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Stay tuned…Okay that was chaotic!! A lot of things went wrong. Thankfully no one was hurt. I was relaxing for the evening, but since there have been hogs in the community I asked neighbors to call me if they see them. I finally got permission from the last property owner yesterday, with one exception who wants to love all of the animals. No problem. They can tear up your property.
Here’s a photo taken in a drainage ditch after the “dust cleared.”
Tonight I got a call around 11:30pm, when I saw how it was I answered and my first words were, “What’s going on? Hogs?” When I heard “yea,” I asked how many, where they were, and got a rough description of apprx 5 hogs. In my excitement I replied “I’m on my way,” and hung up. I had everything pretty much laid out: rifle w/thermal scope, extra battery, thermal hand scanner, headlamp, pistol. I threw some clothes on and my work boots and started walking over cutting across properties. Everything is so dry I was stepping on dry grass, dried fallen leaves, and sticks. I slowed down and tried to get my breathing under control as I stepped into the clearing. I pan ed the treeline into a yard and saw a hog maybe 55 yards from me with a smaller one in the background. I panned the next yard and saw at least two more. I focused on the largest hog closest to me. I crept within 45 yards. I didn’t want to risk stepping on something and alerting them. I took a kneeling position, ranged it around 45 yards I think. Pressed record on my scope, I don’t think I focused it too well to where it’s crystal clear. I may have zoomed in a little and I recall standing up. I was worried about my backdrop so I think I took my shot offhand so the slug would be traveling down towards the ground. As I placed my crosshairs around the next with the animal’s head down, a young shoat started walking towards it. I squeezed off my shot. I didn’t hear a squeal. Instead my neighbor opened up behind my shot and that pushed two of the hogs straight towards me. I then hear a third shooter in the distance south of us, and that made me piase for a second. I snapped out of it and squeezed the trigger to take a follow up, the Rattler dry fired and immediately, almost reflexively I lower the rifle to reach for the magazine to manually advanced it. I then brought the rifle back to the ready and my scope shut off. Why? I’m unsure, but in my off eye I have two hogs that were just 45 yards away running towards me and I don’t think they knew I was there. So out of self preservation I know I shot at least once from the armpit. They ended up turning north (to my left) and ran into the treeline. Now they were getting closer to my place, so I ran across the adjacent property. Hopped my fenceline and ran through my grass to avoid the crunchy leaves. Ran north through my yard, hopped the fenceline again, and waited at a break in the treeline at bottleneck dirt road crossing.
I could hear the hogs within the wooded area as I kneeled in the grass waiting. I’m watching the trees via my Nocpix S60R riflescope mounted in my Rattler. It was very clear to me what was emerging from the woods. It was a good sized hog. Maybe the first one I shot at. I let it clear most of the branches (I think) and I shot it again. This time I heard the impact. As crossed the road to go back into the woods I hit it again. I don’t remember where I aimed. I have to review the footage. It made some noise this time. Then it moved slowly into the woods and I took every opportunity so could to shoot it through trees and branches. This scope had very clear images so I’m aiming at bright white spots between tree trunks. I may have hit it a third time. Then I realized my mag was empty.
I ran back home and went inside to reload and air up the rifle. I came back out and entered the woods to see if I could find it laying down somewhere. Before I got into the woods my rifle fell off of my shoulder into the grass waiting I picked up and reached to see if my pic rail mount came off of the rail. It didn’t. My sling alimony unhooked itself some sort of way. I reconnected it and switched on my headlamp to hit the woods. It was too thick to enter where the hog entered. I eventually found an opening and went in. I heard movement and thought it may be my hog. Eventually I was able to pick up an armadillo, just my luck that I wasted time looking and waiting for one of them to walk into view. I started moving further into the woods scanning with my headlamp, dimming it at times or turning it off. Then I’d scan. With my thermal hand scanner. As I walked in, It got pretty thick and nasty in there with a lot of dried up vines and green briars. Since the rifle was shouldered to better maneuver through the woods, I now had a pistol in hand. Mind you I’m wearing a short sleeved shirt and I’m pretty sweaty. It was probably around 81F out still. I’m trying to use the top of my sleeve, my shoulder, and the pistol as a brush guard without obscuring my headlamp’s throw. I got hung up on briars and vines around the ankles and shins. The rifle’s buttstock was getting hung up on vines. Vines ate scratching and tryin to wrap around my neck at times. This is not a brush gun, but I preferred to have a semi-auto than a repeater. I pushed through until I got the feeling I had when I crawled into a briar thicket with a .25 pellet rifle thinking I was going to ding the small pig I saw while crow hunting and ran into a sounder with at least 3 good sized hogs. It was time to get out of the woods and look for the wounded hog in the morning. I have a good idea where they’re coming from. I took a couple of photos of how these vines look in the woods for a better idea.
