Nine people (three officers, three members, two sons, and one daughter) had a great time at the 6th Annual Hog Hunt on 2/20/04 - 2/22/04 at the Reed Ranch near Corsicana. We also hunted predators and fished. David Chalmers shot a 205 pound boar (the second largest boar taken at a FCS hog hunt). Jim Gault shot a 140 pound blonde boar. Warren Hoke shot a 118 pound boar with a deformed rear leg. Isaac Price shot two hogs but they were not found until the next day. Jim Gault also killed two coyotes that he called in to his stand on the second night. Ryan Rowley and I, Randy Rowley, saw a hog but could not get a shot. All hunting was done at an hour before dark and during the night. The Reed Ranch is located on the Trinity River. Much of the hunting areas were very swampy so only four wheelers were used to transport hunters and gear. We either gave the Reed's a time when we wanted to be picked up or called them on our cell phones and let them know that we were ready to go back to the bunk house. No fish were caught.
Pros: The Reed's are very nice people. They went out of their way to take care of us. Ms. Judy had chili waiting for us when we returned from the first night of hunting. She made biscuits for us the next morning. The stands were in good shape as were most of the feeders. One of the feeders had a LCD light. Four of the six hunters got hogs (66% success ratio) which is very good. The Reeds have a good cooking area with a oven, sink, and barbecue grill. They also had a real bathroom and a nice fire pit. They have a stocked catfish pond and a stocked bass lake.
Cons: There did not seem to be very many hogs on the ranch. We saw no herds. None of the hogs stopped at the feeders or were interested in regular corn or my sweet/sour corn. Only Tim saw a hog on the second night (he and his kids stayed out all night). We were very limited in the times that we could hunt (we were told not to bother in the morning or early afternoon). Because of the swampy roads we were totally dependant on the Reed's. The accommodations were not the best that we have experienced (some of the beds did not have mattresses).
Final analysis: Hunting hogs in the afternoon has yielded good results at all of the other six ranches that we have hunted on. One hog was taken in the morning last year at the Arrowhead Ranch. The problem with hunting only at night is it's very hard to see anything with a red lantern except in cleared areas, such as around feeders. This is fine if the hogs are coming to the feeders. If they don't come to the feeders you're looking at a shot in the dark at a moving target. We have not found Hog Heaven yet.
Warren and David donated some of the meat from their hogs to Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry. Thanks to Warren and David for their generosity.