Doves & Hogs In South Texas: An Ideal Beginner’s Hunt

Most people’s first foray into hunting is as much family bonding as it is harvesting an animal. Ask any hunter who taught them how to hunt, and the answer almost always comes back to a family member. Father, grandfather, mother, uncle, or older sibling. 

But how do you get that first kill when there is no mentor to teach you? A primal skill that should be inherently ingrained in us simply isn’t. While my family has deep roots in the Canadian Northwest Territories and Alberta cattle ranches, my branch of the family tree managed to lose the hunting tradition. Growing up in California, where hunting isn’t the most normal activity, didn’t help matters in the slightest. 

While always interested in the idea of hunting, getting that first step and navigating all of the rules, regulations, traditions, and small details has been a challenge. Thankfully, a major industry of guided hunts and curated hunting experiences has grown to fill the vacuum. 

Recently, while on a trip sponsored by Academy Sports + Outdoors, I was given the opportunity to take part in my first hunt. Guided by Speck Ops Waterfowl, the week included two radically different types of hunting in the span of just 12 hours. Texas doves in the morning and faral hog in the evening. Both hunts were successful, enjoyable, and defining moments.

ACADEMY SPORTS + OUTDOORS

This trip was a media event put on by Academy Sports + Outdoors to introduce us to the new line of Redfield firearms and optics. One of Academy’s private labels, Redfield as a name has been around since 1909 and has a prominent place in optics history. Fun fact: Redfield is where Don Burris worked as a design engineer before founding Burris Optics in 1971.

Leupold acquired Redfield in 2008 and was sold to Academy in 2021. Since then, Academy has carried on the Redfield tradition with a line of binoculars, rifle scopes, gun safes, firearms equipment, and more. 

Recently, this has expanded to include shotguns, hunting rifles, long-range scopes, laser rangefinders, and micro red dots.

The focus of this trip was to show off the new Redfield shotguns and rifle scopes by way of dove and hog hunting in South Texas. Along the way, Academy provided everything we needed from clothes to coolers, shot shells to dove belts through Academy’s other private labels such as BCG, Game Winner, Magellan Outdoors, Monarch, and Outdoor Gourmet. 

Academy doesn’t have stores in the states where I’ve lived, so this was my first time seeing or using any of these brands. Having gotten to put a surprisingly large range of gear to use over the trip, I’m impressed with the quality for cost and the genuine thought that has gone into every piece of gear provided. It’s always reassuring to see so many product engineers on a trip like this and getting to talk to them about how their experiences influence the final products they develop. 

These aren’t just products picked out of a foreign catalog with a different name slapped on the side. The people behind the products actually use them and want to make them better, not only for the customer, but for themselves, as well. 

Listening to the team talk about ideas over lunch for improving the little features that matter to people who actually use this gear, like snack bags, and the passion they had for making their bag the best bag on the market was nothing short of inspiring. 

TEXAS DOVE HUNT

The star of the event was Redfield’s new shotguns and optics. The Redfield Vector 12-gauge inertia semi-auto shotgun was issued out to us in the pre-dawn light like Doughboys getting ready for our first trench raid. While many in the group had been hunting birds since they could load shells, a few of us were new to the experience. 

With the guides reassuring us that the field we were in was primed for a great day of doves, we stalked off to our little corners of the field to await legal light. 

If you haven’t hunted dove before, I can fully recommend it. Especially for a new hunter, I can’t think of a more enjoyable or less intimidating way to get into the spirit of things. Described as a social hunt, dove is less hunting and more tower defense. You stand in the field, shotgun in hand, and wait for the doves to fly past. A fairly small bird that loves to dip, dive, and dodge makes clean hits harder than you expect. 

The Redfield Vector performed almost perfectly, and the Monarch dove loads never failed. Since these are inertia shotguns, a hard shoulder is necessary for optimal reliability. Through about 150 shells on the clay field and another 75 in the dove field, I only had 2 malfunctions, and I’m almost positive both were from poor shouldering. 

Most of the group with experience limited out at 15 doves, but my final count was 10. Not half bad for a first timer.

Lunch back at the 501 Ranch included a cooking demo from Jess Pryles of Hardcore Carnivore, showing us a range of ways to cook dove. Using an entire outdoor kitchen provided exclusively by Academy private labels, Jess cooked up Dove Poppers, Dove Country Fried Steak, and Nashville Hot Dove Sliders. 

