It has been just 20 days since I had had abdominal surgery and I am still on the mend. The doc had cleared for for some activities, but serious jolting and heavy lifting were not amongst them. I had worked out how I could shoot without enduring recoil transferred into my body and had opted to make this easier by going with a smaller caliber than the .308 I had used all year long so far.
The landowner had let me know that he had hogs at his place and the two previous visits including one on Halloween had not been fruitful. I had a chance to go on Monday night after finishing with the kids and I headed north to Montague. Rains were due after midnight, but I figured I would get in a couple, maybe three hours of hunting before the rains came, if they made it. Well, it rained on me nearly the whole way there. Not a good sign, but I wasn't going to turn around and go home either.
As the landowner had told me that he had rooting damage to his front pasture, I opted to drive by the property slowly with the thermal. I spotted several deer bedded down by a front tank and then in his NE pasture, spotted a loan target that did not appear to be a deer, but was probably 150-200 yards distant. Before I could get to the drive way and get out my rifle to identify the target with night vision, the target had moved into the woods and out of sight.
After arriving, the landowner called me on the phone and asked where I would be hunting. I told him that I would hunt the food plot and he called me a glutton for punishment since it was going to be raining. I was going to get wet. ERRR! I told him what I had seen and that I thought I had already missed out on one hog. He assured me that there were more. I think that in the end, I probably shot the same hog I saw originally because it apparently came out of the area where I last saw the hog disappear. Just a guess.
So the threatening storm spit on me all the way to the stand as I hiked to it. I got to the stand and had about 15 minutes of getting set up, checking my fields of view, etc., before the rains hit and I had to close the windows. So for the next hour and a half, my hunting involved surfing the internet on my phone interrupted every three or four minutes by systematically opening up each window about an inch and scanning the available view with the thermal scope, trying to keep from letting too much rain blow into the stand.
Something interesting happens with simple thermal vision on nights like this night. The temps had hovered around the upper 50s all day long. The rains were in the upper 50s. Basically, everything not homoethermic (generating heat) blended together into nothing but very subtle differences of the same shade of gray on thermal. Every now and then, I would wave my fingers in front of the lens to make sure I didn't have the lens cap on which would have explained not seeing anything. I didn't even have the lens cap with me. Things just looked that gray.
About 11:15 pm, I spied a white blob to the north on thermal. It was not really bright, but was in motion and did not look to be a deer, but I could not identify it. I fully opened the window and got my rifle up, scope turned on, IR illuminator turned or and looked at the target. It was a hog and it was walking westward with its nose in the dirt. I tried to get my DVR turned on and as I awaited its boot process, the hog quickly was closing on the west side trees where I would soon loose it from view.
I was using my Pulsar N550 Digisight night vision scope mounted on top on a new 6.5 mm Grendel AR15 upper made by Alexander Arms. This fires a 123 grain Hornady SST bullet at about 2460 fps (estimated) from the 20” Shilen match barrel. All of this was mounted atop a Rock River Arms lower purchased just prior to Obama's first election, LOL.
So time was running out as the hog closed on the woods. He wasn't stopping and he wasn't presenting and ideal shot as he had quartered to the north pretty significantly. He cut back slightly to the east as I tracked him and I saw and opportunity to fire and I did. I heard the THWACK and quite strangely, the hog turned nearly 180 degrees to head back from which he originated. He was no more than 10 yards from safety when I shot him.
As I heard the ejected spent cartridge case bouncing on the floor of the box stand (time dilation), I noticed that the hog was running, but not running normally. I attempted to track the hog and lead him properly and made a followup shot. This did not drop the hog and I again heard the sound of spent brass bouncing on the floor as my field of view revealed no hog down. As my daughter would say, “Ah, NUGGETS!”
Then my phone buzzed as I was alternately scanning with the thermal scope and with the rifle NV. It was the landowner who wanted to know the result. I had to tell him that the hog ran off, that the rains had become heavy again, and that I would go look in a few minutes. As the landowner, he likes to hear the response of “Hog Down!” and not “I will go look for it in a while.” I didn't want to lose my first hog after getting back to hunting.
About 10 minutes later, the rains slacked up and I headed across the pasture to where I thought the hog might have gone. Thermal revealed only one relatively warm tree trunk and a single cottontail rabbit along the pasture's side, so I cut back east and followed a cart trail into the woods. Fortunately, I didn't have far to go in the woods when I came across the hog. Quite surprisingly, he was under a tree that had had the briar cleared out from under it and the lower limbs cut back. I had ready access to the hog.
The initial shot had caught him about mid body on the low left side. His quarterly away had apparently allowed the bullet to pass nicely into the vitals. While there was no exit wound and only a tiny entry wound, his belly and all four legs were coated in blood, especially the hind legs. I managed to get a couple of quick pictures before another band of rains hit and I was forced to retreat to the stand in order to keep my gear and me somewhat dry. I waited for nearly an hour for the rains to pass during which time I attempted to dry off my rifle and wrap it for my exit.
When the rains stopped, I headed back to the pig, made a couple of photographs with the good camera, and then the rains hit again. I wrapped the rifle in the towel I had and proceeded back to the car. Angry Bird had no opportunity to visit the kill and given the rains, I opted to leave the carcass for the following day.
On the following day, I collected the carcass for removal to the landowner's dump location on the property. Before dumping the carcass into the ravine, I did a quick incision with my knife and some probing. The bullet had done damage to the liver, shattered some ribs, and had made a mess of the circulatory package, though through all the blood, I was uncertain what exact structures were damaged. The caliber and ammo had performed well.
