Last time I went to my buddy's place in MS I set up a pig barrel and asked him to check on it every now and then and let me know if anythings is messing with it. I called him when I was driving home from work to see how things were going in the previous couple weeks and asked if he had checked on the barrel yet. He hadn't and told me he would check the next day. He called back the next day and was all excited because the barrel had been completely emptied and the ground was torn up in a neat circle. I got permission from the primary event planner to make a quick trip. My first night was uneventful except for the lessons learned. After getting set up for the evening, I checked to make sure the remote would work on my video recorder. (it didn't work last time due to a dead battery) Nothing worked this time. I couldn't even turn the recorder manually. Turns out that not checking the battery for a full charge before driving 6 hours isn't a good idea. New pre-hunt checklist item check battery charge. Night 2, settled in and checked recorder. Great! Everything turns on like it should. About 9 pm, a large raccoon showed up and rummaged around the feeder area for what seemed like days. Around 9:30, I picked up the thermal spotter and at first thought the raccoon was coming right at my blind. (a pop-up ground blind) It turned out to be a large boar cruising through the area. I turned on the IRD Hunter MKII and checked the settings to make sure it was ready to record and turned on the recorder. The boar was moving away from me and was about 60 yds away and looked like he was going to leave the area without even touching the feed. For the longest time, all I had was a Texas Heart Shot, so I waited a little longer. He finally turned sideways as though he was making one last check of the area so I took the shot. I tried for a head shot, not wanting to have to pursue a hog into the thick swampy brush. He went right down with the shot. I stayed on him for what seemed like forever waiting to make sure he didn't try to get up. He did a short curly shuffle and a lot of leg twitches before he finally quit moving. This time, I called my buddy to get some help getting him back to the skinning rack. When I went to check the boar, he looked huge. We drug him out of the thick stuff. (turns out, he was about 10 ft into the thick brush when I shot him, but it wasn't visible on the thermal) He taped out at 42" I couldn't remember what that worked out to be, but I we both thought he was a lot heavier than that, so we decided to drag him all the way back to the skinning area and put him on a scale. Unfortunately, I was convinced I finally made it into the SV club but it wasn't to be again. He only weighed out at 210 on the scale. He was so thick and barrel chested we were sure he would weigh a lot more than that. He was gnarly and very STANKY so we decided to donate him to the TBPS. Just doing my part to help out those poor birds. Besides, they have been eyeing little kids around there so we made a sacrifice to save the children.
I could not find the entry wound and there was no exit wound. This is the first time that I did not get a pass through on a hog with the 6.8SPC and 120SST ammo. Must have been some nasty CNS trauma going on in that head though.
Now, the bad news. When I got back to the cabin, the video was completely unusable. I will try to post the video when I can finally get it uploaded to hopefully get someone's help. I don't have another mdvr to check to see if the scope output is ok or if the cable is messed up or if the mdvr is messed up. When looking at the mdvr screen, the picture is off-set to the side and things like scope legends are put in different places. The settings are the same as I used last month to make the first video and nothing has been changed since then. Any helpful hints will be greatly appreciated. I would hate to think my recording capabilities have only lasted one hunt.
I could not find the entry wound and there was no exit wound. This is the first time that I did not get a pass through on a hog with the 6.8SPC and 120SST ammo. Must have been some nasty CNS trauma going on in that head though.
Now, the bad news. When I got back to the cabin, the video was completely unusable. I will try to post the video when I can finally get it uploaded to hopefully get someone's help. I don't have another mdvr to check to see if the scope output is ok or if the cable is messed up or if the mdvr is messed up. When looking at the mdvr screen, the picture is off-set to the side and things like scope legends are put in different places. The settings are the same as I used last month to make the first video and nothing has been changed since then. Any helpful hints will be greatly appreciated. I would hate to think my recording capabilities have only lasted one hunt.
