This is important info for anyone who spends time in the wilderness,attacks from wild animals can be rare but dangerous.
In the winter of 2001 I was under contract to do predator control work on a couple of ranches in the Texas Hill Country. My work started with coyotes and bobcats and later I was asked to do hogs too. Lots of hogs...
I was running about 175 foothold sets per day covering about 46,000 acres of rough country. Mostly cattle grazing so the underbrush was very thick and the roads were just good enough to get my truck down.
With such thick brush, I ran my traps with 10 feet of chain and a tracker plus drag in order to preserve me set locations. Most trapped cats and yotes only went 10-15 feet from the set location and tangled up.Dispatch catch, reset trap, cover and run. Fast,simple and efficient.
I was carrying a 22 revolver and my Kimber 45. The 45 was insurance as we were getting a ton of illegal traffic and found evidence of drug mules often.
Anyway, I had three sets near the corner of a road where three fence lines intersected. I pulled up and found one trap missing from its bed and started following the drag marks into a thick tangle of buckbrush, confident that the coyote or cat was not far away. Mind you, I left my truck and was on foot.
The sign went down a deer trail about 10 yards and I had to get on my hands and knees to follow since the cover was so thick. Ahead of me I could hear the trapped critter thrash a little bit so I stopped and started to scan the cover when I saw a 40 lb black hog that was in the trap and wrapped up pretty good. My mind was thinking about smoke and much welcome roasted hog so I pulled my 22 and attempted to put a bullet right behind the ear. I was about 15 feet away from my prospective dinner when I lined the sights up and squeezed. Just as the hammer fell the pig lunged and the bullet went about 3 inches back into the neck.
This is the point when things got interesting! The uncooked ham started squeeling bloody murder and I finally got a finisher in after about 3 seconds and put the bacon on the ground.The has never been a game caller made that could duplicate the quality of sound that hog put out.
Within milliseconds of the second shot I heard some grunts and crashing brush headed for me. At this point I am not sure what is coming my direction rather hastily but I am stuck on my knees in brush so thick I have to shinny backwards on my knees to get back out.
Just as I get to a location I can stand up, I holstered my 22 on my right hip and pulled the 45 from my left. This is when I saw the big red hog plowing toward me. He was about 25 yards away at this time and the fenceline behind me was about 20 yards away. My truck was around a thicket to my right about 35 yards away with my rifle and shotgun sitting on the back seat. Not good.
Everything went into slow motion as I lined up the sights on the 45 and started to work. My first shot was a little high on the shoulders and it did very little to slow him down. I was scrambling backwards as I was shooting and I could see dust flying off from him as I let it rip.Eight rounds later,including one hit high on the head, I had basically ran my way backwards to the fence and I hopped up just as the boars head crashed into the 8 foot fence and about knocked me off.
Here I stand, about 6 feet up a woven wire fence trying to switch mags with a mad hog pounding the wire below me. It seemed life an hour but was only a couple seconds of gymnastics when I dropped the slide on a fresh mag and put 230 grains of bad intentions through the top of his head.
Slowly and gingerly I worked my way down the fence when I heard laughter... My trapping partner had driven up on his four wheeler after hearing the squeeling and I couldn't see him or hear him due to the excitement. He was running some traps in the same section and was headed my way and heard the melee.
Laughing, he said " I didn't know you were carrying a full auto".
My sweet revenge came later when I shot a hog out from underneath him when he was treed on a gate with an empty pistol. Fun times!!
In the winter of 2001 I was under contract to do predator control work on a couple of ranches in the Texas Hill Country. My work started with coyotes and bobcats and later I was asked to do hogs too. Lots of hogs...
I was running about 175 foothold sets per day covering about 46,000 acres of rough country. Mostly cattle grazing so the underbrush was very thick and the roads were just good enough to get my truck down.
With such thick brush, I ran my traps with 10 feet of chain and a tracker plus drag in order to preserve me set locations. Most trapped cats and yotes only went 10-15 feet from the set location and tangled up.Dispatch catch, reset trap, cover and run. Fast,simple and efficient.
I was carrying a 22 revolver and my Kimber 45. The 45 was insurance as we were getting a ton of illegal traffic and found evidence of drug mules often.
Anyway, I had three sets near the corner of a road where three fence lines intersected. I pulled up and found one trap missing from its bed and started following the drag marks into a thick tangle of buckbrush, confident that the coyote or cat was not far away. Mind you, I left my truck and was on foot.
The sign went down a deer trail about 10 yards and I had to get on my hands and knees to follow since the cover was so thick. Ahead of me I could hear the trapped critter thrash a little bit so I stopped and started to scan the cover when I saw a 40 lb black hog that was in the trap and wrapped up pretty good. My mind was thinking about smoke and much welcome roasted hog so I pulled my 22 and attempted to put a bullet right behind the ear. I was about 15 feet away from my prospective dinner when I lined the sights up and squeezed. Just as the hammer fell the pig lunged and the bullet went about 3 inches back into the neck.
This is the point when things got interesting! The uncooked ham started squeeling bloody murder and I finally got a finisher in after about 3 seconds and put the bacon on the ground.The has never been a game caller made that could duplicate the quality of sound that hog put out.
Within milliseconds of the second shot I heard some grunts and crashing brush headed for me. At this point I am not sure what is coming my direction rather hastily but I am stuck on my knees in brush so thick I have to shinny backwards on my knees to get back out.
Just as I get to a location I can stand up, I holstered my 22 on my right hip and pulled the 45 from my left. This is when I saw the big red hog plowing toward me. He was about 25 yards away at this time and the fenceline behind me was about 20 yards away. My truck was around a thicket to my right about 35 yards away with my rifle and shotgun sitting on the back seat. Not good.
Everything went into slow motion as I lined up the sights on the 45 and started to work. My first shot was a little high on the shoulders and it did very little to slow him down. I was scrambling backwards as I was shooting and I could see dust flying off from him as I let it rip.Eight rounds later,including one hit high on the head, I had basically ran my way backwards to the fence and I hopped up just as the boars head crashed into the 8 foot fence and about knocked me off.
Here I stand, about 6 feet up a woven wire fence trying to switch mags with a mad hog pounding the wire below me. It seemed life an hour but was only a couple seconds of gymnastics when I dropped the slide on a fresh mag and put 230 grains of bad intentions through the top of his head.
Slowly and gingerly I worked my way down the fence when I heard laughter... My trapping partner had driven up on his four wheeler after hearing the squeeling and I couldn't see him or hear him due to the excitement. He was running some traps in the same section and was headed my way and heard the melee.
Laughing, he said " I didn't know you were carrying a full auto".
My sweet revenge came later when I shot a hog out from underneath him when he was treed on a gate with an empty pistol. Fun times!!
Great way to describe a pig!
