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Day #1 - Wild Hog Bowhunt at the Texas S Bowhunting Ranch ARRIVAL DAY - We arrived at Texas-S a little before 6:00pm on Sunday and visited with the owner Merle Smith and guide Jason Browning about what the hogs were doing lately. Jason and I went to 4 areas that he felt were current high traffic locations. We saw plenty of tracks, well traveled trails and mud wallows .. and several groups of wild hogs rooting or walking in the thick brush. We kept a low profile so we wouldn't spook them. I hung a Locon treestand on the edge of the swamp in the SE Corner and put a North Starr ladder stand behind me for Jim Autrey (Texas Deer Hunter TV Show) to video from. There are lots of trails and Jason said this is one of the most traveled routes on the ranch. It definitely looks a promising. Then I put a Double Bull at a crossing on a Creek in a draw that I hunted before. There immediate area has several very large fallen trees and they all have hog beds under them. So, we are set up and ready to go tomorrow morning. (Morning Hunt) A little after sunrise Jim Autrey and I went to our treestands in the SE Corner. (here's Jim in the ladderstand, and me in my Treestand). No pigs came into our area and we got down at 8:30 and started working some of the mud wallows and brush piles in the areas where I've seen hogs before. We saw one group of small ones, quite a few deer and rams, but no adult hogs. We returned to camp at 10:30. A little while later we drove into town and ate a pretty good lunch at Tracy's Cafe. I had a tire going flat so we dealt with that. By the time we returned to Texas-S my bud Rick Philippi was there. Rick, Jim Autrey and Jason went out to work the swamp and Mark and I stayed behind. (Mark just came into the bunkhouse -- where I am updating -- and informed me that Jason radioed him that they are on a group of hogs right now.) Rick Philippi checked several areas he had hunted in the past, blow downs, mud holes and hog wallows. Two of them had hogs and Rick stalked close enough for a shot but the hogs turned out to be youngsters. Then he checked a water hole and spied the back of a large red hog, lying in a muddy depression at the edge of the water. Rick slipped closer and closer and when he was close enough for an easy shot he realized that there was a black hog lying in front of the red one. There was room for a perfect shot, one that would put the arrow over the top of the black hog and into the lung area of the red hog. But, it was not the type of shot that a veteran bowhunter like Rick would take. He backed out and stalked back in at a more favorable angle. Suddenly the hogs, both boars, stood up and bolted into the brush. Next, Rick went to the dam, a productive area for him in the past. It is full of vines and brush -- and wild hog trails. Rick selected a wide, well worn trail in the middle of the dam. Carefully, he moved toward the ridge of the dam. Just short of the top he saw black, wild hog ears, on the opposite side of the dam, the hog was apparently standing in the trail Rick was on, waiting to see what was coming. Rick signaled Jim Autrey and Jim eased up on a nearby trail and turned on the video camera. Rick saw the hog's ears turn to a more broadside angle and he drew his bow and took one step uphill. The hog stood broadside, frozen. Other hogs were also in the brush, but Rick's total attention was locked in on the black hogs vital area. His arrow hit perfectly and the hog burst out the opposite side of the hill and rolled to a stop in the open. "I got it," Jim Autrey said.  Rick Philippi (L) and Jim Autrey with Rick's first hog of the hunt. Ricky Philippi, man we wish you could've made it, and just for you, here is a wallpaper sized pic of your dad with this big boar.  Learning New Tricks ... One of the cool things about hunting is you are always learning, regardless of how long you've hunted. After we took Rick Philippi's hog back to camp to skin and hung it in Merle's walk in cooler it was my turn to hunt for the Texas Deer Hunter TV Show camera. Jason Browning went with me and Jason was about to show me a new window of opportunity for wild hog hunting.  To digress a moment, I began hog hunting with some Junior High buddies in Florida when I was 14 -- so I'm not a new hog hunter. Our most productive method was to find water holes and small  ponds that had a lot of brush around them. We divided up and snuck along the hog trails with the intention of jumping a hog. Sometimes a hog would stand up and look at you long enough for a shot, but more often it would run, which sometimes gave one of us a shot. The hogs did not normally run far and we fanned out and looked for them. If we located the hogs we pulled stalks on them. Another method was to walk and look for them traveling, feeding or rooting and then stalk them. And in areas with heavy hog populations, stand hunting was productive. So, that pretty much summed up my wild hog technique -- until I went out with Jason Browning. Jason and I started by working a large pond. Nothing. We then worked the nearby section of woods, checking pine tree blow downs. A few blow downs into the deal Jason nodded toward a brush pile 25 yards ahead of us and whispered, "There is a hog." I didn't see any hog. "Where?" I whispered. Jason pointed and I made out the top side of the body of a tan hog laying flat on it's side, sound asleep. With the hog identified I slowly closed the distance. But, it turned out to be a young hog and we backed away. We turned up 6 more hogs in blow downs, brush piles and mud bogs and in short order I got a handle on the what to look for and began spotting the hogs myself. Two big hogs made me before I got into position for a shot and the other hogs were young ones. I didn't take any shots but it was a thrilling and highly productive afternoon for me. Next Day... Day 1 | Day #2 - Morning hunt | Day #2 Afternoon hunt | Day 3 | Web site www.Texas-SBowhunting or email hunt@texas-Sbowhunting.com The Texas-S Bowhunts in 2000 | Interview with Merle Smith of  Texas-S Bowhunting Ranch | Second Hunt: | Day #1 | Day #2 | Day #3a | Day 3b| About Texas S | First Hunt: | Part #1 | Part #2 | Part #3 | Other Online Bowhunts |