Will post pics when Sawman sends them in a few hours.
Wind was right, so Sawman and I went out tonight. I had a good feeling about tonight's hunt, so I contacted a family to see if they were ready for another hog...yes they were; if not, we already had another family ready. My family didn't need the hog, as we still have the one from last Thursday soaking in salted ice. To cover more area, I took the northern fields and Sawman took what we call the "south field". Got there about 8pm. Not too long after, I saw two hogs enter the NE field and head south. They were not running, but walking at a good clip. I knew I couldn't catch up to them, so I just watched via the thermal scope. When they got to the southern part of the NE field they stopped walking fast and started rooting, still moving, but at a slower pace and now heading west, so they weren't going away from me now. I decided to try and stalk. Bright moon was out, but that didn't seem to make a difference other than I could see somewhat to avoid walking on the taller dry weeds and making more noise. Every 10 or so yards I'd stop and look through the thermal to see where they were now and were they looking in my direction. When they'd be rooting, I'd move closer. I wanted to get close, so I set the thermal on 1x digital (2.25x optical), figuring when they looked big in the thermal, I would be close enough (I am not great at judging distance in the dark). At one point the larger hog did put his head up, but then went back to rooting. Close enough, I aimed for the shoulder of the larger hog, estimating it was 120 or so pounds (figured the smaller one was 50 or so pounds). At the hit it squealed and ran about 30yd, stumbling a couple of times and then flipped over and that was that. The smaller one ran north where it had come from, and I watched it leave through the thermal. Sawman, about 3/4 mile away, did not hear the shot, as I was shooting suppressed supersonic (generally the sonic crack ends when the hog is hit). Texted Sawman, and he met me in the field so we could load the hog into his pickup.
Bullet hit in the right shoulder, through the heart and exited about the left arm pit, missing the left shoulder. It weighed 167 pounds. Since we'd estimated 115-120 pounds, we took it off the scale, made sure the scale was zeroed and weighed him again...still 167 pounds. Since he was 167, I now estimate the smaller one was about 90 to 100 pounds. 6.8SPC 10.5" SBR with Barnes 95gr TTSX bullet reloads. The family that wanted it has already picked it up. He was a nice, solid, healthy looking boy; bit of a ridge of longer hair down the middle of his back. Sawman felt he was destined to be a big boy if I hadn't interfered.
Wind was right, so Sawman and I went out tonight. I had a good feeling about tonight's hunt, so I contacted a family to see if they were ready for another hog...yes they were; if not, we already had another family ready. My family didn't need the hog, as we still have the one from last Thursday soaking in salted ice. To cover more area, I took the northern fields and Sawman took what we call the "south field". Got there about 8pm. Not too long after, I saw two hogs enter the NE field and head south. They were not running, but walking at a good clip. I knew I couldn't catch up to them, so I just watched via the thermal scope. When they got to the southern part of the NE field they stopped walking fast and started rooting, still moving, but at a slower pace and now heading west, so they weren't going away from me now. I decided to try and stalk. Bright moon was out, but that didn't seem to make a difference other than I could see somewhat to avoid walking on the taller dry weeds and making more noise. Every 10 or so yards I'd stop and look through the thermal to see where they were now and were they looking in my direction. When they'd be rooting, I'd move closer. I wanted to get close, so I set the thermal on 1x digital (2.25x optical), figuring when they looked big in the thermal, I would be close enough (I am not great at judging distance in the dark). At one point the larger hog did put his head up, but then went back to rooting. Close enough, I aimed for the shoulder of the larger hog, estimating it was 120 or so pounds (figured the smaller one was 50 or so pounds). At the hit it squealed and ran about 30yd, stumbling a couple of times and then flipped over and that was that. The smaller one ran north where it had come from, and I watched it leave through the thermal. Sawman, about 3/4 mile away, did not hear the shot, as I was shooting suppressed supersonic (generally the sonic crack ends when the hog is hit). Texted Sawman, and he met me in the field so we could load the hog into his pickup.
Bullet hit in the right shoulder, through the heart and exited about the left arm pit, missing the left shoulder. It weighed 167 pounds. Since we'd estimated 115-120 pounds, we took it off the scale, made sure the scale was zeroed and weighed him again...still 167 pounds. Since he was 167, I now estimate the smaller one was about 90 to 100 pounds. 6.8SPC 10.5" SBR with Barnes 95gr TTSX bullet reloads. The family that wanted it has already picked it up. He was a nice, solid, healthy looking boy; bit of a ridge of longer hair down the middle of his back. Sawman felt he was destined to be a big boy if I hadn't interfered.
