I went out for a second time to a buddy's place in Montague County. He has a few hundred acres and a nice livestock operation. Last August, he started having a problem with hogs. He already had a group of guys that deer hunt his place and they got some of the hogs and I guess they were keeping them in check, but deer season is over and the deer hunting has come to an end and the hogs have the run of the place. So I offered to help, fully expecting that I would get turned down, but he agreed.
Last week, he put me in the bottoms and I saw no hogs. This week, arrived at 3:00 and the landowner, one of the other hunters, and I all hunted at the same time. Only three feeders were still running and we were each on a different feeder. The landowner hunted the central part of the property. The other hunter set up in another bottoms area. I got placed on the top of a hill where it was very windy. I figured my chances were slim, but that somebody was likely to see hogs - team effort and all that. It was chilly, but the sun was out and I was warm for the time being. Wind was in my from the feeder, so the setup was pretty good.
Sorry for the wind noise in the video.
I got dropped off and I proceeded to pour out extra corn on the ground and noticed tracks coming in on a small trail that ran right by my tripod stand. There were also tracks coming in on a car path another 30 yards further over to my right. Unlike the previous week, at least there was good hog sign.
At 4:20, the feeder went off. At 4:31, 5 hogs showed up. That was really weird - I could see the sun and I could see hogs at the same time! I got everything up and running and while doing so, noticed the big hog nosing the air, doing his security checks. As I got on the scope and started trying for target selection, the big hog started nosing the air again and I figured that was the one to put down first. Then things started moving fast.
Going back to what TLM said about shooting the back hog (not my plan, but how it worked out), I shot the back hog and the rest of the hogs ran toward me. When you do this and the hogs are 100 yards away or more, you have some time to consider what is going on and what you need to do. The big hog was only 58 yards away and the smaller hogs were closer. They ran right by the stand at full speed and this caused me several problems.
First, they were moving by me close, fast, and below the stand's hand rail line of sight. So I was trying to pivot, tilt, and track while fighting with a chair that doesn't pivot and figuring out that to tilt down I had to rise up. Second, 3x is a bit much magnification for accelerated short range engagement. As such, one shot hit, one was low, and one was very late on the running hogs. I saw the last shot was late and never got back on the running pigs.
The first hog was a boar with very short tusks. The 123 gr. Hornady SST punched right through his neck and he was DRT. The second hog was an ugly-toothed sow with larger tusks than the boar and was hit was hit behind the shoulder. The bullet also punched right through the other side. She ran approximately 70 yards. It is impressive when you can take a stick the diameter of your little finger and insert it into the wounds and wiggle it around. That was the case with the wounds on these two hogs.
Got picked up at 7:30 pm. Early evening.
All in all, a good hunt. I didn't see anything other than tweety birds and hogs, but I was there to see hogs and had curb service transportation. What is not to like?
Picked up cookies on the way home. Angry Bird was not there. The landowner has big dogs that would eat Angry Bird.
Last week, he put me in the bottoms and I saw no hogs. This week, arrived at 3:00 and the landowner, one of the other hunters, and I all hunted at the same time. Only three feeders were still running and we were each on a different feeder. The landowner hunted the central part of the property. The other hunter set up in another bottoms area. I got placed on the top of a hill where it was very windy. I figured my chances were slim, but that somebody was likely to see hogs - team effort and all that. It was chilly, but the sun was out and I was warm for the time being. Wind was in my from the feeder, so the setup was pretty good.
Sorry for the wind noise in the video.
I got dropped off and I proceeded to pour out extra corn on the ground and noticed tracks coming in on a small trail that ran right by my tripod stand. There were also tracks coming in on a car path another 30 yards further over to my right. Unlike the previous week, at least there was good hog sign.
At 4:20, the feeder went off. At 4:31, 5 hogs showed up. That was really weird - I could see the sun and I could see hogs at the same time! I got everything up and running and while doing so, noticed the big hog nosing the air, doing his security checks. As I got on the scope and started trying for target selection, the big hog started nosing the air again and I figured that was the one to put down first. Then things started moving fast.
Going back to what TLM said about shooting the back hog (not my plan, but how it worked out), I shot the back hog and the rest of the hogs ran toward me. When you do this and the hogs are 100 yards away or more, you have some time to consider what is going on and what you need to do. The big hog was only 58 yards away and the smaller hogs were closer. They ran right by the stand at full speed and this caused me several problems.
First, they were moving by me close, fast, and below the stand's hand rail line of sight. So I was trying to pivot, tilt, and track while fighting with a chair that doesn't pivot and figuring out that to tilt down I had to rise up. Second, 3x is a bit much magnification for accelerated short range engagement. As such, one shot hit, one was low, and one was very late on the running hogs. I saw the last shot was late and never got back on the running pigs.
The first hog was a boar with very short tusks. The 123 gr. Hornady SST punched right through his neck and he was DRT. The second hog was an ugly-toothed sow with larger tusks than the boar and was hit was hit behind the shoulder. The bullet also punched right through the other side. She ran approximately 70 yards. It is impressive when you can take a stick the diameter of your little finger and insert it into the wounds and wiggle it around. That was the case with the wounds on these two hogs.
Got picked up at 7:30 pm. Early evening.
All in all, a good hunt. I didn't see anything other than tweety birds and hogs, but I was there to see hogs and had curb service transportation. What is not to like?
Picked up cookies on the way home. Angry Bird was not there. The landowner has big dogs that would eat Angry Bird.
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Another nice video, and did not have to stay out at night. Thanks for posting. BANG BANG!!
