First let me say this was my first time seeing hogs in the wild let alone getting to shoot at them. Now about the ranch it high fence and full of tame hand feedable elk,bison and other exotics. The hogs were the only thing hard to find.
First night i saw not while sitting in stands and watching piles of corn. second day got up early in the morning and did some stalking on the up portion of the 2000 acres. I again saw nothing but then the other three guys who were from arkansas went down into the river bottoms and came ack with a nice 180lb boar who was real health from all the good minerals fed to the exotics.We all decided to do the flush them out technic since they were not moving so we began to walk the dense ,dark ,scarey,wet river bottoms as the three walk toward me and i alone walk hogs there direction i heard shots and then them moment i have been waiting for,,,i could hear what sounded like 50 hogs busting threw the woods right at me but were only about 10 ,,i was tangled in the thicket and did not know weather to run or squat down but either way i knew they would smell the load i let lose out of fear so i ran into a clearing causing then to turn into the clearing only 2-5feet away.
remebmer im a first timer so i lift to shoot and forget that im suppose to look down the sights an miss they run for about 150 yards and stop then stay down into a creek bed one at a time. no im pretty sure of my shooting ability so i get my jammed up 303 brit unjammed and lay down to take a 200 shot i sight in on a 80pounder and pow!! i watch him spin and take off like the wind. I knew i hit him good im my excitement i run over and dont look for blood cause im sure he is only a few feet away from were i hit him but no hog. i walk back toward the others and see a hog about 100 yards away laying on the side of the trail hes hit lowin the chest and blown to pieces. i ask the others if they hit one and they say they threw one over on the side of the trail. i doubt its theres but i give it up cause its not worth the arguement since they claimed to have hit it at really close range and with a sks. but any way that was the end of my hunt. i head back to camp to find a guy up there that just shot an ORYX instead of the black buck he payed to shoot he forked out an additional 1000 bucks for that one and was nice enough to give me the ribs.
This ranch was ok for meat hogs only no trophy. I would no pay to eat there either since the meals were barley better than the hotdogs and pb and jelly i packed. the sleeping quarters were nice and the owner was really professional but the host was not very good he ended our hunt early and seemed to be very partial to some hunters over others.
This is my quick story or my first hog sighting ,,now im really ready since the first time jitters are gone.
hope you enjoyed the experience i had fun for the most part. but probally wont be back,
James
