Rebel Hog

A hog hunting story from Texas.

As the two of us scouted, Rick Philippi and I made note of a small lake with lots of brush and blow downs around it. It looked promising. A couple miles further up the muddy woods road Rick pointed ahead, signaling he had spotted a wild hog. I walked 30 yards into the thick woods and we moved along quietly, parallel to each other. Ahead I saw a small pond with reeds growing in it and eased toward it.
Splash! A big wild boar came out of the reeds and lumbered by in front of me. I could have, but didn't shoot. Heck, the hunt wasn't even an hour old. This looked like a good area so Rick and I worked it, learning the lay of the land, taking note of another, much bigger, pond. Soon we saw a group of hogs. As we slipped up on them we noticed there was a treestand up ahead. I decided to go back to the ponds and look around and Rick moved ahead to the stand and climbed up to it. In a while he saw the hogs approaching. When the hog group was about 30 yards from the treestand two boars suddenly started to fight. This made the other hogs scatter. The biggest boar in the group "scattered" right up underneath Rick's stand. Rick aimed and dropped the boar it's tracks.
Rick called Merle Smith on his radio and reported his location. Merle said to "keep hunting" and he would have the hog picked up right away. Rick spent an hour looking for likely places, of which he saw several as well as a few more hogs. He came up on 8 hogs in a large mucky hog wallow that was at least 3 foot deep. The hogs were all in the soupy mud, moving around and making noise. Their heads and backs were all that showed. Rick took advantage of the ruckus they were making and slipped quietly through the thick brush to within 6 yards of the hog wallow. He picked out one of the bigger ones and aimed at his front shoulder and shot.
Hogs scattered! Mud flew everywhere! Rick's boar lost his legs in 40 yards and it was over. Rick radioed Merle again and reported in. Merle told him Ricky had gotten a Merino ram. Rick met up with them, congratulated Ricky, and he and Ricky started looking for wild hogs. Merle went to pick up Rick's second boar.
A Wild Hog With A Bad Attitude
Rick worked with Ricky to get him within distance of a wild hog. They split up about 40 yards apart and walked parallel through the brush. After awhile Rick walked up on 2 hogs. They were 25 yards away walking directly towards him in the same trail Rick was following, and they had not yet seen him. Rick signaled Ricky. Twenty yards from Rick the big lead hog saw Rick. It stopped abruptly, and starred at him.
And then the wild hog charged!
Rick realized this was a real attach and drew and shot, but somehow missed. The next thing the pig was trying to chew his legs off. Rick jumped and the hog missed him. Rick swung his bow at the hog, the hog ducked his bow and kept charging and trying to get at Rick's legs and cut him down. Rick used his bow like a baseball bat (Rick used to play pro baseball) and hopped back and forth, yelling at the pig, and somehow managed to keep the hog from biting him. Suddenly the pig ran away.
Ricky, who was 30 yards away hiding behind a tree blurted out, "Dad! That was awesome, that pig tried to get you."

Allseasonhunter7

oh no iwouldnt id use my bow..

Rebel Hog

Hey allseason, you use your bow and I use my knife and cut thier throats.
That does'nt mean you or I are better than each other.We just have different ways
of doing it.This is the custom way down south.

Allseason, don't ever think a tusker is not dangerous! Some day you will encounter the
Boss hog of the pack and he is going to be lighting fast.All hog packs have one!

Hey Man, I want to be friends with you! Hunt safe and good luck! RH

Allseasonhunter7

ive never hunted them...that would just be the way i would hunt em

K2SOCO

I am still trying to figure out where allseason called you out Rebel? The only thing I found was he asked where to hunt the mean @$$ hogs! I am confused as to why this set you off? I am with you and also know that these swamp hogs in FL can be ruthless I have done it for years myself. I am just glad to see someone (HNI) acknowledge hog hunting. Most organizations do not, and if you hunt them ethically (not over bait) they are as tough as any other game to hunt!!!!

Rebel Hog

K2S, this has been taken care of already between us.

burniegoeasily

Russian boars do not get over 200/250 lbs. What we have in Texas are mutts. They are mixes of domestics and russians. I kinda like the mixes because it is the domestic in them that allow them to get up to 400+ lbs. Most people in Texas will call the all black ones with the big heads and rigged backs Russians, but they are not. That is unless they are on a fenced property, and even then most are not true russians.

Rebel Hog

This is a maternal group with a young litter. The piglets had the lengthwise stripes that are associated with boars, both wild and domestic, of Eurasian origins, but they have now outgrown them.

Rebel Hog

Burnie, here's a FL 75% Eurasian!

K2SOCO

We do not have many like that here in S W FL. Most of ours are feral or piney wood rooters. Those Eurasian are defanitly some nice looking hogs. Bet they can be wicked with dogs with the huge front ends and small rearends!!! Seems as though it would make it hard to leg them when you get to them when the dogs have them caught?