If you’re unsure about how wild game might taste, dove is a great bird to try, as it is delicious in all its forms. Huge thanks to Jess for the demo!  

HOGS IN A BLIND

Feral hogs do hundreds of millions of dollars of damage every year. From the crops they destroy to the infrastructure they ruin, hogs are a blight on many Americans. That’s the bad news. The good news is that due to their horrendous overpopulation and damage they do, basically everywhere they are found has given the green light for their demise. While other game animals are given limits, require permits and have seasons for harvest — the war on hogs is comparatively unencumbered by regulation. 

There are at least a few dozen ways of hunting hogs. Baiting, thermal, and night vision, even from a helicopter with a machine gun, hogs have very few limitations. 

For our hunt, feeders and a blind were the method of the day.

The ranch that provided this hunt also had a wide range of exotic animals on the land, so care had to be taken not to shoot the wrong critter. Otherwise, it was simply a matter of letting the feeders fling food and waiting in the blind for the hogs to come our way.

Driving from the gate to the blind was worth the trip alone after getting to see Wildebeest, Père David’s deer, Blackbuck, and Dall Sheep all almost within arm’s reach at times. My blind was blessed with a herd of Barbary sheep (also called Aoudad) for most of the evening as they snacked on the feed left for the hogs. 

Experienced hunters talk about the times they’ve spent in a blind and the people they’ve spent it with. Being trapped in close quarters with nothing to do but sit quietly and wait is an unexpectedly enjoyable bonding experience. An executive from Academy, the lead guide from Speck Ops, a cameraman to capture the moment, and I, were willingly trapped together for about two hours waiting on a hog to show up. 

Whispered conversations to pass the time and darting eyes to keep watch for what animals may show. The moment punctuated by the beep of a GoPro running out of battery only added to the tension as the eldest Aoudad kept watch in our direction, not trusting the rifle barrel sticking out of the blind.

Finally, in what was literally the last few minutes of usable light, a large sow broke through the brush to come to the feast being had by the Aoudads. What seemed like another 10 minutes but was probably only maybe one minute later, and my shot was taken when the hog was in the clear and broadside to the blind. The Savage rifle topped with a Redfield Reveal 4.5-14×42 scope didn’t disappoint or miss, but my inexperience as a hunter showed with the shot striking the hog higher than intended. 

Thankfully, tracking the blood wasn’t too hard since it was clear that the hog was not long for this earth. Around 150 yards or so of blood trail led us deep into the thorny Texas bush with only one headlamp between us to light the way. But with the help of the men in the blind, we found her dead among the whitethorn acacia bushes.

Being further into the bush than any of us wanted to be, and with the thorn scratches to prove it, we left the 190lb-ish hog in the brush for the coyotes that are undoubtedly more interested in her meat than we were.

For the second time that day, Redfield was central to my success with the Revael scope. It’s pretty amazing how far optics have come, and that a 42mm objective scope built to be inexpensive for anyone to afford performed stunningly well, even in the last gasp of sunset. 

LOOSE ROUNDS

Some reading this might sneer and say that this isn’t “real hunting”, and there is some truth in that. This curated hunting experience included the enviable luxury of not having to put in the work for the hardest parts of the hunt, like scouting the land and processing the birds. But for someone like me who is totally new to this world, that made the experience a lot less stressful and a lot more enjoyable. So for this trip at least, it was great to have.

Walking into the week, it was impossible to know what to expect, but by the end of the trip, there was a host of new experiences to reflect on. Preconceived notions were challenged, new skills were earned, friends were made, and the week taught me more about myself than I ever expected to find. 

By the end of it, I don’t think I’ll ever be a hardcore hunter. Hearing stories from some of my companions about their weeks-long elk hunts, 1,000 geese seasons, or taking hogs with knives was fascinating and mesmerizing, but did not inspire me to follow in their footsteps. 

What I found most is that while hunting is enjoyable and the meat can be delicious, it’s the hunters that are the best part of hunting. Though I’m not the most social of persons, the community and passion shared by people who love to hunt was the best part of the experience. 

If you’re not a hunter, but you want to give it a try, I would highly recommend dove and hog guided by a good crew as your first experience. 

My thanks and heartfelt appreciation to everyone at Academy and Gunpowder for putting this trip together, for the hard work put in by the team at the 501 Ranch, and especially the guides from Speck Ops Waterfowl.