As we continued our Texas trip, we focused on hunting hogs the next several days. A typical morning would be getting up and going and sitting the blind a few hours and then coming back to the lodge for the middle of the day of fishing, riding side by side and good old-fashioned R&R in the beautiful Texas weather. After lunch one day Kevin, Roger and Kaden were going to check hog traps. This was new for us, so we were excited to go along for the ride. Many Texas ranchers raise cows and other livestock, and the hogs destroy these properties. One way to combat the hog population is by hunting, but the other is by trapping and relocating the hogs.
We were lucky as one of the first traps we checked had approximately 20 hogs in the trap. We backed up the trailer and KC assisted the guys in loading the hogs up to transport them out of the area to another Ranch. The process was very interesting, and he learned a lot. That afternoon we were back in the blind, it was warm, and the wind kept changing directions which was certainly affecting the activity in the area. As the sun was fading, we caught a glimpse of a monster hog inside the woods, however he never came close enough for a shot. With about 5 minutes to go we could hear a hog off to our right and soon he was coming into the feeder. KC was already up out of his chair and had his crossbow ready to take the shot. The hog was moving quickly back and forth eating which made it hard for a clean shot but eventually he stopped long enough for KC to make a perfect shot right before dark. He knew instantly the shot was perfect, and we watched the hog go down in sight. The hunting was a bit tougher the next couple days but we he did manage to get one more hog before we switched gears back to deer. We started to focus on Axis and Fallow Deer on another ranch at the end of our hunt. We knew with warm temps the deer movement would be slower, however we had a great spot with a lot of activity near a water source we were going to try. We sat waiting patiently in the hot blind and knew the deer would have to come in for a drink eventually. Soon we saw a group of Axis off in the distance, but they never came close enough for a shot. An hour or so later we saw a group of fallow deer coming our way, there was a big buck in the group, and we decided that would be a good one to focus on.
As the buck made his way towards us KC took direction from Kevin on which trail, he thought they would come on. The buck entered the opening and KC was quick to settle his crossbow and take the shot. The buck mule kicked up in the air, a typical sign of a great shot. Since the sun was out it was much harder to see the exact shot placement, but we were confident he hit it perfect. We waited about 30 minutes and took up the trail. Our thoughts on the shot were confirmed when we investigated the shot site and found a huge blood trail. We tracked the buck and found him less than 100 yards from the blind. A beautiful trophy and probably one of the tastiest game animals I had ever had. As the sunset in Texas, we had a great trip and made new friends that we can’t wait to go back and hunt with again next December!
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