I have had 3 hogs visiting my place for the better part of a month, two smaller boars and one larger boar. We had gone after them 3 time prior, together, and I have gone after them another 2 or 3 times by myself. I suspect they have been hunted before because we have seen them twice, but they were very cagey and took off before getting shot. From the game cam images, the big boar comes in and then disappears for 30 minutes or more before returning to the feeder to eat, when he decides to eat. Several nights, I have him for just one image under the feeder, just passing through I guess.
So we arrived, got settled in the tree stand, checked the gear, and if we got lucky, the first hog would show up a couple hours later, around 10:00 pm.
SlayerBeall (in the LSB cap) is shooting my 6.5 Grendel with Armasight Zeus 3-24x75mm 640 thermal sight and Surefire Genesis suppressor. I am spotting with an Armasight Zeus 2-16x42mm 640.
Much to my surprise, two little boars came in right about 9:30. Awakened SlayerBeall and got her rifle up and going. The hogs were coming in very slowly. It looked like they were right at the feeder. She told me she was taking off the safety and I told her to shoot whenever she was ready. Then it seemed to take forever as MY adrenaline dumped, not knowing which hog she would shoot or when. I was trying hard to not shake the stand, LOL. To be honest, I am not sure it isn't harder to watch than to actually do.
Then there was a muffled pop and the hog #2 went down "like a sack of potatoes" (her description, not mine). Hog #1 only had to run 3 steps before he was hidden by the foliage. Hog #2 disappeared when it dropped, the grass too high. She stayed on target to make sure it didn't get up. It didn't.
Got the truck and drove around to light up the field. Found the hog in the high grass, about 20 yards further back from the feeder than thought. It was 110 lbs and was shot at 120 yards.
Got the new hog dragger out and dragged the hog over for photos and butchering. I had posted on the hog dragger previously. It worked great. No need to chain around the neck or shoulders. A single leg will do.
The little boar didn't have much smell. The shot entered just left of the right eye, traveled through the brain, and exited out just behind the left jaw. With a skull not fully fused together, the overpressure inside the head split the skull along the suture lines in a couple of places. SlayerBeall thought that was rather freaky.
We are grilling backstraps tonight!
I had hunted with Dave Krebs out of Wichita Falls last week, going along as a spotter and manual labor (sort of like for SlayerBeall) for his clients and watched Dave make quick work of several hogs with a neat little knife from Outdoor Edge. I picked one up and got to use it for the first time. Very nifty knife! It made quick work of the hog. First knife I have used where I kept blowing through the hog hide like it was rabbit.
https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Edge...467471696&sr=8-8&keywords=outdoor+edge+knives
So 3 new pieces of gear, the suppressor, hog dragger, and knife and they all worked great! What didn't work great was the video. Not sure what happened. The overview B-roll video turned out fine but the video from the shot got corrupted, apparently very early on in the recording as the file is not large enough in size to cover the amount of time the DVR was turned on. Something else to figure out...
So we arrived, got settled in the tree stand, checked the gear, and if we got lucky, the first hog would show up a couple hours later, around 10:00 pm.
SlayerBeall (in the LSB cap) is shooting my 6.5 Grendel with Armasight Zeus 3-24x75mm 640 thermal sight and Surefire Genesis suppressor. I am spotting with an Armasight Zeus 2-16x42mm 640.
Much to my surprise, two little boars came in right about 9:30. Awakened SlayerBeall and got her rifle up and going. The hogs were coming in very slowly. It looked like they were right at the feeder. She told me she was taking off the safety and I told her to shoot whenever she was ready. Then it seemed to take forever as MY adrenaline dumped, not knowing which hog she would shoot or when. I was trying hard to not shake the stand, LOL. To be honest, I am not sure it isn't harder to watch than to actually do.
Then there was a muffled pop and the hog #2 went down "like a sack of potatoes" (her description, not mine). Hog #1 only had to run 3 steps before he was hidden by the foliage. Hog #2 disappeared when it dropped, the grass too high. She stayed on target to make sure it didn't get up. It didn't.
Got the truck and drove around to light up the field. Found the hog in the high grass, about 20 yards further back from the feeder than thought. It was 110 lbs and was shot at 120 yards.
Got the new hog dragger out and dragged the hog over for photos and butchering. I had posted on the hog dragger previously. It worked great. No need to chain around the neck or shoulders. A single leg will do.
The little boar didn't have much smell. The shot entered just left of the right eye, traveled through the brain, and exited out just behind the left jaw. With a skull not fully fused together, the overpressure inside the head split the skull along the suture lines in a couple of places. SlayerBeall thought that was rather freaky.
We are grilling backstraps tonight!
I had hunted with Dave Krebs out of Wichita Falls last week, going along as a spotter and manual labor (sort of like for SlayerBeall) for his clients and watched Dave make quick work of several hogs with a neat little knife from Outdoor Edge. I picked one up and got to use it for the first time. Very nifty knife! It made quick work of the hog. First knife I have used where I kept blowing through the hog hide like it was rabbit.
https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Edge...467471696&sr=8-8&keywords=outdoor+edge+knives
So 3 new pieces of gear, the suppressor, hog dragger, and knife and they all worked great! What didn't work great was the video. Not sure what happened. The overview B-roll video turned out fine but the video from the shot got corrupted, apparently very early on in the recording as the file is not large enough in size to cover the amount of time the DVR was turned on. Something else to figure out...