Well, I suffered TLM's problem of the SD card popping out on my MDVR, so no video, just the story.
Got a chance to hunt TBR again. Mr. TBR said that Mrs. TBR had checked one camera and they had a sounder coming, but the date was off and so no telling when it had last come, but it was recent. This was to a feeder that is not my normal hunting spot, so I thought I would dump a bunch of extra corn on the ground at that feeder and sit in my normal spot and occasionally stalk back to check on it, maybe once an hour or so. It is a ritual I have done in the past. I figured I would start about 10:00.
At 9:14, Mr. TBR called me. He never calls me when I am in the stand. He will text me. Once he sent me a text to let me know that tornadoes were in the area, so I was surprised when he called. It had to be an emergency. He said there was a whole bunch of hogs at the feeder {where I had dumped extra corn} and did I want to come shoot them? I suggested that he do it and he pointed out that his Photon NV was only on a .223 and he was over 200 yards from the feeder on his front porch. Well cool, I am up for shooting hogs!
It took me about 3 minutes to climb out of my stand and go about 200 yards to where I could see the feeder in question. This is the same feeder where I have encountered hogs at the end of my hunts and is located on the back side of a dam that I have to cross to get back to my truck to go home. Along the way, I encountered a doe that was apparently fleeing the hogs. We scared the hell out of each other and she opted to duck down into the creek bottom.
As I got up on the dam, I saw that several hogs were visible. Mr. TBR had not told me how many there were and I saw about 6, a couple of which were on top of the other end of the dam. There was a partial moon and I was pretty exposed, so I stopped where I was, set up on the tripod trigger sticks, tried to calm down, and searched for a target.
I spotted what I thought was an observant sow (turned out to be a boar) that seemed to be looking at me, but then turned broadside. I took the safety off, took out the slack in the trigger, and fired the first shot...heard the THWACK and the hog took off.
The few hogs I could see, quickly disappeared into vegetation. Then I heard a boom from up at the house. Mr. TBR was shooting as well. During the time, some groups of pigs were running from behind the dam, into my view and then disappearing into vegetation. I watched dumbstruck as the first group went by, but picked a hog in the second group and fired. I scanned for more targets and was about to fire again when Mr. TBR shot and a heard the reverse THWACK BOOM as I was closer to the hog than to Mr. TBR and the impact sound reached me first. I picked up a hog at the feeder area and fired. Then spotted two more way out down the car trail and fired at the trailing hog as the two disappeared into the brush.
Mr. TBR reported to me that he heard a contact THWACK for each of my shots. I haven't a clue, knowing only that I knew I hit the first one and heard him hit one.
Using Google Earth to plot the shots, my first and third shots were at about 135 yards. The second shot was 160 and the fourth was about 240. I don't know about Mr. TBR's first shot, but his second shot was right at 200 yards.
Now the bad news. Only one hog was recovered. The search will continue in the morning, but most of the hogs disappeared into creek bottoms and briar patches that surround the hay field where the feeder was located. My first hog managed to go over 75 yards after being shot in the elbow. The shot broke the humerus just above the distal end at the elbow. What is interesting is that this wound bled almost nothing and the part of the limb that was hit would normally be below the hog when standing and so the shot should have passed through. Instead, the shot traveled in a manner that it managed to enter the chest cavity and bore a teaspoon bowl size and shape hole right through the heart. So the bullet traveled up the arm instead of passing through the arm. The heart was destroyed as were the ribs that got in the way. The bullet did not overpenetrate, but it wasn't found either. I am fairly certain it shattered while going through the humerus.
Mr. TBR and I had a pretty good laugh about shot placement. The elbow generally is not a good place to hit a hog, but this time, it was outstanding. Even better was that it did not mess up the backstraps that will be consumed for Labor Day.
The hog tipped the scale at 170 lbs, was a younger boar, and appeared to be quite healthy.
Hopefully, we will find more dead hogs later this morning. They only ran in 3 different directions.
Armasight Zeus 3x 640
6.5 Grendel
Hornady 123 gr. SST
~135 yards
170 lb. Boar
Primus tripod Trigger Sticks.
