| Hunt Introduction This hunt takes place in deep South Texas (LaSalle County) on the Nueces Ranch with Aggieland Hunting/Nueces Exotics Hunts, owned by Larry Godfrey. The Nueces Ranch is located about 30 miles east of Cotulla, Texas, and was originally part of the famous Herradura Ranch. The ranch is 8,000 acres and has 5 miles of Nueces River frontage. The ranch has perfect South Texas hog habitat, from river bottoms to thick brush, and judging by the amount of sign, they obviously have a great number of hogs. They also have Trophy Whitetail hunts and Exotics hunts. Friday P.M. I arrived the first afternoon and got settled in. That evening I set up at a feeder that had lots of hog sign. Larry had placed an Ameristep Brickhouse there for me to sit in. Boy, it was no fun in the late afternoon sun being in that thing, even just in my t-shirt, but it was the best set-up for the wind that day. (August in South Texas can be pretty hot).  The blind I hunted from this evening  A view of the feeder area I was treated to the sight of deer, blue quail, and a 5 ft. rattler in the next few hours, but no hogs. About 30 minutes before dark a sow started coming in from my right and behind me - the wrong way for the wind. She got to about 10 yards away (but no shot opportunity) and stopped cold, then growled and took off. About 25 minutes later, I was just starting to get ready to call it a night and pack up my gear when I heard hogs coming in from my right. There were 6 of them, all in the 100 lb. range. They were all black but one, a tan one with black spots. I immediately decided he was going to get my first arrow. He got to about 15 yards but was quartering hard towards me and wouldn't turn broadside. He finally turned a little more and I decided it was enough. I aimed on the point of his shoulder and let fly with a Magnus Stinger 100 gr. 4-blade. I couldn't see the arrow flight, but I heard the impact and the hogs scattered. In a matter of seconds I heard a commotion in the brush and I knew that hog was down. Well, one of the 5 hogs left decided he wanted some more corn really bad, so he came back and stood almost right where the other one had stood when I shot. I grabbed the 2nd arrow I had out, tipped with a 125 gr. Steel Force 4-blade, aimed for the heart on this hog (who was perfectly broadside) and let it fly. I couldn't see the arrow flight but I again heard the impact and this hog ran off decidely wobbly so I knew it was a good shot. All was quiet then so I got out and went to survey the scene. Both arrows were laying about 10 feet from each other, and they were both covered in good blood. Since they both ran away in the exact same direction, I started out by following that blood trail (a very good one). I hadn't gone 15 yards when I came on the 2nd hog, stone dead, shot through the heart with the Steel Force. The blood trail from the first hog continued on and got heavier all the way until 40 yards from the shot I found it as well. It was shot through the shoulder, got both lungs and exited about 8 inches behind the off-side shoulder, and blood was everywhere. I was quite impressed with the blood trail created by the Stinger, and the Steel Force trail was good too, just didn't have as long to get going since the boar died only 15 yards from the shot.  My boars from the 2nd evening - both were in the 100 lb. range and should be really good eating. Saturday A.M.  We "chummed" this sendero with corn in hopes of drawing out some hogs The next morning we "chummed" a few senderos with corn and got a bite about 8 a.m. in the form of a good boar by himself, probably in the 250 lb. range. We spotted him from about half a mile and I got to within about 75 yards of him as quickly as I could, but by then he had ingested as much corn as he wanted to at that time, and he ambled off into the brush not to be seen again.  The Prickly Pear fruit were a pretty dark red while I was there  The Nueces River Saturday P.M.  My spot for the Saturday evening hunt That evening I hunted a tripod near a feeder that had been getting hit real hard. My tripod was up against a lake and the wind was blowing into the lake, so it was a perfect set-up, wind-wise. About 30 minutes before dark a sow (full of milk) and 4 "pig nuggets" made an appearance at the feeder. The little ones were eating corn but momma was obviously still nursing, so I left her alone and just took a few pics. The pic here is a bit blurry because when it starts to get dark my digital camera starts to lose clarity.  The lake behind my tripod  Momma and "pig nuggets" make their entrance About 5 minutes before dark I heard a rush of hogs coming from my left out of an area of very tall grass where I had seen a serious hog trail. Before I knew it there were about 8 more hogs at the feeder, all shoats in the 25-50 lb. range. I was getting ready to bust one of them, just waiting for them to separate a bit and give me a good shot, when I heard momma grunt, bringing up the rear by a minute or so. I could see her through the trees and immediately drew my bow before she came into the open. Right when she got into my shooting lane, I put my pin on her and touched off the shot at about 13 yards. I think I rushed the shot a bit and I thought I may have hit her a little higher and further back than I intended, but I felt confident I still got the vitals. She squealed and ran off a bit, then started walking in circles grunting, looking sick. All the other hogs split. For the next 2 or 3 minutes, I heard her walking off and grunting and then I couldn't hear it anymore. I got down and looked at my arrow laying on the ground at the shot location. It was covered in good blood, but it didn't appear to be lung blood. I walked the 20 yards to where I saw her go into the brush and had no problem finding blood on the ground, on bushes, prickly pear pads, etc. It was a pretty good blood trail. What was a little more difficult was playing twister trying to follow the blood trail while alternately bent over or crawling but trying to avoid as many cacti as I could. After about 20 yards she crossed the road. I followed the blood trail down the road a bit and then into the brush on the other side, where it got even more cramped with cactus, etc. Long story short, we found her a few minutes later, dead, having gone about 75 yards total from the shot. My suspicions about the shot placement were correct, it was not where I had intended to hit her, but here she was dead and I wasn't going to complain. She looked to be in good shape, too, and was in the 150 lb. range with a lot of fat on her. Dragging her out was quite interesting, but we got it done.  My fat sow from this evening An autopsy during field dressing indicated that I barely nicked the back of one lung, but completely centered and destroyed the liver. It was a mess. I was using the Slick Trick 100 gr. 4-blade head and it did quite an impressive job, cutting a very big hole. I was very pleased with it's performance. Hunt Conclusion My hunt turned out really well and I enjoyed it very much despite the heat. I was very impressed with the hunting operation on the Nueces Ranch and with the abundance of wildlife. Deer were positively everywhere - I don't think I've ever seen so many fawns in a 2-day period. Big bucks were in abundance as well, and there were at least 75 turkeys hanging out in the front yard of the ranch house. And it goes without saying that there was an incredible amount of hog sign. The ranch had recently done some roller-chopping and there was a huge amount of rooting and hog tracks in those areas, not to mention around feeders and lake edges. I'll definitely be going back to do some more hog hunting there - when it gets a little cooler:) If you're interested in a good hunt for wild hogs, I would highly recommend Aggieland Hunting/Nueces Exotics Hunts.  One of the several big lakes on the ranch  The "yard" turkeys  The "yard" turkeys thought they were something special 
Joshua Flournoy owns and manages the Livehunts.com web site. Joshua resides in east Texas with his wife and four children. |
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