WE NEED MORE HUNTING STORIES AROUND HERE - simple as that

Ian M

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 3, 2001
Messages
2,410
Location
Sask. Canada
Mike kindly offered to share some Texas hog action, let's have some more. I am a bit short of hunting stories right now since winter has shut us down and I had a mediocre hunting season with more travel than hunting. Need to read about some long shooting - pdogs, chucks, deer, rocks, steel plates - bring it on...

ps to Mike,
Suggest you consider minimizing the details if a shot does not go where you want it to. Don't distort the truth, but "Hit a bit back" tells that the bullet did not hit exactly as you wanted but - that happens. We all want to kill cleanly, and we usually do with amazing precision if you learn the skills and get the equipment. This site helps a lot of guys get into the sport or improve their skills and confidence. Look forward to hearing about your hog adventures. One outfitter friend of mine calls the hog the "poor man's grizzly". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I wish I could be of some help Ian. But here lately, my stories would all have to be about long range misses.

I almost got a chance to break my LR record a couple of weeks ago. But I thought about it for too long. I had spotted a standing coyote next to a previously ranged marker. He was just over 1300 yards out. Just a barely perceptible wind from my left.

I finally decided to take the shot. But the coyote had gotten tired of waiting on me and moved behind a bush out of sight.

I went out looking for coyotes and targets of opportunity on Sunday morning. Called in one coyote, and took a couple of Jack rabbits in the 500+ yard range.

I spotted one jack just beyond 1,000 yards. Settle myself in, dialed up the scope and took a gentle squeeze on the trigger.

Scared the begeebee's out of the rabbit when the ground exploded just under his chin.

I thought all day about slipping out after work tonight and trying for a couple of more rabbits, but by the time I got home, the wind was in the 15-20 MPH range, and the wife had filled the fridge full of beer. So here I sat instead.
 
Tim,
Great to hear from you. Sounds like your wife knows how to keep you around!
Good luck with the varmints - you are lucky to be able to go out so much all year round. Some of our predator hunters up here are having a tough time, no snow so hard to see them. Better for getting around but yotes are yotes and the young dumb ones kept shot early, then the hunt is on the wise adults.
 
Ian

I have been shooting my 300 RUM quite a bit lately at 1150 yards on a steel gong that is 14x14 inches. I am using the 210g VLD at 3000fps. I am practicing for an upcoming tv shoot at 1000 yards. Hopefully the extra 150 yards, and the smaller 14" target will give me some confidence. You have to hit a 27" glass screen at 1000 yards on the 1st shot. I have not been able to hit my plate at 1150 on the first shot out of about 7-8 times, but I have been recording each time where my 1st shot goes to get some data. It usually shoots high and whether or not I judge the wind good enough or not, goes right. I never try to shoot 1150 yards if the wind is more then 5mph. I usually only shoot about 4-6 rounds a day at it as well. Kinda spread them out. I just went out the other day and shot my last 4 shells at the steel plate and missed the first 3, then I let another guy shoot and he missed. They were all amazed though, because they had never shot that far, or seen someone come close to hitting something that far. I have been coyote hunting, but no luck lately. The last 2 I shot were with my 300 RUM, and they weren't exactly LR, 1 was 120 and the other was about 275. Left 2 very big holes in them yotes. If I knew how to post pics from my digital camera to the computer, I would be doing it more often. Or taking pics of groups or whatever. Pictures are sometimes worth a thousand words. I have lots of pics, they are just in my photo album.
 
Thanks Ian,

I completely understand about the "hit" deal. We strive for the best shots we can get no matter what the target, especially on a big critter in tight cover. I was raised to make the first shot count, but in the real world it doesn't always work out that way.

We have been working on my friends 300 RUM for a while now when conditions and time allow. It has been a great learning experience for the both of us. I guess the best thing is learning to dope the wind better as most of the time it is rarely less than 6-8 mph and closer to 10-15, and generally coming directly across our range. WIth 800 cres of flat cotton field to shoot across, the tree line 1 3/4 miles across the other side doesn't block the breeze to well. LOL

My friend has decided to pull the Sendero down for some minor work in hopes of improving the groups a little. As it stands now we are getting just under 3" at 500 using the 210gr VLD's and also have some of the 210gr Wildcat's to try out once the work on it is done. By that time we might just have a new toy out there as well, and then those big black targets which come out on the other end of the pastures will have one more thing to worry about. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As for reports, well we hit the woods every time we get up there as a matter of necessity to check on the cows and fences. The density of most of it generally allows us to surprise the hogs and most of our hunting/shooting is oppurtunity rather than planned hunting. However, when the work is done and if we know where they have been hanging out in abundance we will set up a still hunt or find a nice perch and wait them out. IF you have never experienced it, there is always some major tension when it is getting dark and your in cover that only allows limited visability. Thats when the growling, grunting, and squeeling of the big hogs will stand the hair on your neck up. If you have ever been closely surrounded by coyotes in the pitch dark and had them fire up on you, then it is similar only the hogs you know full well can put a major hurting on ya.

Here is one story from several year ago about how close it can come to not working out for the hunter.

