Hunted TBR on Wednesday night and their game cameras showed a sounder coming around 6:30 am and I could not stay that late on Wednesday, so I came back on Thursday after tucking the kids in bed.
Notified Mr. TBR that I was on the way. He wrote back that he smelled hogs. That isn't unusual, but was a good sign. As I got close to town, he let me know he was working in the shop and to stop by. It is a 400 yard drive from the road up to the house and I was creeping along, hoping to see hogs. After all, Mr. TBR said he smelled them, right? The time was about 9:30 PM.
Well sure enough, I spy a hog at the feeder and I am about 150 yards shy of the house at this point. I grab my rifle from its case, shooting sticks, and muffs and make my way to the shop via LPC (leather personnel carrier) and tell Mr. TBR he has a boar under the feeder, thinking he might want to shoot as well. With a somewhat incredulous look, he says, "Well go shoot it!" as if the thought hadn't crossed my mind. He sees my shooting sticks and says, "Just use the hay bales for a rest." He has some spare hay bales he uses for archery targets that overlook the field with the feeder.
So I scoot down to the hay bales and try to get comfortable on them. Damn if hay isn't pokey and itchy. So I turn on the recorder, line up my shot, wait for the hog to change position, aim a tad high to compensate for drop, and BOOOOMMMM - Thwack! The hog goes down. I stay on it for about 30 seconds and it isn't getting up. I put the rifle back on safe, stand up and turn around to head back up to the shop and nearly run into Mr. TBR who was right behind me! "Man, that thing sure puts them down!" he says. Scared the livin' hell out of me. I was in the zone and had zero situational awareness. The conversation then turned to the RING sound of my flash hider and the fact that his wife was also watching the event with binos from inside the house. Glad I didn't know I had an audience.
No recording. In my haste, I didn't go through the usual routine of checking everything and I had the cable unplugged for transport. I have a set routine I go through and it didn't get done. I had not opened up the brass catcher either (but it still worked just fine).
I walked out to the hog while Mr. TBR grabbed his cart. Apparently I had broken his spine and did not appear conscious, but still moving a lot after about 5 minutes so I put another round into him to finish the job.
Stayed for the rest of the night to wait on the morning sounder. It never came. Getting the boar was okay, but the prize really was the sounder as it will probably be more of a problem for bow season that opens tomorrow than the loan boar, especially with the sounder coming around daybreak.
165 lb. Boar, not adult
6.5 Grendel
Armasight Zeus 3 640
205 yards
Morning view of shooting position to feeder. Note this is the feeder that I usually approach from the other side of the dam on my way off the property. The dam makes for a nice backstop when firing from the hay bales.
Notified Mr. TBR that I was on the way. He wrote back that he smelled hogs. That isn't unusual, but was a good sign. As I got close to town, he let me know he was working in the shop and to stop by. It is a 400 yard drive from the road up to the house and I was creeping along, hoping to see hogs. After all, Mr. TBR said he smelled them, right? The time was about 9:30 PM.
Well sure enough, I spy a hog at the feeder and I am about 150 yards shy of the house at this point. I grab my rifle from its case, shooting sticks, and muffs and make my way to the shop via LPC (leather personnel carrier) and tell Mr. TBR he has a boar under the feeder, thinking he might want to shoot as well. With a somewhat incredulous look, he says, "Well go shoot it!" as if the thought hadn't crossed my mind. He sees my shooting sticks and says, "Just use the hay bales for a rest." He has some spare hay bales he uses for archery targets that overlook the field with the feeder.
So I scoot down to the hay bales and try to get comfortable on them. Damn if hay isn't pokey and itchy. So I turn on the recorder, line up my shot, wait for the hog to change position, aim a tad high to compensate for drop, and BOOOOMMMM - Thwack! The hog goes down. I stay on it for about 30 seconds and it isn't getting up. I put the rifle back on safe, stand up and turn around to head back up to the shop and nearly run into Mr. TBR who was right behind me! "Man, that thing sure puts them down!" he says. Scared the livin' hell out of me. I was in the zone and had zero situational awareness. The conversation then turned to the RING sound of my flash hider and the fact that his wife was also watching the event with binos from inside the house. Glad I didn't know I had an audience.
No recording. In my haste, I didn't go through the usual routine of checking everything and I had the cable unplugged for transport. I have a set routine I go through and it didn't get done. I had not opened up the brass catcher either (but it still worked just fine).
I walked out to the hog while Mr. TBR grabbed his cart. Apparently I had broken his spine and did not appear conscious, but still moving a lot after about 5 minutes so I put another round into him to finish the job.
Stayed for the rest of the night to wait on the morning sounder. It never came. Getting the boar was okay, but the prize really was the sounder as it will probably be more of a problem for bow season that opens tomorrow than the loan boar, especially with the sounder coming around daybreak.
165 lb. Boar, not adult
6.5 Grendel
Armasight Zeus 3 640
205 yards
Morning view of shooting position to feeder. Note this is the feeder that I usually approach from the other side of the dam on my way off the property. The dam makes for a nice backstop when firing from the hay bales.
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