The video has the important stuff, but the back story and self glorifying details are in the text below...
Sunday was a scheduled work day and I had Bob and Toly (some of y'all may recall from the meet and greet) coming up to hunt squirrels in the afternoon. Work was mostly using the tractor to clear some areas, clear trails, and clear roads. I planned on spending much of the day on the tractor and it was supposed to be a beautiful day.
Well, the day started at 2:00 am when I was awakened by notices from my phone that I had hogs and so I stayed up for the next 2 hours watching the pics come in of a nifty sounder of 14 or so hogs in tiny, small, and medium sized. Woohoo! However, I really needed those two hours of sleep, LOL.
Hauled the tractor up to Montague County to my place. Passing by the 400 yard table just inside the gate, there was a turkey hen standing out in the open and watching me. That was really weird, so I got out to check on her and she ducked into a small clump of trees next to the table. Maybe she has a nest? I went to check it out and she exited the opposite side, "putting" all the while. I followed her one and a half laps around that clump of trees, trying to see the nest, but no luck. I had gotten to within 15 feet of her, but she never actually ran from me. It was really cool. I gave up on following her and she stopped moving away. Last I saw as I got back into the truck was her ducking back into the clump of trees. Cool, but I wanted to mow the area around her and if she has a nest, that might not be a good idea. Okay, maybe next time.
Mowing went great and got most goals accomplished, use of the range restored, trails and roads cleared. So it was off to the Forestburg Store for a Forestburger before Bob and Toly arrived.
Bob and Toly arrived and we commenced to hunting on different parts of the property. In all, I shot 4 out of 5 squirrels at a range of about 35 yards with a CZ452 Ultra Lux (really long barrel .22 lr) and Tasco 6-24x50 scope. Bob missed one squirrel and one rabbit. Toly missed 2 or 3 squirrels, but finally got one...with multiple shots, LOL.
I had not hunted squirrel before and was glad for Bob and Toly to allow me to do it because they will make them into squirrel dumplings. However, watching them skin and gut the squirrels made the whole process look less than convenient. As Bob noted, he would rather skin a deer than a squirrel. What a hassle, but I didn't have to do it and they left happy.
I headed to the stand about 8:00 pm with all the gear I needed for a long night. It would be another 6 hours before the hogs arrived if they showed up the same time as the previous time. Winds were out of the SSE at 15 and I planned to hunt from the north end of the property, but when I got to the stand at the north end with all my gear for the night, I realized that the winds were blowing directly in the direction the hogs likely originated and so I backtracked way around to come in from the south. There, I donned my supersuit before climbing into the 14' treestand.
While up top it was really windy, inside the trees there was barely a breeze. I was already dusty from all the tractor work and the tracking and backtracking around the property had me worked up with a pretty good sweat, sitting in coveralls with little breeze. Knowing I could not put it on later, however, I had every zipper open, but even so, when I wasn't scanning with my FLIR thermal scope, I was wiping away sweat. What a mess. However, temps were dropping quickly and I would be happy for the warmth come the middle of the night.
The stand overlooks two feeders and the south end of the food plot. In preparation for the evening, I had put out a thick line of corn at each feeder, in hopes of lining up the hogs for a double. First one raccoon, then a second, came to feed. It was starting off to be a typical evening.
Way out at about 170 yards, I spotted movement with the thermal scope behind a small grove of trees moving west to east. Could be a deer or maybe a hog. It was only about 9:15 and so I assumed it was a deer. A second target followed. So I stayed on that area to see what materialized.
Indeed it was hogs. They were coming in from the west, crossing much of the food plot and then approaching the feeder from the north east. There was one really large (relatively speaking) hog that crossed back to the west followed by a couple of others and then various sizes of hogs that headed for the feeder. Eventually, a couple of the westward hogs came back east, but not the largest, not before I took the first shot.
I don't think you can hear it in the video, but as more and more hogs came out, the faster and faster my breathing became until I got it under control. I hate to admit that I still hyperventilate sometimes and it really only happens when I have time to think about what is going on...it is all just so darned exciting!
In the mean time, with several hogs around the feeder and at least two lined up including one sentinel sow that seemed to be more wary than most of her group. I had spread out a line of corn in hoping to line up multiple hogs. Sure enough, I got an alignment, so I took my first shot and dropped as larger sow and everything scattered...
The next shots were on piglets at about 125-130 yards which did not go as well as the first shot. I pulled one shot just behind the head (seen on a frame by frame analysis of original video), the next was low, and the one after that may or may not have hit, but the final shot was a blaster.
The hit on the sow was just about perfect except my double plan failed. The shot entered the left side of the head in front and below the left eye and exited behind and below the right eye. The right eye was avulsed as was a sizeable chunk of skull.
The boar piglet was not so lucky. I haven't figured out how this worked, but there appeared to be just two wounds, one in the chest and the major of his hind end below the tail was missing as were much of his internals with a large hollow connecting the wounds. With my flashlight, I could get light from his chest to come out his tail end. He was partially eviscerated!
When the piglet was hit, I could no longer see it on NV and could barely see it on thermal from the stand. I walked the food plot and the edges of the surrounding woods to look for possible wounded stragglers, but none were found.
It was really nice having the tractor there as the tractor did all the lifting. This made getting the sow on a scale much easier. She came in at only 120 lbs. I guessed the piglet was maybe 5 or so.
So it was a really productive day. I didn't have to stay the entire night. On top of that, I got to test out one of those new fangled Tactical Brass Recovery brass catcher doodads that TLM had posted on previously. It worked like a charm!
Before anybody says anything, the kids got their hog cookies and Angry Bird was present. Who do you think was handling the tractor and taking most of the pictures?
