Day#2
The second day got started around 11 and we headed in to town for a 5/32 allen wrench and battery. Amazingly enough, as the day wore on, the battery issue and sticky transmission both seemed to have resolved themselves and things were right in the world.
We were far more prepared the second night and immediately headed to the south. Our fist stop turned out to be quite productive. Rolling around a corner we glassed a 40 acre section that was surrounded by trees on three sides. At the end there was a party of around 12 pigs. My guests had been grumbling about the distances that we had been stalking the night before so I let them take lead tonight. At one point Im thinking WTF, we’re trying to shoot the pigs not pet the damn things. We are so close that they are plainly visible and somehow we all manage to coordinate our targets and firing without the pigs scattering beforehand. I lined up on the biggest to the left and Mike and Alex were taking everything in the center and right.
We open up and pigs are dropping. When the firing stops Im looking over the field and there is a group of 5 smaller pigs just hanging out about 20 yards from me on my left. I open fire and can hear thuds but they keep running. I figure they cant run that far but apparently they can. So much for the magical 6.8. Lesson one, shot placement still matters.
I walk back to retrieve the wheeler and get back to the guys wondering about our kill count, TWO! Whaaaaat? We had at least 5 confirmed when the shooting stopped. Zombie pigs full of holes crawled off into the woods. Mike said he clearly saw one with his leg blown off crawling away and he hit him again to put him down but now he was gone too. In any event, I got mine and someone got the other big one so I wasn't too broke up about it.
We head to the farthest field where we had spotted pigs the night before and we were not disappointed. A large boar up against the trees. We stalk, we aim we shoot. Thud, thud, thud as he's running parallel with the trees and finally he figures out maybe he should be IN the trees and he's gone.
Down to the far south end of the field we go and here we find another nice pig rooting along the edge of the trees. All three of us open up on it and it takes off running through tall weeds. The thermal guys keep shooting but my NV isn't seeing it. They say it's down. I go back for the wheeler and when I get back, they have now lost it. DAMN! Now we are all sitting there refilling magazines discussing where to go next and shaking our heads about how that one could have disappeared when we hear some pained grunting. Ooooooh, it's close. Mike ventures out in to the weeds and we follow. He’s looking down at his feet and saying "here it is.” I point my headlamp where he's pointing and still cant see it. Finally, we see a little movement but cant tell what end we are looking at. We are literally close enough to poke it but can only make out about 8 square inched of pig fur. We back away and send it to piggy heaven. Pulling him out of the weeds, he was a pretty good size and we counted ourselves lucky that we had hung around those extra minutes.
So we decide to head back north. About 500 yards away, we stop at a rise to glass the fields. Mike looks behind us and there is a large pig hanging out in the area from whence we had just vacated not two minutes before. About face and back to take care of customer #4. I had the honors and lined up a neck shot and down he went. He must not have cared cause he was shaking his legs in the air so I hit him again. I thought I saw dust flying out but the thermal guys were oohing and ahhing about gushing blood spurts. It’s times like that video would be really nice. We were back at the RV around 3 am ending up with a total of 4 pigs for the second night.
Sunday morning I head up to the north fields and notice a couple combines staged but no one else around. At least the fields will be ready on my next trip.
Day #3
Night #3 and we are at 5 pigs total for 2 nights between the 3 of us. With somewhere around 20 that are wandering around with extra holes in them. The night starts again at about 8:00. The moon isn’t up yet and it looks like I will need the IR illuminator to see anything. We head to the far west fields that have been so productive and are not disappointed. A large group of 20 pigs is in the midst of supping. We stalk within 70 yards or so and open up. I have a problem, a DJ problem. FTL! I try and clear. Nothing. Clear again, nothing. Finally I get one to load. Meantime my buddy’s have emptied their mags and mine is still full. I might have got one I can’t remember. 6.8 Lesson #2, Don’t fill the APS magazines to capacity. We got 3 out of the group. Mike said he could see the bullet holes appear as he was shooting one pig. No video
We head back south. Mike is glassing and is speechless. In the distance there is a group of pigs that looks to number at least a hundred. We make our way that direction but it starts getting muddier and muddier. We stop at some tractor ruts the size of a small canyon. We gave up on the pig promise land ahead of us as they are still too far and no one has waders.
We turn around but just to the west we see a group in the trees. We drive over and find them. Nice group of about 7 or ten with all sizes represented. We open up but with my illuminator on, the gas has me blinded and I cant see anything after the first shot so I step back and let them keep firing. All of a sudden I hear galloping at about 2 o’clock. I raise up and see what looks like a medium pig coming in hot. He’s all blurry cause he's that close, and I take a shot (I’m told). I dont remember taking it but I do know I didnt want to take one as I panned left cause I didnt know exactly where the rest of the crew was. I did follow it though and it dropped about 15 feet in front of my buddies. Dead, like that. Weird. My buddy said I shot, still cant remember. Must be my sometimerz. When we look at him, he's pretty big. Way bigger than he looked in the scope but I definitely recall the thundering sound of hooves approaching... fast, haha. As we scan there are still piglets at the edge. I head back to the wheeler for the 12 ga. loaded with 00 shot. By the time I get back they have dispersed and I am sad because I have yet to blast a pig of any size with it.
We head north, STOP!! Pig not 20 yards off the road at 3 o’clock. Mike takes the shot from the wheeler and drops him with two shots. a short track and there he is. Cleanest pig I’ve ever seen.
I got the the last two of the night as we headed back. I knocked ‘em both down with head shots. It was a total of 9 kills that last night. 14 kills over 3 days.
