Please excuse my absence. I went wild hog hunting.

[msinc]

If I tell you the story of my first hog hunt, you might feel better.
We were invited to a cousin’s 70th birthday surprise party. It was being held at their “cabin” on a private hunting ranch, just east of Dallas, Texas. At the party, some of the men were talking about doing a hunt the next day and I was invited to join them.
The next morning at 6, I was handed a 700 in 243 and a 1911(“just in case”).
We climbed on 4 wheelers for a short 30 minute ride to “our area”. About 6 hours of hiking thru the Texas heat went by before we finally found a small pack of hogs. We managed to sneak up to within 50 feet of them in the thick brush. I had my crosshairs on the eye of a big sow when all of a sudden, the guy 50 feet to my right opens up with his semi auto. I tried to find a good shot in the resulting melee’, but those hogs were moving too fast and the brush was too thick. When the smoke cleared we discovered that none of the twenty shots the guy fired had hit anything. We hiked for three more hours and never saw another hog.

There are two things I hate when hunting....an idiot that blasts away at game is the one I cannot stand the most and a very close second is when you shoot something, see what looks like it should be a good hit and have the animal run off out of sight. These days I base what I put into a custom rifle around the bullet I intend to use.
My first hog hunt was for a Russian and pretty uneventful. The guide said "you must hit front arm, break front arm...do not shoot behind shoulder like deer" "This is boar, not deer". I was lucky enough to see mine coming thru the woods before it saw me. He stopped and I hit the front arm with a Speer Hot-Cor. He flopped and didn't move again.

 

[akajun]

This, either a shoulder shot with a hard hitter or a head shot when in the wild. When we kill them in the trap or when doing a boucherie on a domestic, a .22lr behind the ear does the trick.
you very well may have hit it, Ive noticed that they don't bleed very much compared to a deer for some reason.
Best I ever did on hogs was deer hunting. We are allowed to use single shot crack barrels for black powder here. Had my 45-70 hand rifle with nice mild 300gr cast lead bullets safe for trapdoor springfields.
Had a heard of about 15-20 come out into the small bottom to my feeder. Waited for two to line up, shot one, killed Two 150lb sows dropped right there. They all ran around like crazy, then in about 30 seconds, they came back. THis time I again waited to line up two and bam, dropped one , one ran off and started screaming on the other side of the hill. Again they all ran around in circles and came back to the feeder. This time I shot two 30lb pigs as my brother likes them that size for cooking at tailgates. This time they were getting wary and ran around for about 5 minutes, hid in some briars, and that one pig that ran was still screaming, but alas the big boar came out in the open and I dropped him. They finally had enough and left the area.
So 4 shots with a single shot, 7 pigs.
Best I can figure, this pack had never been shot at before or the fact that we were in a small bottom the sound echoed and they couldn't pinpoint it.

 

[pirate ammo]

A machinegun does work best but crossing state lines with one is a real pain in the a...

I can verify that they will sometime, got three one night, they were close together. shoot and sweep. Last one here was a big sow with a bunch of piglets, got the mama, but those
little ones can run faster then a speeding bullet, you can't stay on them, their going everywhere. And others are right, they don't bleed out like a lot of animals. Hit them with a 308 at
25 to 50 yards and they still sometimes run some.

 

[riflewoman]

That must be a good friend to be able to do that, not many get on there without a high clearance.

I had the clearance when working in the aerospace industry, but he’s an E9 retired Marine so access is just showing up at the gate.

 

[pirate ammo]

I had the clearance when working in the aerospace industry, but he’s an E9 retired Marine so access is just showing up at the gate.

the most important part is , you got t go. Some times you win sometimes you don't, but your doing something you enjoy.,Capt.Dan

 

[Paula Marie Hamilton]

Riflewoman you are my hero. I been wanting to hog hunt for close to 10 years now. Makes me a little nervous because with my leg brace I don't move well or fast and I've run my finger across those incisor which are sharp as knives. Maybe I'll get the guts up to do it. Afterall what's life without a little fun.

