Last weekend we attempted to check off a box in the to-do list and went to Texas to hunt feral hogs. Our friend and co-worker Josh Kempsell set up and invited us to join him and his brother Robby in Texas on a hog hunt. Jim and 2 of his sons and myself headed southeast on Southwest and landed in Dallas 2 hours later. Josh met us and we headed to the hotel for the night.
Friday morning Josh and Robby met us at the hotel and we loaded up to start our adventure. Stopped for some provisions and Ice for all the meat we were going to get. I was introduced to Academy Sports, more on this later. We fueled up and headed for Crockett, Texas where M.Y. Ranch is located. Two and half hours later we arrived at the ranch and met Walter the ranch owner-operator. We signed our lives away with his paperwork and to cover him for everything, including not seeing or getting a pig, you will see why this is important as the story unfolds. After all the business Walter took us on a tour of his property. A beautiful 1300 Acre ranch in the southeast corner of Texas. Hardwood forest and yellow pine with many open meadows and feed plots. Strategically placed feeders and blinds spotted the ranch in most of the different terrain of the ranch. Multiple ponds and bogs were found with creeks and rolling hills. We saw many deer in the tour but no pigs.
After the tour, we unloaded the trucks at the "Lodge" a single wide trailer, with smokers, grills, and campfire rings. We ate lunch and made our plans for the evening hunt. Pigs are hunted late into the evening and early in the morning. It has been raining all day and it wasn't slowing down, but the temperatures were comfortable. During the tour, Walter told us the feeders go off at 5:30 and 6:30 each evening and 7:30 in the morning, so we needed to be in the stands at least a half hour before the feeders go off. In the meantime, Josh made us a killer steak dinner and we waited for evening to roll around. We made our plans and set out at 5:00 pm.
We arrived at our destination after the plans changed when the lead truck turned toward our blind Josh and I went to the "Barn" blind. Brady and Codie went to "Black" blind because it's made of black plastic. Jim and Robby were supposed to go to the Barn but ended up at the "Lake" blind where we were supposed to be. We got set up in the blind and got our butts soaked as the chairs in the blind were soaked with the rain and then Jim and Robby show up saying that we were in the wrong blind, we laughed and stayed and they went back to the "Lake" blind. The evening went on and the feeders went off as scheduled and we saw a dozen or so deer and heard all sorts of sounds in the surrounding woods but no pigs. We heard multiple coyote packs howling and moving around us but never saw them come out into the opening. We stayed in the blind until we could no longer see the ground from the blind due to the fog that had settled in. Around 10:00 pm we made our way back to camp and had some snacks and shared what we all saw that evening and no one saw a pig, but a bunch of deer. We hit the bunks around midnight.
After the tour, we unloaded the trucks at the "Lodge" a single wide trailer, with smokers, grills, and campfire rings. We ate lunch and made our plans for the evening hunt. Pigs are hunted late into the evening and early in the morning. It has been raining all day and it wasn't slowing down, but the temperatures were comfortable. During the tour, Walter told us the feeders go off at 5:30 and 6:30 each evening and 7:30 in the morning, so we needed to be in the stands at least a half hour before the feeders go off. In the meantime, Josh made us a killer steak dinner and we waited for evening to roll around. We made our plans and set out at 5:00 pm.
Saturday morning came a bit early and we headed to the stands by 5:00 am looking for the elusive pigs. Brady and Codie went back to Black and Josh and I headed for "Hill Pond" blind, Jim and Robby were supposedly going to the Barn blind. Josh and I arrived at Hill Pond before the sun came up and got ourselves positioned to see everything we could from the stand. The feeder is about 30 yards from the blind and the "pond" was about 50 yards away. We sat and waited and scouted we used green lights that were not supposed to spook the animals but give good light for shooting. Looking out across the food plot and bog we couldn't see anything. About 10 minutes before the feeder was to go off a few deer showed up and started nosing around. When the feeder went off they moved in and gobbled up the offerings. No pigs were sited at any time during the morning hunt. Jim and Robby ended up back at the Lake blind and again saw nothing but deer, Brady, and Codie had the same luck even though they got down and tracked through the trees and brush to scare up anything. We picked them up around 9:00 and we all met up at camp. We had breakfast and made plans for the day and night hunt. We went to town and picked up a brisket since one of the dinners was supposed to be a pig that was taken at the ranch, we didn't have much confidence in getting one by this point. We returned had lunch and relaxed.
Dinner was J-Dawgs that Jim had brought with us from Utah. Robby had been told by Josh how good they were and he wanted some. After dinner, we loaded up and headed out to our stands again. Josh and I went to Hill Pond, we took Brady and Codie to the "Pipeline" blind which was supposedly inaccessible due to the rain, Josh's ford went right through the red clay no problem. Jim and Robby ended up the Lake again. We set up first in the bog and Josh threw out some corn that he had purchased at the store and we sat and waited, after a while and before the feeder went off we moved to the blind. We sat and waited for the feeders to go off and then sat and waited for things to start moving around and we sat and waited. Josh picked up a couple night vision monoculars and we still had our green lights. Tonight we saw more deer and one nice buck and a couple raccoons. The deer ate the corn that Josh threw out. We got tired of sitting and got out of the stand and we started walking. By now it was totally dark, no moon and the stars were bright. We walked completely around our area and back to the stand through the bog. We had encounters with three armadillos and a couple deer. One poor armadillo almost met its demise but we were patient and waited for it to come out of the trees. The coyotes were all around us as we traveled along the trail in the middle of the night, just a little freaky, listening to them howl and run around us, but we could never get a good look at one of them. We got back to the blind and we heard a shot in the direction of the Pipeline. We thought alright we got one. Waiting to hear from someone about the shot Jim texted and said that the boys were ready to be picked up, I looked at my phone and it said 9:30. We thought man, that's early, but told him we were on our way. When we got to the truck about 20 yards away it was 10:47, yep my phone was still on Utah time. We picked them up and we were looking for the pig but no, they had shot a raccoon. Still, got a varmint. We made it back to camp and stoked the fire on the smoker that was cooking the brisket for tomorrow. We hung out around the smoker for about an hour and told each other the happenings of the night. We laughed at the all shenanigans that had taken place, our encounter with the beast of an armadillo and how Codie and Bradie pulled down the raccoon. We made our way to the bunks around midnight again.