Got a chance to hunt TBR again. Mr. TBR said that Mrs. TBR had checked one camera and they had a sounder coming, but the date was off and so no telling when it had last come, but it was recent. This was to a feeder that is not my normal hunting spot, so I thought I would dump a bunch of extra corn on the ground at that feeder and sit in my normal spot and occasionally stalk back to check on it, maybe once an hour or so. It is a ritual I have done in the past. I figured I would start about 10:00.
At 9:14, Mr. TBR called me. He never calls me when I am in the stand. He will text me. Once he sent me a text to let me know that tornadoes were in the area, so I was surprised when he called. It had to be an emergency. He said there was a whole bunch of hogs at the feeder {where I had dumped extra corn} and did I want to come shoot them? I suggested that he do it and he pointed out that his Photon NV was only on a .223 and he was over 200 yards from the feeder on his front porch. Well cool, I am up for shooting hogs!
It took me about 3 minutes to climb out of my stand and go about 200 yards to where I could see the feeder in question. This is the same feeder where I have encountered hogs at the end of my hunts and is located on the back side of a dam that I have to cross to get back to my truck to go home. Along the way, I encountered a doe that was apparently fleeing the hogs. We scared the hell out of each other and she opted to duck down into the creek bottom.
As I got up on the dam, I saw that several hogs were visible. Mr. TBR had not told me how many there were and I saw about 6, a couple of which were on top of the other end of the dam. There was a partial moon and I was pretty exposed, so I stopped where I was, set up on the tripod trigger sticks, tried to calm down, and searched for a target.
I spotted what I thought was an observant sow (turned out to be a boar) that seemed to be looking at me, but then turned broadside. I took the safety off, took out the slack in the trigger, and fired the first shot...heard the THWACK and the hog took off.
The few hogs I could see, quickly disappeared into vegetation. Then I heard a boom from up at the house. Mr. TBR was shooting as well. During the time, some groups of pigs were running from behind the dam, into my view and then disappearing into vegetation. I watched dumbstruck as the first group went by, but picked a hog in the second group and fired. I scanned for more targets and was about to fire again when Mr. TBR shot and a heard the reverse THWACK BOOM as I was closer to the hog than to Mr. TBR and the impact sound reached me first. I picked up a hog at the feeder area and fired. Then spotted two more way out down the car trail and fired at the trailing hog as the two disappeared into the brush.
Mr. TBR reported to me that he heard a contact THWACK for each of my shots. I haven't a clue, knowing only that I knew I hit the first one and heard him hit one.
Using Google Earth to plot the shots, my first and third shots were at about 135 yards. The second shot was 160 and the fourth was about 240. I don't know about Mr. TBR's first shot, but his second shot was right at 200 yards.
Now the bad news. Only one hog was recovered. The search will continue in the morning, but most of the hogs disappeared into creek bottoms and briar patches that surround the hay field where the feeder was located. My first hog managed to go over 75 yards after being shot in the elbow. The shot broke the humerus just above the distal end at the elbow. What is interesting is that this wound bled almost nothing and the part of the limb that was hit would normally be below the hog when standing and so the shot should have passed through. Instead, the shot traveled in a manner that it managed to enter the chest cavity and bore a teaspoon bowl size and shape hole right through the heart. So the bullet traveled up the arm instead of passing through the arm. The heart was destroyed as were the ribs that got in the way. The bullet did not overpenetrate, but it wasn't found either. I am fairly certain it shattered while going through the humerus.
Mr. TBR and I had a pretty good laugh about shot placement. The elbow generally is not a good place to hit a hog, but this time, it was outstanding. Even better was that it did not mess up the backstraps that will be consumed for Labor Day.
The hog tipped the scale at 170 lbs, was a younger boar, and appeared to be quite healthy.
Hopefully, we will find more dead hogs later this morning. They only ran in 3 different directions.
Armasight Zeus 3x 640
6.5 Grendel
Hornady 123 gr. SST
~135 yards
170 lb. Boar
Primus tripod Trigger Sticks.
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