The second day got started around 11 and we headed in to town for a 5/32 allen wrench and battery. Amazingly enough, as the day wore on, the battery issue and sticky transmission both seemed to have resolved themselves and things were right in the world.
We were far more prepared the second night and immediately headed to the south. Our fist stop turned out to be quite productive. Rolling around a corner we glassed a 40 acre section that was surrounded by trees on three sides. At the end there was a party of around 12 pigs. My guests had been grumbling about the distances that we had been stalking the night before so I let them take lead tonight. At one point Im thinking WTF, we’re trying to shoot the pigs not pet the damn things. We are so close that they are plainly visible and somehow we all manage to coordinate our targets and firing without the pigs scattering beforehand. I lined up on the biggest to the left and Mike and Alex were taking everything in the center and right.
We open up and pigs are dropping. When the firing stops Im looking over the field and there is a group of 5 smaller pigs just hanging out about 20 yards from me on my left. I open fire and can hear thuds but they keep running. I figure they cant run that far but apparently they can. So much for the magical 6.8. Lesson one, shot placement still matters.
I walk back to retrieve the wheeler and get back to the guys wondering about our kill count, TWO! Whaaaaat? We had at least 5 confirmed when the shooting stopped. Zombie pigs full of holes crawled off into the woods. Mike said he clearly saw one with his leg blown off crawling away and he hit him again to put him down but now he was gone too. In any event, I got mine and someone got the other big one so I wasn't too broke up about it.
We head to the farthest field where we had spotted pigs the night before and we were not disappointed. A large boar up against the trees. We stalk, we aim we shoot. Thud, thud, thud as he's running parallel with the trees and finally he figures out maybe he should be IN the trees and he's gone.
Down to the far south end of the field we go and here we find another nice pig rooting along the edge of the trees. All three of us open up on it and it takes off running through tall weeds. The thermal guys keep shooting but my NV isn't seeing it. They say it's down. I go back for the wheeler and when I get back, they have now lost it. DAMN! Now we are all sitting there refilling magazines discussing where to go next and shaking our heads about how that one could have disappeared when we hear some pained grunting. Ooooooh, it's close. Mike ventures out in to the weeds and we follow. He’s looking down at his feet and saying "here it is.” I point my headlamp where he's pointing and still cant see it. Finally, we see a little movement but cant tell what end we are looking at. We are literally close enough to poke it but can only make out about 8 square inched of pig fur. We back away and send it to piggy heaven. Pulling him out of the weeds, he was a pretty good size and we counted ourselves lucky that we had hung around those extra minutes.
So we decide to head back north. About 500 yards away, we stop at a rise to glass the fields. Mike looks behind us and there is a large pig hanging out in the area from whence we had just vacated not two minutes before. About face and back to take care of customer #4. I had the honors and lined up a neck shot and down he went. He must not have cared cause he was shaking his legs in the air so I hit him again. I thought I saw dust flying out but the thermal guys were oohing and ahhing about gushing blood spurts. It’s times like that video would be really nice. We were back at the RV around 3 am ending up with a total of 4 pigs for the second night.
Sunday morning I head up to the north fields and notice a couple combines staged but no one else around. At least the fields will be ready on my next trip.
Day #3
Night #3 and we are at 5 pigs total for 2 nights between the 3 of us. With somewhere around 20 that are wandering around with extra holes in them. The night starts again at about 8:00. The moon isn’t up yet and it looks like I will need the IR illuminator to see anything. We head to the far west fields that have been so productive and are not disappointed. A large group of 20 pigs is in the midst of supping. We stalk within 70 yards or so and open up. I have a problem, a DJ problem. FTL! I try and clear. Nothing. Clear again, nothing. Finally I get one to load. Meantime my buddy’s have emptied their mags and mine is still full. I might have got one I can’t remember. 6.8 Lesson #2, Don’t fill the APS magazines to capacity. We got 3 out of the group. Mike said he could see the bullet holes appear as he was shooting one pig. No video
We head back south. Mike is glassing and is speechless. In the distance there is a group of pigs that looks to number at least a hundred. We make our way that direction but it starts getting muddier and muddier. We stop at some tractor ruts the size of a small canyon. We gave up on the pig promise land ahead of us as they are still too far and no one has waders.
We turn around but just to the west we see a group in the trees. We drive over and find them. Nice group of about 7 or ten with all sizes represented. We open up but with my illuminator on, the gas has me blinded and I cant see anything after the first shot so I step back and let them keep firing. All of a sudden I hear galloping at about 2 o’clock. I raise up and see what looks like a medium pig coming in hot. He’s all blurry cause he's that close, and I take a shot (I’m told). I dont remember taking it but I do know I didnt want to take one as I panned left cause I didnt know exactly where the rest of the crew was. I did follow it though and it dropped about 15 feet in front of my buddies. Dead, like that. Weird. My buddy said I shot, still cant remember. Must be my sometimerz. When we look at him, he's pretty big. Way bigger than he looked in the scope but I definitely recall the thundering sound of hooves approaching... fast, haha. As we scan there are still piglets at the edge. I head back to the wheeler for the 12 ga. loaded with 00 shot. By the time I get back they have dispersed and I am sad because I have yet to blast a pig of any size with it.
We head north, STOP!! Pig not 20 yards off the road at 3 o’clock. Mike takes the shot from the wheeler and drops him with two shots. a short track and there he is. Cleanest pig I’ve ever seen.
I got the the last two of the night as we headed back. I knocked ‘em both down with head shots. It was a total of 9 kills that last night. 14 kills over 3 days.
