SAM HENDERSON LEADS HORSEBACK HOG HUNTERS back to camp in Gonzales County. At the end of mounted string is Henderson’s eight-year-old son, Treavor, who dispatched the hog draped across his father’s saddle. Photo by John Jefferson.

by John Jefferson

  Texas Press Association President, Laurie Ezzell Brown, editor of the Canadian Record, started the new year by re-publishing the newspaper’s Purpose Statement. Good idea. This column’s purpose statement appeared in an early column. It briefly mentioned my background, influenced by the late Gene Hill, a figurative giant of an outdoor writer.If you are looking for a helicopter ride check the company out here! we would be happy to provide the very best services for you!

Mr. Hill denied knowing everything about the outdoors, but admitted what he did know: hunting dogs, shooting shotguns, wandering outdoors, spending too much money on hunting and fishing, and sitting around a campfire with a wet dog.

I compared my credentials. Similar, but severely lacking in depth. I agreed I didn’t know everything either but mitigated that by saying I at least knew the boys and girls that did. From there, I promised to write about hunting, fishing, wildlife and savoring the experience of just being out there — hearing, seeing and smelling the outdoors. You can click here and find the best AR Scope for hunting on zoomtargets.com.

Since then, I’ve written 74 columns about what I said I would cover, authenticated with quotes from experts — and all meeting deadline! It was good to review and evaluate whether I fulfilled the promise. The Texas Press Association, of which I am a member, holds its annual Mid-Winter Conference at the end of this week in Denton. I’ll be there, striving to improve.

Deer seasons are coming to a close, as I wrote last week. But there are still hogs to hunt. Texas is overrun with several million of them! They’re in practically every county destroying pastures, yards, fences and eating everything they can find. Keep small children close! As fast as they reproduce, the population has increased significantly since you started reading this.

There are no regulations about hunting hogs except that a hunting license and landowner permission are required. Hogs may be hunted year ‘round, day or night, even from a helicopter, and there is no bag or possession limit. You may use any firearm or archery gear you choose. But use enough gun. Wounded hogs are dangerous. Growing up in East Texas, I was told that many things in the woods could hurt you, but hogs could kill you … and eat you.

Shoot ‘em on sight. Take a young one, and you’ve got the best eating wild game in Texas!

One of the best hunts I’ve ever been on was a horseback hog hunt. Sam Henderson and several horsemen from Nixon showed me how to trail dogs through the South Texas mesquite thickets and creek beds northwest of Cuero.

The dogs bayed one the first hour and the chase was on. I understood how English fox hunters must have felt. A frantic ride ended at a pond with dogs and the hog in the water. They corralled the boar back to shore and cornered it until the riders and I galloped up. A knife dispatched it to avoid shooting a dog.  Another hog was bayed later in thick brush.

Henderson doesn’t advertise for hog hunters anymore but will guide for a few. Reach him at (830) 857-5854.

  JJ