After his ZULUS 4K Field Test, Richard Johnson is back for another round of crossbow hunting. Armed with the ZULUS ZHD312R-V2 and HOUND H635R, he steps into the spring woods, where hogs won’t stay hidden for long.

Signs of spring are here, which means temps in North Texas are all over the place from freezing to the 80s. I grew up in the Midwest and still am that kid at heart. Would love to see 40-70 degree days 365 if I could order it up from Mother Nature. Well, you all know how that works, so before it gets smoldering hot here in Texas, I decided to head back to Oklahoma and see EP at Hard Wood Outdoors. Let me share a couple of the hunts with you folks…

On the way north out of Texas to Southeast Oklahoma, I stopped at “Reba’s Place”, which is a restaurant in downtown Atoka. Famous singer and personality these days. Reba grew up with her family in the small rural community of Chockie, which is 15 miles north of Atoka. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the restaurant, but figured it’s time to find out, and I will say it’s worth a visit.

It was mid-morning when I rolled into Reba’s Place and it was busy. The gal at the door asked if I minded sitting at the bar which was fine so I shimmied up to the bar for breakfast and wasn’t disappointed.

This is a nice place, clean, well done and the food and beverages were very good. Stop by if you ever get a chance.

OK, on down the road another 15 miles and I’m at Hard Wood Outdoors.

Weather looks OK... Great morning temps but warmer than ideal in the afternoons. Sunday will be a hot one for a March day in Oklahoma! I’ll have to plan a bit for my afternoon/evening hunts to be as comfortable as possible.

There are 30+ spots setup to hunt on this 5,000 acre ranch. Most of the spots have a feeder area, a blind or shooting house, many have ladder stands and trees used for climbers. Lots of options.

I’ve been at 5 of these locations, in a blind or shooting house, and I’ve used my chair blind when wind or extreme heat was a concern. So, I’ve only been to a few of the many places that could be hunted. These spots have Covert cell linked cameras, so monitoring activity is reasonably easy to do. Most show deer and turkey every day, sometimes multiple times a day and about 1/2 have pigs. FWIW, game cameras don’t always tell the whole story of what’s going on at that spot. Sometimes you just have to go hunt it.

I’m an ambush hunter for the most part and I prefer to hunt from a blind of some sort so I can have some movement and not alarm every wild animal that has seen my face on a Wanted DOA poster.

Day 1 – Evening Hog Hunt with HOUND Thermal Monocular

My arrival day was Thursday and I pulled in about 1 pm. I was the lone ranger in Camp for the hunt this week, so it was going to be quiet with just me here, which was nice.

South Pasture is a really good spot setup near a pond on the backside of a 864 acre pasture where the woods converge.

An elevated Red Neck blind is at a great spot for deer or hogs.

My “pieced” together picture below gives you an idea of the pond which is an ideal water resource for the hogs to drink and cool down.

7:50 PM – Not long after he’s moved off, a good sized sounder shows up at the feeder. 33 yards north of the blind is a corn feeder. I added a line of bait to help keep the pigs in order when they show up. They tend to move as they feed and this has proved to help slow them down a bit for a better shot opportunity.

Hogs at Dusk – Spotted with ZULUS ZHD312R-V2 Day & Night Vision Scope

8:58 PM – Sun has set and it’s dark out. I’ve been scanning with the HOUND thermal and hogs have been out in the pasture rooting for some time. This group has moved in from my first spotting at 8:30 mid field which is about 200 yards out.

Hogs at Night – 200 Yards Out, Spotted with HOUND H635R Thermal Monocular

9:00 PM – Hogs are now walking past the corn feeder which is a bit of a surprise moving to my east, which I hope takes them to the secondary bait.

Hogs at Corn Feeder – Spotted with HOUND H635R Thermal Monocular

9:04 PM - And that’s exactly what happened. Pig 1 is a decent-sized sow and at 36 yards takes a vital area hit, the Nemesis does its job and she is down and out in 20 yards...

Hogs 36 Yards Out at Night – Spotted with ZULUS ZHD312R-V2 Day & Night Vision Scope

The night ends with some stories and some animal preparation. Much thanks to EP once again for a great setup, recovery and his exceptional work skinning and getting the backstraps and hams on ice.

All part of a day’s work at Hard Wood Outdoors...

Day 2 – Outsmarted by a Sow during Hog Hunting

Friday was a bust on pig sightings but a very nice day to hunt. A little warm in the evening, temps in the high 80s but I was in the chair blind, elevated and there was a breeze.

Oh, ya, I did get schooled a bit by a sow... More on that in a bit.

I hunted two spots on Friday and did see some game. I had 5 hens pass by me on the morning hunt, 3 nice Toms on the evening hunt and saw a whitetail on each hunt as well.

Here are the hens at my morning location.

Turkeys Grazing in the Morning – Spotted with ZULUS ZHD312R-V2 Day & Night Vision Scope

Here’s the three Toms at my afternoon location heading from the feeder area to the pond that’s to my immediate right.

