OK Hog Hunt 2011

2/25/11 - The MN gang arrived at my place around 12:15am for a few short hours of rest before we packed back up and headed to OK around 4am. The snow and ice KC had Thursday evening made for an interesting drive, but we made down to the Addictive Hunting ranch without any major hiccups. Bob Berger met us at the front gate and the hunt was on.

After getting settled in and relaxing for a bit we got our gear together and headed for the stands. The forecast had called for mid 60s and sun all weekend, so the 28 degrees, overcast skies, and 15-25mph northeast wind Friday evening made for a long, cold sit. I drove around the ranch with Bob and dropped off Jason and Chad at their sets for the evening sit. Once they were situated we loaded up and Bob drove Scott, Lance, Logan, and me to the north end of the ranch. Logan and I hunted a set called "The Boneyard" that evening. Wee-man hung in there like a trooper with the cold and wind, but after 2 1/2 hours he'd had enough and I walked him back up to the rig were Scott met us. I headed back down to the set and around 4:55pm four nice sows moved into the bait site. They were grouped up devouring the sour corn I'd prepared and I couldn't get them to separate long enough for a clean shot. After about 10 minutes of waiting I decided to slide out of the blind and try to get a better angle on them. I snuck about 30yrds down the shooting lane and finally had a shot opportunity present itself. I was settled in and about half way through my trigger squeeze when the sows all looked up, then tore out of the bait sight. That's when I noticed a black blur tearing towards the feeder from the left. I could tell it was a bigger hog, so when it stopped broadside about 80yrds out I touched the shot off. I heard the bullet hit and the shot felt good, but the hog was instantly screaming through the tall grass towards the canyon. I saw the sows reach the canyon and drop over the lip, but when the hog I shot at reached the same trail I heard a bunch of crashing around and brush breaking. I was confident about the shot, so I slid back into the set and waited for nightfall.

Around 5:45pm I heard a shot from Scott's location, but unfortunately he missed a shot at a running hog about 250yrds out into the wheat field Logan and him had set up on.

We decided to let my hog sit overnight since the temps were dropping into the low twenties. I hunted "The Boneyard" again Saturday morning and after Scott, Logan, Bobby (guide), and Nathan arrived at my set around 9:15am we started the tracking job. We headed straight for the edge of the canyon were I heard all of the commotion the night before. After a short tracking job into the bottom of the canyon we found my boar piled up in the bottom of a deep draw. This is the biggest boar I've killed to date 190lbs with 2 1/2 inch cutters.
We all met back at camp for lunch and sorted out a game plan for a drive on the big canyon that ran through the ranch. I decided to stay back at camp and get my boar butchered up, but everyone else headed out for the drive. Unfortunately the drive only yielded hog sightings, but no kills....unless you count Logan cracking a dillo's ass and Chad smoking a trapped coon.

After they returned to camp we sorted out the evening sit and Chad and I decided to play a hunch and sit over a wheat field that Bobby had been seeing a big group of hogs in the past couple of nights. There weren't any sets in place to hunt that spot, so after putting out some sour corn I created a sweet ground blind about 160yrds north of the corner the pigs had been spotted on. It was nice to finally get to hunt with Chad again, because it had been about 6-7 years since we've hunted together. At 5pm sharp I spotted several hogs headed towards the field. There were 3 big sows and 8 piglets in the group and they had one thing on their mind "sour corn". Chad and I watched them for a couple minutes while we worked out a game plan to put a double on the ground. Chad was going to shoot the biggest sow and I was going to crack the next biggest sow's ass, but when one of us had a clean shot the other one didn't. After a couple minutes of waiting the opportunity finally presented itself. Our plan was to count to three, then shoot on a silent four count so Iwasn't talking and trying to shoot at the same time. I think the excitement might have gotten to Chad a bit, because when the word "three" left my lips I heard the report from his 300 mag, I got a shot off in short order and when the dust settled two sows where down. We're not sure if I actually hit the second pig or if Chad smoked both of them with one shot, but regardless we had pigs down and it was Chad's first hog ever. We took advantage of the remaining daylight and decided to get some photos taken before it was dark out.

Sunday morning was warm, but the wind and overcast skies remained and nobody saw any movement as far as hogs go. We all headed back to camp around 10am to get packed up and head home. All in all it was a great trip. We killed three nice hogs, Logan got to smoke an armadillo and a skunk and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It would have been nice to see/kill some more hogs, but when your hunting wild animals there is no guarantee. We're already talking about heading back down in June/July of 2012 for a summer time hunt.

