More pigs sleeping on my tailgate
I can't write the post about this weekends excellent fishing trip I was too busy shooting pigs.
I met my wife and daughter in Madisonville and after spending some QT with them I hopped up to Normangee. I pulled in about six pm. It was still blazing hot so I drove back to the caney creek bottom, parked just outside the woods and took a long walk through all the deepest parts of the bottom where there was cool shade and cooler mud. There was a lot of fresh sign from a large group including many small hoof prints. I followed the sign and walked a complete lap hoping to end at the big feeder around dusk. I was looking down into the creek bottoms for crossings and I found one that looked especially fresh. I went across the creek and into a huge bamboo thicket. Visibility was typically 1 to 10 feet. About six or seven steps from the creek crossing I stepped through a veil of bamboo and piglets went squealing in every direction. At first three tiny ones to the left caught my eye but then two larger pigs ran to the right I shouldered the gun, one disappeared into the brush but the other stopped behind a tall leafy plant seven to ten yards away. I could see the sillouette and pulled the trigger, I was greeted with a long tell-tale squeal, I closed the distance, confirmed the solid hit and then looked up for more targets, none were present. They get away fast when they can disappear into the brush in just two or three steps. I went to pick up the pig and noticed a tear on the bottom of the stomach. I looked closely and realized that I had targetted the wrong end of the pig silouette, I had shot it just in front of the pelvis punching a clean .277inch hole through an otherwise delicious little ham. Load was a Sierra 140 grain Jacketed Hollowpoint in front of a max charge of H4831. As I have seen from trees and miscellaneous things holding the targets I used to sight these bullets in this bullet has explosive expansion. Later examination showed that the bullet went in a bit higher than I would have liked and the explosion inside nearly blew out the entire far side of the pig, caused a split in the skin of the pigs stomach it stretched so much, completely obliterated the far side +tenderloin, cracked two of those short ribs between the tenderloin and backstrap and basically made a mess of the inside of the 50lb dark brown pig with little red ends of her hairs. 1/2 inch exit wound.
I had a long drag, probably sixty yard to the trail through the woods and then another fifty or so back to the truck. When I finally arrived there I was hot and sweaty. I drank a bottle of water and looked at all the cows in the pasture. One of the cows wasn't walking like a cow so I picked up the scope and verified with the Nikon Buckmaster that there was a big pig working from East to West across the far side of the pasture. I grabbed some more bullets, loaded the magazine of the .270 and took off jogging across the width of the pasture. I got to about 100 yards away when the pig turned and started to walk toward me, I hid behind a clump of brush and got ready. The big boar continued to close with a group of cattle, got in among them. One of the cows actively chased the pig out of the herd, now the boar was 40 yards and closing quartering towards me. I was just about to drop the hammer when a large cow caught my eye, I waited hoping the cow would stop to no avail. He stopped right in front of the boar. The pig worked further left, in front of the entire herd of cows, I slid around and waited for a shot with a clear opening. Finally a excellent shot, 25-30 yards quartering toward me. I pulled the trigger, nothing, checked the safety with my thumb, it was in the fire position. I worked the bolt as slowly as possible and found that I had forgotten to chamber a round. I ran one home but the action stirred some fear in the big pig and he started jogging straight away from me over a little swail. I jumped up and ran after him. I sprinted 35 yards to the top of the small hill and sighted the pig in as he went away from me. I shot freehand at a target 75-100 yards away and going away quickly. I set the crosshairs in front of him and as he filled my sight picture I filled him with 140 grains of hate. It appeared as if I had hit him because he stumbled but sometimes that doesn't mean anything. He went a couple more steps and stopped, wobbled and fell over. I watched happily as his legs flailed above the tall grass. I came up to the beast and was impressed with its size Not as big as the big sow Jeff and I had in Gause but a nice big pig. After field dressing I was able to get him into the truck without a bunch of help so I am certain he was under 200 but he was close.
My bullet had gone in on the right side of the spine through a backstrap, tenderloin and a kidney and exploded everything inside south of the diaphragm the heart was in good shape but there were holes in the diaphragm and some damage to the back of the lungs. No exit wound. The big guy had a little life in him when I got to the scene so I put one through his skull, this settled him down promptly exit wound was about bullet diameter through the back of jaw.
I was thrilled with my hunting skills, unhappy with my shot placement, happy with bullet performance and severely bummed I didn't have a camera. THen I remembered the Game camera. I got it, set up the pigs and held it freehand and shot 9 pictures of the truck. Apparently the sight for handheld use on the game-cam is a little off because all the pics were of the top of my truck and the top half of the pigs except one.
