| Hog Hunting Articles |
John N. Felsher's Hog Hunting Adventures
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After a long day in the woods with little to show for it, we shivered
against the unexpected late cold front as the sun dropped steadily toward
the line of pines.
Lightly dressed for such weather, my son, Steven and I huddled
together for warmth as biting north winds ripped our backs. The open box
stand provided little protection against such slashing force.
Since dawn, we trampled or rode through 1,750 acres of fields, pine forests
and hardwood bottomlands along the Calcasieu River near Lake Charles,
La.
We looked for wild hogs, finding tracks and little else. Highly prolific,
wild hogs give birth to large litters. They can grow so numerous that they
become pests and cause severe damage to deer habitat.
Since Louisiana law considers feral hogs non-game animals,
sportsmen can bag all they want all year long on private land. On wildlife
management areas and other public hunting properties, hog seasons
generally run concurrent with other game seasons where allowed. Since
hunters may shoot them all year long without limit on private land, they
provide exciting action between established game seasons.
About 125 yards away, a corn feeder tempted any game hungry
enough to eat the spilled grain. Steven and I watched intently that
afternoon as bluejays, cardinals and other birds devoured the free golden
kernels.
With just minutes of legal daylight remaining, we considered leaving the
stand for warmer space. Suddenly, a swarming black mass emerged from
the woods and rushed down the trail toward the feeder. Five sows and
perhaps 15 to 20 piglets ran down the trail. Instantly, we lost all feeling of
cold and discomfort.
“Are they in range, Daddy? Do we shoot now?”
“They are in range, but let them keep coming. They’ll stop at the feeder to
eat the corn. Then, we’ll shoot.”
I readied my Weatherby .30-06 and put the crosshairs of the Kahles
scope on the corn pile in front of the feeder. Steven looked down the iron
sights of my old Marlin lever action .35 caliber. As predicted, the herd
stopped to gorge themselves on the free grain.
“Aim for one of the big ones,” I said. “See those two facing the corn
feeder next to each other? You take the one on the left and I’ll take the
one on the right. That 200-grain .35-caliber bullet drops a bit at that
range. Aim just below the top of the animal. Fire when I say three. One,
two, three.”
We fired simultaneously. Two black porkers dropped in their tracks as
the others scattered. We kept firing as the pigs retreated up the trail. With
the longer range and flatter trajectory of the .30-06 180-grain bullets, I
dropped another pig running in the trail about 170 yards away. We climbed
down from the stand and approached our kills. Knowing the ornery nature
of wild hogs, we reloaded on the ground and readied for anything.
“Approach them cautiously from behind,” I warned. “If they move at all,
shoot them again. Look for any that might jump out from the brush at us. If
you see any mean black objects grunting and heading in our direction,
shoot.”
We approached the prone pigs from behind. While Steven leveled his
rifle at each one, I touched their eyes with the muzzle of my rifle.
“These are dangerous animals,” I said. “Often, wild animals look dead,
but are just wounded. If something touches their eyeballs, they instinctive
blink if alive.”
All three pigs, two 90-pound sows and a smaller one, died instantly.
Steven hit his sow squarely in the head. Slow, but deadly, the .35 did
massive damage.
“Those hogs are just the right size to eat,” said Keith Bell, a hog
hunter. “Larger pigs are better for sausage because they have more meat
and more fat. The older pigs get, the tougher they get. An old boar is
really tough. We killed one once that went about 600 pounds. It looked like
a bear coming through the woods.”
That morning, Steven and I sat in another box stand overlooking
several shooting lanes. The rest of the group released some Walker blue
tick hounds to chase the pigs from heavy cover. The dogs jumped a few
small pigs, but nothing came our way.
“The dogs trail silently,” Bell explained. “When they do start barking,
they have the hog stopped. They try to keep the hog in the area by circling
it and barking until we can get there. Older hogs break and run. The dogs
bay them up again after 15 to 20 minutes. It may do that several times until
the hog gets tired and the dogs can hold it at bay until we get there.”
When the hunters reach a bayed hog, they decide to kill or capture the
beast. If they want to capture it, they send in a pit bull as a “catch dog.”
The pit bull grabs the hog by the ears and drags it down. Cornered or
wounded boars can seriously injure hunters or dogs. One slash of their
head can drive extremely sharp tusks into skin, ripping huge, bloody and
painful gashes.
“Some tuskers get big and ornery,” Bell said. “Once, my brother was
hunting with his son. They surprised a few hogs that ran them up a tree.
They shot one, but the other one was a bad one and didn’t want to leave.
He stayed in thick brush and they never did kill him. They stayed up the
tree a good while.”
If they decide to capture a large boar, they might castrate him and stick
him in a pen to fatten him up. Often, they find pregnant sows and pen them
until them give birth to raise the piglets.
On this blustery, cold day, the dogs did not bay or capture any hogs.
Bell killed a 180-pound sow with his .30-06. Other than that dead animal,
Steven and I saw nothing.
“Older boars develop a shield of gristle over both shoulders,” Bell
explained. “It takes a big bullet to punch through that shield. If people
shoot lighter caliber guns, they need to shoot a hog right behind the ear.
Go with a heavy, slow expanding bullet for such hunting thick-skinned
animals.”
Sometimes, wounded hogs jump to their feet and charge hunters.
Often, a huge mean tusker can absorb several hits from rifles before
dropping. Such danger adds to the excitement of hog hunting.
against the unexpected late cold front as the sun dropped steadily toward
the line of pines.
