Gentleman Huntin', or, The Lazy way to Bag a Hog!

It was a lazy beautiful December day on PSL ranch, cool for Central Texas, but probably a warm winter day for ya’ll up North as temps reached the high 40’s.  Cassy spent the day makin’ her famous carrot cakes for some of Menard’s first responders, the Sheriff’s Department and our local Game Warden!  Both were instrumental in identifyin’ the culprits who robbed our cabin last February and more importantly in trackin’ down the band of thieves and retrievin’ most of our possessions!

After deliverin’ the cakes to the Sheriff’s department, along with a couple of homemade bacon-grease candles, we sat and listened to stories from one of the deputies about local crimes and criminals.  We had no idea that a small community like Menard could have so much criminal activity – mostly from bandits travelin’ through on highway 83 to and from Interstate 10 (I’ll talk more about this in a later blog)! After an enjoyable meal at the Lazy Ladle, we headed back to the ranch.

It was about 6:45 PM when we arrived at the ranch, and Cassy began cleanin’ up the kitchen.  It was only right she did the cleanin’, after all, she messed it up!  I decided to get out of sight so there would be no thoughts that I should help, so I took my .308 rifle out to the porch to check out my new ATN day/night scope.  My old scope was one of the items I didn’t recover, so I needed to check this new one out.  Enjoyin’ the rockin’ chair on this clear night with the smoke from our woodstove driftin’ by, I was amazed at how well I could view the surroundin’ area!  It changed the night to day, except in black and white, and I could easily see our feeder across the wash through the trees and brush.

I had no intention of huntin’ or shootin’ anythin’; I was exhausted from the day’s work and had a belly full of Cassy’s carrot cake’ but within a few minutes, I heard loud rustlin’ through the brush across the wash.  I thought, “those damn cattle are tryin’ to get at my feeder again”.  So, I looked through my scope to spot the culprits but was surprised to see about 20 hogs eatin’ every kernel of corn around my feeder!  This irritated me, so I chambered a round and stopped rockin’ to look for an opportunity to take revenge.  It wasn’t long before I spotted a large (and fat) hog directly beneath the feeder and squeezed the trigger.  From about 90 yards I dropped it -- with one shot -- and it laid down where it stood!

Because this didn’t start as a hunt, I didn’t have any ear protection, so it took a few seconds for my ears to stop ringin’.  As I entered the cabin, I saw Cassy with a grin from ear to ear with her thumb up sayin’,” mmbbllmmbbl”?  Guess my ears weren’t quite back to normal, but I gathered she asked if I got somethin’, so I said yes…a hog!  She then told me she would go with me to recover it and thank God she did!

Cassy drove our ATV over to the feeder (she always gets to drive), and we found a 200 lb gilt!  After pullin’ it under the fence and loadin’ it into our trailer (that is, after Cassy dragged it and loaded it), we took it to our truck and headed to the processin’ plant!  Thank heavens it was deer season and there were folks there to help, as even Cassy would have had problems liftin’ it four feet into their cooler.

What started out as an equipment check ended in well over 100 lbs of organic pork!  The ribs, pork chops, and rump roasts were particularly good.  Why call this a “gentleman’s hunt”’?  Well it’s not often you can sit in a rockin’ chair wearin’ evenin’ clothes, bag a hog, and have someone else do all the heavy liftin’!