I have had a hog coming all week long. At least I thought it was one hog. I never had more than one hog on the cams. It was showing up on my east feeder camera. Initially, it was coming at about the same time, but then it got wacky and was all over the board, so long as it was night. My east feeder is located very close to my water hole and I have a tripod stand overlooking both locations.
I have showed up too late for the hog, and it was gone. I showed up and it was there, during the middle of a rain shower, and I was unable to successful stalk in for a clear shot. I could have tried shooting through foliage, but since most of the foliage was close to me, I figured that any deflection close by would result in being that much further off the mark over where the hog was, so no shot before it spooked.
Night before last, I was chased off the stand by the storms that rolled through and all of the electrical activity. As much as I like to watch a lightning storm, I don't like to watch it from the perch of a tripod stand. About 90 minutes after I went home to safety, the hog arrived.
So last night, I came prepared to stay the entire night. I was going to be there regardless of the hour of arrival. The weather was beautiful, cool, and in the woods, almost dead calm. Hearing armadillos at an excess of 60 yards wasn't a problem, but it was that leaf litter and such that kept me from stalking around because then everything could hear me as well. So I sat and waited.
About 10:40, I started getting images from my food plot camera to the west. The pig had arrived. He had never arrived on the west side first, always on the east side where I was, at least according to the cellular cameras, but I figured he would come to me. A short time later, I get an image that showed 2 hogs! This was new. So far, I had only solitary images. Then, the images stopped and I spent the next hour and a half trying to remain still, 2nd guessing why I didn't try stalking over to get the hog (might have been 'hogs' by the time I arrived) and whether or not I could do it quietly enough and given the breeze outside of the trees.
Except for being scared off, when the hog had hit the east feeder, it had stayed until the corn was gone. This ranged in time from 1-2 hours. So I felt pretty good that it would show up sooner or later. Several times I thought I heard it coming, only to be wrong. Then I did.
Coming down into the valley of my water hole from the NW, I saw the pair of hogs. Unlike as indicated in the picture, they were really about the same size. The pic has some forced perspective issue going on. Anyway, they came in and came towards me before cutting back and away toward the water hole where I assumed they would drink or use the trail next to it that leads up to the east feeder. At the closest point, they were about 40 yards away as I was getting the rifle up and sighted on them.
They stayed together, making the little social grunts, meandering more than walking. One stopped to scratch its side with its rear leg and the other pivoted around. I was tracking the hog that scratched at this point and when its head crossed with the 2nd hog's head I was lined up for a nice head shot and I FIRED. They were approximately 50 yards away.
The rifle went, 'CLICK.'
The hogs did not run, but continued closer to the water hole. I knew the rifle was loaded, so I ejected the round into my hand and then did a 'quiet' chambering of a new round using the T-handle to lower the bolt onto the next round and gently nudging it out of the mag with the forward assist, not allowing the recoil spring to slam the new round into the chamber. Obviously, this is not as quiet as I would have liked, probably about like working the bolt on a bolt gun. It was enough noise that they took a left turn for the exit trail that leads to my neighbor's property that is maybe 30-40 yards from where they were.
They were not running or even moving fast. They were now single file and walking up the trail and away from me. I got a bead on the trailing hog and my only solid shot was in the butt. I could have tried for a top of the back shot, and I thought I might get a back of the head shot, but the head was low and generally the show would have been at a very shallow angle. So the butt was it and being that close to the neighbor's property and knowing that such a shot may not be immediately incapacitating or quickly killing, I let him walk.
I waited nearly two hours and they did not return.
What happened? Long story short, I was using reloads. These were loaded for me by a good friend (I don't reload). I have to take some responsibility for using them as it was my choice and not a necessity. There had been some problems during the load/grouping tests where rounds would chamber, but not quite fully somehow, and the hammer would fall, but the firing pin not strike the primer. He had said they were quick work-ups for the testing and that he had gauged everything to spec for the rounds I was using for hunting. I had fired about 20 so far with no problems to date and all seemed well...until last night.
So I lost one hog, maybe two, because a reload did not chamber properly. I am now left with a bunch of very accurate (for my rifle) reloaded plinking ammo and will be going back to using factory ammo. I had over 30 hours time, 400 miles of driving, and a lot of mental effort (planning, scheming, 2nd guessing) directed into getting that hog over the course of this week and then lost the chance because of the ammo. I should have treated it like self defense ammo where you only used what you know to be reliable and performs well in your gun for any critical shooting situation and I didn't. While my life wasn't on the line, this was a critical shot, close range, not much room for error and I had an error with ammo for which I don't know the QC and that didn't have an established performance history. And that's on me.