We hit the woods early on New Years day after seeing a really nice buck that morning. My friends wife had been looking for a trophy and this particular 10 point had just what she was looking for. The Front Woods as they are called are about 100 or so acres of some thick and some open terrain. By open I mean you can actually get a shot through the woods out to about 100yds. Plan was for them to set up on the norther end and I was to head in from the south east, and make a drive through towards them. THey had busted up a huge pack of hogs that morning and hopes were that I would come across them and the resulting shots would push the buck in their direction. WEll I had covered most of the acreage in a matter of an hour or so not concerned about the noise as it was definately moving deer in the direction they needed to head. The sun was dropping fast when I heard the unmistakable sounds of big hogs rising up for the evening feed. THey always seem pretty grumpy and not to tolerant of the smaller ones at this time. I had taken my Thompson Contender in 7x30 waters along in hopes of putting something on the ground with it. I also was carring my 25/06 as well.

As the sounds of grump hogs got louder, I decided to set up in a small clearing some 50 or so yards from where they were bedded. It only took a few minutes before I saw what appeard to be a huge sow working through the underbrush. I sat down and rested the Thompson across my knees and waited. The hog move into a small oening at about 40 yds, and I released the shot. At the recoil, I temporarily lost sight of the hog, and as I recovered, I could see this huge black freight train barreling down on me. Well, hogs aren't slow my any definaition, especially when hurt and mad. This one had one thing in mind and that was doing serious bodily harm to me. Being the Thompson was a single shot, I no choice but to retrite , problem was there was really nowhere to go. I had propped my 25/06 up against a tree some 5-10 yds behind me and I was crab crawling to it as fast as I could. As I got to it, the hog got to me and I rolled left, and shot in the same motion. Things were close enough that I got spatter on my boot at the shot. The big boar made about 10 yds past me and hung a u-turn to come back again. At this point I was on my feet and had another round chambered, he took a few steps and fell over. The rush which insued was similar to almost being hit by an 18 wheeler or a train without knowing they were coming. The boar we estimated at over 400# based on a couple others we had taken in the high 300's which weren't even close to this one. HAd it not been such a ranking stinking one I would have considered a shoulder mount. But I knew the wife would never stand for that smell in the house. LOL

Here is a pic we took of it about an hour after the hunt. I was still shook up in thinking how quickly things could have been the other way around.
58268622ClRNWP_ph.jpg


THe load I was shooting in the Thompson was a 140gr Nosler BT sitting on top of 34.5 grs of RL-15 with a velocity of 2350fps. Initial testing had shown it had pleanty of power to dump a deer out to 200 yds, however this big sucker sucked it up like it was nothing. The area on the onside shoulder is the result of the exit from the 115gr PArtition that I made the second shot with.
 
Great story Mike, I have had the "good fortune" to get in real close and personal with some hogs. A while back we tippy-toed into a patch of mesquite and cactus where we knew a bunch of hogs had bedded for their siesta. There was a couple of good boars we wanted to check. More we went into the patch the more sleeping hogs we spotted, including one about 25 feet from us that we did not see initially. Exciting stuff, particularly since we did not have to get in that close but did anyway, and we each had muzzleloaders so only one shot.
We were testing some prototype bullets, picking shots that ensured the bullet would stay in the hog. I busted one going away, big sow, tried to angle to the off shoulder. She took off straight into a patch of big cactus, then the damndest screetching and piggie noises. Turned out she bumped right into a big old boar. She was fading pretty quick but he did his thing on her, thats what all the noise was about. I sneaked up to the cactus and saw the boar at a 45 degree angle. Nasty things, those hogs. I shot the boar also, got two bullets back out of that deal. That boar was an opportunist, but he paid the price /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
first off, can you all see the picture I posted in the last reply?

AN Ian, your right about the up close and personal stuff. That is how we do it most of the time. It definately gets your juices flowing to be right in the midst of things when it hits the fan. LOL

I will definately get some fresh reports up in the coming weeks. I have pleanty of room once again in my freezer, and am in need of some fresh sausage. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
All I can see of your picture is a box with a red X

I can pull it up with a right click, but if I try to post it for you, I get the same red X

Either way, that's a heck of a big hog you've got!
 
Picture check.

I saw it for a moment in the below link (my preview) but it won't show on the forum.


58268622ClRNWP_ph.jpg



I can see it but I need to right click on it then display properties and copy the web address THEN paste that onto the URL bar of a new browse window. I suspect they don't allow hot-linked or the address is a problem for the software.
 
Mike:

I can see the pic but only by going through properties etc. Webshots seems to be the problem. Like Dave said, it shows up in the preview of this reply but not on the main forum screen.

Here is the pic in case you can't get it to work any other way.
Mike-Txhog.jpg
 
WEll I appreciate you posting it up. I signed up for Photobucket this morning so maybe that will work. Funny thing is, depending on which PC I am on either here or home, one will show it the other won't. So I wasn't sure what was going on.

Anyway hopefully from now on things might show a little clearer, here is one of the Grandkid and the hog we got this past Saturday,
P1210031A.jpg


THe big one, in the above post, I got about 300 yds over from where we got this one. The background is a little misleading as it looks fairly open, but in fact it is only that way in areas. Most of the rest of those woods are pretty thick and only allow about 20 - 50 yds visibility. Makes for great stalking though.
 
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