I met my wife and daughter in Madisonville and after spending some QT with them I hopped up to Normangee. I pulled in about six pm. It was still blazing hot so I drove back to the caney creek bottom, parked just outside the woods and took a long walk through all the deepest parts of the bottom where there was cool shade and cooler mud. There was a lot of fresh sign from a large group including many small hoof prints. I followed the sign and walked a complete lap hoping to end at the big feeder around dusk. I was looking down into the creek bottoms for crossings and I found one that looked especially fresh. I went across the creek and into a huge bamboo thicket. Visibility was typically 1 to 10 feet. About six or seven steps from the creek crossing I stepped through a veil of bamboo and piglets went squealing in every direction. At first three tiny ones to the left caught my eye but then two larger pigs ran to the right I shouldered the gun, one disappeared into the brush but the other stopped behind a tall leafy plant seven to ten yards away. I could see the sillouette and pulled the trigger, I was greeted with a long tell-tale squeal, I closed the distance, confirmed the solid hit and then looked up for more targets, none were present. They get away fast when they can disappear into the brush in just two or three steps. I went to pick up the pig and noticed a tear on the bottom of the stomach. I looked closely and realized that I had targetted the wrong end of the pig silouette, I had shot it just in front of the pelvis punching a clean .277inch hole through an otherwise delicious little ham. Load was a Sierra 140 grain Jacketed Hollowpoint in front of a max charge of H4831. As I have seen from trees and miscellaneous things holding the targets I used to sight these bullets in this bullet has explosive expansion. Later examination showed that the bullet went in a bit higher than I would have liked and the explosion inside nearly blew out the entire far side of the pig, caused a split in the skin of the pigs stomach it stretched so much, completely obliterated the far side +tenderloin, cracked two of those short ribs between the tenderloin and backstrap and basically made a mess of the inside of the 50lb dark brown pig with little red ends of her hairs. 1/2 inch exit wound.
I had a long drag, probably sixty yard to the trail through the woods and then another fifty or so back to the truck. When I finally arrived there I was hot and sweaty. I drank a bottle of water and looked at all the cows in the pasture. One of the cows wasn't walking like a cow so I picked up the scope and verified with the Nikon Buckmaster that there was a big pig working from East to West across the far side of the pasture. I grabbed some more bullets, loaded the magazine of the .270 and took off jogging across the width of the pasture. I got to about 100 yards away when the pig turned and started to walk toward me, I hid behind a clump of brush and got ready. The big boar continued to close with a group of cattle, got in among them. One of the cows actively chased the pig out of the herd, now the boar was 40 yards and closing quartering towards me. I was just about to drop the hammer when a large cow caught my eye, I waited hoping the cow would stop to no avail. He stopped right in front of the boar. The pig worked further left, in front of the entire herd of cows, I slid around and waited for a shot with a clear opening. Finally a excellent shot, 25-30 yards quartering toward me. I pulled the trigger, nothing, checked the safety with my thumb, it was in the fire position. I worked the bolt as slowly as possible and found that I had forgotten to chamber a round. I ran one home but the action stirred some fear in the big pig and he started jogging straight away from me over a little swail. I jumped up and ran after him. I sprinted 35 yards to the top of the small hill and sighted the pig in as he went away from me. I shot freehand at a target 75-100 yards away and going away quickly. I set the crosshairs in front of him and as he filled my sight picture I filled him with 140 grains of hate. It appeared as if I had hit him because he stumbled but sometimes that doesn't mean anything. He went a couple more steps and stopped, wobbled and fell over. I watched happily as his legs flailed above the tall grass. I came up to the beast and was impressed with its size Not as big as the big sow Jeff and I had in Gause but a nice big pig. After field dressing I was able to get him into the truck without a bunch of help so I am certain he was under 200 but he was close.
My bullet had gone in on the right side of the spine through a backstrap, tenderloin and a kidney and exploded everything inside south of the diaphragm the heart was in good shape but there were holes in the diaphragm and some damage to the back of the lungs. No exit wound. The big guy had a little life in him when I got to the scene so I put one through his skull, this settled him down promptly exit wound was about bullet diameter through the back of jaw.
I was thrilled with my hunting skills, unhappy with my shot placement, happy with bullet performance and severely bummed I didn't have a camera. THen I remembered the Game camera. I got it, set up the pigs and held it freehand and shot 9 pictures of the truck. Apparently the sight for handheld use on the game-cam is a little off because all the pics were of the top of my truck and the top half of the pigs except one.
posted by steven-hoffman | 11:37 AM
7 Comments:
Excellent hunt Steve and even better shooting.
The pigs seem to like the bamboo. They went into a bamboo thicket the day we hunted out there.
Yeah, I believe that the bamboo stuff is home base for many of the pigs in Normangee. Where I shot the little pig is probably 50 to 100 yards or so up the creek from where they went into the thicket when you were along.
All along that creek on the west side of the property there is that bamboo also.
The thicket is so twisted and thick after shooting the small pig I took five or six steps further into the winding trails and it took me five minutes to re-find my prize.
Where are you putting all that meat anyways? Your freezer must be full by now.
It seems like half of your trips come up empty but on the other half you get two pigs.
Is Anonymous fishing for some pork hand-outs?
My freezer above the fridge is packed, my deep freeze is jam packed, Jeff's Gause freezer is packed, Jeff's college station freezer has some pig in it.
If you debone/grind the meat is shrinks in volume considerably and packs more efficiently. Even just cutting the hams in half helps immensely.
I have an entire rack of my deep freeze is full of hams. The door is all used for loins/tenderloins. I am going to start brining/smoking hams on a regular basis.
We (Jeff and I) are considering another sausage making, I think we have 10-15 gallon bags of boneless meat labeled "To be made into sausage".
Jeff wants to make some summer sausage. I made some last december out of deer that turned out excellent.
Good stuff Steve. I got a phone call. On the other end of the line was a feller in Magnolia with "a horrible hog problem" hoping that I might be able to hunt or trap them for him. I'm going to meet/check out the property on Sun. With a bit of luck, I'll have some good piggy stories to type too. Have you tried the IMR3031 yet?
EXCELLENT!
I know how to get to Magnolia from here. I hope it is just hog-central.
I have not gotten to the 3130 yet.
probably just a typo on your part, but that powder is IMR 3031 not 3130. Dont know if there is a 3130 or not, but if there is dont use that recipe...BOOM, maybe. Just a heads up, if you need a recipe, call me later.
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