Late night wake up call......big sow down

[Chaps]

Bruce went out by my property last night to go hog hunting. It's been slow since they harvested the peanuts but we knew this a good area, and with all the residual peanuts left from the harvest they would be back. Anyway, I will let Bruce tell the story. I helped him haul her out. She was fat at least 150#. Great shot Bruce and I should of went with you!!!!

 

[Clay]

That's a fat porker!! Congrats!

 

[sj1]

Meat in the freezer!

 

[Chaps]

After Bruce took some measurements she was about 180#. Big ole girl

 

[Capt]

Sweet!Looks pregnant !


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[Daezee]

Just fat as best I could tell. Will post a sharper pic with story when the Wife gets off the computer with the pics in it. 300 Blackout, Nosler 125 BT, suppressed, few hundred yd stalk to the sounder of 7, thermal, 90yd, shot, neck shot, DRT.

Thank you Chaps

 

[Daezee]

Bear with me, as the story begins with coyotes and deer, but will lead to the hogs as you will see. The weather forecast was cold, but the slight breeze, wind direction, and clouds sometimes covering the moon looked good for where I'd be. After sitting for awhile, the yotes began howling. Off in the distance I could hear the yote pups yipping as I'd heard them before, but this time another group started howling from a new direction and closer. Within seconds of the new group howling, I turned the thermal towards the sound (and the group of 4 deer I'd seen about 300yd away in the same direction) and out popped 3 yotes from a small woods around 400+ yd away. The deer immediately took off running away from the yotes. No, I couldn't positively ID them as yotes at that distance, but them appearing in that direction and their way of moving screamed yotes. The 3 yotes got in a row with about 50yd between each and started trotting south of me, going east. They would pass me out of my Blackout range/my ability. I decided what the heck and tried to make squeaking noises with my lips and hand like I'd seen on a predator show. The 1st 2 yotes then started running away from me, but the 3rd stopped and started walking towards me and then sat down, probably at the limit of my shooting ability. It was a safe direction so I shot, missed. I was shooting supersonic, but suppressed, and the yote would run about 50yd and stop (? didn't know where the shot was coming from), and I'd shoot again, missing (now outside my range, but what the heck, I held a bit high). Finally, the yote ran back to the small woods it had come from. Somewhat kicking myself, I should have not left the yote caller in the car. I settled back down to watch for hogs.

After while I saw heat signatures spilling out of that same small patch of woods and into the peanut field; some big and some smaller heat signatures. Oh, it's just deer coming to eat leftover peanuts. As I occasionally scanned in that direction, it slowly dawned on me that why would deer come from where 3 yotes had come from and 1 had ran back to, after all, the presence of yotes had earlier scared deer away from that same area, and the deer had run hundreds of yards in the opposite direction before disappearing. The heat signatures were an estimated 400+ yd away, and as I watched, I noticed some of them were doing hoggy type movements (erratic, jerky, back and forth), not like deer who stand still eating and move more slowly.

Even though the moon was out, and there was no cover in the field (but I did have on camo, and the breeze was in my favor) I decided to walk towards the "deer" until I could positively ID them and then go home. At least the moon was partially covered by clouds at times. Unless stopped to look through the thermal, I walked head down, as my beard is rather white. At roughly the 200 yd range, I was sure they were pigs. 7 of them. 3-4 bigger and the remainder smaller (not football size; maybe 50 pound size). At approximately 90 yd I decided close enough, as I'd kept expecting them to see me, took a kneeling position, picked the largest one, aimed at the center of the neck and managed to not jerk the trigger. I heard the bullet it. It immediately went down and didn't even try to get up, kicking a few times. The others scattered like hit pool balls but quickly went in the same direction towards the woods. One sorta held steadier/moved slower, and I shot at it, but heard no bullet hit, and it kept going. I paced 95 long paces to the downed hog, so I figure about 90 yd. Bullet hit center of neck and exited.

I had called Chaps to help bring her out of the field, but got no reply so I walked to his house, knocked until it woke his dog who woke him up. I took the thermal off the rifle (thus no thermal is shown in the pic) so as to easily find the hog when we went to pick her up. Got her in the back of my wife's Honda van (rubber lined compartment). Called a deserving family who said call day or night if you get a hog for us, but got no answer, so I took her home for my family. It was all I could do by myself to get it out of the van. Caught my breath and proceeded to clean it in my driveway and take some pics. The backstraps, shoulders, and hams are soaking in salt ice slurry now for a few days. I found it noticeably easier to dress/cut than the smaller male hog I'd taken previously. Lots of fat in her compared to my other hogs. Much thinner "shield/gristle". I measured her circumference behind the front legs and did the formula to estimate the weight (suppose to be good within 10 pounds) and got 180.745 pounds so am calling her 180 pounds. We tried dragging her to the truck, but gave up and drove the truck to her. With Chaps' truck lights on the peanut field as we were picking her up, I was surprised at the numbers of peanuts left scattered about. No wonder I've been seeing lots of coons, possums, rabbits and deer chowing down. The most confirmed deer seen in one night, I quit counting after 20.

One final thought about the night's hunt: At the same place, I've seen "deer" before through the thermal, but never bothered to get closer...I wonder if sometimes they might have been hogs. I need to learn how to smoke pork.

Thank you Chaps.

 

[dead-bird]

Have Smoker - Will Travel
Wire dead-bird, Pensacola

 

[Daezee]

Have Smoker - Will Travel
Wire dead-bird, Pensacola

Wife thought it was a great idea of yours to teach me smoking meat.

 

[Chaps]

Great write up Bruce! What a night you had. I'm glad our honey hole is still producing. Luckily my wife and dog fell back a sleep. I don't think my little boy even woke up. I had a feeling it was going to be a good night and if I wasn't so tired from the airshow, I would have gone with you. It makes me wonder too if we had been seeing hogs in that distant field. I guess now we will explore further. I now realize how important thermal is especially when hunting wide open fields. There is no way my night vision scope can acquire targets that far out. Great job again on a sucessful hunt! I'm ready to get back out there soon

 

[Capt]

Wow,great hunt!I gotta get thermal!300 black wins again!Good job !


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