Hog Wild

I went out deer hunting again last Wednesday. I've only gotten one doe this year and I think I need at least two deer to keep us in meat for the year. I've been out several times and haven't even seen any deer so I was hoping this would be my lucky day.

I rode the four-wheeler out to the north blind and got ready. As dawn approached, at about 7 am, I got my binoculars ready since they let me to see fairly well in the dim light. Once again, I didn't see any deer.

I waited until about 8 and decided to head back. At least the morning wasn't bitterly cold like the last time. I have to admit, too, that it's very nice to be outdoors when the day breaks. It's very quiet and peaceful. As it starts to get light, you can hear the animals, mostly birds, starting to move around.

I drove back on the dirt road toward my truck. The feral hog trap is along this road, so as I drove by, I glanced in its direction. There were two small hogs in the trap!

They were probably in the cage when I drove by them earlier, but I couldn't see them in the dark. They were just standing when I drove up, but as I got close and got out of the four-wheeler, they became agitated. It had been raining overnight and the ground was wet. The cage has the same wire-mesh on the floor, but you can see how they've churned it up and turned it to mud.

I estimate that the large one weighed about 100 pounds and the small one maybe 75. I was able to lug them around by myself although I was sore the next day. After sending them to hog heaven, I had a bit of trouble getting them out of the trap because they both fell in front of the doors, on the left in the photo. After some tugging and pushing I managed to move the larger one away from the door and that was enough to easily get them both out and loaded on the four-wheeler.

They were both female, which may explain their smaller size. Paul got a large, 210 pound male in early December. The trap's been out for about a year and hadn't any success until now. We're not doing badly though - we've managed to remove 3 hogs from our property and I'm sure there are others around. As I've noted before, here and here, feral hogs can cause quite a bit of damage to the environment by digging up and destroying native species plants and habitats. Texas Parks and Wildlife has an information page here.

I took these to Granzin's Meat Market in New Braunfels and they'll come back in about 2 weeks as pork chops, breakfast sausage, and smoked sausage. The hogs along with the doe may be enough to keep us for the year, but I'm going to try to get another deer, just to make sure.