Between holidays, deer hunting and hazardous road conditions, I haven't hog hunted in weeks. I guess it's a sign of old age when you look back at pics and think "those were the days!".
Here are some hunts from a few years ago when I just started using night vision and suppression.
It's always exciting to get a stalk on a daytime herd. Round bales gave us the necessary cover for an easy approach. I setup on the left and picked out the largest on my side and my buddy, RM, did the same. We counted down and let the good times roll. The impacts had that old familiar "nothing but net" sound. We expected the hogs to run to the brush, but two ran the opposite way across my field of vision. I started to follow but there were so many I stopped and waited for more to enter the scope. None did so I swung back right and a giant boar was coming right at us. I hammered him repeatedly, but he kept coming. Later RM said he thought I was really stacking them up over on my side because he heard so many hits. Night scopes don't do well in the daytime with their covers closed, but when he started to fill up my scope, I knew it was getting serious. Taking dead aim, I dumped him at about 15 yards.
Right after dark we saw a small heard of about 15 gather in the turnrow. We swung open the doors and got off a couple quick shots and hopped back in. RM went berserk and floored it, handing me his shotgun aptly nicknamed, "the chopper". The pigs started running but stayed in a small band. I hooked my feet under the glove box and hung out the window with "the chopper". Being a semi auto, it only took a few seconds to empty ten rounds out of it. Several hogs suffered the consequences. Next he handed me a Glock 45 he just purchased that day, outfitted with a laser/light combo. As some pigs found out, the laser takes all the guesswork out of aiming. That's a cool setup for close range work out the window on moving targets.
RM spotted fresh digs in his field, but the snow covered ground called for a change in tactics. We absolutely had to have the bone chilling wind in our face to avoid detection while crunching through the snow on our "ice station zebra" stalk. Fortunately, RM picked up some tundra camo coveralls to blend in with the white out. Everything worked perfectly and we were both spot on with our shooting. We got 8 out of 10 hogs. There is a small one that was covered up in the back of the truck that we didn't notice when we took the pic. We might have taken the last 2 except some equipment was in the line of fire.
Back in the day we'd go from field to field seeing everything from singles to herds of varying sizes. RM and I would plan a stalk based on the wind, terrain and their expected escape route. Most approaches offered first shots at ranges well under 100 yards. I suspect some groups were more than one herd, because they would split and run in two different directions. Talk about confusion! When that happened, we were able to empty two magazines each on them. Of course the last shots were at dots on the horizon, but there was no reason to stop until they were out of sight. My guess is another 6 or so hogs were hit but not recovered.
Here are some hunts from a few years ago when I just started using night vision and suppression.
It's always exciting to get a stalk on a daytime herd. Round bales gave us the necessary cover for an easy approach. I setup on the left and picked out the largest on my side and my buddy, RM, did the same. We counted down and let the good times roll. The impacts had that old familiar "nothing but net" sound. We expected the hogs to run to the brush, but two ran the opposite way across my field of vision. I started to follow but there were so many I stopped and waited for more to enter the scope. None did so I swung back right and a giant boar was coming right at us. I hammered him repeatedly, but he kept coming. Later RM said he thought I was really stacking them up over on my side because he heard so many hits. Night scopes don't do well in the daytime with their covers closed, but when he started to fill up my scope, I knew it was getting serious. Taking dead aim, I dumped him at about 15 yards.
Right after dark we saw a small heard of about 15 gather in the turnrow. We swung open the doors and got off a couple quick shots and hopped back in. RM went berserk and floored it, handing me his shotgun aptly nicknamed, "the chopper". The pigs started running but stayed in a small band. I hooked my feet under the glove box and hung out the window with "the chopper". Being a semi auto, it only took a few seconds to empty ten rounds out of it. Several hogs suffered the consequences. Next he handed me a Glock 45 he just purchased that day, outfitted with a laser/light combo. As some pigs found out, the laser takes all the guesswork out of aiming. That's a cool setup for close range work out the window on moving targets.
RM spotted fresh digs in his field, but the snow covered ground called for a change in tactics. We absolutely had to have the bone chilling wind in our face to avoid detection while crunching through the snow on our "ice station zebra" stalk. Fortunately, RM picked up some tundra camo coveralls to blend in with the white out. Everything worked perfectly and we were both spot on with our shooting. We got 8 out of 10 hogs. There is a small one that was covered up in the back of the truck that we didn't notice when we took the pic. We might have taken the last 2 except some equipment was in the line of fire.
Back in the day we'd go from field to field seeing everything from singles to herds of varying sizes. RM and I would plan a stalk based on the wind, terrain and their expected escape route. Most approaches offered first shots at ranges well under 100 yards. I suspect some groups were more than one herd, because they would split and run in two different directions. Talk about confusion! When that happened, we were able to empty two magazines each on them. Of course the last shots were at dots on the horizon, but there was no reason to stop until they were out of sight. My guess is another 6 or so hogs were hit but not recovered.
