Our 1st Annual Hog Hunt was a huge success and we’d like to thank every one of you guys who made it out.
There was plenty of hilarity, great stories and most importantly everyone left with the same number of holes they came with.
Before we get into the AAR (after action report) I’d like to thank our host for the weekend, Robert, for allowing us to use over 500 acres of beautiful Texas land for the first of many Hog Hunts to come.
Texas Country
We had fantastic participation and while we had a few last minute cancellations, we wound up with 16 hunters including the landowner, Robert. We had David and Sam come in from Oklahoma and Paul who made the journey all the way from Houston. The rest of us seemed to be around a three hour drive away.
The weather for the weekend cooperated for the most part and blessed us with no rain during the event. It got down into the high 30’s at night and up into the mid 70’s in the afternoon, so like typical Texas weather we were bundled up in the morning and evening and could wear shorts in the afternoon. As the sun went down the temperature dropped considerably and the wind picked up into the morning, but thankfully everyone seemed to have packed appropriately. It definitely helped that we had a nice fire to sit around!
If you’re familiar with Texas weather, you can be wearing shorts one day and the next day it can snow. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful weekend.
Deer Hunt?
Rocki took down a nice Buck on Saturday evening and we were able to witness Daniel’s skill in helping Rocki field dress, skin and butcher him up. While we all joked that Daniel was related to the Manson family it was a real treat to have someone there that knew so much about processing meat. I think everyone learned something, for instance, I never knew that every animal has a brain just big enough to tan their own hide (with the exception of the Buffalo).
Processing seemed to be a real family event for Daniel and his wife, as he mentioned the two of them could completely process a large hog in just 3o minutes. Daniel was also packing a nice set of Sushi knives that he favored for making quick work of the buck.
Hog Deer
Everyone seemed to be in consensus that we should take a shot, so I rogered up and let one fly from my M4. Thankfully my shot was high and we quickly got more light on the area; after someone calling out that it was a coyote, we realized it was a deer before I followed up with another shot. I say thankfully because it would have been illegal to take that deer on the night before deer season had officially opened.
While I’m still pissed I missed the “hog deer” as everyone called it, I’m glad I didn’t put our group in jeopardy if the local game warden would have come by our camp that evening.
Hunting
Robert had no less than four feeders that had been going for a few weeks before we’d arrived and had quite a few hog sightings himself in the weeks leading up to the hunt. While most everyone just set up in positions within distances of each of the feeders, there were a few blinds that Robert had for us too.
There were four main areas where we were hunting, but it was great to be able to just take off on the land to explore and look for hogs. I think that in the end we had such a large presence on the land that I think we spooked a lot of the hogs. Next year we’ll be discussing some ways to try and mitigate our footprint to have a better chance at rounding up some hogs.
As far as weapons go, there was a good mix of .308’s, 30-06, M4’s and even an SKS I believe. Rocki took down his buck with a 30-06 and a few of us had a turn with a nice .308 and accurate as hell scope that Josh had brought along. We set up a target stand at what seemed to be around 300 yards across the pond from our campsite and all took turns with some precision shooting.
Camping and Dining
Robert and Dirk surprised everyone on Friday night by buying a ton of hamburger meat with all the fixin’s to make monster burgers. Needless to say we had way more food than than anyone could possibly eat last weekend. We had to force Robert to take about six bags of unopened chips as everyone was still so stuffed Sunday morning to take any home.
Musket Transition Drills
The fastest time for the drill was 2.41 by Jason who took first place, followed by Paul with 2.91 and Josh with 3.76. As I donated some of the prizes I didn’t feel right showing everyone up! I didn’t run the drill other than the demonstration and running the timer. I thought the drill was a great success as some commented they’d never even run any kind of transition drill before and that it was a good experience.
Josh and Ray also felt the need to pose for a nice homo photo during the competition as well. You guys should have kept that crap in your tent with Hector and his Chemlight… (sorry, you had to be there to get that one!)
Downtime and Wrap-up
The event turned out much better than I could have hoped for and I think we all made some new friends this weekend. It was a great group of like-minded guys who seemed to bond well almost from the get go.
On Sunday before most everyone headed home, we all circled up and passed out a nice commemorative 1st Annual ITS Tactical Hog Hunt dog tag that John had made up for everyone. In true Boy Scout fashion; I had a thorns and roses where everyone talked about something they didn’t like or wanted to change about the weekend, as well as something positive they took from the event.
There were plenty of thank you’s passed out for Robert’s hospitality and generosity in letting us use his property for the weekend and I wanted to state again how much it was appreciated Robert!
It’s only going to get better from here and I think I speak for everyone in saying we had an awesome time and can’t wait for next year!!
Special thanks to Jody and Rocki, our two paramedics for the event. Jody works for an EMS flight service in the D/FW area and was able to coordinate with the closest flight medical service to have a chopper on stand-by for the weekend; ready to reach us within 15 minutes if we needed it. Thankfully we never had to utilize that option!
Thanks also go out to John who made up the dog tags, donated prizes for the shooting competition and helped shoot photos for the weekend.
Be sure to keep an eye out for next year’s announcement for the 2nd Annual ITS Tactical Hog Hunt!
True Story…
warning, some of the photos below may be considered graphic!
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