The distance of the shot was 120 yards. The hog taped at 145 lbs. and was a young boar less than two years of age.
The landowner had let me know that he had hogs at his place and the two previous visits including one on Halloween had not been fruitful. I had a chance to go on Monday night after finishing with the kids and I headed north to Montague. Rains were due after midnight, but I figured I would get in a couple, maybe three hours of hunting before the rains came, if they made it. Well, it rained on me nearly the whole way there. Not a good sign, but I wasn't going to turn around and go home either.
As the landowner had told me that he had rooting damage to his front pasture, I opted to drive by the property slowly with the thermal. I spotted several deer bedded down by a front tank and then in his NE pasture, spotted a loan target that did not appear to be a deer, but was probably 150-200 yards distant. Before I could get to the drive way and get out my rifle to identify the target with night vision, the target had moved into the woods and out of sight.
After arriving, the landowner called me on the phone and asked where I would be hunting. I told him that I would hunt the food plot and he called me a glutton for punishment since it was going to be raining. I was going to get wet. ERRR! I told him what I had seen and that I thought I had already missed out on one hog. He assured me that there were more. I think that in the end, I probably shot the same hog I saw originally because it apparently came out of the area where I last saw the hog disappear. Just a guess.
So the threatening storm spit on me all the way to the stand as I hiked to it. I got to the stand and had about 15 minutes of getting set up, checking my fields of view, etc., before the rains hit and I had to close the windows. So for the next hour and a half, my hunting involved surfing the internet on my phone interrupted every three or four minutes by systematically opening up each window about an inch and scanning the available view with the thermal scope, trying to keep from letting too much rain blow into the stand.
Something interesting happens with simple thermal vision on nights like this night. The temps had hovered around the upper 50s all day long. The rains were in the upper 50s. Basically, everything not homoethermic (generating heat) blended together into nothing but very subtle differences of the same shade of gray on thermal. Every now and then, I would wave my fingers in front of the lens to make sure I didn't have the lens cap on which would have explained not seeing anything. I didn't even have the lens cap with me. Things just looked that gray.
About 11:15 pm, I spied a white blob to the north on thermal. It was not really bright, but was in motion and did not look to be a deer, but I could not identify it. I fully opened the window and got my rifle up, scope turned on, IR illuminator turned or and looked at the target. It was a hog and it was walking westward with its nose in the dirt. I tried to get my DVR turned on and as I awaited its boot process, the hog quickly was closing on the west side trees where I would soon loose it from view.
I was using my Pulsar N550 Digisight night vision scope mounted on top on a new 6.5 mm Grendel AR15 upper made by Alexander Arms. This fires a 123 grain Hornady SST bullet at about 2460 fps (estimated) from the 20” Shilen match barrel. All of this was mounted atop a Rock River Arms lower purchased just prior to Obama's first election, LOL.
So time was running out as the hog closed on the woods. He wasn't stopping and he wasn't presenting and ideal shot as he had quartered to the north pretty significantly. He cut back slightly to the east as I tracked him and I saw and opportunity to fire and I did. I heard the THWACK and quite strangely, the hog turned nearly 180 degrees to head back from which he originated. He was no more than 10 yards from safety when I shot him.
As I heard the ejected spent cartridge case bouncing on the floor of the box stand (time dilation), I noticed that the hog was running, but not running normally. I attempted to track the hog and lead him properly and made a followup shot. This did not drop the hog and I again heard the sound of spent brass bouncing on the floor as my field of view revealed no hog down. As my daughter would say, “Ah, NUGGETS!”
Then my phone buzzed as I was alternately scanning with the thermal scope and with the rifle NV. It was the landowner who wanted to know the result. I had to tell him that the hog ran off, that the rains had become heavy again, and that I would go look in a few minutes. As the landowner, he likes to hear the response of “Hog Down!” and not “I will go look for it in a while.” I didn't want to lose my first hog after getting back to hunting.
About 10 minutes later, the rains slacked up and I headed across the pasture to where I thought the hog might have gone. Thermal revealed only one relatively warm tree trunk and a single cottontail rabbit along the pasture's side, so I cut back east and followed a cart trail into the woods. Fortunately, I didn't have far to go in the woods when I came across the hog. Quite surprisingly, he was under a tree that had had the briar cleared out from under it and the lower limbs cut back. I had ready access to the hog.
The initial shot had caught him about mid body on the low left side. His quarterly away had apparently allowed the bullet to pass nicely into the vitals. While there was no exit wound and only a tiny entry wound, his belly and all four legs were coated in blood, especially the hind legs. I managed to get a couple of quick pictures before another band of rains hit and I was forced to retreat to the stand in order to keep my gear and me somewhat dry. I waited for nearly an hour for the rains to pass during which time I attempted to dry off my rifle and wrap it for my exit.
When the rains stopped, I headed back to the pig, made a couple of photographs with the good camera, and then the rains hit again. I wrapped the rifle in the towel I had and proceeded back to the car. Angry Bird had no opportunity to visit the kill and given the rains, I opted to leave the carcass for the following day.
On the following day, I collected the carcass for removal to the landowner's dump location on the property. Before dumping the carcass into the ravine, I did a quick incision with my knife and some probing. The bullet had done damage to the liver, shattered some ribs, and had made a mess of the circulatory package, though through all the blood, I was uncertain what exact structures were damaged. The caliber and ammo had performed well.
The distance of the shot was 120 yards. The hog taped at 145 lbs. and was a young boar less than two years of age.
