We had an impromptu get together at our deer lease near Cross Plains, TX. Jackcrafty, Criveraville, their boys and I flint knapped, ate and generally goofed off during the days. At night Cipriano and I hog hunted with our rifles. I know not everybody is comfortable hunting around feeders. If that's you, I apologize in advance. When I see the hogs on trail cam coming out in daylight I try for them with the bow. When they're only coming out very late I sit in blinds and use a rifle. I recently bought and sighted in a digital night vision scope for my .308. I bought the scope because our hogs have gotten so light shy. Even a red light often sends them running and if I mount a red light on the feeders they won't come in. Here it is ready for action on the golf cart that I hunt out of.
Notice the miniature DVR and video cable running up to the scope. Being a digital camera at heart, this scope has a video out port to record the hunt. I guess this is about as far from primitive as you can get. Sure love the technology though.
When I get to the lease I always check the trail camera pictures to see where the best place to hunt should be. I found that our large sounder of small pigs had left but there were 2 boar coming in regularly. The larger one was frequenting the feeder at our gray stand. He looked like this:
That was the night before I got there. He didn't show Friday night which I wasn't too sad about as I knew Cipriano was coming. I put him in that stand Saturday night and I went to a different stand. About 10pm I received a text from Cipriano that a big boar had come in but had spooked before they could shoot (Diego was with him). That was too bad, I was hoping they'd sling some lead. We were still texting about it after midnight when my trail camera flashed. I hurriedly fired up the DVR and scope and got ready. I don't have the video edited yet, but here is the last frame the scope sent before the gun went off.
He was unusually clean, probably because the hog wallow by my feeder had dried up. Back at camp we took this picture.
He weighed 160lbs and was probably only a year or 2 old as his tusks were under an inch long. It was a fun hunt.
If anyone is interested in the video, I'll post a link to it when I get it loaded. This is a primitive archery forum so I understand if it isn't appropriate. I do love hog hunting, whether by bow in daylight or rifle at night.
George
