On Wednesday night, I hunted TBR in Montague County, Texas. As with previous recent hunts there in the last 3 weeks, not much went on, but at least there seemed to be more animal activity going on and I did briefly see some fast running critter at about 200 yards that probably was a hog.
Storms passed through the area, temperatures dropped from 100+ down into the upper 70s well before sundown and so it looked like it would be a good night to hunt. Checked with Mr. TBR and he had checked cams and said there was a hog on one of the cameras. So Angry Bird and I loaded up the truck and headed out for the evening.
Mr. TBR graciously allowed me to sit in my favorite spot (food plot) while he opted to hunt the feeder by the big dam which I have to cross on my way to the food plot on the far side of the property. Mr. TBR can hunt his feeder from his front porch or from a stand that overlooks that feeder and another feeder in the opposite direction.
Got settled in for the evening, ready to yet again try to get a hog with my new Armasight Zeus 3x 640 thermal rifle scope, or at least maybe get some video of some interesting animal action of some sort. Things can be slow forever, right?
About 2 hours into it and I have seen 2 rabbits. Mr. TBR has seen a raccoon, doe, and fawn. At 3.5 hours into the night of wonders, Mr. TRB bid me "Carpe Sus!" and went to bed. I had still seen just 2 rabbits, but had managed to fiddle with most of the settings on the new scope, play with the reticles and color palettes, etc., and comparing detail seen on trees between the FLIR PS32 spotter versus the Zeus. It was that boring.
Then things got exciting! About 30 minutes after Mr. TBR turned in, a raccoon came out and I watched him work the hay field as it hunted bugs and other small critters. That lasted about 10 minutes before it disappeared back into the woods. Then nothing.
So at 5 hours into the hunt, things pretty well sucked with the raccoon being the biggest game I had seen and so I packed up and started the long trudge back to the truck.
My normal routine after dark is to stop and scan every 10-20 seconds, usually doing a full 360 scan with the FLIR. Scanning behind me has only once netted me a hog, but you never know. The result is that a 10 minute little hike can turn into 30 minutes, but little surprises me that way (as opposed to walking up on a bedded deer or skunk as has happened in the past when I didn't scan properly).
I finally get to the big dam and am crossing it and can see the top of the feeder Mr. TBR was watching. The base of the feeder was obscured from view because it was on the opposite downhill side of the dam from my approach. As I got closer, I spied a white glow that was likely the salt/mineral lick under the feeder. It retains heat very well and I often confuse it (briefly) as being a critter, only this time it was a critter as I could see movement, but my view was still obscured. It was probably a coon, but I moved forward for a better check and it was a HOG! It was a for real HOG!
Now I had problems. The hog was about 50 yards away, the gentle breeze was blowing from me toward the hog, I was out in the open on top of the dam and if the moon peeked out from the clouds again, I would be very visible....and my shooting sticks were loosely stowed in my vest.
I know, 50 yards isn't that far for an off hand shot, but after airing out the last magazine on a single hog by shooting from too far away, I figured shooting sticks were the better choice and after seeing TLM's Primus tripod Trigger Stick, I had gotten one. I like it, but it is a bit heavy and large, though it performs as advertised. So I got it out and started getting it extended as a monopod while remembering to get the video turned on and trying to get a bead on the hog before it got spooked.
One problem with thermal is the difficulty in trying to see in 3D when the image is a very flat 2D (more so than looking with standard NV). As you can see in the video, I lined up on the hog for a nice frontal head shot that would have had to travel through its butt and entirety of the body to get to the head. The Hornady 6.5 Grendel 123 gr. SST ammo is a very good performer, but probably not good enough for that shot.
Fortunately, I had waited and the hog's movements revealed better its directional orientation and I got a quartering away shoulder shot that dropped him. The shot broke the humerus and did not exit. The hog was unresponsive, but still breathing and I put a 2nd shot through his skull from about 3 feet. That shot exited under the tongue.
Examination revealed a couple of things. The first shot broke the front leg but did the intended cardio damage. Pressure on the hog produce copious amounts of blood from the entry wound. There was no lung involvement with that shot as evidence by a bloody mouth.
However, the wound that interested me was the gaping wound about 1" in diameter behind the right ear. It was an old wound that while no longer bleeding, never closed up completely and exuded a gray goo. The ear next to the wound showed scar tissue as well. Additionally, there was a healed small scar on the opposite side of the neck. From what I could ascertain, this was a through and through gunshot wound, high on the back of the neck, that entered the left side and exited the right side, directly behind the skull, involving the external right ear. Pretty cool.
I taped and retaped the hog for the weight estimate, borrowed Mr. TBR's utility cart, hooked up the hog and got him hauled way back across the property for disposal in the bone yard. He was a stinker as well. Along the way, lost my tape measure.
In the end, the Zeus was a success. The Trigger Stick, even as a monopod, was a success. The video was a success because DaveABQ helped me with a proper and cool-looking MDVR setup for my rifle.
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