Spec Ops report from Texas!

Happy Thanksgiving all,

first let me say I hope everyone has had a safe, sane and happy Thanksgiving. Also please raise a glass with me and drink a toast to our brothers and sisters in the military who could not be home to celebrate Thankgiving with their families, and prey they get home safe and soon!.

So here I am in Houston Texas, at my brothers house. I purchased a 5 day special hunting license(no deer or turkey) and a wma permit. COuldnt afford the full non-resident huning license with deer and turkey permit at 315 bucks!

So I quick head to the range on Monday to verify my sights are still true. I bought a 4 gun SKB case from Bass Pro shop, and I love traveling with it. I have some advise about traveling with a firearm but thats for another forum.

Anyway we plan to hunt some public land on Tuesday, far away from the crowd of hunters and because it was a work day for most we felt the hunting pressure would be lighter than after the holiday.

We are driving to our spot, when my brother decides he needs a nature break. he gets out of the truck and begins to relieve himself when he shouts at me to look up the road. He jumps back in the truck we drive up the road about 50 yards and there in the middle of the road is a pack of hogs (10-12) ripping up a coyote. At first we thought the yote was dead, but it was still alive. These hogs were whipping it up in the air, and slamming it to the ground. Goaring it with their tusks and teeth. We were about 20 yards from the pack, in the truck. We consider getting out and shooting this mess of hogs, but as we were on a public named road, and it would be against the law we decide against shooting. After a while they head into the woods, and leave the yote on the ground still alive (barely) to die.

We look at each other stunned at what we just witnessed and then resume driving to our spot. My brother hopes that where we are going those hogs will intersect us, and we migh have a chance to shoot them.

We get to our spot, dress up, load up and begin the walk into the woods. I am left on a ridge shooting down the hill in case anything crossed our path, as I have the M1 Garand, and he has the shotgun. He wanders up the hill to a water source. While he is walking he jumps a deer, but because he is fiddling with his iPhone, the deer scares him, and he does not see anything but the white tail waving at him as it bounces away, into a pack of pigs. He trys to follow as best he can hoping to get a bead on the pigs, but after a while decides to go back hunting. At 11:00 am he comes back to me and tells me what happened. I report that NOTHING, not even a sound was heard by me.

We head back to the truck and back to where we saw the hogs and the yote. We park and snack on lunchmeat, drink, and take a nap in the truck. About 2pm we decide to head up the firebreak that is parallel with the wooded area those hogs went into, hope that we can catch them as they cross the firebreak. Again, I am positioned shooting down the hill for 200-300 yards, and he takes the end of the trail with 5 trail intersections. The Firebreak has dozens of hog sign, and trails crossing the break in several places, and I am covering at least four game trails. We stay out till sundown and head back out, not seeing or hearing anything.

So while we did not get anything we did have a pretty good hunt, and did get to see some wildlife. On our drive out we spot a doe, on the side of the forest, and someone had shot a HUGE 200+lb hog, which was lying dead on the side of the road. We look around awhile more counting vehicles and trying to get a handle on where most of the hunters are hunting. As we plan to come back on Friday and Saturday.

So I hope that I will have some numbers to put on our wall, later today or tomorrow!

Peace and happy holidays
G