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- Jan 28, 2003
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- 13,339
Bailee my eleven year old and I went hunting this weekend for hogs down in West Texas. We have hunted hog together several times but she hadn’t connected on a hog yet. Last year she had a shot but missed it as it was almost dark. Her sister has killed two hogs so it was time to get with the program and that was exactly what we intended to do.
We got into the ranch at about 19:30 on the first night and hurried off to a hunt with our remaining light. We treated to a really nice sunset and enjoyed the warm West Texas air but didn’t see any hogs. We returned to camp where I cooked dinner and then with Bailee’s help erected our wall tent. We didn’t climb our sorry carcasses into our cots until almost 01:00 in the morning. We intended to hunt in the morning. Here is a picture of our morning hunt. We were more interested in hunting down some extra shut eye and slept through the alarm. It was nice to get the extra sleep hours in as our hunting days were long and tiring.
This is what a real hunter looks like when she sleeps through the morning alarm! Not only can she sleep through an alarm she can sleep through daylight streaming into a tent and a dad trying to shake her to life. I wish I could sleep like that!!
We hunted three days and didn’t see a single hog. We stand hunted every night and walked draws and cover near water during the day. On the last day we hiked about 10 miles in the heat and Bailee hung in there like a true rawhide and spring steel constructed professional hunter. We were tired but decided to hunt one last stand before we had to leave the next morning. This was great hunt in that it really taught how perseverance in hunting pays off. Use every minute and don’t give up if there is a second of legal shooting light left.
We hit the stand at about 19:30 and waited until just before dark. Bailee was getting a bit bored and had asked me “what time do hogs usually show up?” I replied that her sisters hog showed up about 10 minutes from now so let us wait just a bit longer. Guys and gals I’m not kidding when exactly 10 minutes later the hunting gods sent us a big gnarly old boar hog walking over the tank dam and started feeding 100 yards below us broadside with just enough shooting light left for this to be success. Unfortunately he was feeding directly behind the only tree that could have possibly blocked our shot. The hunting gods have a sense of humor that way it seems.
When the hog appeared I whispered to Bailee “Hey there’s a hog” she was gazing off to the side and didn’t even look at me when I said it. So I nudged her and said “Bailee look a hog!” She gazed at me with a confused expression on her face for a second before the reality of what I had just said sunk in. With the spark of recognition ignited in her eyes she rolled over, went prone on the scope, flipped her safety off and waited for the hog to take two steps, the two steps he needed to take to clear the tree. We waited for what seemed an eternity as the afternoon light was rapidly fading from twilight to inky black Texas night.
Finally the old boar took two steps forward. I asked Bailee if she had a clear shot she simply nodded her head and whispered yep. I told her to shoot him right in the middle of the shoulder, whenever she was ready. With my peripheral vision I watched my beautiful young huntress suck in a breath let it half out and start to take up slack on the trigger of her Kimber M-8400 .30-06. Just as we had practiced hundreds if not thousands of times before and like a seasoned old veteran, she smoothly and slowly took up the trigger until it broke. At the shot I saw the 150 grain Hornandy Interlock strike the boar dead center in the shoulder and watched as a cloud of dust exploded from his gray, bristly hide. We were rewarded with a meaty wet THWACK as the bullet found its mark. The boar jumped up in the air grunted, spun around and tried to exit the way he came in but his shoulder was broken and his heart had a hole through the top of it he wasn’t going far. The boar tried in vain to climb the dirt tank he’d come down but wasn’t able to get more than about 15 yards before he reared up on his hind legs flipped over on his back and died. About as fast and clean a kill as I’ve ever seen on a body shot hog.
While all of this was going on I had instructed my Young huntress to reload and shoot him again. With some difficulty she was able to get another round in the chamber and get on the hog. But another shot wasn’t needed. We waited to make sure the old boar was dead then safed the rifle and with wobbly adrenaline filled legs walked down to claim our prize. This was Bailee’s first wild hog and what a whopper it was too!!
A proud dad with his young huntress!!
