after her. As I sit there, maybe 90 seconds later I hear more rustling so I situated my self to aim into the clearing and wait for another hog to cross, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Out came about five 10-15 lb piglets in a single file line (I hope they were piglets and not shoats). Since I wasn't expecting that I watched for a second and when I came to my senses they had made it into the briars. I hope they were still on the tit because that means I just killed six pigs instead of one. So I tried locating this hog and I got thick again. I'm tired and its around 4:40pm and I'm losing light. When I got into this thick stuff I could hear the piglets moving a a certain area. I ended up coming to a dry creek bed and thought the hog may have fallen in there, but I saw nothing. I never saw a blood trail. Now I've read that it's common for their body fat to clog up a wound and you wont get a blood trail. All I know is that I made it across and out of the thicket and returned to my truck again. I grabbed my briar chaps, thermal scanner, and head lamp. Mind you, I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm pretty tired. I didn't plan on doing any of this. I went back into the thicket and tried using my scanner, but I didn't have the right scanner for the job. this one had a base magnification of 3x so i had to keep adjusting the focus wheel and it was so thick in there it was tough to see much through the vines. I got to a couple of clearings deeper in the thicket. I was still across the dry creek bed when it got to be close to dusk. I knew I needed 15 minute to get out so around 5:10-5:15pm I got out of there and headed back to the truck to go home. I'll see if any buzzards show up in a couple of days.
I'll make it a point to add photos of the terrain and some of the damage. I didn't get any hogs or pigs on camera. Things were happening so fast, most of the time I wasn't thinking about a camera. When I wanted to record I decided against it. I started to record that large hog throwing soil from side to side, but I made the right decision considering that a big hog emerged very close to me. I'll also clean up the typos later. I just wanted to get all of this out of my head while I could still recall the details. Now this is my idea of a good time - animals, adrenaline, shooting, and the ugly (briar thickets) and beautiful sides (the woods) of nature. Man I just love it! It was quite the experience. Today I'm still a little tired and sore, but I'm ready to do it again!!
Now I'm on trail of a pig with an R5M .25 (it's mounted on a single-point sling across my body). No problem, it's enough for this little fella. I looked around and thought, "If I were a pig where where I be in here?" It was then that I noticed a hog trail going into the brush off the cattle trail. Now if you've ever seen a hog trail through brush it is low to the ground (for you city folk, we're talking about an arched-shaped trail though briars the diameter/height of a doggy door for a Rottweiler). Since it was in some pretty thick briars I was not able to walk though most of it. I got on my hands and knees and began crawling through the briars on this hog trail. I thought about taking photos but my phone was in my back pocket and I couldn't access it easily. I also couldn't afford the distraction because I realized how vulnerable I was. I was not prepared to hunt hogs. I didn't have my hog knife, but thankfully I had just put a fresh edge on my fixed blade skinning knife which gave me a little comfort as a last resort method of defense against these beasts. Anyhow I'm crawling down this trial while keeping my gun off the ground (I used that elbow instead of my hand to crawl) when I hear some rustling. To my left had to have been a bout 4 pigs. A rust brown and white one, a gray pig and a couple of black ones. To my right I saw a massive hog. Every bit of 150+plus pounds, maybe 200 lbs. This hog was swinging its neck back and forth and every throw of the neck sent soil flying. It looked like a combination of a bulldozer and a wrecking ball. This is my first time being at eye level and seeing this. My mouth was open. Directly in front of me was a small decaying deadfall tree trunk that I needed to crawl over in order to get off of my hands so that I could kneel. I get on knee over and a briar vine grabs my hat. I reach up and try to hold it up with my left hand as quietly and slowly as I can. I get the gun and my right arm over the deadwood. When I raise my right knee to bring it across when the part of the vine on the downside of the arch grabbed the back of my neck. Now green briars stick you. Then there is a different type that when they touch you, they grab you and easily start to wrap around what they grab as you move. This what's on my neck and I didn't realize they could grab my bare skin like this. so I set the gun down and grabbed the vine with my right hand to get it off my neck and it's now sticking into my gloves. While I'm trying to finish getting out of this mess the rust brown pig saw me or the movement of the vine and spooked. The group ran to the left a bit. A short quick sprint or so I thought. Then they resumed tearing up this patch of land. As I free my gloves I picked up my gun and raise my right knee and begin to straighten my torso. Now looking straight ahead I see what looked to me like a HUGE hog coming out of the briars right in front of me. I didn't know the hog was there. It may have been the bulldozer. I switch on the IR and shoulder the rifle. I ranged it at 20 yards. I'm on max magnification looking at this behemoth's face with its eyes situated close together and remembered what was in my hands. I had a flashback of when I faced a coon coming out of the brush at the end of a squirrel hunt and I shot it between the eyes with a Polymag short from a Prod and I growled and ran off. I didn't want to shoot this monster in the skull with a 34 grain pellet through brush not confident in knowing the trajectory of the pellet (I wasn't sure it wouldn't clip a vine or a branch) and risk pissing this hog off and getting run over. Mind you it it rushed me personal injury is imminent. I either get knocked over, trampled, or gored if I remain in front of it. If I throw myself out of harms way I'll get cut up pretty badly and tangled up in a variety of briars leaving me vulnerable for a second charge if the animal desires to double back. Not to mention there another big one in there and I don't know who's a mom, which one is a boar, so I thought "aim for soft tissue." After concluding my thought the hog is at 15 yards. I held over 3 subtentions and placed the hashmark between the eyes and snout and pressed the trigger. *Ping* then, *smack!!* Yup, that's a soft tissue hit. The hog let out a slight squeal, cut sharp to her right (my left) and stirred the sounder. They all took off through the brush. I stayed kneeling just listening. Now there was a lot more that ran through my mind as this all played out and it's too much to type, but in my mind I'm playing back different scenarios that I have experienced trying to determine probable outcomes while observing animal reactions and my surroundings. I heard a lot of branches breaking and running. Then I heard something hit some water. I wondered, "Did she crash? Is she going to be able to make it out of the water?" We were on the backside of a pond. So after I didn't hear anymore movement I started trying to follow their paths, but it was much too thick. I was wearing regular hunting clothes. My briar chaps were in my backpack in the truck and I had nothing to protect me from the crotch up. So I turned around and exited back towards that cattle trail the way that I entered that thicket.
