I wish I had my DVR tonight. I went back to try and get the boar that eluded me when I accidently flipped the lens cover back over the lens last week. He wasn't in the pasture where I saw him last week, but I saw some cows in the next pasture to the west along the north fence line. I started stalking toward them, trying to see if there were any hogs feeding in the produce that the rancher had put out for them. I got within about 300 yds and suddenly the wind shifted from the south, instead of the west, and was blowing directly towards them. I decided to head directly west before approaching any closer. Finally I got on the west side of them and started angling back toward them and checking them with the scope, when I saw something down in the creek bed. It was about 20-30 yds away from the cows but working back towards them, slipping through the brush.. It popped out of the brush just a couple of yds from the cows looking directly towards me, looked like a perfectly round nose, upright ears like a pig listening, flipped a short tail in a circular motion several times 360*. If I was a betting man I would have bet $1000 it was a pig. I stood and watched that animal for at least 5-10 minutes waiting for it to walk on up the creek bank. I could see it's entire body, but not it's legs. Finally it walked up and it was about a 300# calf. I guess his tail had cooled off from standing in the creek or something. I was probably 75-80 yds away and he was quartered towards me. Thinking back the only thing that really looked off was his face (nose) was too short. I've been around hogs and cattle my entire life, my family use to raise hogs for the market, and my in-laws raise cattle in Al. Don't rely on the silohette to identify, try to get some movement as well.
Identify your target!
- Thread starter customcutter
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Bob Abbott
LSB Member
Definitely good advise CC.
I've always thought that we learn more from our mistake than we do from our accomplishments. I also believe that it's easier to learn from someone else's mistakes than it is to make them yourself.
When I worked in the Corporate world part of my job was to investigate and find the root causes of accidents. Some of the time it's operator error, sometimes it's equipment error, and sometimes it's a combination of both. The goal was to try to keep it from happening again.
In this case it was what we called a "near miss", and reporting the details and educating the operators was the best way to prevent it.
When I worked in the Corporate world part of my job was to investigate and find the root causes of accidents. Some of the time it's operator error, sometimes it's equipment error, and sometimes it's a combination of both. The goal was to try to keep it from happening again.
In this case it was what we called a "near miss", and reporting the details and educating the operators was the best way to prevent it.
Yes. it's best to not shoot even when you can hear hogs but only catch a glimpse. Too easy to make a mistake at night.
Thanks for this reminder!!
Thanks for this reminder!!
Thanks for the reminder ... Better to be safe than sorry. I remember one hunting trip, we spotted a group of hogs and they spooked and ran into the brush. We could see their hot signatures but I said don't shoot since it looked like there were also deer where the hogs ran. Sure enough about 5 - 10 minutes later, deer came out from the same direction the hogs ran to.
Never shoot at heat only. Always identify your target or do not pull the trigger. It just seems at 80 yards it would be fairly easy to identify a hog VS a calf. Must have been a bad thermal night (can't control that), unit not set correctly (user error which will improve with practice) or not that great of a unit.
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Nope, that's my point, I could make out the silohette of this calf perfectly, there was nothing between him and me, the Zeus 3x 640 75mm was working perfectly on 3x mag at about 75 to 80 yds. At the angle this calf was at, it looked like a pig, like I said I wish I had it recorded on my DVR, but it's in the mail right now. Everyone would have been screaming SHOOT! SHOOT!. I saw him flip his tail 360* at least 3 times while I was watching at it looked like it was 10-12" long, must have cooled off in the creek. I haven't paid much attention to cows tails only the 3rd time out with thermal. His nose appeared perfectly round, not rectangular like a cows should be, and the ears appeared more like a pigs than a calf's. I'm just glad I decided to watch him a little longer, and make 110% ID
RattlesnakeDan
San Antonio Texas
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I have stalked up on more stumps when bowhunting bears than I care to admit. Easy to mistake things in the wild especially low light conditions. I almost shot a dog thinking it was a coyote when my brother stopped me and pointed out the people walking behind that dog where they were not supposed to be. Private land on a river bottom in Montana. Almost an oops.
My most common misidentification with thermal is a deer with its head down in high grass. The back of a deer can look a lot like the back of a hog that has its head down and feeding, hidden by the grass. I have stalked several, waiting for the head to come up for a final ID. General traits are not good enough for an actual identification.
Had the same thing happen not too long ago... was a buck with his head down and looked like a big hog / small calf. I decided to get closer to make sure and good thing cuz he lifted up his head and was a big 12 or so.