Sunday was a scheduled work day and I had Bob and Toly (some of y'all may recall from the meet and greet) coming up to hunt squirrels in the afternoon. Work was mostly using the tractor to clear some areas, clear trails, and clear roads. I planned on spending much of the day on the tractor and it was supposed to be a beautiful day.
Well, the day started at 2:00 am when I was awakened by notices from my phone that I had hogs and so I stayed up for the next 2 hours watching the pics come in of a nifty sounder of 14 or so hogs in tiny, small, and medium sized. Woohoo! However, I really needed those two hours of sleep, LOL.
Hauled the tractor up to Montague County to my place. Passing by the 400 yard table just inside the gate, there was a turkey hen standing out in the open and watching me. That was really weird, so I got out to check on her and she ducked into a small clump of trees next to the table. Maybe she has a nest? I went to check it out and she exited the opposite side, "putting" all the while. I followed her one and a half laps around that clump of trees, trying to see the nest, but no luck. I had gotten to within 15 feet of her, but she never actually ran from me. It was really cool. I gave up on following her and she stopped moving away. Last I saw as I got back into the truck was her ducking back into the clump of trees. Cool, but I wanted to mow the area around her and if she has a nest, that might not be a good idea. Okay, maybe next time.
Mowing went great and got most goals accomplished, use of the range restored, trails and roads cleared. So it was off to the Forestburg Store for a Forestburger before Bob and Toly arrived.
Bob and Toly arrived and we commenced to hunting on different parts of the property. In all, I shot 4 out of 5 squirrels at a range of about 35 yards with a CZ452 Ultra Lux (really long barrel .22 lr) and Tasco 6-24x50 scope. Bob missed one squirrel and one rabbit. Toly missed 2 or 3 squirrels, but finally got one...with multiple shots, LOL.
I had not hunted squirrel before and was glad for Bob and Toly to allow me to do it because they will make them into squirrel dumplings. However, watching them skin and gut the squirrels made the whole process look less than convenient. As Bob noted, he would rather skin a deer than a squirrel. What a hassle, but I didn't have to do it and they left happy.
I headed to the stand about 8:00 pm with all the gear I needed for a long night. It would be another 6 hours before the hogs arrived if they showed up the same time as the previous time. Winds were out of the SSE at 15 and I planned to hunt from the north end of the property, but when I got to the stand at the north end with all my gear for the night, I realized that the winds were blowing directly in the direction the hogs likely originated and so I backtracked way around to come in from the south. There, I donned my supersuit before climbing into the 14' treestand.
While up top it was really windy, inside the trees there was barely a breeze. I was already dusty from all the tractor work and the tracking and backtracking around the property had me worked up with a pretty good sweat, sitting in coveralls with little breeze. Knowing I could not put it on later, however, I had every zipper open, but even so, when I wasn't scanning with my FLIR thermal scope, I was wiping away sweat. What a mess. However, temps were dropping quickly and I would be happy for the warmth come the middle of the night.
The stand overlooks two feeders and the south end of the food plot. In preparation for the evening, I had put out a thick line of corn at each feeder, in hopes of lining up the hogs for a double. First one raccoon, then a second, came to feed. It was starting off to be a typical evening.
Way out at about 170 yards, I spotted movement with the thermal scope behind a small grove of trees moving west to east. Could be a deer or maybe a hog. It was only about 9:15 and so I assumed it was a deer. A second target followed. So I stayed on that area to see what materialized.
Indeed it was hogs. They were coming in from the west, crossing much of the food plot and then approaching the feeder from the north east. There was one really large (relatively speaking) hog that crossed back to the west followed by a couple of others and then various sizes of hogs that headed for the feeder. Eventually, a couple of the westward hogs came back east, but not the largest, not before I took the first shot.
I don't think you can hear it in the video, but as more and more hogs came out, the faster and faster my breathing became until I got it under control. I hate to admit that I still hyperventilate sometimes and it really only happens when I have time to think about what is going on...it is all just so darned exciting!
In the mean time, with several hogs around the feeder and at least two lined up including one sentinel sow that seemed to be more wary than most of her group. I had spread out a line of corn in hoping to line up multiple hogs. Sure enough, I got an alignment, so I took my first shot and dropped as larger sow and everything scattered...
The next shots were on piglets at about 125-130 yards which did not go as well as the first shot. I pulled one shot just behind the head (seen on a frame by frame analysis of original video), the next was low, and the one after that may or may not have hit, but the final shot was a blaster.
The hit on the sow was just about perfect except my double plan failed. The shot entered the left side of the head in front and below the left eye and exited behind and below the right eye. The right eye was avulsed as was a sizeable chunk of skull.
The boar piglet was not so lucky. I haven't figured out how this worked, but there appeared to be just two wounds, one in the chest and the major of his hind end below the tail was missing as were much of his internals with a large hollow connecting the wounds. With my flashlight, I could get light from his chest to come out his tail end. He was partially eviscerated!
When the piglet was hit, I could no longer see it on NV and could barely see it on thermal from the stand. I walked the food plot and the edges of the surrounding woods to look for possible wounded stragglers, but none were found.
It was really nice having the tractor there as the tractor did all the lifting. This made getting the sow on a scale much easier. She came in at only 120 lbs. I guessed the piglet was maybe 5 or so.
So it was a really productive day. I didn't have to stay the entire night. On top of that, I got to test out one of those new fangled Tactical Brass Recovery brass catcher doodads that TLM had posted on previously. It worked like a charm!
Before anybody says anything, the kids got their hog cookies and Angry Bird was present. Who do you think was handling the tractor and taking most of the pictures?
