A Scouting Trip Gone Good

Game-On Week for Wildhoghunters.com started out with a bang bang bang Wednesday morning! We had received permission to hunt some private property owned by a friend of a friend of mine in both Texas and Oklahoma. David Dell and I had explored 215 acres of the property in Texas last Saturday morning, finding abundant hog sign though it appeared to be at least a week old. We are used to that and we know if hogs use a place, we can draw them back into a routine with a little feed and Hogzilla.

We discussed some plans and David was going to bring Mike back out to look at it later. I told David that James (the owner) had told me his place in Oklahoma was a hog mecca. We decided that we would head up there early Wednesday morning and check it out. I invited my long time hunting buddy and friend Todd Wogan to go with us.

David bought a new night vision scope to test out and had pulled his sight from his AR-15 so he opted to carry his Remington 700 in .308 Winchester. Todd used my AR-15 Carbine and a 20 round magazine with 62 grain hollow-points in it. My rifle is not suppressed like Mike's, but I have an Eotech sight on it and man that gun is quick handling and fast to acquire a target with.




I had misplaced my billfold so we were running 5 or 10 minutes behind, but Todd and I met David at his house and we loaded up all the gear and headed for Soper Oklahoma. The drive was around an hour and twenty minutes, but James' map led us straight to his locked gate.

The area is rolling hills and deeply cut valleys with winding creeks lush with cover and vegetation perfect for hogs and other wildlife. There are a lot of natural openings and winding trails James pushed with a small dozer that crooked back and forth, the kind of trails that benefit wildlife more than the hunter.

We parked near James' RV and got out, stretching from the ride before we got our gear and headed toward a highline right-of-way. David spotted a big coyote at the end of it over 200 yards away. He was furred out good and very healthy. I couldn't get the camera on him before he ran. Two more went through right behind him and I got the last one as he streaked across like something was after him. We headed into the woods toward a feeder that James had drawn on a map for me. We saw more wildlife in the distance, but no hogs. There were old tracks around the feeder, but it had been empty for a while.

David pointed out a big hog track and said, "Definitely a big one there."

Todd looked content carrying the carbine, being out in the woods. Todd has hunted deer and elk all his life, but this was his first time on a hog hunting trip. He was having a good time.

We headed back across the right-of-way and through a beautiful cleared path that had green grass started all over it. Spring is on its way even though the wind whistling the air still had a bite to it.

We found the creek and it was a nice size creek. The crossing there was too deep for us to ford so we eased through the bottom and back up the hill to the fence close to where we came in to the pasture.

A natural trail led through the woods along the fence -- a cow trail possibly as it was really too wide to be a game trail. We followed it to the gurgling sound of the creek below us and a jumble of rock that littered the creek bed from years of erosion. Crossing carefully we worked our way through a thick cane break, finally coming to an opening that showed relatively recent sign of having been cleared with a bulldozer.

This was the area we had been looking for.

David and Todd walked ahead of me as I documented everything with the camera, filming things as David pointed out different places he liked the looks of. We found an old ground blind and the open area below it looked prime for a corn feeder to ambush some hogs. A road ran roughly parallel to the creek and we walked it, watching the creek area for hogs.

We had went around 200 yards down the small valley when we heard the grunts and squeals of several hogs to our left! David and Todd quickly started scanning the broken woods and fence row where the sounds emanated. I saw the back of a red hog across the fence. David couldn't see the one I saw, but he could see the back of a bigger black hog.

Whispering, we decided to move a little further down, but the underbrush quickly shut us down on that idea. We moved back to our original position and since the wind was in our favor, decided to advance directly toward the hogs for 5 to 10 yards. We made it ten yards and we could see the black hog really well.

I told David when I was on it with the camera and I could see Todd move up beside David. Both men had their rifles up to their shoulders and David fired, Todd firing at the black pig so quickly behind him it almost sounded like one continuous shot. The black hog went down and all hell broke loose. Young hogs took off everywhere and I saw two making a sprint across an opening in front of us. One of them didn't make it as Todd quickly swung the AR-15, acquired his target with the Eotech, dropping the 65 pound boar with a well-placed 62 grain hollow-point as it let out a death squeal.

We were excited!! Our scouting trip had just turned into a successful hog hunt and we had two hogs down. I handed David my pistol as we told Todd to watch his hog. We checked the big sow David had shot and it was dead, the .308 centering her back, and spine, killing her instantly. We moved over to where Todd was standing.

"Its still alive," David said, looking at the young hog from a distance.

Todd stepped forward and shot the hog again, killing it. David hopped the fence and grabbed it by the back legs, pitching it over the fence. The little boar was perfect eating size.







We checked out our hogs, shooting a commentary on film as we happily surveyed our new hunting ground. Game On week had started out with a great hunt and it was a fitting precursor to the awesome hunt waiting for us at Wild River Ranch!!