Turkey Walking in the Afternoon – Spotted with ZULUS ZHD312R-V2 Day & Night Vision Scope

My afternoon blind location on a pond berm.

The pond to my right.

I’m setup about 40 yards from the feeder and east of it on the pond berm. It’s been hot for a few days but I’m dressed light, elevated a bit in the shade and there’s a good breeze.

Based on game camera intel from the past week and tonight’s wind direction, we expect the pigs to come in from the south with wind in their face and move into the feeder area.

Sun goes down, turkeys wander off, 3 deer graze on by and not any of them the wiser. The feeder goes off at 7:30 right on time. The plan is working! It’s 8:15 and I’m now 4 hours into my sit and getting into a hog-action mindset. The winds lay down a bit to a nice breeze, it’s dark-30 and I’m eagerly waiting on the pigs to hit the feeder. I have the HOUND thermal scanner hanging around my neck so I find it, hit the power button and as I put it up to my eye I hear a snort-grunt and then animals scrambling.

They had to be less than 10 feet from me. This sounder had come in on a trail from behind me with wind blowing up their tails. At the moment I lifted the scanner, they heard, saw, smelled me, maybe all of the above but momma sow lit ’em up and they hit the road.

I’ve been calm, cool, patiently sitting here with a loaded lethal weapon and more electronics on me than the Space Shuttle and somehow I still get outsmarted by a sow with an attitude.

That’s not supposed to happen, right? Hunting 101 – Be patient and still. Got it!

Day 3 – Redemption and the Crossbow Two-Fer

Camera had hogs on one of the spots morning, mid-day and evening for 3 days. It’s an older ground level shooting house at 80 yards from the feeder. Decided I’m going there Saturday morning and EP will bait the path that runs from the blind to feeder which should pull the pigs to it and give me a closer shot. This is another good spot and I did see some deer at sunrise and had hogs come shortly after. I had been watching the pigs for 15 minutes which seemed like 2 hours. They fed moving around this fenced feeder, mostly in spots that from my vantage point had some brush to contend with. Finally, this great looking light-colored sow moves in to feed. I’ve got a shot now at 61 yards and I blew it!

Mid-day had me back at camp shooting my crossbow to make sure I know how to use the gear and the issue was NOT the gear... I was drilling same holes off the tripod at 30 yards and sub 1” at 45.

Back in the lodge I opened the DNT app, connected to the scope and watched the video. The root cause of the miss was the LRF marker on POA vs Reticle which is an 18" holdover miss. Lesson #2 for the trip.

Hogs 75 Yards Out in the Morning – Spotted with ZULUS ZHD312R-V2 Day & Night Vision Scope

Lunch and a 2 hour snooze and I’m in a better state of mind. Time to visit with EP a bit and game plan, load up and we headed back to the AAA spot. This is the place I was at the previous morning where I videoed the hens.

The wind was not going to be ideal here so we took the chair blind. With EP’s advice I setup in the shade beside good cover to my right with good shooting lanes in front of me.

Yes, those are cattle in the background. The ranch supports 300 or so.

EP laid out corn right in the midst of the picture above and in a line. We hoped that feed layout would put feeding pigs broadside. That’s about 35 yards away.

Another hot afternoon, but thankfully there was a nice steady breeze, and I was in the shade. The chair blind has several sets of small zippered windows you can open just enough to get air flow.

The afternoon progresses, sun sets and I get a small sounder of mixed-age pigs come in. These are younger hogs and I watch them on this bait pile from 8:06 to 8:25 before deciding to take this shot. Often a younger group of pigs will rush the feeding area and the older, wiser and bigger hogs come in after they see it’s safe. That didn’t happen this night. Given the time I had to think and watch these pigs, I decided to see if two of the bigger pigs would line up for a pass-through double attempt. This mindset is a hog hunting thing, not anything that would be considered for big game. I was pretty confident now that I knew the difference between a Reticle and a LRF marker, that I could make the shot if it presented.

Hogs at Night – Spotted with ZULUS ZHD312R-V2 Day & Night Vision Scope

The shot felt good so I turned on WiFi, fired up the DNT app, and linked to the scope with my phone. I downloaded the video, watched it and was good with what I saw. About 15-20 minutes had passed so I scanned with the HOUND thermal. Nothing was in the area that I could see so it was time to check things out.

That’s a good sign and off to the south was this blood trail.

45 yards out was this guy. He took the passthrough in the vitals and it also passed through.

Looking to the north was another blood trail.

This was the front neck shot pig and she went about 80 yards.

Day 3 started a little rough with a miss but the Two-Fer on this night made up for it.

Another good day at Hard Wood!

Want the clarity and confidence Richard had in the field? Check out the HOUND ballistic thermal monocular and ZULUS HD V2  digital day & night vision scope today and step into the woods fully prepared.