Several days ago I received this photo from my dad. I knew it was one of his traps, but the animal standing in the corner looked like a monster, a bear, what could it be. It was a wild hog. This brought back several of my favorite memories of hog hunting with my dad.
There are too many stories to tell, some of them successful, some times we went home with nothing and some times there were stories that would scare my mom!
First story - on a perfect moonlit night we decided to take my cousin, Andy, hog hunting with us. We dropped him in a pasture to sit in the cattle feeder to wait for hogs. We also left the vehicle. Dad and I walked to another pasture where we found a herd of pigs rooting in the pasture. After a couple of shots, climbing a fence post and returning to the vehicle, we found Andy inside it. Not sure if he didn't see anything or we scared him!
One evening in a brushy pasture as we stood on a tank dam, we encountered a good size hog and several smaller ones. As it was getting dark dad made a plan on which one to shoot and what to do next. The what to do next was for me to run and climb the tree behind us! He shot the hog and then had a hard time getting me off the tree. Not only was I shaking but I had a few thorns in me as well.
There was a time when my dad was working out of town and the dogs would not come home. We could hear the barking in the woods. My mom and I loaded into the truck and drove in the woods. We called the dogs, Patty and Pudden, until they came out of the woods. The only thing was, they weren't alone! Theses non-hunting dogs had found a hog and decided to herd it to us. When my dad returned home we got the hog. That was some tasty meat!
Last one but a different animal. We often went coyote hunting as well, more to enjoy getting near them, hear the howl and watch them, than to shoot them. Our dogs were great friends with the coyotes and loved to play with them. As we sat in a small brush pile the dogs would slowly bring the coyotes in closer and closer. I was sitting on the ground leaned up against a tree while my dad listened to see where our dogs were. In no time I was face to face with a coyote. While it felt like he was literally inches from my nose, he was probably a few feet away. It all happened so fast. The dogs came running to us and the coyote followed!
We had many late night and evening trips in the woods and to different pastures looking for all sorts of animals! From turtles in the tanks to coyotes and hogs (I was never quiet enough to deer hunt), there was even a hog so big it took the tractor to load and filled the bed of the truck. Now I live in the Panhandle where there are no trees, no tanks and different kinds of animals. We sure enjoy the pheasant though!
I've updated a few other pages as well!
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