One less sow at Brokenoak

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Gary Brantley
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One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by Gary Brantley »

I've been seeing a lot of feral pigs on my game cams out at our ranch seven miles from town, Brokenoak. They've been coming to the deer feeders between 6 and 9 pm almost every day. I just had a feeling that I might see some today and sure enough I did. I had been in my box blind for less than an hour and had watched a nice whitetail doe eating corn for a while. She left and within 20 minutes, two pigs came out of the woods. Only one went back to the woods. Here's one momma who won't be home tonight! :lol:

I used my 1966 Savage 99 lever action rifle chambered in .308. That thing is a damned "killing machine"; at this point I've shot five deer and two hogs with it. The ammunition was 180 gr. Federal PowerShok soft-points. One round behind the ear and it's lights out. :wink: :grin:

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BlackSheep214
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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by BlackSheep214 »

Time for a good ol' fashion pig roast. What time should we be over?
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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by keavdog »

:that: :Beer:
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Gary Brantley
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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by Gary Brantley »

I don't think that old sow would be too good on the pit. I wouldn't eat it anyway! :grin:

Now, a couple of these little piglets would probably be pretty tasty cooked whole on the BBQ pit! This pic is from July 8th at my other game feeder setup by a pond in our woods.

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Floki
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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by Floki »

Does Texas have a bounty on them? A few years ago coyotes around here was going $50 a left ear. That didn't last long
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Gary Brantley
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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by Gary Brantley »

Clint, I think some Texas county's have paid out bounties in the past. I really don't know about Milam county where we live. There are millions of them in Texas and they cause a huge amount of damage to pastures, crops and even pollute streams. When I kill one, I leave it to be naturally "recycled". Coyotes will probably eat that one up tonight or perhaps tomorrow night. It's unbelievable what a pack of them do to a carcass like that. As the Outlaw Josey Wales famously said, "Buzzards gotta eat, same as the worms." :whistle: :lol:

Here's a pic of a sow I shot three years ago:

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And this is what I found two days later. :shocked: We also found a couple detached legs in a different spot:

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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by Stikpusher »

Mother Nature can be most efficient in clean up of dead critters. Nice shot on the new sow. What distance were you at to make that shot?
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Gary Brantley
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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by Gary Brantley »

No kidding! The carcasses disappear mighty quick out there. :wink:

Thanks too! It's 50 yards from that box blind seen behind the feeder legs in one of those photos. That rifle is zeroed for that distance so it's a fairly easy shot. Last year, when it was just still barely enough light to make them out, I was my sitting in my truck, watching that feeder from about 275-300 yards away. I saw two big black hogs come out of the woods and start eating. I eased out of the truck and laid the rifle across the side of the truck's bed and held high over the biggest one. I could just make out his black shape by then and I took the shot. Both of them ran like hell into the woods. Two days later, we saw lot's of buzzards circling over that spot and a friend said he smelled something dead there. I think I probably did hit that pig and it ran away to bleed out in the woods. Very lucky kill that! :grin:

They can be hard to bring down if not hit just right. A shot placed just behind their ear is "lights out" and the pig is DRT. I shot one broadside with a MAK-90 (Chinese AK) from about 35-40 yards and she ran away. I suspect that she bled out later too. In October of 2019, I shot this boar from the box blind while he was at that feeder. I could never get a clear shot for that ear spot and being impatient, tried anyway :lol: . He squealed and ran like a rocket! That was on a Friday afternoon. On Sunday, I found him dead at the edge of the woods. There was mud all over one side and I think he had been wallowing around in the mud, down at the pond, trying to get some relief. But found none. :wink: That's an IMBEL FAL (7.62x51mm) with 17.3" barrel with an Eotech red-dot sight, using just some surplus FMJ.

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I think you can see some of that mud in this pic:

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Fermis
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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by Fermis »

For as much fun as it could be....I am SO glad we don't have pigs here...yet.
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Gary Brantley
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Re: One less sow at Brokenoak

Post by Gary Brantley »

Yet is the operative word Jeremy. But you know that already I suspect. They will get there sooner or later I think. Yeah, they are somewhat sporting to "hunt" but the price in the damage they do isn't worth it. I have 32 acres of pasture and at the last cutting, I figured there were probably five or more that couldn't be cut and baled due to hog ruttings. They dig down to 18" to two feet looking for grubs and tender plant shoots and when they're done it looks like a giant roto-tiller has been through the area. And they can do that damage in one night.

These pics are from July 25, 2020 and taken just after a hay cutting at that time:

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Imagine that sort of damage done to crops in a field; or how a scavenger like that can clear out a pecan orchard? Row crop farmers and ranchers alike are struggling to control or limit their depredations all over Texas and in many other states now too.

For your reading and educational pleasure:

https://feralhogs.tamu.edu/frequently-a ... wild-pigs/

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwd ... 0_0195.pdf

It is a big pig that leaves scat this size behind:

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A friend is out there this morning, trying to bag a pig or two. I say good luck to him because they are an intelligent and cunning foe. They are not very predictable and you never know when a big group will pass through. Fireants and feral pigs...always some kinda pests in Texas to give you the blues. And to top it off, we now have a mountain lion prowling our area. A neighbor three miles away caught a good image of it on a game camera and I've seen what I assumed was one in person on our place. Several have been sighted (maybe the same cat?) along our county road and I believe we have an image on a game cam from last year as well. I wish it was a better pic, it's really hard to make out but it definitely looks cat-like to me, just at the edge of the light one can see a crouching animal eyeing a pile of deer offal:

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