Tweet
I was introduced to the owner of a high fence ranch here in north Texas. I knew the place well as I had driven by it 100 times in the last year and had admired the myriad of exotic animals seen there, but I had no idea about the place as it had no signs or anything else, just high fence and cool animals. Well, earlier this year, an elite team of hogs managed to penetrate a portion of the fence deep in the woods while the owner was away. The hole was discovered and repaired soon after his return during normal maintenance rounds, but then the hogs started being seen. Then the hogs started tearing up the place. He tried a trapper, but that just yielded getting his exotics caught. Hogdoggers contacted could not promise that their dogs would not chase his exotic animals. So he has been shooting hogs when seen and clients are encouraged to shoot them, but this has been almost exclusively a daylight activity with low productivity. I was given a tour of the place and it was phenomenal as far as having beautiful vistas and beautiful animals. It is 800 acres of peaks, bluffs, valleys, woods, and meadows with more than a dozen ponds, countless seeps, and more than 200 feet of elevation changes. Rooting damage was in just about every meadow we saw, not necessarily extensive damage, but was ubiquitous and in some areas it was extensive. After the tour, I showed the owner my gear and to my surprise, he was quite familiar with the Grendel caliber as one of his clients was a big fan of the Grendel. He gave me my marching orders and said all hogs and predators were fair game.
I came back later that night after checking my other properties and thought I would drive along a couple of the larger trails to familiarize myself with the property at night and hope not to get lost. I came into a clearing that had a lot of deer in it (fallow and whitetail), but also several hogs mixed in among them. I got out of the truck and stalked toward the group, but no matter how I oriented myself to the ground, I could never get a clean shot at any of the hogs without having a deer somewhere behind them. Eventually, the hogs made it to safety without me firing a shot. Worse yet, I discovered that in high grass, the fallow deer and the hogs looked very similar through the thermal scope when their heads were down in high grass and both were often in motion while doing so. Seeing a hog duck its head and snuffle the ground in the midst of some fallow deer was like watching a wildlife shell game as all the animals moved about. I would think I was following the hog only to find the animal I was watching was a fallow doe when she would pop up her head. This property is going to be a challenge.
Night #2 found me in the same area. I discovered a lot of new rooting and thought I would stage myself down wind and wait. I even dumped out a bunch of corn and alfalfa along the car path where I had seen the hogs the previous night. In no time, a group of fallows were hoovering up the feed and then had the audacity to walk down to my truck and stand around like they were waiting on me to feed them some more! Eventually, they took off and 3 whitetail approached me from behind. I could hear them browsing around me and at times they were very close to the truck. Eventually, an animal came out and looking to be going after the remnants of corn out on the vehicle path. I watched this animal for over 5 minutes...and that is where the video picks up...
Spoiler alert, the Grendel did well. This is going to be a regular stop for me over the next few weeks until hunting season starts.
I came back later that night after checking my other properties and thought I would drive along a couple of the larger trails to familiarize myself with the property at night and hope not to get lost. I came into a clearing that had a lot of deer in it (fallow and whitetail), but also several hogs mixed in among them. I got out of the truck and stalked toward the group, but no matter how I oriented myself to the ground, I could never get a clean shot at any of the hogs without having a deer somewhere behind them. Eventually, the hogs made it to safety without me firing a shot. Worse yet, I discovered that in high grass, the fallow deer and the hogs looked very similar through the thermal scope when their heads were down in high grass and both were often in motion while doing so. Seeing a hog duck its head and snuffle the ground in the midst of some fallow deer was like watching a wildlife shell game as all the animals moved about. I would think I was following the hog only to find the animal I was watching was a fallow doe when she would pop up her head. This property is going to be a challenge.
Night #2 found me in the same area. I discovered a lot of new rooting and thought I would stage myself down wind and wait. I even dumped out a bunch of corn and alfalfa along the car path where I had seen the hogs the previous night. In no time, a group of fallows were hoovering up the feed and then had the audacity to walk down to my truck and stand around like they were waiting on me to feed them some more! Eventually, they took off and 3 whitetail approached me from behind. I could hear them browsing around me and at times they were very close to the truck. Eventually, an animal came out and looking to be going after the remnants of corn out on the vehicle path. I watched this animal for over 5 minutes...and that is where the video picks up...
Spoiler alert, the Grendel did well. This is going to be a regular stop for me over the next few weeks until hunting season starts.
Comment