Last weekend I finally got on the hunting lease I bought into. The guys I was hunting with said try not to take a buck unless it was over 6 points but take any doe or hog I wanted to. Wind was perfect for hunting but bad for keeping my face from freezing. After a couple of hours I ducked my head to protect my face from a gust of wind. When I looked up 5 little hogs were trotting into the feeder. I managed to pull my gloves off, push back my hood, and finally put in my ear plugs. First look through the scope I decided 3X wasn't good enough so I cranked it up to 9X. I found the chair I was in was too low to get on the pigs so I had to stand up and get myself braced against the blind to get steady. All the pigs were nose on to me so I waited. I keep hearing the video on youtube saying wait the hog will move and give you a good angle but the only movement they made was to walk straight toward me vacuuming up corn. The spotted pig finally turned a little and my nerves got the best of me. I decided that if I put the round right on the inside of the near shoulder I should get both lungs. I got a good steady sight picture and touched off the shot. When I came down off recoil the spotted pig was laying under the feeder not moving while the other pigs scrambled into the ravine.
I have bad legs so scrambling through the ravine myself and dragging a hog up was not an option so I waited for my friends with atv's. When they went over to get it they just walked over. As they got closer I realized it was a lot small than I thought just a little piglet. When we started cleaning it we found the bullet entered just on the inside edge of the shoulder a little high and exited at the back of the offside ribs splitting the side of the abdominal wall nearly gutting it. It's almost hate to say I hit this little pig with a 168 gr soft point out of a 30.06. I was still able to get both front shoulders, the back straps, and the hind quarters. Virtually no meat but the ribs which were much anyway was damaged.
The rifle I had intended to use was a Noreen 25.06 but I had trouble with it when I went to sight it in and couldn't get it sighted in. Fortunately I had a plan B and had bought a new scope for a Winchester Model 70 I've had for probably 25 years but had never taken any game with. The 165 gr boat tail soft point Sierra Game Kings were left over from the early '80's that I had loaded for high power competition back then.
I am happy that I managed to mostly over come my nerves to make a good shot and a clean kill. I still put some meat in the freezer and hope that this is the first of my more.
I have bad legs so scrambling through the ravine myself and dragging a hog up was not an option so I waited for my friends with atv's. When they went over to get it they just walked over. As they got closer I realized it was a lot small than I thought just a little piglet. When we started cleaning it we found the bullet entered just on the inside edge of the shoulder a little high and exited at the back of the offside ribs splitting the side of the abdominal wall nearly gutting it. It's almost hate to say I hit this little pig with a 168 gr soft point out of a 30.06. I was still able to get both front shoulders, the back straps, and the hind quarters. Virtually no meat but the ribs which were much anyway was damaged.
The rifle I had intended to use was a Noreen 25.06 but I had trouble with it when I went to sight it in and couldn't get it sighted in. Fortunately I had a plan B and had bought a new scope for a Winchester Model 70 I've had for probably 25 years but had never taken any game with. The 165 gr boat tail soft point Sierra Game Kings were left over from the early '80's that I had loaded for high power competition back then.
I am happy that I managed to mostly over come my nerves to make a good shot and a clean kill. I still put some meat in the freezer and hope that this is the first of my more.