Here is a photograph of the world’s deadliest sniper ninja with her war face on.
Same pose but this time replicating what it looked like seconds before she loosed a 150 gr bullet into the vitals of a big old boar hog.
We got into the ranch at about 19:30 on the first night and hurried off to a hunt with our remaining light. We treated to a really nice sunset and enjoyed the warm West Texas air but didn’t see any hogs. We returned to camp where I cooked dinner and then with Bailee’s help erected our wall tent. We didn’t climb our sorry carcasses into our cots until almost 01:00 in the morning. We intended to hunt in the morning. Here is a picture of our morning hunt. We were more interested in hunting down some extra shut eye and slept through the alarm. It was nice to get the extra sleep hours in as our hunting days were long and tiring.
This is what a real hunter looks like when she sleeps through the morning alarm! Not only can she sleep through an alarm she can sleep through daylight streaming into a tent and a dad trying to shake her to life. I wish I could sleep like that!!
We hunted three days and didn’t see a single hog. We stand hunted every night and walked draws and cover near water during the day. On the last day we hiked about 10 miles in the heat and Bailee hung in there like a true rawhide and spring steel constructed professional hunter. We were tired but decided to hunt one last stand before we had to leave the next morning. This was great hunt in that it really taught how perseverance in hunting pays off. Use every minute and don’t give up if there is a second of legal shooting light left.
We hit the stand at about 19:30 and waited until just before dark. Bailee was getting a bit bored and had asked me “what time do hogs usually show up?” I replied that her sisters hog showed up about 10 minutes from now so let us wait just a bit longer. Guys and gals I’m not kidding when exactly 10 minutes later the hunting gods sent us a big gnarly old boar hog walking over the tank dam and started feeding 100 yards below us broadside with just enough shooting light left for this to be success. Unfortunately he was feeding directly behind the only tree that could have possibly blocked our shot. The hunting gods have a sense of humor that way it seems.
When the hog appeared I whispered to Bailee “Hey there’s a hog” she was gazing off to the side and didn’t even look at me when I said it. So I nudged her and said “Bailee look a hog!” She gazed at me with a confused expression on her face for a second before the reality of what I had just said sunk in. With the spark of recognition ignited in her eyes she rolled over, went prone on the scope, flipped her safety off and waited for the hog to take two steps, the two steps he needed to take to clear the tree. We waited for what seemed an eternity as the afternoon light was rapidly fading from twilight to inky black Texas night.
Finally the old boar took two steps forward. I asked Bailee if she had a clear shot she simply nodded her head and whispered yep. I told her to shoot him right in the middle of the shoulder, whenever she was ready. With my peripheral vision I watched my beautiful young huntress suck in a breath let it half out and start to take up slack on the trigger of her Kimber M-8400 .30-06. Just as we had practiced hundreds if not thousands of times before and like a seasoned old veteran, she smoothly and slowly took up the trigger until it broke. At the shot I saw the 150 grain Hornandy Interlock strike the boar dead center in the shoulder and watched as a cloud of dust exploded from his gray, bristly hide. We were rewarded with a meaty wet THWACK as the bullet found its mark. The boar jumped up in the air grunted, spun around and tried to exit the way he came in but his shoulder was broken and his heart had a hole through the top of it he wasn’t going far. The boar tried in vain to climb the dirt tank he’d come down but wasn’t able to get more than about 15 yards before he reared up on his hind legs flipped over on his back and died. About as fast and clean a kill as I’ve ever seen on a body shot hog.
While all of this was going on I had instructed my Young huntress to reload and shoot him again. With some difficulty she was able to get another round in the chamber and get on the hog. But another shot wasn’t needed. We waited to make sure the old boar was dead then safed the rifle and with wobbly adrenaline filled legs walked down to claim our prize. This was Bailee’s first wild hog and what a whopper it was too!!
A proud dad with his young huntress!!
Here is a photograph of the world’s deadliest sniper ninja with her war face on.
Same pose but this time replicating what it looked like seconds before she loosed a 150 gr bullet into the vitals of a big old boar hog.
