Hog hunting is a sport that may seem challenging for some, but others find it to be a favorite past time in between other hunting seasons. Andy Hubbuch, from Ridgeland, MS has developed a strong love of hunting hogs over the past five years.
Andy grew up hunting deer and duck, but began hog hunting about five years ago when he was asked to go with a friend.
“A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go hog hunting with him, and that’s basically how it began. I went, I killed a hog, and I thought ‘That’s cool!’ I’d like to do that again’,” Andy said.
Andy’s hog hunting has evolved over the past five years and now uses two 308 caliber rifles with suppressors, one with a night vision scope, a one with a thermal scope, as well as his own ammo he loads himself, whenever he goes hunting.
One of the guns used by Andy
“It started out where I didn’t have any nice hunting gear. I would go out using different kinds of red LED lighting and was successful. Then it just kind of morphed into me ultimately getting a thermal scope,” Andy said.
Andy has now killed close to 250 hogs and has been able to hunt in several areas, but mainly in the south Delta.
“Just through word of mouth and referrals, the local networking that we all have, I have been able to gain permission to go help farmers, like soybean and corn farmers, either when they plant or before harvest. I help them mostly when they have problems with hogs rooting up their crops,” Andy said.
With the hunts Andy has been able to go on, he has begun filming his hunts as well, with his thermal scope.
“Getting the thermal scope, to me, was the greatest thing ever. It really opened up a whole new world for me, ” Andy said.
With his scope, he has able to observe the hunt in a different way then he was before and opened up a lot more doors for him to make night hunts easier.
“When I was in high school, they were just starting to coming out with video games. There was a game called “Doom.” All you saw was whatever weapon was in the character’s hand, and then you ran around through this maze shooting things. The way a thermal camera works without zoom, you can actually see the barrel of the gun heating up. It reminds me of the old video game at first. Its kind of funny that it does that to me,” Andy said.
A look from behind the scope
Hubbach’s thermal scope comes with a video output and is ultimately able to hook it up with DVR that allows him to watch his hunts. With this scope, he has been able to capture a lot of great footage while hunting and is able to relive the memories over and over again.
“Recording the hunt is the best part. I can share it with my buddies and show them what I did last night. Or I can show it to a perspective farmer and show them what I am capable of. Honestly, being able to record it is literally the best part of the whole deal. I can always relive those memories,” Andy said.
With all of the hunts, Andy has been on, his love, knowledge, and experience with the sport have only grown and is something that is very apparent when talking to him.
“I love it because I can do it 24/7, 365. There’s no open season a there’s no closed season. It gives me something that I can essentially do year-round even at night. There’s just nothing like it at all. It’s amazing,” Andy said.
