Jake
Bandera, Texas
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SUS VENATOR CLUB
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Well, I had one heck of a hunt Friday night. Tim, my hunting buddy didn’t want to go but boy am I glad I talked him into it. The property we are hunting has four separate oat fields on it but one field in particular is getting hit hard by the hogs. They are rooting it up pretty good, I have no idea what they are after. Next time I want to take a shovel and see if there are grubs or other insects. It is the same field we shot the two large sows and smaller boar in the last few weeks. The other fields appear to be untouched.
We arrived around 2045 and staged in an un-cultivated rocky spot in the center of the field. It was a mild 58 degree night, the steady east breeze was absolutely perfect because the hog trails were coming into the field from the East. I commented that is unusual to hear so many crickets this time of year. Time to wait. I knew the thin bright crescent would drop and hit the horizon around 2300. I anticipated that the swine would show up close to then.
I scanned with my PVS-14 for an hour while Tim and I caught up on life, hunting ideas, and dreams of thermal scopes. The skull crusher was getting a little heavy so I removed the PVS for five minutes. Sure enough when I put it back up there was an awful large dark shape at the fence line 200 yards to the East. When I put the magnifier up I couldn’t believe my eye, big lonesome. My dreams went from thermal optics to the Club of the Sus Venators, the stalk was on.
I knew I didn’t need to get so close but I just couldn’t stop myself, its part of the fun. We kept our illuminators off until we were ready to shoot. Tim knew I wanted a big one and was kind enough to say, “he’s all yours.” I acquired the boar in the Photon XT. There was a little lull in the wind and when Tim clicked the loud tail cap of his illuminator I think Big Boy heard it. It then appears he looked up and saw the red glow from the illuminators, first looking Tim’s way, then right at me. Luckily flight outweighed the urge to fight. As he turned to head out I let him have it. The 110 grain tac-tx left my blackout and hit him just behind the base of the skull. It severed the spine then lodged in his left jowell, getting beautiful expansion along the way. Needless to say I was pretty excited but we have learned to stay quiet and retreat.
We drove around the rest of the property and found three medium sized hogs moving through the place. They disappeared behind some oaks and we attempted a stalk. We had a decent shot at them under some trees but elected to move around the trees so we didn’t have the problem where our illuminators blind us as the beams light up the trees. I’m not sure if they busted us or they decided to move on but they trotted off. We checked the other oat fields then returned to the honey hole.
We watched for an hour or so and Tim was about ready to quit as he had family obligations the next day and it was getting late. Tim removed his helmet and was putting gear away. I begged for five more minutes. I stood up to scan and all of a sudden there they were, coming through the fence. It was a good sized sounder, a lot further to the South end of the field this time. We headed to the South before turning back East to close the distance. I’ll get the second video up shortly.
It was Tim’s turn for first shot. He was on my left so I knew he would take the lead sow. I settled in on the middle of the pack but turned to the large spotted sow once she wasn’t blocked by the smaller hogs. When Tim fired I squeezed off. If you watch frame by frame you can see the pressure wave on the lead sow’s shoulder as Tim’s 90 grain 6.8 bullet hits her. Pretty neat stuff. My sow actually gets knocked belly up, feet in the air. I picked up the first movement I could find and could tell the hog had been hit but shot anyway. I appeared to knock her down but I think she might have just died at that exact moment as I couldn’t find another hole in her fresh mud-packed hide. Either that or my bullet scared her to death as it went by. When I panned back I just caught the last pig going through the fence and launched a quick prayer shot that missed right. Something we didn’t realize until watching the video is that Tim’s bullet passed through both shoulders of his sow and knocked the black hog behind her down. It was gone when I panned back by but who knows, might have been fatal eventually.
Can’t wait to get a thermal scope and larger field of view for acquiring targets and help witht running shots. I cut the backstraps out of both sows and two are in the slow cooker as I write. Hope yall enjoy the videos and story!
We arrived around 2045 and staged in an un-cultivated rocky spot in the center of the field. It was a mild 58 degree night, the steady east breeze was absolutely perfect because the hog trails were coming into the field from the East. I commented that is unusual to hear so many crickets this time of year. Time to wait. I knew the thin bright crescent would drop and hit the horizon around 2300. I anticipated that the swine would show up close to then.
I scanned with my PVS-14 for an hour while Tim and I caught up on life, hunting ideas, and dreams of thermal scopes. The skull crusher was getting a little heavy so I removed the PVS for five minutes. Sure enough when I put it back up there was an awful large dark shape at the fence line 200 yards to the East. When I put the magnifier up I couldn’t believe my eye, big lonesome. My dreams went from thermal optics to the Club of the Sus Venators, the stalk was on.
I knew I didn’t need to get so close but I just couldn’t stop myself, its part of the fun. We kept our illuminators off until we were ready to shoot. Tim knew I wanted a big one and was kind enough to say, “he’s all yours.” I acquired the boar in the Photon XT. There was a little lull in the wind and when Tim clicked the loud tail cap of his illuminator I think Big Boy heard it. It then appears he looked up and saw the red glow from the illuminators, first looking Tim’s way, then right at me. Luckily flight outweighed the urge to fight. As he turned to head out I let him have it. The 110 grain tac-tx left my blackout and hit him just behind the base of the skull. It severed the spine then lodged in his left jowell, getting beautiful expansion along the way. Needless to say I was pretty excited but we have learned to stay quiet and retreat.
We drove around the rest of the property and found three medium sized hogs moving through the place. They disappeared behind some oaks and we attempted a stalk. We had a decent shot at them under some trees but elected to move around the trees so we didn’t have the problem where our illuminators blind us as the beams light up the trees. I’m not sure if they busted us or they decided to move on but they trotted off. We checked the other oat fields then returned to the honey hole.
We watched for an hour or so and Tim was about ready to quit as he had family obligations the next day and it was getting late. Tim removed his helmet and was putting gear away. I begged for five more minutes. I stood up to scan and all of a sudden there they were, coming through the fence. It was a good sized sounder, a lot further to the South end of the field this time. We headed to the South before turning back East to close the distance. I’ll get the second video up shortly.
It was Tim’s turn for first shot. He was on my left so I knew he would take the lead sow. I settled in on the middle of the pack but turned to the large spotted sow once she wasn’t blocked by the smaller hogs. When Tim fired I squeezed off. If you watch frame by frame you can see the pressure wave on the lead sow’s shoulder as Tim’s 90 grain 6.8 bullet hits her. Pretty neat stuff. My sow actually gets knocked belly up, feet in the air. I picked up the first movement I could find and could tell the hog had been hit but shot anyway. I appeared to knock her down but I think she might have just died at that exact moment as I couldn’t find another hole in her fresh mud-packed hide. Either that or my bullet scared her to death as it went by. When I panned back I just caught the last pig going through the fence and launched a quick prayer shot that missed right. Something we didn’t realize until watching the video is that Tim’s bullet passed through both shoulders of his sow and knocked the black hog behind her down. It was gone when I panned back by but who knows, might have been fatal eventually.
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