Close Encounters

[HOGHUNTER714]

I thought I would start a thread on this topic. You guys have any juicy stories of when you've taken a hog upclose and personal. Any stories of when you were beating the brush and you got surprised by a pig only a few feet away. Or that time you crawled through a pig tunnel only to meet a boar on the other end. When your heart is pounding and it feels like its in your throat and you feel a tiny bit of danger present. Let em rip guys...........

 

[Speckmisser]

So far I haven't had any hairy experiences with hogs. I practically stepped on a real big boar last spring, but he hauled butt the other direction. My brother's first and only (so far) experience, however, rates pretty high up there. By the way, I hate to keep talking second-hand about my brother's experiences. I've tried and tried to get him on the list, but he's not real big on the whole computer community thing...prefers his friends in the flesh, I guess.

Anyway, last spring I brought him out from NC for the Tejon POR. He'd never hunted hogs before, and spent a lot of time asking around back home for suggestions and advice. The good ol' boys at the gun shop loaded him up with horror stories and tales of terror from hog hunts in the South Carolina swamps. For example, they stood aghast when he mentioned that we'd be hunting on foot, with no dogs and no treestands.

"You better watch it," they warned. "Those hogs'll eat you alive if they get half a chance! You're a lot safer up a tree."

Needless to say, the anticipation they built up was pretty sharp. He'd been practicing for Cowboy Action shooting anyway, but he honed those quickdraw skills with that .44 every day before the trip.

OK, cut to the chase...

After a day and a half without seeing so much as a fresh sign, we finally found pigs. The last morning of the hunt, we set up in a saddle where we'd seen them crossing the night before. I went out on a finger ridge, and left him up in the saddle. About an hour after sunrise he spotted a group of hogs moving across the clearing, about 150 yards below. He launched a round from the 30-06, and one of the hogs squealed and ditched into a bush. The rest headed for parts unknown (actually, they came right to me where I took one out of the same group).

He started down the hill to see if he'd hit the one that ditched. I can't remember if he left the rifle at the top of the hill, or if he didn't have a round chambered, but at any rate, as he neared the bush the pig suddenly came charging out... right at him! It was like all the warnings come true.

He sidestepped, drew his Blackhawk, and plowed a 240 gr. core lokt right through the boiler room. He said that, even after all that quickdraw practice, the danged gun wouldn't come out of the holster until the last second. It turns out that his shot with the -06 had missed completely, so we're not sure why the hog ducked into the bush while the rest ran off, but he was unmarked except from the picture-book pistol shot.

When I got there after gutting my hog and hiking back up to the saddle, he was still practically buzzing from the excitement. It was classic!

Of course, the odds are that the hog, with its poor vision charged directly at him only because it couldn't see him. It wasn't so much an attack as it was a moment of panic for the pig. But it sure created a moment of panic for my brother too. Wish I could've video-taped it.

