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Hog Hunting in Texas
In hunting, especially hog hunting, preparation is everything, but you can only prepare so much. That's the lesson Andrew Nelson learned when he had the "best worst experience" his first time out in the field. Ahead of his trip, he spent hours reading about hog hunting and watching videos, so he prepared himself for a long wait and bad weather. He had been shooting for about 13 years, so he wasn't too concerned about his marksmanship. But he did worry that he might get stage fright. That when the moment came, he'd screw up or lose his nerve.
What Is the Best Time to Hog Hunt?
Nelson's first hog hunt happened during a work trip to Nocona Ranch, a hunting lodge about 30 miles west of San Antonio, Texas. His employer, OpticsPlanet, sent him there to learn more about thermal and night vision optics, and of course, hunting. He set out on a chilly September night a little after nine o'clock with his guide Joe Towers, a former police officer turned professional hunting guide and founder of Hero Hunt. A ranch hand dropped them off at a hunting blind deep in the 2,000-acre ranch. With a clear sky and nearly full moon, they had a perfect view of a feeder downrange.
Inside the blind was about as big as a half-bathroom. In other words, it was cramped for two grown men and their hunting gear. Still, they didn't let it bother them, so they immediately started scanning the area. Since they couldn't see anything in the surrounding brush, Nelson looked through his Armasight thermal scope mounted to his .308 AR-10 hunting rifle while Towers switched between a thermal and night vision monocular.
Nelson understood the basic operation of thermal optics. He had attended a class a few hours earlier. But applying what he knew in a hunting scenario was completely foreign to him. He looked through his thermal, but the view was so narrow, it wasn't much help at first. Towers on the other hand picked up on something right away using night vision, which gave a much wider view. That something turned out to be a jackrabbit about 100 yards away.
Towers gave Nelson the option to shoot, but Nelson declined. Little did he know that he made the right choice. "I could've taken the jackrabbit, but I'm glad I didn't because the reason the jackrabbit came out was because a herd of pigs spooked it." Before he was in the moment, he wondered about how he would react. "You don't know if you'll feel 'take the shot' or 'wait, I don't want to do this,'" he explained, but it turned out that he didn't actually feel any of that. Instead, all he could think about was finding the biggest hog.
Looking through his thermal scope, he identified what he thought were the largest two, but they were on opposite ends of the herd. Then, he told himself he had to be more decisive because otherwise, he might squander the opportunity. That's when he saw the perfect target for the moment.
To get into a shooting position inside the blind, Nelson had to contort his body. It felt awkward, but he still had pretty good fundamentals. Then, the pig turned and exposed his broadside. He told himself it's now or never. And he pulled the trigger.
"I kind of got tunnel vision when it happened," he said, but not in a bad way. He was actually very methodical. He focused on his aim, shot placement, breathing, and trigger control. But after the fact, he realized he didn't notice feeling recoil or hearing the gunshot.
When the shot went off, chaos erupted within the herd. Nelson wasn't sure if he hit his mark or not. Hogs scattered in all directions. As soon as they cleared, he saw his pig floundering on the ground. "Do I shoot it again and put it out of its misery?" he asked Towers. Towers told him, "No, just wait." And in less than 20 seconds, the pig stopped moving.
In all, the entire experience from entering the blind to shooting the pig lasted about 15 minutes, but they still waited about 45 minutes before walking down. They inspected the pig - an 85-pounder - they saw that the shot was nearly perfect. He aimed for the heart and lungs area, but his shot landed about six inches behind the neck and severed the spine. Then, they turned around and sat in the blind for another two-and-a-half hours to be picked up.
The next day, Nelson reflected on his experience. While he thought about how he didn't really see much out in the brush, how he scrambled to find the right pig, how he had 30 possible targets but only settled on one, he mostly fixated on how insanely lucky he was that it happened so fast. "That's why I was like this was a bad experience for a first-time hunter because this is my expectation now," he said.
