I got this email from my Forestburg neighbor that I pulled over to read as it had PIGS in the subject line...
I was hunting my place, but that changed with the news...
I arrived at the cemetery behind my neighbor's place and suited up. It was supposed to get chilly this evening. I searched the two fields to the east of the cemetery with no luck so headed up on top of the Corp dam that overlooks several fields. By the time I got there, everything was a sweaty mess. So I stripped out of my cold weather gear, vest, etc. in order to cool off before things got chilly. I was enjoying scanning in all directions with the thermal and eyeballing as well (not dark yet) and really enjoyed having the ducks glide in only about 30 feet over my head as they descended to the small lake on the north side of the dam. Two flights came in as I waited. It was cool to watch. I don't get much experience with ducks.
So I am doing my scans and happen to see hot spots at the far east end of the dam, crossing the overflow channel about 300 yards away. I grabbed my rifle, shooting sticks, and left everything else on the dam. As I worked my way eastward on the top of the dam, the hogs disappeared from view to the SE due to foliage. I got almost to the overflow channel and was still up on the dam when the hogs finally came into view. They were spread out from about 150-180 yards and slowly moving SE.
At this point, my progress was largely halted. I could move somewhat closer by crossing the overflow channel, but then would be stopped by a barbed wire fence. Many of y'all have met me. Brian doesn't just hop over barbed wire fences with any grace and I certainly can't step over them. I could not cross the fence without drawing attention to myself and moving to where there was a gate would have put me upwind of the hogs. So I opted for a longer range shot (long for me) from where I was.
Standing up, I could see the hogs just fine. Sitting down, I could see them well enough, but they were just above the high grass growing on the other side of the overflow channel. So I broke out my shooting sticks and proceeded to try to locate and line up on the largest hog I could see. I counted 12 in all, including the Oreo (white band) hog noted in the email. This appears to be the same group. Cool. The only problem was that I could not get calmed down enough to make the shot at the ranges the hogs now were. So I went prone.
Prone resulted in a much more stable shooting platform, but limited my targets significantly. Once I finally got settled, I decided on the largest hog I could see well and placed the reticle on his shoulder. The view was partially occluded by grass. Boommmmm...thwack. The delay of the impact noise getting to me had me worried for the split second that maybe I had missed.
Of course the hogs ran, but it was a large, open field and I was hopeful of finding my hog pretty quick. That didn't happen. First, it was not down anywhere I could see. The hogs had all ran south to the trees and so if he was in the trees, it would be a long night. I made my way around to the gate and entered the field and started my search. The field isn't exactly flat and there are low spots and areas of high grass that could hide a downed hog and so the search was going slow. While searching, I spied the hogs anew at the far end of the field, probably close to 400 yards away. So I started in their direction.
To my surprise, they were coming back toward me, but off to my left (north) side. Then they seemed to stop for a while and I tried to work my way down wind of them. In my attempts to negotiate the brush in the field, I took my eyes off the hogs for only a few moments and when I scanned for them again, they were all gone!
There is a major trail close to where they disappeared and so I headed over in hopes of finding them along the trail. As I got close to the tree line, I spied a large heat source that could be my downed hog. Then it got up and ran. It had to be one of the largest armadillos I had ever seen. However, as I had closed on its position, I got beyond some high grass and off to my right was my downed hog. In fact, the last place I had seen all the hogs stopped together was where this hog lay dead.
The shot entered midway up and just behind the right shoulder and exited slightly down and further back on the left side. The 6.5 Grendel had fully overpenetrated and removed a 1" triangle of tissue on its way out. In all, the hog was approximately 200 yards from where it had been shot. Some froth at the exit and expulsion of air when pressure was applied indicated that at least one lung had been hit, possibly both, and possibly the liver (based on trajectory).
As all my gear was several hundred yards away back up on the damn dam, I estimated the weight by lifting and figured it was at least 120 lbs. I managed some pics with my phone and dragged it into the brush and started my long hike back...only to realize half way back to my gear that I left the shooting sticks behind. D'oh! So the walk back was that much further, LOL.