Next up on the Minny-MO calender is the MO snagging season, followed up in short order by the spring turkey season....stay tuned, because we'll be laying down some more animals shortly.

QV Ranches New Super Model

Above is a screen shot from the home page of QV Ranch in Throckmorton, TX . The new web page for QV Ranches has used a photo of Pete and his hog from December of 2008 on the homepage for the ranch. I would have used the picture of my armadillo kill, but to each their own. The new web page looks great.

Texas Whitetail/Hog Hunt 2008

We arrived at camp on Saturday morning (12/13/08) shortly before noon. Pete and I where hunting QV Ranch located just East of Throckmorton, TX. We would be targeting whitetail does, wild hogs, and anything else that was legal to shoot. "When in Texas you do as the Texans." After getting settled, stretching our legs after the 8 hour drive from Missouri and watching UMD win the DII National Football Championship we where off for our first evening hunt of the trip.

12/13/08 PM- We where hunting a new lease "The Hargrove" a couple miles north of the main ranch. The property was made up of a huge wheat field with some thick mesquite on the north end of the property. Pete and I hunted about 600 yards a part on each end of the mesquite patch. Both of us where hunting out of shooting boxes. We had temps in the 60's, mostly clear skies and light south winds. I had zero activity on the evening and Pete had a couple small bucks around his stand.

12/14/08 AM- We woke up to clear skies, temps in the mid 50's and a light south wind. We hunted another lease about 15 miles from the main ranch called the Jarman Lease. Pete and I both hunted here in February and saw lots of animals. Needless to say we where both excited to be back. Both Pete and I saw a lot of deer all morning long and could have shot several mature does. Since we had 2 ½ more days to hunt we held out and just watched the show. I had one nice 4 ½ year old buck that I grunted inside 50 yards. He ran off every deer in my area and even postured some cattle that where behind my blind. Along with all the deer I also saw a large coyote and a big bobcat. Neither of them offered me a shot. I was able to take my first Rio Turkey in the morning. At one point I had over 50 turkeys around my blind before I finally got a clear shot at a mature bird. Below is a picture of my TX Rio turkey.

12/14/08 PM- Pete and I hunted just south of the main ranch for our evening hunt. We had a slight south wind, temps close to 80 and clear sky. I was running the video camera and Pete was doing "most" of the hunting. On the way to our blind we bumped a large covey of Quail. Shortly after settling into the blind Pete saw a Monster Armadillo sneaking through the cactus to our left. Pete made room for me to slide into his window and I made an easy 40 yard shot. Varment #1 down. With about 40 minutes of video light left I noticed movement about 150 yards to our south. We glassed the brush and noticed 4 deer (3 does and a young buck) moving our direction. The buck broke off but the 3 does continued walking from south to the north. After a couple minutes the 3 does crossed about 80 yards directly in front of our blind. I stopped the last of the doe when it got centered in the video camera and Pete put a perfect heart/lung shot on the ol' girl. She held it for 30 yards before giving up the ghost. Our first Texas deer and first whitetail kill on video. Right before dark the wind switched to the north and picked up to 30 mph. Shortly after that the temp dropped from 80 degrees to 50 degrees in five minutes, and kept falling throughout the evening. Wind and cold would be the story for the rest of our trip. Below is a photo of Pete with his doe and my armadillo.

12/15/08 AM- We woke up to temps in the upper 20's and a north wind blowing from 20-30 mph. The wind was absolutely brutal! Pete and I where hunting together again in the AM but this time I had the gun and Pete had the video camera. Our morning hunt was back at the Jarman lease. As soon as you could see we where covered up in deer. At one point we literally had deer all around our box blind. There where several smaller bucks, one nice tall & wide 10 point and tons of does. After careful inspection of all the does Pete and I picked out our target for the morning. After Pete got some good video footage of all the deer I made an easy 45 yard shot on a big mature Texas doe. The 30-06 put her down in her tracks.

Below is a photo of me freezing with my first Texas whitetail.

12/15/08 PM - The wind picked up throughout the day and the temp kept dropping. Because of this Pete and I decided to shorten our afternoon sit and also hunt inside the fence at the main ranch. There is a large population of wild hogs on the ranch along with some African Plains deer. Owner Ben Koonce gave us the okay to kill an exotic doe if we wanted. The evening was pretty slow for me. I did see two sets of exotic deer but all of them where young bucks. Pete on the other hand, was covered up in critters all night long. Pete saw several fallow deer, black bucks, Rio turkeys and hogs. Pete was able to take a pure white Fallow deer doe on video and a huge 300# sow hog. Below are a couple pictures of Pete’s hog.