Here’s a picture of one of the thickets. I believe that is the cattle trail going through this photo.
I took this photo walking the cattle trail.
Here’s a look at some of the thick stuff the hogs were pretty deep into.
Back on the trail I walked back out to the pasture and around to the pond. No hog in the water. I walked around it a couple of times and didn't see a sign of a severely injured hog. I did find tracks in the mud on that edge of the water and thought "Here's where the splash came from. Some of them ran through the water." After seeing the trail I decided that I didn't have enough gun so I went back to the truck and retrieved my Bulldog M357. It was loaded with 140 grain boatail slugs from Griffin Airgun Ammo. It was around 2:30 - 2:40pm. I went back to the trail and followed hoof prints and found several areas with damage.Now I'm mapping the hog activity and taking photos of damage for the property owner. I made my way to the pecan tree pictured in my "The Squirrel Chronicles 2024-2025" thread. I thought I might grab some pecans since I was in the area. Nope. The hogs not only ate all of the pecans on the ground, but they rooted beneath the pecan tree.
Photo of beneath the pecan tree
The area I posted the photo of the fox squirrel that I shot as it ran on a branch overhead on the tree I was posted under for shade, remember that? Yea they rooted up under it too.
Photo area where I posted and shot the fox squirrel
Area where they rooted in front of one of the ponds.
So now I'm pissed. I keep following trails and damage. These things have been busy. I weaved back and forth across the adjoining properties, both of which I help the property owners with and hunt on. I was unable to track the sounder. I had to have documented damage across 50-70 acres. The amount of damage they have done is insane.
There’s a lot more, but I think y’all can get a decent idea from a few photos.
Around 4pm I headed back to the pond. As I'm midway across the berm I hear rustling in the same thicket where I shot the hog in the face. I took a few more steps and heat more rustling. This prompted me to take a knee. I deployed my bipod in front of me and made sure its feet were firmly planted. I then switched on the IR center dot (the only part of the scope I'm not too fond of. I wish the entire reticle lit up). Finally i lifted the rifle to rest on the yoke of my bipod and I;m waiting to see if anything come out of the brush. It didn't take long. Within approximately 2 minutes a big black hog emerges from the brush. I line up my reticle and focus my parallax knob. I look over at it and it read 30 yards. This hog is in my point blank range and it's broadside, I can't miss. I reduce the magnification to around 8x-10x and put the dot on her as I track her. She doesn't see me and the wind is in my favor. As she walked the clearing at the end of the berm, she paused. BIG mistake because that's when I let the lead fly
BANG then **THUNK!!** I hit her solid while standing broadside. She trots forward a bit and enters another thicket. I rack the lever and chamber another slug. As i reposition the bipod I see her head through some vines. She stopped just inside of the thicket. Just as I prepared to get off another shot she takes a few steps forward and stops, but it's too thick to see what I'm shooting at before she completely disappear in the brush. I can hear her moving slow, she's hurt. Since I aimed for her lungs I stayed on the berm. I figured I'd give her a good 15-20 minutes before going after her. As I sit there, maybe 90 seconds later I hear more rustling so I situated my self to aim into the clearing and wait for another hog to cross, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Out came about five 10-15 lb piglets in a single file line (I hope they were piglets and not shoats). Since I wasn't expecting that I watched for a second and when I came to my senses they had made it into the briars. I hope they were still on the tit because that means I just killed six pigs instead of one. So I tried locating this hog and I got thick again. I'm tired and its around 4:40pm and I'm losing light. When I got into this thick stuff I could hear the piglets moving a a certain area. I ended up coming to a dry creek bed and thought the hog may have fallen in there, but I saw nothing. I never saw a blood trail. Now I've read that it's common for their body fat to clog up a wound and you wont get a blood trail. All I know is that I made it across and out of the thicket and returned to my truck again. I grabbed my briar chaps, thermal scanner, and head lamp. Mind you, I haven't eaten since breakfast and I'm pretty tired. I didn't plan on doing any of this. I went back into the thicket and tried using my scanner, but I didn't have the right scanner for the job. this one had a base magnification of 3x so i had to keep adjusting the focus wheel and it was so thick in there it was tough to see much through the vines. I got to a couple of clearings deeper in the thicket. I was still across the dry creek bed when it got to be close to dusk. I knew I needed 15 minute to get out so around 5:10-5:15pm I got out of there and headed back to the truck to go home. I'll see if any buzzards show up in a couple of days.I'll make it a point to add photos of the terrain and some of the damage. I didn't get any hogs or pigs on camera. Things were happening so fast, most of the time I wasn't thinking about a camera. When I wanted to record I decided against it. I started to record that large hog throwing soil from side to side, but I made the right decision considering that a big hog emerged very close to me. I'll also clean up the typos later. I just wanted to get all of this out of my head while I could still recall the details. Now this is my idea of a good time - animals, adrenaline, shooting, and the ugly (briar thickets) and beautiful sides (the woods) of nature. Man I just love it! It was quite the experience. Today I'm still a little tired and sore, but I'm ready to do it again!!