 

[riflewoman]

Paula, go for it! Just carry a big revolver (44 mag) as a backup or hunt with a buddy.

 

[msinc]

Paula, go for it! Just carry a big revolver (44 mag) as a backup or hunt with a buddy.

Come on!!! Where is your sense of adventure??? She said, "what's life without a little fun??" I agree, take a frog gig!!! The buddy carries the camera.

 

[Ccrider]

Riflewoman you are my hero. I been wanting to hog hunt for close to 10 years now. Makes me a little nervous because with my leg brace I don't move well or fast and I've run my finger across those incisor which are sharp as knives. Maybe I'll get the guts up to do it. Afterall what's life without a little fun.

I was reminded today:
Sometimes you are the bug,
Sometimes you are the windshield.

 

[TAJ45]

I was reminded today:
Sometimes you are the bug,
Sometimes you are the windshield.

Shades of MIB. My Fav movie.

 

[ebb]

I don't think the Russian was exactly right. The best and fastest kill I ever made on a wild pig was the Texas heart shot. But they don't present that part of the anatomy at every encounter. 85 grain thunder head on top of a 23-12 at 72 lbs pull, one inch to the right of the poop chute. Arrow only had the vanes and knock on the out side. Paula if you want to hunt there are plenty of places around here that you can hunt out of a stand or off of a buggy. Try it once and if you get more confident then go Tarzan. The wild pigs here are not as tough as the Russian boars they have in east Tennessee, we hunted them for years with a dog and a pocket knife. Florida passed a law that made armed trespassing a felony.

 

[butchlambert]

I was working at a friends weekend place and had the hogs all milling around at about 50yds. Took a shot with my bow, they all ran off. Went over to the spot to look for blood, found my arrow looked like it had been painted red. Two and one half hour search found a little blood but no pig. Search the next morning with swamp buggy, no pig. Watched for buzzards the next couple of days, nothing. Just cause you didn't drop at pig doesn't mean you missed, they are way tougher than people think.

We have a few hogs around our place. We had 7 on the side of the road. All were dead and the buzzards were eating skunks, but not the hogs.

 

[butchlambert]

Under my feeder.

Some of you know Pat Byrne-BR Hall of Fame

Pat takes a long walk every evening on his ranch to keep his blood flowing. He takes his traditional bow for protection. I have many many of his pics of his kills including his rifle kills.

 

[butchlambert]

OMG!!
Is that a record hog?

No, I think a lot of claimed weight is BS. I'm not good at guessing, but maybe 300lb?

 

[ebb]

That's every bit of 300 lbs. The guys I hunt with tell me that 180 or around there is the most dangerous size. I think Pat is braver than I, if I saw that pig in the woods and had that stick with a string on it I would run as fast as I could.

 

[D Coots]

We have a few hogs around our place. We had 7 on the side of the road. All were dead and the buzzards were eating skunks, but not the hogs.

Probably Muslum buzzards Butch.

 

[DickE]

Use a helicopter next time.

 

[spife7980]

I was working at a friends weekend place and had the hogs all milling around at about 50yds. Took a shot with my bow, they all ran off. Went over to the spot to look for blood, found my arrow looked like it had been painted red. Two and one half hour search found a little blood but no pig. Search the next morning with swamp buggy, no pig. Watched for buzzards the next couple of days, nothing. Just cause you didn't drop at pig doesn't mean you missed, they are way tougher than people think.

I shot a pig and when I had it strung up on the rack for gutting the intestines didnt fall out normally, they kind of pivoted out into space and hung there. Found this inside of him. That front shoulder was all green and gross so it got tossed in the gut bucket.

 

[Whit holman]

375

 

[Bc'z]

I shot a pig and when I had it strung up on the rack for gutting the intestines didnt fall out normally, they kind of pivoted out into space and hung there. Found this inside of him. That front shoulder was all green and gross so it got tossed in the gut bucket.

Looks like a 125gr muzzy!