I have showed up too late for the hog, and it was gone. I showed up and it was there, during the middle of a rain shower, and I was unable to successful stalk in for a clear shot. I could have tried shooting through foliage, but since most of the foliage was close to me, I figured that any deflection close by would result in being that much further off the mark over where the hog was, so no shot before it spooked.
Night before last, I was chased off the stand by the storms that rolled through and all of the electrical activity. As much as I like to watch a lightning storm, I don't like to watch it from the perch of a tripod stand. About 90 minutes after I went home to safety, the hog arrived.
So last night, I came prepared to stay the entire night. I was going to be there regardless of the hour of arrival. The weather was beautiful, cool, and in the woods, almost dead calm. Hearing armadillos at an excess of 60 yards wasn't a problem, but it was that leaf litter and such that kept me from stalking around because then everything could hear me as well. So I sat and waited.
About 10:40, I started getting images from my food plot camera to the west. The pig had arrived. He had never arrived on the west side first, always on the east side where I was, at least according to the cellular cameras, but I figured he would come to me. A short time later, I get an image that showed 2 hogs! This was new. So far, I had only solitary images. Then, the images stopped and I spent the next hour and a half trying to remain still, 2nd guessing why I didn't try stalking over to get the hog (might have been 'hogs' by the time I arrived) and whether or not I could do it quietly enough and given the breeze outside of the trees.
Except for being scared off, when the hog had hit the east feeder, it had stayed until the corn was gone. This ranged in time from 1-2 hours. So I felt pretty good that it would show up sooner or later. Several times I thought I heard it coming, only to be wrong. Then I did.
Coming down into the valley of my water hole from the NW, I saw the pair of hogs. Unlike as indicated in the picture, they were really about the same size. The pic has some forced perspective issue going on. Anyway, they came in and came towards me before cutting back and away toward the water hole where I assumed they would drink or use the trail next to it that leads up to the east feeder. At the closest point, they were about 40 yards away as I was getting the rifle up and sighted on them.
They stayed together, making the little social grunts, meandering more than walking. One stopped to scratch its side with its rear leg and the other pivoted around. I was tracking the hog that scratched at this point and when its head crossed with the 2nd hog's head I was lined up for a nice head shot and I FIRED. They were approximately 50 yards away.
The rifle went, 'CLICK.'
The hogs did not run, but continued closer to the water hole. I knew the rifle was loaded, so I ejected the round into my hand and then did a 'quiet' chambering of a new round using the T-handle to lower the bolt onto the next round and gently nudging it out of the mag with the forward assist, not allowing the recoil spring to slam the new round into the chamber. Obviously, this is not as quiet as I would have liked, probably about like working the bolt on a bolt gun. It was enough noise that they took a left turn for the exit trail that leads to my neighbor's property that is maybe 30-40 yards from where they were.
They were not running or even moving fast. They were now single file and walking up the trail and away from me. I got a bead on the trailing hog and my only solid shot was in the butt. I could have tried for a top of the back shot, and I thought I might get a back of the head shot, but the head was low and generally the show would have been at a very shallow angle. So the butt was it and being that close to the neighbor's property and knowing that such a shot may not be immediately incapacitating or quickly killing, I let him walk.
I waited nearly two hours and they did not return.
What happened? Long story short, I was using reloads. These were loaded for me by a good friend (I don't reload). I have to take some responsibility for using them as it was my choice and not a necessity. There had been some problems during the load/grouping tests where rounds would chamber, but not quite fully somehow, and the hammer would fall, but the firing pin not strike the primer. He had said they were quick work-ups for the testing and that he had gauged everything to spec for the rounds I was using for hunting. I had fired about 20 so far with no problems to date and all seemed well...until last night.
So I lost one hog, maybe two, because a reload did not chamber properly. I am now left with a bunch of very accurate (for my rifle) reloaded plinking ammo and will be going back to using factory ammo. I had over 30 hours time, 400 miles of driving, and a lot of mental effort (planning, scheming, 2nd guessing) directed into getting that hog over the course of this week and then lost the chance because of the ammo. I should have treated it like self defense ammo where you only used what you know to be reliable and performs well in your gun for any critical shooting situation and I didn't. While my life wasn't on the line, this was a critical shot, close range, not much room for error and I had an error with ammo for which I don't know the QC and that didn't have an established performance history. And that's on me.
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