Dinner was J-Dawgs that Jim had brought with us from Utah. Robby had been told by Josh how good they were and he wanted some. After dinner, we loaded up and headed out to our stands again. Josh and I went to Hill Pond, we took Brady and Codie to the "Pipeline" blind which was supposedly inaccessible due to the rain, Josh's ford went right through the red clay no problem. Jim and Robby ended up the Lake again. We set up first in the bog and Josh threw out some corn that he had purchased at the store and we sat and waited, after a while and before the feeder went off we moved to the blind. We sat and waited for the feeders to go off and then sat and waited for things to start moving around and we sat and waited. Josh picked up a couple night vision monoculars and we still had our green lights. Tonight we saw more deer and one nice buck and a couple raccoons. The deer ate the corn that Josh threw out. We got tired of sitting and got out of the stand and we started walking. By now it was totally dark, no moon and the stars were bright. We walked completely around our area and back to the stand through the bog. We had encounters with three armadillos and a couple deer. One poor armadillo almost met its demise but we were patient and waited for it to come out of the trees. The coyotes were all around us as we traveled along the trail in the middle of the night, just a little freaky, listening to them howl and run around us, but we could never get a good look at one of them. We got back to the blind and we heard a shot in the direction of the Pipeline. We thought alright we got one. Waiting to hear from someone about the shot Jim texted and said that the boys were ready to be picked up, I looked at my phone and it said 9:30. We thought man, that's early, but told him we were on our way. When we got to the truck about 20 yards away it was 10:47, yep my phone was still on Utah time. We picked them up and we were looking for the pig but no, they had shot a raccoon. Still, got a varmint. We made it back to camp and stoked the fire on the smoker that was cooking the brisket for tomorrow. We hung out around the smoker for about an hour and told each other the happenings of the night. We laughed at the all shenanigans that had taken place, our encounter with the beast of an armadillo and how Codie and Bradie pulled down the raccoon. We made our way to the bunks around midnight again.
Sunday morning came quick. We each went to our blinds and repeated what we had done for the past two days waited for the pigs to come in, and nothing! We went back to camp stoked the fire in the smoker, had breakfast, some of us went to the store to get more bait and scent to attract the pigs in, Josh and I stayed back to tend the fire and sight in the rifles, actually, we just wanted to shoot. Josh has a new 308 and an AR that we shot and sighted in. By then the group returned and everyone started shooting. That afternoon Walter showed up asking how many pigs we had shot, Codie holding nothing back told him we hadn't even seen a pig, let shoot one. He proceeded to tell them that he has friends that trap them and bring them to his property and releases them. So far this year he had released a whopping 25 pigs on the ranch, and he said it was difficult to keep them on the property, hence the reason for his 3-page legal papers saying no guarantee of killing a pig and no refunds. M.Y. Ranch does not have a pig problem!! No pigs were going to be seen this trip was the conclusion we came to realize.
We pulled the brisket and Josh cooked up some shrimp and we had a feast Sunday afternoon. The brisket was perfect and the shrimp topped it off. Sunday evening we went back out to the blinds but it didn't last long, knowing we weren't going to see anything. We had visitors from somewhere come onto the property and hid the tree line until we vacated the Hill Pond we could see their lights and hear them but couldn't pin them down, so not only does he not have a pig problem he has a trespassing problem. Jim and Robby showed up about an hour into the evening and we started driving around trying to scare anything up. We shot at a rabbit, thought we saw some more raccoon that turned out to be more deer. Yep kind of a bust of a night. We returned to camp and got a fire going in the pit and sat around the fire telling stories.
Monday morning came and we started driving around looking for anything. We went across the county road onto the other side of the property to see if anything was up there and didn't even see the cows. Josh, Brady, and Codie went to a spot and started hiking through the woods ended up at the pipeline and covered most of the property and saw nothing. We returned had breakfast and loaded up. We headed back to Dallas with a stop at Josh and Robby's place and Academy Sports where I made it worth my while and got me a few fishing lures. Walter did give Codie a pig head from one of the earlier hunts, and we packed it up in the cold box we had brought to transport all the pig meat we were going to get as we were told we could shoot 3 a day. We got to the airport and the attendant needed to see what was in the cold box, we told her a pigs head and she about fainted, it was funny they all wanted to see it, so we opened it up and they were quite taken with it....LOL. We said our farewells to Josh and Robby and waited for our flight. That is a whole other story but we made it home at 2 am.
We had an absolute blast on this trip!! Josh and Robby were too fun and Codie and Brady kept things lose and fun as well. Jim and I laughed so hard we thought we were going to break ribs. Food was great the area was very nice. The ranch and the promise of pigs not so much, but we made the best of it and we will return for another hog hunt, just not M.Y. Ranch.
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