The sun had disappeared below the western horizon. The distance howls of several packs of coyotes could be heard, one pack was just across the creek from my little portable hunting blind which is mounted on an old boat trailer. Sound carries well on a still, cold winter’s evening. The howls of hungry coyotes assembling into their various hunting packs never ceases to stir something in me that must be a carryover from centuries ago when my ancestors, just like prey animals today, feared the howls of wolf packs.
My trail camera had evidenced the early evening arrival of wild hogs coming to feast on corn distributed by a feeder suspended from a lower limb of a big pecan tree. Hogs had long since eaten the fallen pecans under the tree but kept coming back for my corn. The feeder is set to go off at 6:00 p.m., perfect timing to catch nocturnal wild hogs out for their first snack of the evening.
The weather was perfect for an evening night hog hunt, clear with a full moon and the winter sky twinkling with a zillion stars. Venus was bright in the western sky. I’ve used this planet more than Polaris through the years to find my way at night. Years ago I learned to point my left arm at Venus, which is very bright and easy to spot on a clear night, and with my extended left arm measure an approximate 20 degree angle to the right or clockwise which is very close to west. My body would then be facing north. If you’ve never tried this, do so the next time you are outdoors at night; use a compass or your smart phone as a check. This knowledge could come in very handy some evening when you’re ‘turned around’ in the woods at night and Polaris is difficult to spot.
Maybe it was the full moon of this night or one of many other reasons unknown to mortal hunters, but the porkers were slow to begin moving. I sat there in my blind with by “Buddy” heater on the floor of the blind giving just enough heat to knock the chill out of the night air. I had my AGM Rattler thermal scope mounted to my a 50 caliber Dragon Claw big bore air rifle and used the thermal monocular to continually scan for approaching hogs. With the air rifle I needed a relatively close shot to make a quick kill. I was set up about 40 yards from the feeder.
In a big pecan tree a couple hundred yards out through the thermal scope, I spotted several wild turkeys on their roost. I thought how cold they must be, perched high up in the night air without protection from the wind. But this is the way of wild turkeys and they surely know they are much safer from predators high in a tree than on the ground. But even on their perch they are not completely safe from owls and bobcats. I heard the almost silent approach of a barred owl as she perched on a limb above the corn feeder. Owls, with their talon-like claws, have been referred to as the silent killers of the night. No mouse, rabbit, or squirrel caught out in the open is safe from these very efficient predators. I guessed this wise old owl was watching the ground for a mouse or rat attracted to the golden kernels on the ground below the feeder.
These solo evening hunts might be the only time my mind is totally relaxed with no distractions from the little device (smart phone) that has almost become an added appendage for many of us. Spending time in the night woods is good for the soul. With the advent of thermal scopes it gives one an insight to the goings on of wildlife that was previously only imagined. I’ve witnessed some interesting sights and truly believe I’d be out there even if I wasn’t hunting.
But this night I was after fresh pork for an upcoming late season deer hunt out in far western Texas with my friends Larry Weishuhn and Jeff Rice. I have a habit of planning how I will use the meat from a hunt while on stand waiting for something to happen! I love cooking fish and game and have come up with some tasty recipes setting out there in the dark!
This night I was thinking about how tasty some hot buffalo chicken wings would be. The cold night air and no dinner had made me hungry. Like the distance packs of coyotes out hunting, I was thinking of food! How could I turn some wild pork into buffalo wings? Then it came to me! I would cut the back strap into small pieces about the size of chicken wing and marinate in buffalo sauce overnight. Dusted with flour and chicken fried in hot cooking oil, I would have what I nicknamed “buffalo porkers”. I would drain the fried pork strips and then coat with the buffalo sauce. This should make a great appetizer before dinner on our upcoming deer hunt.
But my buffalo porkers wouldn’t suffice as the main course. How else could I put the wild pork I hoped to harvest to use on the hunt? How about smothered pork schnitzel with onion and mushroom gravy, possibly with sides of baked sweet potatoes and fried cabbage? This sounded like a plan and a tasty and easy to prepare evening meal at the upcoming deer camp. My plan was made, now to settle back and wait for the porkers I just knew would be hitting that corn soon!
The hogs were slow to stir on this night. After about an hour’s sit, I picked up movement way back in the trees, not far from where the turkeys were roosting. Then a total of four hogs trotted out of the grove of trees and headed straight to me. They were all identical in size, weighing about 125 pounds each, perfect eaters. One behind the other, in single file formation they made their way to a fence near my feeder and each dipped its nose, raised the bottom strand of wire, and made their way under the fence.
Straight to the feeder they trotted and, fighting for the best position, they began gobbling up the corn. They were all young boars and after looking the hogs over like a customer in a meat market choosing the exact piece of meat from the butcher, I settled the sights on a fat one and soon had my skinning knife out. It was cold that night and I left the butchering to the next morning back at home. Prime meat for my new ‘camp recipes’.
May this lifestyle go on forever!
Remember to join me for the 6th annual Spring Ron-de- voux at the Top Rail Cowboy Church in Greenville on March 1. For more information, visit www.catfishradio.org