Here is the video. Sorry for the quality. I could certainly see better than what is being shown in the video.
I was hunting my place, but that changed with the news...
I arrived at the cemetery behind my neighbor's place and suited up. It was supposed to get chilly this evening. I searched the two fields to the east of the cemetery with no luck so headed up on top of the Corp dam that overlooks several fields. By the time I got there, everything was a sweaty mess. So I stripped out of my cold weather gear, vest, etc. in order to cool off before things got chilly. I was enjoying scanning in all directions with the thermal and eyeballing as well (not dark yet) and really enjoyed having the ducks glide in only about 30 feet over my head as they descended to the small lake on the north side of the dam. Two flights came in as I waited. It was cool to watch. I don't get much experience with ducks.
So I am doing my scans and happen to see hot spots at the far east end of the dam, crossing the overflow channel about 300 yards away. I grabbed my rifle, shooting sticks, and left everything else on the dam. As I worked my way eastward on the top of the dam, the hogs disappeared from view to the SE due to foliage. I got almost to the overflow channel and was still up on the dam when the hogs finally came into view. They were spread out from about 150-180 yards and slowly moving SE.
At this point, my progress was largely halted. I could move somewhat closer by crossing the overflow channel, but then would be stopped by a barbed wire fence. Many of y'all have met me. Brian doesn't just hop over barbed wire fences with any grace and I certainly can't step over them. I could not cross the fence without drawing attention to myself and moving to where there was a gate would have put me upwind of the hogs. So I opted for a longer range shot (long for me) from where I was.
Standing up, I could see the hogs just fine. Sitting down, I could see them well enough, but they were just above the high grass growing on the other side of the overflow channel. So I broke out my shooting sticks and proceeded to try to locate and line up on the largest hog I could see. I counted 12 in all, including the Oreo (white band) hog noted in the email. This appears to be the same group. Cool. The only problem was that I could not get calmed down enough to make the shot at the ranges the hogs now were. So I went prone.
Prone resulted in a much more stable shooting platform, but limited my targets significantly. Once I finally got settled, I decided on the largest hog I could see well and placed the reticle on his shoulder. The view was partially occluded by grass. Boommmmm...thwack. The delay of the impact noise getting to me had me worried for the split second that maybe I had missed.
Of course the hogs ran, but it was a large, open field and I was hopeful of finding my hog pretty quick. That didn't happen. First, it was not down anywhere I could see. The hogs had all ran south to the trees and so if he was in the trees, it would be a long night. I made my way around to the gate and entered the field and started my search. The field isn't exactly flat and there are low spots and areas of high grass that could hide a downed hog and so the search was going slow. While searching, I spied the hogs anew at the far end of the field, probably close to 400 yards away. So I started in their direction.
To my surprise, they were coming back toward me, but off to my left (north) side. Then they seemed to stop for a while and I tried to work my way down wind of them. In my attempts to negotiate the brush in the field, I took my eyes off the hogs for only a few moments and when I scanned for them again, they were all gone!
There is a major trail close to where they disappeared and so I headed over in hopes of finding them along the trail. As I got close to the tree line, I spied a large heat source that could be my downed hog. Then it got up and ran. It had to be one of the largest armadillos I had ever seen. However, as I had closed on its position, I got beyond some high grass and off to my right was my downed hog. In fact, the last place I had seen all the hogs stopped together was where this hog lay dead.
The shot entered midway up and just behind the right shoulder and exited slightly down and further back on the left side. The 6.5 Grendel had fully overpenetrated and removed a 1" triangle of tissue on its way out. In all, the hog was approximately 200 yards from where it had been shot. Some froth at the exit and expulsion of air when pressure was applied indicated that at least one lung had been hit, possibly both, and possibly the liver (based on trajectory).
As all my gear was several hundred yards away back up on the damn dam, I estimated the weight by lifting and figured it was at least 120 lbs. I managed some pics with my phone and dragged it into the brush and started my long hike back...only to realize half way back to my gear that I left the shooting sticks behind. D'oh! So the walk back was that much further, LOL.
Here is the video. Sorry for the quality. I could certainly see better than what is being shown in the video.
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