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

ok, since I started this thread, I better throw my experience in there. Last year my two buddies and I hunted a priviate ranch in the lockwood area. We were gonna hunt this ranch for 2 days. This particular ranch wasnt that big, approximately 1200 acres, so we covered most of it in the first day. On the second day we got up at the crack of dawn and we hiked to an area that looked pretty promising. We spent the whole day in this particular area. We have only a few hours of legal shoot time left. After glassing this one section, we heard "gunts" coming from an area we could not see into. We sat on this ridge and that sat up pretty high and just listened to the pigs fight and squeal inside this thick vegetation. From what we heard it sounded like 3 or 4 pigs were in these head high shrubs. We sat there and came up with a plan. Our plan would be to send two guys in with pistols and the other guy stand on the ridge that was to our left and pop anything that ran out into a clearing and was a "safe" shot. My buddy and I put our rifles down and headed in there armed with our 44mags and 270 grains of stoping power. We had the wind in our favor (to our faces) and the sun was starting to go down right at this point with about an hour of light left. We walked up to head high brush and the squeals just kept getting louder and louder. At this point we couldnt see them just hear them, we estimated them at 70 to 80 yards up this hill. Going in at first wasnt to bad, we just had to be slow and quiet. We suddenly got to a point were we had to crawl and light was a factor due to basically we were under a canapy of trees and brush. The stuff we were crawling in wasnt fun (scat & dirt). It smelled like pigs used this area often as there bedding area and the place looked like it had been "Roto Tilled" from all the rooting that these things had been doing. We managed to stalk within 30 to 40 yards and we took cover behind some downed trees. What we thought was 3-4 pigs turned into 14 pigs as we counted. At this point we were using hand singals and we didnt wanna make any noise what so ever. Some pigs were rooting, some were bedded and some we taunting each other and grunting. We both pulled our 44's out and took aim. I pulled my hammer back as quietly as possible and took aim at the easiest shot I had, which was approximaley a 30 yard broadside shot at this 140 pound sow. I looked over one last time and my buddy was looking like he was getting ready to shoot. I held my breath and let one go. WAPPPPPP!!!!, I nailed it a little high, but dropped her in her tracks. Pigs start running everywhere, including a good size boar towards us. This thing is charging us and I'm like "Ahhhh Sh$%"...lol, my buddy fires and misses and fires again and hits it solid in the neck. The thing dropped and rolled within I would say 5 to 10 yards away. That made my hair stand up on the back of my neck. It will be a hog trip I will never soon forget.

Bryan

 

[Two Rugers]

We were hunting rabbits also in the thick brush area by Phealan. I only had my Mossy 410 guage and ruger security six 357 magnum.
Anyways I saw a fat jack hopping towards a jashuwa treed area that was full of old washing machines, refrigerators and shot up stripped cars that got dumped in that area back then.
I end up losing it but hear this clanking of cans behind this big pile of stinky trash. I think ferral dogs that are commom there right. So I aim the 410 in the area and throw a big chunk of washing machine behind the trash pile. I thunk something and it freakin squeals and runs out at me. This freakin pig looked like a grizzly when it pooped out and ran at me! POP! goes the .410 did I hit it at all? Dont know I shot and ran! I jumped on top of a stripped VW Rabbitt dropping my .410. so theres this pissed off pig hiding and all I have is a .357 with 125 grain loads.
And of course I now had to take a dump. real bad....

Anyway my brother finally comes by after hearing me screaming his name to bring the 30-30. So I reluctantly jump down from the rabbitt and pick up my .410.
We searched for it for hours but couldnt find it.

 

[FRANK M]

I DID NOT KNOW THERE WAS HOGS IN THAT AREA OF PHELAN

 

[BLASTMASTER]

Niether did I!

 

[SDHNTR]

You aimed the 410 in the "area" after hearing the noise and shot? From the sound of this you just shot without confirming the target. Thats a major no-no in my book. I hope I read this wrong or there is more to the story that what it sounds like.

 

[docapi]

SDHNTR,
If you read his post carfully you will find that it says he "aimed the .410 in the area and threw a piece of washing machine at the pile".
He didn't shoot blindly he threw something at the pile to get it to come out.
Sounds like it worked a little too well in this instance.

 

[SDHNTR]

OK I got it now. No harm, no foul. Now please tell us about these Phelan desert pigs.

 

[41mag]

Well being new here, I am finding that there is a LOT of folks with the same passions as myself and the folks I run the woods with.

This in mind I could give several accounts of close call hog hunts but I will save the typing and just give the one account of the one which almost got me.

I am fortunate to be able to hunt with a friend on their property which is primiarily river bottom. some areas you can see close to one hundered yards but most of it is dense underbrush and tight vegitation. We have hunted hogs there for the past 8 or so years, employing different methods along the way. We like to try for a big sized sow during deer season in order to help out with the sausage mix.

This particular evening I was hunting a stretch of woods we call the Front Woods. My friend and his wife had gotten into a very large pack the previous morning and I was not there to help out. I however, was still looking for a decent deer, so it wasn't a big deal. Plan was for them to hit their stands on one end of the woods and for me to sort of still hunt in from the other end up to a road which crosses about in the middle. Hopefully I would put a big buick on the move towards them or possibly get it myself.

