I arrived well before dark to check in with the land owners and check one of the game cameras. No hogs on the game camera closest to the owner’s house which is the game camera for the Big Pond feeder. While the husband was out on the tractor, raking cut hay into rows, I spoke with the wife, but received no additional actionable information. So I planned to hunt on the far east side of the property, away from the house, either in the normal Food Plot field/stand or the Big Hill stand which is further east.
I packed in my normal gear including about 1 quart of corn in a plastic bag to add to whatever the feeder might be providing. I call this a “snack pack” and it is to help make sure there is sufficient bait still on the ground even if the hogs come well after the raccoons, turkeys, and deer.
On the way to the Big Hill, I pass through the Food Plot and went by the Food Plot feeder to see if it was spitting corn. It was. Plenty was on the ground, but not only that, the immediate area reeked of hogs. At that point I decided to dump the snack pack and would head back to the Food Plot stand for the evening.
For the next 4 hours, I saw one raccoon and one deer and they finally came together under the feeder a bit before midnight. The temperature was down to about 80 degrees and winds were out of the south and light. There was no moon. I was so focused on them that I nearly missed a pair of what appeared to be very large hogs skirting the edge of the field about 140 yards to my south. By the time I got my rifle up, only one hog was a viable shot and I fired. I heard the THWACK of impact and knew I had a hit. However, the shot was a vitals shot and the hog ran! CRAP. I cycled the bolt on the rifle. At the time of the shot, the two hogs were within yards of a deep ravine in two directions and undoubtedly disappeared into one or both of them.
I investigated the area where the hog was shot and found no signs of blood, feces, or other evidence of a hog being distressed. Noting that they were headed west before the shot and that there was a feeder across the creek maybe 200 yards away, I decided to circle around to the north (avoiding the creek bottoms in which I feared there may be a wounded hog awaiting me) and come back south to that feeder to see if one or both had showed up there....which was about a 600+ yard walk. When I finally made it to a vantage point to see this distant feeder, there was nothing there. So I opted to return to the stand in the Food Plot, quite dejected. I had lost a hog. It would not be my last of the night.
As I was about halfway across the Food Plot hay field on the way to the stand, navigating the piled rows of cut hay, I heard some noise off to my left in the direction of the Food Plot feeder and a brief but strong shrill noise like a whistle. I directed my thermal scope toward the sound and saw a group of hogs that had all come to a complete stop. They had entered the area from the east and come westward beyond the feeder. Maybe they had been snacking for the short time I was gone, but they were apparently on the move when I interrupted them.
I turned on my Pulsar N550 night vision scope and **** Torch Pro IR illuminator while taking a knee. As the crosshairs settled in the area of the hogs, I could see at least a dozen sets of eyes looking in my direction from many different sizes of hogs. While the wind was in my favor, they obviously knew something was in the field that they did not expect. I put the crosshairs on the largest hog that I assumed to be the lead sow and the hog immediately made a 270 degree circle such that it went from facing me to heading back to the east. This started other hogs to moving as well. However, once turned around and now profile to me, this bigger hog stopped to do a security check. That is when I shot it.
The shot entered less than an inch behind the ear and blasted out of the other side of the head in virtually the same place. The exit hole was a slightly oval quarter-sized hole. The hole fell in place and never moved, indicating that the shot apparently severed the spinal cord.
Of course, all the hogs scattered. I cycled the bolt and found another larger-sized hog running away. I fired and the hog dropped but then was back on its feet and ducked back into the woods headed in the direction from which they originally came (east). By this time, I had no other targets. I pulled spare rounds from the pouch on my rifle stock and reloaded my now empty magazine.
Ironically, the last time I got caught out in the open, earlier this month, I was probably less than 30 yards from where I got caught out in the open by the whole sounder this evening. I gotta work on that.
Simply put, after shooting the first hog and then walking around making noise, headlamp on, flashlight on, etc., while looking for it in the Food Plot area, I never expected to see anything show up so quickly, much less a sounder.
Using the thermal scope, I walked and scanned for the 2nd hog of the sounder but had no luck finding it either. I retrieved the owners’ golf cart and cruised the areas of the property where I thought I might find either errant hog, but had no success. On top of that, being surprised by the hogs each time meant that I failed to get any video.
The owners were still quite pleased with the result. They want as many hogs gone by deer season as we can get. Angry Bird was pleased. At about 3:30 am, I saw the same cashier at Walmart that I usually see. She is now convinced I have a serious cookie problem, but the kids will be pleased when they have cookies for dessert in their school lunches.
I was wearing my lucky LSB patched cap.
Rem 788 .308
SSA 150 gr. Nosler Accupoint ammo
Pulsar N550 NV scope
**** Torch Pro IR illuminator
FLIR PS32 thermal monocular
Boar, young, 120 lbs. Head Shot, 70 yards, kneeling
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