DaveABQ
Albuquerque, NM
I was really heading to the lease to make sure my feeders were full and to install solar chargers/batteries on a couple of game camera's. The wind was terrible.
Got to the lease on Sunday early enough to head out to one of my blinds. I kept seeing flashes from inside the blind, I look out the back window, whoa, lightning like crazy. Look at the radar app on my phone, wow, get back to camp NOW. Was only in the stand for 1.5 hours, storm was traveling 35 mph, I barely made it the 3 miles back on my ATV. It was the most incredible lightning storm I have ever seen in my life, one of those butt-pucker storms. It apparently dropped quarter sized hail in some area's.
Monday night I get out, I'm watching the feeder in front of me at 100 yards with the thermal. Out the right window I can see well out in to a neighboring property. At about 9:45 PM I heard grunts, sounds like it was behind me. Winds were 25mph so I was surprised I could hear anything. Then I hear squealing, so I know it isn't a lone boar. Talk about noise, grunts, squealing, etc. I look out the right window and see about 20 sows and piglets coming in from about 200 yards away, they were making so much noise that I could hear them in the wind.
Between my blind and the neighbors property line, which is about 50 yards away is the dirt road I drove up. I'm up on a bluff and there is a steep drop down the road, also a drop going down to the meadow to the neighbors property. The hogs stop right below me about 30 yards, but the brush and trees are thick. I had opportunities on some of the larger sows between the brush and trees but figured I would wait to see if they go to the feeder.
After about 10 minutes they decide to come straight up the steep embankment towards me. Well I made a big mistake, I had on one of the T20 IR Illuminators I built so I can view them better when they were further out through my PVS-14 with 3x magnifier and Eotech. One thing I've learned, all animals can see the red glow from the IR. My problem was they came up 15 yards from me and the moon was out and I didn't need the illuminator. One of the larger sows comes up first and she freezes when she sees the red blow....crap.
I know she is going to bolt as she got all nervous. She is facing me head on, she turns her head slightly and I put the dot from the Eotech right behind the ear. Not sure why I did that, should have popped her right in the head, maybe because the neck was a bigger target. Boom, she squeals and turns, hogs are running everywhere. I get off two more shots at hogs as they were crossing an opening, but missed. I figure the sow is laying just down below, so I hike down there, looking for snakes on the way because we have seen many already. I was using the thermal to find her, nothing. No blood, no hog, nothing. I slowly move out and cross the neighbors fence and went back in quite a ways, no hog, WTF?
I was using 60gr Vmax handloads from my 10.5" suppressed .223 Wylde. Now I'm disappointed, because I've read great reports from others here.
Not wanting to give up on the load yet, I head out to my main stand, the wind isn't in a very good direction, but I figure if they come in from two of the directions I would have a chance. Right at dark I seen a lone boar coming in. He is really cautious approaching the feeder as I had drove to it earlier in the day with the ATV to fill the feeder.
He is hanging out about 15 yards past the feeder, right at about 85 yards. I figure if he was going to hang around back there for awhile, I was going to try the 60gr Vmax one more time (even though I had my 12.5" 6.8 back in the trailer). I center his neck just behind the ear, boom, down he goes. His rear legs kicked a couple of times and that was it. The bullet worked like I expected it to.
Thick shield on this boar running right up to his head. On the scale he tipped 252 pounds, not much for cutters, but a good boar overall, my largest this year. I headed home the yesterday. So really only two nights of hunting, good action. I have another group of 20+ hogs that keep hitting my feeder at the same location, as a matter of fact and hour after I shot this boar, another boar came in, and he was run off by a bigger boar, and an hour after he left, a group of 20+ hogs came in. Guess I should have just left him lay there and kept hunting lol.
Got to the lease on Sunday early enough to head out to one of my blinds. I kept seeing flashes from inside the blind, I look out the back window, whoa, lightning like crazy. Look at the radar app on my phone, wow, get back to camp NOW. Was only in the stand for 1.5 hours, storm was traveling 35 mph, I barely made it the 3 miles back on my ATV. It was the most incredible lightning storm I have ever seen in my life, one of those butt-pucker storms. It apparently dropped quarter sized hail in some area's.
Monday night I get out, I'm watching the feeder in front of me at 100 yards with the thermal. Out the right window I can see well out in to a neighboring property. At about 9:45 PM I heard grunts, sounds like it was behind me. Winds were 25mph so I was surprised I could hear anything. Then I hear squealing, so I know it isn't a lone boar. Talk about noise, grunts, squealing, etc. I look out the right window and see about 20 sows and piglets coming in from about 200 yards away, they were making so much noise that I could hear them in the wind.
Between my blind and the neighbors property line, which is about 50 yards away is the dirt road I drove up. I'm up on a bluff and there is a steep drop down the road, also a drop going down to the meadow to the neighbors property. The hogs stop right below me about 30 yards, but the brush and trees are thick. I had opportunities on some of the larger sows between the brush and trees but figured I would wait to see if they go to the feeder.
After about 10 minutes they decide to come straight up the steep embankment towards me. Well I made a big mistake, I had on one of the T20 IR Illuminators I built so I can view them better when they were further out through my PVS-14 with 3x magnifier and Eotech. One thing I've learned, all animals can see the red glow from the IR. My problem was they came up 15 yards from me and the moon was out and I didn't need the illuminator. One of the larger sows comes up first and she freezes when she sees the red blow....crap.
I know she is going to bolt as she got all nervous. She is facing me head on, she turns her head slightly and I put the dot from the Eotech right behind the ear. Not sure why I did that, should have popped her right in the head, maybe because the neck was a bigger target. Boom, she squeals and turns, hogs are running everywhere. I get off two more shots at hogs as they were crossing an opening, but missed. I figure the sow is laying just down below, so I hike down there, looking for snakes on the way because we have seen many already. I was using the thermal to find her, nothing. No blood, no hog, nothing. I slowly move out and cross the neighbors fence and went back in quite a ways, no hog, WTF?
I was using 60gr Vmax handloads from my 10.5" suppressed .223 Wylde. Now I'm disappointed, because I've read great reports from others here.
Not wanting to give up on the load yet, I head out to my main stand, the wind isn't in a very good direction, but I figure if they come in from two of the directions I would have a chance. Right at dark I seen a lone boar coming in. He is really cautious approaching the feeder as I had drove to it earlier in the day with the ATV to fill the feeder.
He is hanging out about 15 yards past the feeder, right at about 85 yards. I figure if he was going to hang around back there for awhile, I was going to try the 60gr Vmax one more time (even though I had my 12.5" 6.8 back in the trailer). I center his neck just behind the ear, boom, down he goes. His rear legs kicked a couple of times and that was it. The bullet worked like I expected it to.
Thick shield on this boar running right up to his head. On the scale he tipped 252 pounds, not much for cutters, but a good boar overall, my largest this year. I headed home the yesterday. So really only two nights of hunting, good action. I have another group of 20+ hogs that keep hitting my feeder at the same location, as a matter of fact and hour after I shot this boar, another boar came in, and he was run off by a bigger boar, and an hour after he left, a group of 20+ hogs came in. Guess I should have just left him lay there and kept hunting lol.
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