This hunt started off as a typical hunt where I hiked my gear about a half mile to a tower stand at my buddy's place. He had called and said that they had lots of hogs and sent me an email with a picture of proof. So from about 6:30 pm to 11:30, I am watching a large field, food plot, and 2 feeders and seeing tons of deer, lots of skunks, a few rabbits, but no hogs. For 3 of those hours various groups of deer bedded down in this large field and food plot. This is never a good sign to me as it seems to mean the deer sense absolutely no danger, which means no hogs as hogs are a danger to deer. As I have learned from others, seen on videos, and witnessed, hogs and deer just don't get along and usually when hogs come in, deer move out. Well after the last of the deer finally left, the temperature had dropped and a strong north wind had developed, I got cold and I decided to call it a night. So I packed up for my trek back to my car.
As is my practice because I hope to maybe hunt on my way out, I try not to use my headlamp except in confined areas or tree-lined paths where I might happen to surprise a skunk coming out of the woods. Of all the possible dangers, skunks are amongst my greatest fears when hunting, not because of actual danger, but because of the myriad of problems that will come with getting sprayed.
In open areas, I typically rely on my FLIR spotting scope to spot animals, avoid skunks, and if I think something might be a hog, then I will use my Pulsar NV rifle scope. Usually I will walk about 50-100 feet at a time, stop, and then do a scan with the FLIR in all directions, then continue. Depending on what I can see and do see, the walk back from the stand can take up to 30 minutes. Up until this date, I had never seen a hog on my way out.
So I am within 300 yards of my car and come up on a tree line shielding the last pasture I have to cross to get to my car. There is a feeder just behind the trees and sometimes I will scare up some deer or raccoons on my way out. With the FLIR, I was able to spot numerous larger animals, but part of the view was blocked by the trees and so I circled around to where I could get a clear view of the pasture and with my FLIR scope could see that there were 8 or 9 deer of various sizes scattered in the pasture. Some were standing and looking around, two were bedded down and I could see their heads looking around above the shin-knee high grass, and some had their heads down to eat in the pasture. None were actually at the feeder.
Here I need to explain that with my lower end FLIR PS32 scope, animals such as deer and hogs glow white and when they are not close, they look like a glowing white profile of the animal. Sometimes deer and hogs can look quite a bit alike if you can't tell how big they are and the heads are down to feed. When they raise their heads, the deer become very obvious because of their long necks and the height that they can raise their heads. Also, deer don't run with their heads low, but hogs do.
So I see a pasture full of deer and I move about 30 yards over to a car path that will take my to where I parked, but it goes by a grove of high grass and trees which increases my chances of running into skunks. At this point I can see my car with the thermal scope. I am 200 yards from it and I know my hunt is over and the last animals I will see are more deer in this pasture and so I turn on my headlamp to help me see skunks. The light disturbs the deer and I hear them start to move about, some as close as 50 yards from me, but when I turn to look at them, I cannot see that far with my little headlamp and so I lift of up FLIR to see what the deer are doing. They are scattering in various directions from me, not in too much of a hurry, but definitely on the move. Maybe 70 or 80 yards away, I see one following another as they move across my line of sight, actually moving in my same direction (parallel), but the trailing deer has no neck! It has got to be a hog. So there was a hog amongst the group of deer in the pasture!
I turned off my headlamp and raised my rifle up to where I thought the hog would be given its direction and speed and see nothing but deer. I do a small scan and the hog has disappeared! What they heck? Where did it go? So I switch back to the FLIR thinking maybe the hog is hidden in the higher grass and I don't see it. I see plenty of deer but no hog. So I scan a large arc across the field and all the way around to the car trail I was on and there is the hog, about 60-65 yards in front of me and broadside and stopped! He had circled around on me which I had not expected. By the time I get my rifle back up, the hog has turned and is coming toward me! WHAT???? I figured he would duck into the high grass and trees next to the car trail and escape but instead he is coming at me and coming quickly (fast walk).
Granted, he was on one tire track and I was on the other and he wasn't gnashing teeth and didn't appear to be charging, yet at the same time, he had to know I was there and I was not comfortable with the notion that he was closing the distance on me very quickly. Though my headlamp was off, I had my IR light on and it emits a definite glow. So he could see that something was on the car trail with him.
I took a very quick offhand head shot that did not go exactly as planned, but did stop the hog in its tracks at a distance of 42 yards. Of course, looking through the magnification of the scope, the hog appeared to be much closer to me that he really was, but when your whole world is seen through the scope and you perceive a dangerous situation developing quickly, you don't stop and think that the hog is really 3 or 4 times further away than he really is. Instead you think, “He is almost on top of me!”
The intended target was the base of the ear and I hit about 3" low. In my haste, I didn't compensate for the short distance and scope bore height over the barrel bore. I probably yanked the trigger a bit as well. The .308 Nosler Accubond hit the left jaw, penetrated it, and apparently continued onward into the neck and possibly the chest. There was no exit. The jaw was definitely broken.
I chambered a new round and scanned for additional hogs, seeing only deer, most of which were over 100 yards away, but had stopped, were watching, and after I turned my headlamp back on and started taking measurements and pictures, some of the deer went ahead and just bedded down again, seemingly unconcerned about the events that had just occurred or that could still occur, LOL.
So yet again I learn that the hunt is never over until you actually leave the property, not even when you can see your car. Also, sometimes deer don't run from hogs. Sheesh.
Details
Younger Boar, approximately 130 lbs (heart girth estimate)
Remington 788 .308 Nosler Accubond 150 gr. loaded by Silver State Armory
Pulsar N550 Night Vision with **** Torch Pro illuminator
FlIR PS32 thermal spotting scope
Killed 11:50 pm Valentine's Day
