Our host had declared war on the numerous feral hogs that were on his ranch. He was hunting and trapping them, but it seemed his efforts were all futile. The more he killed, it seemed, the more he saw. Finally, he made a deal with some locals to trap and eliminate the hogs, once and for all!

On this particular late, January morning, after quailing for a while, the rancher and I were admiring three nice hogs that overnight the locals had trapped. Somehow, as the hogs were being unloaded from the trap into the cage on the back of the truck, one big, boar hog, a 200 pounder, wriggled free, and all ‘Hell’ broke loose!

Onlookers scattered, everyone looking for a suitable tree. As a note, most mesquite trees, of which there was a copious number of them on the ranch, offer little in the means of protection. Two of the locals, showing great ingenuity, jumped up on to the hog trap. Running was out too, since a hog can run faster than a man. Maybe it was just better for me to stand my ground?

While standing my ground, the rancher yelled for me to shoot him and unlimbering my .357 Mag. revolver, my first shot at 20 yards missed! The hog hesitated, stopped, and my second shot hit him dead center, rolling him! The third shot, in the ear, finished him. Two of the locals hefted the hog into the back of their truck and probably made ‘puerco’ tamales out of him!

Finally, a strong, hog proof, high fence and lots of trapping (and a lot of tamales) actually eliminated the hog problem.