Not again.......! Feral Hog Control in East Texas

Several places in the thread, shot placement has come up and Flintknapper graciously provided us with some sectioned skulls to see where the brain is and where the brain stem exits the skull.

One of the comments made is to place shots "behind the ear." If the shot isn't low enough to cause damage to the spine either directly or indirectly or doesn't angle into the skull to cause brain damage, behind the ear shots can result in nothing but damaged meat and other soft tissues. Here is an example from a hog I took this morning...

http://youtu.be/N73hReqkpmU (video of the hunt)

A previous hunter had shot this hog behind the left ear. The bullet traverse the neck muscle and exited right behind the right ear and actually damaged the pinna (external ear). The was a small, healed scar on the left side, but a gaping, weepy wound on the right side, surrounded by scar tissue and then a scarred ear. The shot was not low enough to involve the spine or spinal cord and was not far enough forward to cause damage to the brain. The hog had survived for quite a while and appeared to be doing well until I shot him.

Here is the more broad view so that you can tell what you are looking at in the following closeup shot...
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Closeup shot.
100_1990reduced.jpg

All in all, it was really pretty darned good shot placement, right behind the ears. An inch further forward or maybe an inch or two lower and I would not have ever seen this hog. However, that isn't what happened and despite being right behind the ears, the hog lived to be hunted another day.
 
So something like 2" lower and a hair or three forward would have done the job?
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Yes, probably so. People talk about "shot placement" being king, but it is part of 3 key factors of placement, penetration, and trajectory. All have to work together. This hunter had 2 out of 3 right, but the trajectory had the shot going through and missing everything critical.

"Behind the ear" is a certainly more likely to be a good shot than not, but I see or read about 2 or 3 examples every year where it fails and it fails because the shot misses CNS structures. This is just a sort of neat (tragic?) example of how that shot can go wrong and likely why.
 
Twmaster wrote:

So something like 2" lower and a hair or three forward would have done the job?
Click to expand...

Most likely, but personally...I would have gone the other direction for a 'neck shot'. It is (and always will be) what I recommend.

IF a broadside shot presents itself, I will always opt for the neck shot.

Of course, 'real life' dictates we take whatever ethical shot exists.

Your bullet/cartridge combination should be considered as well.

Good post DNS, thanks for sharing that.
 
Thanks for the clarifications DNS and Flint. Very appreciated.

I'm planning on my 6.8 SPC II AR hand loaded with 110 grain V-Max pills.

I need to get a bunch loaded and go sight that rifle in.
 
^^^^^^^^^^

TW, that would be hard to pin down. I suspect it varies greatly depending upon 'habitat' and seasonal weather conditions.

I will venture a 'guess' that where I live (Deep East Texas), most hogs will live their lifetime in 4-6 square mile area (Mature Boars...probably 8-10 sq. miles).

We have excellent habitat (food and cover), plenty of water....so no reason/need to travel very far.

Conversely, I can imagine locales (South Texas, Hills of California) where traveling several miles each day would be required for sustenance.

Mature Boars can (and will) travel 10's of miles in search of Estrous Sows to breed, so no telling what their 'limit' is.

Sows and their offspring are interested in finding an area that provides the greatest amount of the things they need (water, food, shelter from the elements) and utilizing that... until it is gone or pressure of some type moves them. Naturally, they are a bit less transient.

No doubt, someone has radio-collared a pig or two in an effort to study their movements, but I am not aware of an 'in depth' study on the subject.
 
TW falls over....

OMG! Flint does not know everything about pigs! :D

Ok, all kidding aside. Thank you. I know some critters cover dozens or hundreds of miles. Was just curious about these Porcine pests!
 