Lightly dressed for such weather, my son, Steven and I huddled
together for warmth as biting north winds ripped our backs. The open box
stand provided little protection against such slashing force.
Since dawn, we trampled or rode through 1,750 acres of fields, pine forests
and hardwood bottomlands along the Calcasieu River near Lake Charles,
La.
We looked for wild hogs, finding tracks and little else. Highly prolific,
wild hogs give birth to large litters. They can grow so numerous that they
become pests and cause severe damage to deer habitat.
Since Louisiana law considers feral hogs non-game animals,
sportsmen can bag all they want all year long on private land. On wildlife
management areas and other public hunting properties, hog seasons
generally run concurrent with other game seasons where allowed. Since
hunters may shoot them all year long without limit on private land, they
provide exciting action between established game seasons.
About 125 yards away, a corn feeder tempted any game hungry
enough to eat the spilled grain. Steven and I watched intently that
afternoon as bluejays, cardinals and other birds devoured the free golden
kernels.
With just minutes of legal daylight remaining, we considered leaving the
stand for warmer space. Suddenly, a swarming black mass emerged from
the woods and rushed down the trail toward the feeder. Five sows and
perhaps 15 to 20 piglets ran down the trail. Instantly, we lost all feeling of
cold and discomfort.
“Are they in range, Daddy? Do we shoot now?”
“They are in range, but let them keep coming. They’ll stop at the feeder to
eat the corn. Then, we’ll shoot.”
I readied my Weatherby .30-06 and put the crosshairs of the Kahles
scope on the corn pile in front of the feeder. Steven looked down the iron
sights of my old Marlin lever action .35 caliber. As predicted, the herd
stopped to gorge themselves on the free grain.
“Aim for one of the big ones,” I said. “See those two facing the corn
feeder next to each other? You take the one on the left and I’ll take the
one on the right. That 200-grain .35-caliber bullet drops a bit at that
range. Aim just below the top of the animal. Fire when I say three. One,
two, three.”
We fired simultaneously. Two black porkers dropped in their tracks as
the others scattered. We kept firing as the pigs retreated up the trail. With
the longer range and flatter trajectory of the .30-06 180-grain bullets, I
dropped another pig running in the trail about 170 yards away. We climbed
down from the stand and approached our kills. Knowing the ornery nature
of wild hogs, we reloaded on the ground and readied for anything.
“Approach them cautiously from behind,” I warned. “If they move at all,
shoot them again. Look for any that might jump out from the brush at us. If
you see any mean black objects grunting and heading in our direction,
shoot.”
We approached the prone pigs from behind. While Steven leveled his
rifle at each one, I touched their eyes with the muzzle of my rifle.
“These are dangerous animals,” I said. “Often, wild animals look dead,
but are just wounded. If something touches their eyeballs, they instinctive
blink if alive.”
All three pigs, two 90-pound sows and a smaller one, died instantly.
Steven hit his sow squarely in the head. Slow, but deadly, the .35 did
massive damage.
“Those hogs are just the right size to eat,” said Keith Bell, a hog
hunter. “Larger pigs are better for sausage because they have more meat
and more fat. The older pigs get, the tougher they get. An old boar is
really tough. We killed one once that went about 600 pounds. It looked like
a bear coming through the woods.”
That morning, Steven and I sat in another box stand overlooking
several shooting lanes. The rest of the group released some Walker blue
tick hounds to chase the pigs from heavy cover. The dogs jumped a few
small pigs, but nothing came our way.
“The dogs trail silently,” Bell explained. “When they do start barking,
they have the hog stopped. They try to keep the hog in the area by circling
it and barking until we can get there. Older hogs break and run. The dogs
bay them up again after 15 to 20 minutes. It may do that several times until
the hog gets tired and the dogs can hold it at bay until we get there.”
When the hunters reach a bayed hog, they decide to kill or capture the
beast. If they want to capture it, they send in a pit bull as a “catch dog.”
The pit bull grabs the hog by the ears and drags it down. Cornered or
wounded boars can seriously injure hunters or dogs. One slash of their
head can drive extremely sharp tusks into skin, ripping huge, bloody and
painful gashes.
“Some tuskers get big and ornery,” Bell said. “Once, my brother was
hunting with his son. They surprised a few hogs that ran them up a tree.
They shot one, but the other one was a bad one and didn’t want to leave.
He stayed in thick brush and they never did kill him. They stayed up the
tree a good while.”
If they decide to capture a large boar, they might castrate him and stick
him in a pen to fatten him up. Often, they find pregnant sows and pen them
until them give birth to raise the piglets.
On this blustery, cold day, the dogs did not bay or capture any hogs.
Bell killed a 180-pound sow with his .30-06. Other than that dead animal,
Steven and I saw nothing.
“Older boars develop a shield of gristle over both shoulders,” Bell
explained. “It takes a big bullet to punch through that shield. If people
shoot lighter caliber guns, they need to shoot a hog right behind the ear.
Go with a heavy, slow expanding bullet for such hunting thick-skinned
animals.”
Sometimes, wounded hogs jump to their feet and charge hunters.
Often, a huge mean tusker can absorb several hits from rifles before
dropping. Such danger adds to the excitement of hog hunting.
Big, ornery
tuskers allow
challenging
hunts all year
tuskers allow
challenging
hunts all year
John N. and Steven Felsher
show off some hogs they
killed on a Louisiana hunt.
show off some hogs they
killed on a Louisiana hunt.
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