Well things started out good, I had a good push on a dozen or so does who were keeping just out of sight in front of me. I had the wind to me so they were just more or less moving away at a slow but nervous pace which was great for the plan. Well I came to an area which left me little or no cover to hide behind so I skirted it to the south. As I did the does went north. IT wasn't but a few minutes that I heard the close in squeels and grunts of the pack of hogs as they rustled up from their bedding area. I could tell that there was at least one sow with pigs and about that time a very big hog emerged from some tight cover about 40 yds away. Well I had a Thompson Contender with a VERY stiff 140 gr Ballistic tip load so I decided to go ahead and take it thinking it was the big sow.

I set my rifle which I was carrying, down against a tree and moved up about 10 yds to get into position. I had taken up a sitting position with my elbows being supported by my knees so as to have a steady hold. The hog emerged once again from the thick stuff to find my cross hair right on the shoulder. I touched off with the Thompson and as it recovered from the recoil I noted that the hog wasn't on the ground, but had already closed half the distance between us. Well being a single shot and observing the huge hog now closing in fast with chops snapping, I decided to retreat to the rifle. As I got to it, the hog was to me, I only had time to point and shoot as I rolled out of it's path. As I cranked in another round it made a u-turn and started back. Just as I was about to let it have one more it fell over and that was that.

If you have ever almost been hit by a fast moving train or semi running a red light then you are on the right track to how I was feeling at that moment. I normally ALWAY"S carry a side arm of at least 357 caliber with me when stalking but due to the deer I was hoping to get I had my single shot. Since I have had a couple of other close encounters of the similar kind but with WAY smaller critters which disliked the taste my 41 left in their mouth.

IF your interested in taking a gander at the wild critters we have picked up here and there you can check them out at this link. The big one from this story is at the bottom.

http://photos.yahoo.com/screeminreel

I have a few more pics that haven't made it up yet but these are the best so far.

LAter,
41Mag

 

[Bishop]

Hey 41mag. :
Welcome to Jesse's. Great bunch of guys here. Always good to have another bigbore handgun hunter around.
Great story too.

 

[jrifenbark]

I hit a boar at Tejon last April with a 30-30 170gr. Nosler Partician at about 20-40 yards. Two pigs charged within 20 feet of me from North and South of me. When I aimed the carbine at them they darted away. I suppose they jsut didn't see me. Regardless, that gets your heart thumping.

 

[wmidbrook]

Towards the end of last winter, 4 feral hogs (a younger boar about 150 lbs a couple of 200 lb sows and 1 piglet )dug their way into a pen that had 2 hampshires at a friends ranch. One of the sows was real mangey looking, malnourished, and very wild looking. The other 3 looked pretty normal.

When you'd get within 5 yds or so of the pen, the mangey sow would charge. Well, enough's enough. My buddy grabbed his .44 and I grabbed my kimber .45. He shot the mangey sow right in the head. The pig were there when we got back...you'd think they'd have crawled out but I guess they liked eating the 'shires food.

I was on the same side of the pen at the far end. The second he shot, that boar hgihtailed straight towards the post I was standing next to, glance off it and rammed into the fence. I jumped back since I didn't have a safe shot as it was charging.

The hogwire didn't break and the second after it bounced off it, I had a clear shot and pumped a couple rounds into it....the other 2 pig were busy licking up the carnage as they were dispatched.

 

[Two Rugers]

Phealan "area".
And yea I never ever seen a hog there before either. Just coyotes, ferral dogs and lots o jack rabbitts. Go figure.
Anyway we went back there not too long ago to look for rabbitts and to see if any land is available in that area. I like it cuz it is heavily wooded with big Jashuwa trees with I guess grass actually growing there. We got visited by the San Bernadoo sheriff. He said some guy saw my son with the Mossy .410 bolt action shotgun and thought we were out there with a 30-06 or something.