180 lb Boar on New Property
#1
180 lb Boar on New Property
This was an interesting experience. I recently was asked to help out with hogs on a property down the road from where I hunt. About 1/3 of the property is visible from the front gate, so I always stop and scan from there before entering. After several visits, that has never been productive...until this week.
I get to the gate and I see a sounder off in the distance, maybe 330-350 yards. I unload my gear, get chambered, scan with my rifle scope and can see that it is a large sounder. I also note that the cattle on the property are huddled by the gate. Sometimes they follow my truck, sometimes not, but when I have been out on foot, they generally ignore me, but not this week.
As I come through the gate, they become a bit audible. I get the gate close and start walking to the NW. They are E of the gate and the hogs are NE of the gate and there is a S wind. So I want to approach the hogs from a bit further west as I move north so they don't wind me. Well, half the cattle get up and proceed to run in front of me and the other half gets up and follows behind quietly. So I jink to the E to move around the leading cattle and they run again to be ahead of me. What they heck?
This goes back and forth about 4 more times until I start to notice that the hogs have become bothered by the running cattle and are starting to move off. I am now maybe 150 yards out. By the time my rifle is up an on the sounder, there are only 7 hogs left out of the 30 or so that had been there a few minutes earlier.
Here is the video. You can't see the cattle action as I didn't record it, but that is what was going on leading up to the shot...
I get to the gate and I see a sounder off in the distance, maybe 330-350 yards. I unload my gear, get chambered, scan with my rifle scope and can see that it is a large sounder. I also note that the cattle on the property are huddled by the gate. Sometimes they follow my truck, sometimes not, but when I have been out on foot, they generally ignore me, but not this week.
As I come through the gate, they become a bit audible. I get the gate close and start walking to the NW. They are E of the gate and the hogs are NE of the gate and there is a S wind. So I want to approach the hogs from a bit further west as I move north so they don't wind me. Well, half the cattle get up and proceed to run in front of me and the other half gets up and follows behind quietly. So I jink to the E to move around the leading cattle and they run again to be ahead of me. What they heck?
This goes back and forth about 4 more times until I start to notice that the hogs have become bothered by the running cattle and are starting to move off. I am now maybe 150 yards out. By the time my rifle is up an on the sounder, there are only 7 hogs left out of the 30 or so that had been there a few minutes earlier.
Here is the video. You can't see the cattle action as I didn't record it, but that is what was going on leading up to the shot...