Runway Incursion
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 5:59 pm
I live on a ranch about 30 miles west of Austin. I have two runways, one (rwy 10-28) is grass about 3500' long. At it's east-end, it crosses the southwest end of the other (rwy 03-21) which is paved about 4000' long. It's only paved 25' wide, but sits on a fenced area that's 150' wide, so it has 75' of grass on each sideline. I have solar-powered runway lights and the lamps sit atop orange traffic-cones that are faced with white reflective rectangles (these are actually new/unissued Texas license plates that were declared surplus by the county tax collector.) They really light up when I'm on final and switch on Del's dual landing/taxi lights!
So, Wed nite I was arriving from Mena AR about 9:30 PM and rolling out on rwy 21, still travelling about 20 mph when a dark shadow passed me by on the left and darted across in front of my prop. It was a wild HOG! He was black and very fast.
Next nite at dusk, I observed 3 or 4 adults and a dozen piglets in Yett pond pasture. (Yett pond is an early TX landmark...a spring-fed pond that predates the Spanish exloration period. It is named after Dr. Samuel Yett who owned slaves on this property in the early 1850's. It was first mapped by a cartographer who worked for Texas in the General Land Office, and who dawdled poetry in the margins of his maps. He was later known by his pen-name, "O. Henry") Went over to the paved runway and observed two more black adults.
Friday nite I sat on the paved runway armed with the 30-30 and shot 4 adults, all of whom ran off as if they were not hit, but I observed the first one hit at the right shoulder and a cloud of dust came off him. (boar with large tusks.) He ran and lept thru a barbed-wire fence with his legs tucked to clear the wire as he passed-thru and disappeared to the west as if he were unhit . I'm positive he died out there somewhere, because it was a solid hit from the right-rear on his side just behind the shoulder.
The 3 others that I'm certain I hit amidships just ran off. 170-grain soft-point 30-30's.
Last nite, Roulette (the labrador super-dog) and I went for a walk down the paved runway. She's black and was trotting in the dim after-light of dusk and was just a black-blob of a dog about 50 yds in front of me. The only light available was from my faint-white runway lights. She stopped and I realized she was nose-to-nose with another black blob about 10' in front of her. The other blob "snorted" and turned to run away, followed by a half-dozen little "blob-lets." Super-dog dashed back towards me, and I pulled my S&W Model 66 and fired three rounds at the departing hog. I may have made hits but couldn't really tell as it disappeared into the brush outside the runway fence-lines.
I'm going to have to hold a fly-in Blob-B-Que, I guess, if I can ever bag those little-blobs.
So, Wed nite I was arriving from Mena AR about 9:30 PM and rolling out on rwy 21, still travelling about 20 mph when a dark shadow passed me by on the left and darted across in front of my prop. It was a wild HOG! He was black and very fast.
Next nite at dusk, I observed 3 or 4 adults and a dozen piglets in Yett pond pasture. (Yett pond is an early TX landmark...a spring-fed pond that predates the Spanish exloration period. It is named after Dr. Samuel Yett who owned slaves on this property in the early 1850's. It was first mapped by a cartographer who worked for Texas in the General Land Office, and who dawdled poetry in the margins of his maps. He was later known by his pen-name, "O. Henry") Went over to the paved runway and observed two more black adults.
Friday nite I sat on the paved runway armed with the 30-30 and shot 4 adults, all of whom ran off as if they were not hit, but I observed the first one hit at the right shoulder and a cloud of dust came off him. (boar with large tusks.) He ran and lept thru a barbed-wire fence with his legs tucked to clear the wire as he passed-thru and disappeared to the west as if he were unhit . I'm positive he died out there somewhere, because it was a solid hit from the right-rear on his side just behind the shoulder.
The 3 others that I'm certain I hit amidships just ran off. 170-grain soft-point 30-30's.
Last nite, Roulette (the labrador super-dog) and I went for a walk down the paved runway. She's black and was trotting in the dim after-light of dusk and was just a black-blob of a dog about 50 yds in front of me. The only light available was from my faint-white runway lights. She stopped and I realized she was nose-to-nose with another black blob about 10' in front of her. The other blob "snorted" and turned to run away, followed by a half-dozen little "blob-lets." Super-dog dashed back towards me, and I pulled my S&W Model 66 and fired three rounds at the departing hog. I may have made hits but couldn't really tell as it disappeared into the brush outside the runway fence-lines.
I'm going to have to hold a fly-in Blob-B-Que, I guess, if I can ever bag those little-blobs.
.