I went up the street and saw my neighbor sitting outside with an orange vest on and a rifle on his lap. I went to speak with him to ask who the third shooter was. He didn’t know. Now I’m wondering if the folks on the next road have been having the same problems. I patrolled the rest of our road and saw the usual: rabbits, deer, and livestock.
Here’s a photo taken in a drainage ditch after the “dust cleared.”
Tonight I got a call around 11:30pm, when I saw how it was I answered and my first words were, “What’s going on? Hogs?” When I heard “yea,” I asked how many, where they were, and got a rough description of apprx 5 hogs. In my excitement I replied “I’m on my way,” and hung up. I had everything pretty much laid out: rifle w/thermal scope, extra battery, thermal hand scanner, headlamp, pistol. I threw some clothes on and my work boots and started walking over cutting across properties. Everything is so dry I was stepping on dry grass, dried fallen leaves, and sticks. I slowed down and tried to get my breathing under control as I stepped into the clearing. I pan ed the treeline into a yard and saw a hog maybe 55 yards from me with a smaller one in the background. I panned the next yard and saw at least two more. I focused on the largest hog closest to me. I crept within 45 yards. I didn’t want to risk stepping on something and alerting them. I took a kneeling position, ranged it around 45 yards I think. Pressed record on my scope, I don’t think I focused it too well to where it’s crystal clear. I may have zoomed in a little and I recall standing up. I was worried about my backdrop so I think I took my shot offhand so the slug would be traveling down towards the ground. As I placed my crosshairs around the next with the animal’s head down, a young shoat started walking towards it. I squeezed off my shot. I didn’t hear a squeal. Instead my neighbor opened up behind my shot and that pushed two of the hogs straight towards me. I then hear a third shooter in the distance south of us, and that made me piase for a second. I snapped out of it and squeezed the trigger to take a follow up, the Rattler dry fired and immediately, almost reflexively I lower the rifle to reach for the magazine to manually advanced it. I then brought the rifle back to the ready and my scope shut off. Why? I’m unsure, but in my off eye I have two hogs that were just 45 yards away running towards me and I don’t think they knew I was there. So out of self preservation I know I shot at least once from the armpit. They ended up turning north (to my left) and ran into the treeline. Now they were getting closer to my place, so I ran across the adjacent property. Hopped my fenceline and ran through my grass to avoid the crunchy leaves. Ran north through my yard, hopped the fenceline again, and waited at a break in the treeline at bottleneck dirt road crossing.
I could hear the hogs within the wooded area as I kneeled in the grass waiting. I’m watching the trees via my Nocpix S60R riflescope mounted in my Rattler. It was very clear to me what was emerging from the woods. It was a good sized hog. Maybe the first one I shot at. I let it clear most of the branches (I think) and I shot it again. This time I heard the impact. As crossed the road to go back into the woods I hit it again. I don’t remember where I aimed. I have to review the footage. It made some noise this time. Then it moved slowly into the woods and I took every opportunity so could to shoot it through trees and branches. This scope had very clear images so I’m aiming at bright white spots between tree trunks. I may have hit it a third time. Then I realized my mag was empty.
I ran back home and went inside to reload and air up the rifle. I came back out and entered the woods to see if I could find it laying down somewhere. Before I got into the woods my rifle fell off of my shoulder into the grass waiting I picked up and reached to see if my pic rail mount came off of the rail. It didn’t. My sling alimony unhooked itself some sort of way. I reconnected it and switched on my headlamp to hit the woods. It was too thick to enter where the hog entered. I eventually found an opening and went in. I heard movement and thought it may be my hog. Eventually I was able to pick up an armadillo, just my luck that I wasted time looking and waiting for one of them to walk into view. I started moving further into the woods scanning with my headlamp, dimming it at times or turning it off. Then I’d scan. With my thermal hand scanner. As I walked in, It got pretty thick and nasty in there with a lot of dried up vines and green briars. Since the rifle was shouldered to better maneuver through the woods, I now had a pistol in hand. Mind you I’m wearing a short sleeved shirt and I’m pretty sweaty. It was probably around 81F out still. I’m trying to use the top of my sleeve, my shoulder, and the pistol as a brush guard without obscuring my headlamp’s throw. I got hung up on briars and vines around the ankles and shins. The rifle’s buttstock was getting hung up on vines. Vines ate scratching and tryin to wrap around my neck at times. This is not a brush gun, but I preferred to have a semi-auto than a repeater. I pushed through until I got the feeling I had when I crawled into a briar thicket with a .25 pellet rifle thinking I was going to ding the small pig I saw while crow hunting and ran into a sounder with at least 3 good sized hogs. It was time to get out of the woods and look for the wounded hog in the morning. I have a good idea where they’re coming from. I took a couple of photos of how these vines look in the woods for a better idea.
I went up the street and saw my neighbor sitting outside with an orange vest on and a rifle on his lap. I went to speak with him to ask who the third shooter was. He didn’t know. Now I’m wondering if the folks on the next road have been having the same problems. I patrolled the rest of our road and saw the usual: rabbits, deer, and livestock.
