by Shawn Purkey
I spent my birthday with my wife Michelle and my boys spending time in the great outdoors. I had originally planned to just take my oldest son Jacob but my wife thought that the whole family should spend my 40th birthday together. We stopped off and delivered a bullet mold to the Alsatian (aka Scott Tschirhart).
After meeting Scott on the way we stopped off at his place and my boys got to meet and feed his donkey's, quite a thrill for my boys Jacob (8yo) and Sam (4yo). We proceeded to drive to our lease with Scott following in his own vehicle and made it to the lease in the late afternoon. We intended to sit at my feeder and see if any hogs showed up at my feeder which was the only one on our 800 acre lease that was feeding. We hiked up the hill to my stand and my 4yo came down with the common ailment "my legs hurt" which combined with a persistent cough led me to take him back to the cabin to rest.
|
Click on an image to view a larger
version.
Use your back button to return to this page. |
 |
 |
|
Sam and Jacob |
Sam and ??? |
Dillos
Scott, Jacob and I proceeded to make the most of the remaining daylight and went to try and find some armadillos to try out Scott's new Ruger 32 mag Bisley single six (man I wish Ruger would put those out in stainless steel). The three of us set out to try out our 32's on armadillos which are abundant on our place, Jacob had our stainless steel Single Six that I had Clements put on adjustable sights like those I saw on fellow sixgunner Billy Fugett's 32. I was stuck with the task of carrying the only big bore my FA 83 with a 4 3/4 barrel with some hot 45's. Darkness was rapidly approaching as we came up on Bee creek and heard hogs squealing. We crossed the creek and came out right by one of my ladder stand's I regularly hunt from and out in the freshly cut oat field were 3-4 shoats.
My first mistake
Seeing the shoats out in the I had Jacob crawl through the fence and sneak up on the shoats to try and get a shot with his 32. As he got within 15 yards of the shoats I spotted some larger pigs out in the field in some uncut taller grass and I went out in the field to make sure nothing happened to my first born son. He fired at two of the shoats and then Scott shot at one of the larger hogs. In the excitement I guess Jacob missed his pigs and we were pretty sure Scott hit his. As it exited the field I added a shot to the mix with my FA.
The search
We were unable to find blood at the fence but Scots sensitive nose smelled the familiar "I think one of us shot too far back smell". We heard the hog in the cedars and mesquite thicket and although it was rapidly getting dark we went after it to try not waste meat. After looking until it was too dark to see (no moon that night) Jacob and I went to get the truck and lights to continue the search. We were assisted in the search by another lease member (Lester) and his guest on their 4 wheeler. We met up with Scott who had continued his search with a small red led light. We searched until we just had to give up. We then drove down to the oat field and Jacob and I spotted another group of half a dozen larger hogs with the spotlight and when the 4 wheeler caught up with us Lester and I gave chase but the hogs had disappeared back into Bee creek.
Next morning
The next morning Lester and set out to try and find the hogs Jacob opted to sleep in. I sat in my ladder stand and Lester and guest drove his stinking four wheeler to a spot further up Bee creek and when they stopped I saw 6 hogs run up the middle of the field next to a fence line and depart for parts unknown. That afternoon we drove around and surveyed the work a crew had been doing clearing cedars out for some harebrained government plan and I dropped off Sam and Michelle at our feeder to observe wildlife while Jake and I went back to Bee creek to try and find the hogs. We snuck up to the stand through the creek to try and not scare anything that was feeding in the field and saw the shoats and two larger pigs and eased up to try to take them. This time Jacob carried a new Taraus SS pump 22 carbine to try out and we eased up to the fence as close as we dared. I instructed Jacob to shoot one of the smaller ones in the ear with the 22 when I fired my 6 inch FA. I have it scoped with a 2x Leupold. At the shot the hogs took off and I shot at another on the run. They headed for the creek and I ran over and watched them till my pig came up the bank and I took one last shot. Jacob and I followed the blood trail for quite a while but the pigs left the creek and took off across to the roughest area on the lease and we lost the blood trail.
Overall as a hunt it was a dismal failure but it is a memory I'll cherish forever and I wanted to share it.
|
|
|
Shawn, Sam and Jacob |
