Enjoying some quiet time on my back porch reading when I start hearing noises and I realize I've got another ghog in the burrow under the deck. It's whoofing and what sounds like knawing on the beams. I've already shot two so far from that same burrow. How many more are there???
I should have gotten up right then and there, gone inside and readied my Marlin Model 60 in the bedroom at the opposite end of the house where I've sniped the other two, but instead I kept on reading. Next thing I know it pops up on a large boulder maybe 15 feet from me. I freeze. It lays down on the boulder facing away from me. I'm not moving, just watching. Then it turns and looks straight at me. Now it's a stare down. This happens two or three times until it settles down, sunning, with its back to me.
Very slowly I drop my right leg from the lounge chair to the floor. So far so good. Then I swing my left leg to the floor. Still good. Then, I stand up and start moving for the sliding glass door to the house. It turns, sees the movement and disappears under the deck. Nuts!!! Let the game begin.
I go to the bedroom, raise the blinds, open the window and position the gun in the window for the shot and wait. About five or ten minutes later it's back up on the same boulder. I'm in the kitchen watching. I move to the bedroom and attempt to shoulder the gun while kneeling, but it's on high alert and must have spotted movement through the window. Again it disappears under the porch.
This time I rearrange the gun and shooting position to afford as much stealth as possible if another opportunity presents itself. I'm going to have to be very stealthy cause this one is unusually wary.
For the next half hour I'm back and forth between the window in the kitchen and peering through the blinds at the window in the downstairs rec room that looks out under the deck. I can't see the entrance to the burrow because of a support beam, but I do see some movement once and awhile. Between my trips up and down the stairs, the ghog appears two or three times at the edge of the porch, peeking out, but not exposing itself.
Then it finally comes out and heads for the top of another boulder, but I can tell that I have no shot from the bedroom. It climbs down and I'm thinking it might start feeding up the hill from the porch, but nothing. So I head back down to my peep in the rec room and observe the ghog just sitting there. Then it starts grooming itself. A couple of time it looks right at me. This lasts at least ten minutes until finally it ventures out from its hide.
By the time I get to the kitchen, it's back up on the original boulder, standing straight up and sniffing the air. My wife and I watch it for several minutes while it looks at the house then looks left and then right. I decide to head to the bedroom and wait for my best shot. It finally seems to settle down a little, staring at the porch and presenting me with a broadside facing left. I crouch down, crawl on my hands and knees until I'm in position behind the gun. I raise up ever so slowly, take aim with the iron sights and pull the trigger. The 36 grain Rem hollow point finds its mark and the ghog tumbles off the boulder about 25 yds away and dies withing three feet of the first time we spotted each other nearly and hour ago. Don't mess with the supreme hunter! Boy that was fun!!!
Here are the DRT, the exit wound (looked, but could not find the entrance) and the ID shots. Looks like a mature female, but it's not nursing. I forget the sex of the other two I shot before? Wonder what else could be in the borrow???
I should have gotten up right then and there, gone inside and readied my Marlin Model 60 in the bedroom at the opposite end of the house where I've sniped the other two, but instead I kept on reading. Next thing I know it pops up on a large boulder maybe 15 feet from me. I freeze. It lays down on the boulder facing away from me. I'm not moving, just watching. Then it turns and looks straight at me. Now it's a stare down. This happens two or three times until it settles down, sunning, with its back to me.
Very slowly I drop my right leg from the lounge chair to the floor. So far so good. Then I swing my left leg to the floor. Still good. Then, I stand up and start moving for the sliding glass door to the house. It turns, sees the movement and disappears under the deck. Nuts!!! Let the game begin.
I go to the bedroom, raise the blinds, open the window and position the gun in the window for the shot and wait. About five or ten minutes later it's back up on the same boulder. I'm in the kitchen watching. I move to the bedroom and attempt to shoulder the gun while kneeling, but it's on high alert and must have spotted movement through the window. Again it disappears under the porch.
This time I rearrange the gun and shooting position to afford as much stealth as possible if another opportunity presents itself. I'm going to have to be very stealthy cause this one is unusually wary.
For the next half hour I'm back and forth between the window in the kitchen and peering through the blinds at the window in the downstairs rec room that looks out under the deck. I can't see the entrance to the burrow because of a support beam, but I do see some movement once and awhile. Between my trips up and down the stairs, the ghog appears two or three times at the edge of the porch, peeking out, but not exposing itself.
Then it finally comes out and heads for the top of another boulder, but I can tell that I have no shot from the bedroom. It climbs down and I'm thinking it might start feeding up the hill from the porch, but nothing. So I head back down to my peep in the rec room and observe the ghog just sitting there. Then it starts grooming itself. A couple of time it looks right at me. This lasts at least ten minutes until finally it ventures out from its hide.
By the time I get to the kitchen, it's back up on the original boulder, standing straight up and sniffing the air. My wife and I watch it for several minutes while it looks at the house then looks left and then right. I decide to head to the bedroom and wait for my best shot. It finally seems to settle down a little, staring at the porch and presenting me with a broadside facing left. I crouch down, crawl on my hands and knees until I'm in position behind the gun. I raise up ever so slowly, take aim with the iron sights and pull the trigger. The 36 grain Rem hollow point finds its mark and the ghog tumbles off the boulder about 25 yds away and dies withing three feet of the first time we spotted each other nearly and hour ago. Don't mess with the supreme hunter! Boy that was fun!!!
Here are the DRT, the exit wound (looked, but could not find the entrance) and the ID shots. Looks like a mature female, but it's not nursing. I forget the sex of the other two I shot before? Wonder what else could be in the borrow???
