Live Hunts - South Texas Hog Hunt - March 13

Live Hunts - South Texas Hog Hunt - March 13 - Day 1

Tuesday - March 13, Day 1
South Texas Hog Hunt

This is a bowhunt for Hogs on the Helm Ranch in south Texas. We went right from our Javelina hunt posted a few days ago to this Hog hunt. The Helm Ranch is in Live Oak and Bee Counties, about 20 miles from Three Rivers. It's pretty much typical south Texas brush country. A few more pastures and a little greener, but about the same. Lots of hogs on this place. Last summer I hunted here and saw over 50 hogs in 3 days. Then it was before much hunting had taken place and the hogs were moving in daylight hours quite a bit, so I did a lot of stalking. This time around the hogs have been hunted quite a bit (bowhunting only), so the plan is to set up my ICE Blind at some of the feeders and try to catch the hogs coming in right before dark or after dark. Last year when I was here I did stay after dark one evening, but started getting real sleepy and was concerned about falling out of my tripod so I got down. This year that won't be a concern, as I'll be sitting on a comfy chair in my blind on the ground. We're hoping for some great action.

My uncle, James Durham, and his son Dallas Durham have driven down from Lubbock, Texas to join me on this trip. Dallas is very interested to get into hunting and I thought this would be a good experience for him. He thought so too. He'll be joining me in my blind while his dad takes it easy around camp or drives the countryside.

A shot of the Helm Ranch camp area for hunters

A.M. Hunt
I got here late last night and after unpacking decided to go out for a few hours in the middle of the night. The moon was almost full. The hunting manager, Don Craig, told us about a feeder set up across the pasture about 1/4 mile from camp that wouldn't be hard to find in the dark. 2 nights ago a nice sow was taken there. Don said the hogs have been hitting the feeders kind of hit and miss. They've had a ton of rain down here and everything is so green. Perhaps the hogs are feeding on other things in abundance right now besides corn. Also, a Norther is coming in tonight with wind, cold and possibly rain. Not sure how that will effect our trip.

Dallas and I grabbed our various stuff and my blind and took off in our golf cart. Oh, I forgot to mention, the mode of transportation for hunters on this ranch is golf carts that have been painted in camo. They use golf carts because they are quiet and don't disturb the game, and they've got enough juice to get around the ranch and back. I really like using them, especially for the quiet.

We got to our spot and set up the blind about 10 yards from the feeder. We sat for about 2 hours before need of sleep got the best of us, seeing as we'd both had a very long day's drive. We went back to camp without seeing anything. We came back about 5:30 a.m. to see if we could catch some hogs coming in right before daylight, but again, we saw nothing. When it got light we saw that the hogs hadn't visited that area last night, as all the corn was still under and around the feeder.

Dallas opening a gate for me to pass through

The favored mode of transportation - golf, anyone?

We packed it in about 8:00 a.m. and decided to drive around the ranch and look at the different feeders to see where the hogs had hit last night. What we saw was depressing and encouraging at the same time. Out of about a dozen feeders that we checked, almost none had been hit the night before, and some corn the ranch scatters on the road was also not touched. Apparently the hogs didn't move much last night as that Norther was coming in. Hopefully that means they'll be moving in full force tonight. One of the few feeders that had been hit was in a spot that I hunted last summer and saw a big group of hogs, so we decided we'll hunt there this afternoon.

On a different note, spring is in full bloom in south Texas right now, with it's warm climate. Posted below are just a few photos of some of the beautiful flowers and scenery we saw while driving around this morning.

A beautiful field of flowers

The Texas state flower - Bluebonnet - none prettier

A pretty field of flowers - thistles, actually

Did I mention it was green here right now?

P.M. Hunt
After going back to camp and taking a mid-day nap, we headed out to our spot about 5:00 p.m., set up my ICE Blind and chairs in a good spot, and got ready. We saw nothing but rabbits for about an hour and a half. Then we got a tease. All of a sudden, from the right and out of view, we heard thundering hooves, just like the sound hogs make when they decide to come running into a feeder (I've heard it many times). However, when they came into view they turned out to be exotic sheep, not hogs! What a letdown. Just in the last few weeks the ranch has raised some high fence on a small portion on the ranch and stocked some exotic sheep, all corsican, black hawaiian and Texas dall. We happened to be hunting that pasture for hogs. I wasn't interested in shooting a sheep, but it was fun to watch them. They obviously haven't yet gotten used to blinds and feeders meaning danger, as they weren't too concerned about us. We had brought some corn that evening to scatter a little closer to our blind, between the blind and the feeder, for a closer shot. Well, the sheep started eating it right away, so I stuck my head out the window of the blind, waved my hands, whatever necessary to get them to leave, and they did after giving some curious looks.

Our blind set-up for this evening's hunt

A shot of the exotic rams that visited us this evening
We managed to sit until about 10:30 and didn't see anything, and were overcome by sleep and cold (did I mention a Norther had moved in), so we headed back to camp. On our way back to camp in the dark we had to go through the feeder spot we sat at last night and this morning, near camp. Well, when we got about 150 yards from it, we could clearly see in the moonlight that there were about 10 hogs downing the corn right across from where we had my blind. Drat. Oh well, that's hunting. We watched them for a few minutes until they moved out of sight (it doesn't take long for them to eat all that corn), and headed back to camp. It's been a long day, but we're by no means discouraged. Check back tomorrow for another day.

Go to Day 2

Trip Notes
Our Hog bowhunt takes place on the Helm Ranch in Live Oak and Bee Counties, Texas. The ranch is loaded with Hogs, and has a good population of Javelina and Turkey as well, and now has exotics. This trip we're just concentrating on hogs. All hunting on the ranch is bow only.

The Helm Ranch has a nice, comfortable camp, with trailer homes and travel trailers serving as the lodging, which is included in the price. Very clean, comfortable accommodations. They have a great cook house where you can cook your food, and it is supplied with pots, pans, dining ware, running water, etc. The camp has a great skinning area equipped with a hoist. They have a very large walk-in cooler as well. If you'd be interested in setting up a hunt on the Helm Ranch, you can visit their web site at:

http://www.huntinfo.com/helm/

Equipment
I shoot a Martin Jaguar bow set at 70 lbs, Easton 3-60 ACC arrows, and Wasp 125 gr. SST Hammer broadheads. On this hunt I was wearing Predator Spring Green camo, as it blends in very well with the foliage right now in south Texas that is starting to bloom.

I just recently purchased a Double Bull ICE Blind from Michael Middleton at www.texasbowhunter.com and although I've only hunted from it a few times, I'm inclined to like it very much. I plan to be using it a lot in this year's hunting seasons.

e-mail Joshua Flournoy

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