12/16/08 AM- The wind finally died down over the evening but temps remained in the 20's with clear skies. Pete and I setup together in the #2 box blind I killed my turkey in, at the Jarman lease. We where hoping for another parade of deer and turkeys so we could get two more kills on film. Instead we got zero. All we saw on our morning hunt was a small spike buck and 5 does cut through an opening about 130 yards to our west. Nothing else moved all morning.

12/16/08 PM- Pete and I where back at the Jarman lease for the PM hunt. On the way into the lease we saw several deer moving around. This was a good sign for the evenings hunt. The temp had warmed up into the upper 30's, we had clear sky and the wind was blowing from the south at 5 mph. We where back in the #4 box blind that I had shot my doe at the morning before. Shortly after getting settled the deer parade started. Right away we had a nice sized button buck work into 70 yards that nearly got shot. Pete and I went back and forth for several minutes trying to decide if it was a legal doe before finally getting close enough to see it was a young buck. That would be the story of the night. Every deer that worked into our blind for the first 2 hours was small buck or a button buck. Finally, with about 20 minutes of our hunt left, two mature does stepped out a 120 yards north of our blind. The Scentblocker suits earned their money as the deer were directly down wind from us and never had a clue Pete and I where in their world. After a good five minutes worth of glassing to verify the deer where not buttons I touched off a shot and made a perfect 120 yard heart shot. Slickhead thought about holding it for all of 10 yards before going face first into a cactus. That concluded out TX 08 doe/hog hunt.

12/17/08- Pete and I hit the road at 8 AM and headed for Missouri. I ended up making the entire trip all the way back to MN, because the entire family was sick. I finally black dogged into my driveway at 2 AM on 12/18/08.

TX Hogs

This is a picture of the the boar I shot on 2/3/08 at QV Ranches in Throckmorton, TX. I stalked to within 4 yards of this pig before taking the shot. Do you smell pork chops!!!! See Scott's post below for the hunts details.

Thats how you do it in Texas boy!

Headed down to Throckmorton, TX from Feb1-3 for a couple days of Hog Hunting, sun and relaxing. We hunted QV Ranches which is a high and low fence operation. The ranch made for a great hunting camp. They had good accommodations, great food and good ole down south hospitality. I would highly recommend the ranch to anyone looking for a Hog, Turkey, Quail, Deer or Exotic hunt.

We showed up to camp around noon on Friday, Feb 1. After sighting in our rifles and relaxing we headed out for the evening hunt. Everyone saw plenty of wildlife and Rod took an all black hog. Rod's hog was a perfect eater and weighed around 75 pounds. Pete had a huge 10 pt. buck about 60-75 yards from his stand for nearly an hour.

Saturday morning was crisp and clear. Pete, Rod and I hunted a low fence ranch about 15 miles west of the main ranch. The rest of the crew stayed and hunted the main ranch. We saw tons of whitetail on the low fence property but no hogs. No shots where fired at the main ranch either. Pete and I went for a ride to check coyote traps with owner Ben Koonce in the afternoon. Ben dropped us off in a creek bottom and told us to spot and stock our way through the creek bottom. After 15 minutes Pete dropped the boom on a pair of piglets with one shot. Pigs took off running everywhere after the shot. I took the gun from Pete and had a good size hog come out of the creek bottom about 2 minutes after Pete shot. I took a quartering away shot and put the all black pig instantly in the dirt. Later that night Pete and I hunted together hoping to get some footage of a kill but had no luck. Only animal we saw was a horse. Brian shot a hog similar to the size of Rod’s. 3 "official" hogs down so far.

Sunday morning was also slow. Pete and I did spot 6 hogs sneaking through the broom weed about 250 yards to our south. Otherwise we saw plenty of Whitetail, a Black Tail Buck and a group of Axis Doe. Around 8:30 we started to stalk for pigs. Finally ran into a good group around 11 AM. Pete put a nice Black hog down and we could have had several more if the Broom weed wasn’t so thick. Brian also got two more hogs while stocking the other side of the ranch. Overall we ended up killing 6 hogs.

Overall it was a fun hunt, but a bit slow on hog movement. The hogs where tough to see in the broom weed and seemed to only feed late at night. The guides at QV did all they could to get us on hogs, but it just wasn’t in the cards. I look forward to hunting QV Ranches in the future.