A little under a year ago, up in post
1421 of this thread, I posted some photos of a sow, a bunch of shoats, and a couple of young boars in tow.
Since that time, I've been confounded by the irregular pattern hogs will come through - usually one or two nights a month.
I was out working on out property near the house in the mid-afternoon this past Saturday, and decided to take a water break, get a little rest from the work, and take a walk to change the cards out of my game cameras. Usually, I'l grab my AR on the way out the door to check the cameras, but I was already outside. What's the chances I'll come across anything in the middle of the day... right?
About two thirds of the way to the first camera near my feeder, I hear a whole lot of racket, like several people are raking leaves, vigorously. Suspecting the sound to be hogs, I curse myself for not bringing a rifle, and pull the XD9 on my hip to low ready, and follow the sounds.
Our property is pretty thickly wooded, with both trees and brush (and brushy trees), but about 25 yards off the trail, I spot pigs moving the opposite direction I am, roughly parallel to the trail I'm on. There's a mess of pigs that seem to be moving together, but I can't really gauge the group size, because I only see them in the gaps between vegetation. They are moving slowly enough to target, so I pick out the 6th (and largest) hog I see passing through a gap and line up a neck shot.
I connect, but it's not a debilitating shot, and try my best to catch up with the now-fleeing hogs. Luckily, they make plenty of noise in the leaves to get a rough bearing on them, and make messy enough tracks in their haste for a visual verification that I'm on the right track. They lead me in a big circle through a bunch of brush. As I'm slowing down (and am not hearing much noise), I spot a big black hog holed up in a wash in the middle of a bunch of downed dead trees, about 25 feet directly in front of me.
I don't have an ideal shot, but the hog is mad and snarling at me, so I'm not going to risk going any closer for a better angle. She's kind of in a hole, quartered toward me, so I take aim as best I could for a neck shot and let it fly. The shot connected, and sent her into some serious squealing and kicking. I later found out I'd hit a shoulder and broken a leg bone in two. I take a followup shot to try and put her away, but it doesn't really seem to change the situation much.
In the meantime, very small piglets about 8" long are wandering in my general direction from where she is, one particularly close. I dispatch the closest one, and decide to hoof it back to the house to get my AR and a .22 pistol for the rest of the piglets.
I get back with the AR to the spot I'd left, to find that the hog has turned around with her butt facing me, laying on her right side. The best shot I can see is a spine shot (I'm basically shooting at an angle with the top of her back facing me), but my AR certainly isn't zeroed for 25 feet. I make my best guess and end up hitting her about an inch high, barely missing the spine. It does get her to turn around, and I take a followup neck shot, which puts her away immediately. I'm not sure where exactly the rest of the piglets went, but I didn't see them after a short look around. They'll probably make an easy dinner for coyotes of the neighbor's dogs.
Lessons I learned:
-Always take a rifle when checking the cameras. I could have taken multiple hogs, had I done so.
-9mm is not ideal for a big hog. I knew this already, but experience helps me appreciate that knowledge.
-A .22 pistol is probably handy to have with me, if I need to shoot very small pigs and not make a mess (or waste carry ammo).
I got a couple neighbors from across the road to help me drag her out to a trail and onto a wagon hooked up to my tractor. She was a very fat hog, and we guessed her at about 250 pounds. Photo below:
(for comparison, I'm 6' tall and weigh just under 300)
I was reviewing my game camera photos, and noted this hog and at least 9 others at the feeder, 2 days prior. They show up about a week before that as well, and she looks to still be pregnant at that time. I think I got lucky with the timing of everything, and may not have been able to catch her, had it not been for those piglets holding her there. She seems to have been a pretty smart hog.
The photos from the game camera showed the rest of the group approaching the feeder from one direction:
But this sow circling around down wind (I could see her disturbing the brush in the background, coming from the right) and approaching from the opposite direction:
There were at least 9 other hogs with her:
Time will tell if I'll get a chance at the rest of them.