The question is a few days old but I will go ahead and add to Flint's answer. Hogs are adaptive. One of the first signs things are good in their world is they appear during the daylight hours. But should hunters show up and take a few shots, the hogs will almost immediately go nocturnal, but not leave. They will stay in this pattern for quite awhile. Should hunters adapt and go hunting at night also, the hogs very well may leave the area.....for a while. Our hogs around here are pretty much entirely nocturnal. But they haven't left. However, I have seen what I swear is the same hog (exact same color pattern and markings) in two separate locations. And he had to cross a river (not a creek) and a highway, and travel about 6 miles as the crow flies. So with a range like that, its no surprise they "disappear" for periods of time.
 
elhombreconnonombre said:
I live just south of Austin in an área that includes suburbs and large and small tracts of open forested land. I have seen pig signs even within a 500 acre city park on the south side of Austin. Cars and trucks are running into them all the time when they cross a major toll road at night where the speed limit is 85 mph.
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Surely this has been said before but "elhombreconnonombre" is the best internet name I have ever seen.

To get back on point, I've been following this thread for a couple of years and appreciate all of the information - thank you to Flint and all. Love it.
 
Group of four Sows and 13 football sized offspring have been vacuuming up every kernel of corn I have been putting out for the deer.

My game camera revealed three of the Sows had litters and the fourth was very heavily pregnant.

They have been visiting the bait at all times of the day, but consistently at 5:00 p.m. so it was time to put a stop to this.

I got on stand about 4:00 O’clock this afternoon, settled in and got ready for the inevitable attack of Mosquitos. They did not disappoint. Eventually, they got their fill and moved on.

About 4:30 a lone sow popped out of the brush and into the opening, took a quick look around and walked back the same way she had come from. I resisted shooting her….confident the entire group would show up later.

Just before 5:00 a large ‘cane cutter’ rabbit hopped out and I took a few pictures of it as it fed along. I was just about to snap another pic…when though the view finder… I saw the rabbit stand erect and start swiveling its ears, a definite sign it sensed something was coming.

The rabbit darted away and as I put my camera down…I could see dark shapes moving through the brush. Pigs, no doubt.

In a moment…. A bunch of piglets popped out of the brush and immediately hit the corn. The sows were more cautious and slowly approached.

The largest one (the pregnant one…I hoped to shoot) lagged way back and I wondered if the wind would hold up long enough for a shot opportunity. The stand is located a scant 40 yards from the bait site so ‘scent’ is quite a problem there.

After a few minutes the three sows to whom the litters belong….moved in to feed. I was thinking ‘surely this will calm the last sow’ and she will come in as well.

Nope! The pregnant sow just didn’t like something about the set up and would pop in and out the brush…offering only a frontal or retreating shot.

Neither of those shots presents a problem for the .458 SOCOM….since I had it stoked with 405 gr. Remy softpoints, but I still prefer a broadside or quartering shot.

So, I decided to wait and see what would develop. Finally, the pregnant sow got up enough nerve to come out of the brush and walk along a small spring fed branch.

I wanted her to cross it and come feed with the others, so I could pick a shot…but it wasn’t to be. While I was watching her through the scope…. she threw her nose up, sniffed the air and then turned to leave. So, it’s now or never!

I moved the cross hairs just to the front of her chest and pressed the trigger. Over the top of the scope I could see her rear up on her hind legs and topple over into the branch. A kick or two and she lay still.

Through my binoculars I could see the exit hole in the pig, the location of it suggesting I should have led her a bit more or been a bit faster on the trigger.

My intent was to strike the middle of the shoulder. Close….but not quite!


HH1_zpsd97a9ecb.jpg

HH2_zps87026cc7.jpg

Note: I am aware there are some folks that will object to the killing of pregnant animals. It is an emotional hurdle for some.

I will simply say (making no apologies), I specifically targeted this animal as a practical matter of eliminating as many hogs as possible with one shot.

If I had taken one of the sows with piglets, the other sows would allow the orphaned ones to nurse (as if their own). So most (or all of them) would survive to adulthood.

We do NOT hunt hogs here for sport; it is an ongoing battle to try to keep their numbers in check.
 
Nice to see some tales from the battle again Flint. Thank you.

Also, Sending pregnant pigs to the great smokehouse in the sky does not bother me one bit. One less litter of 4 legged cockroaches to worry over.

You said you got some rabbit pics?
 
Flintknapper said:
We do NOT hunt hogs here for sport; it is an ongoing battle to try to keep their numbers in check.
Click to expand...

And here's a sad summary of how that is working out:

This sow was taken coming into a feeder where we had a game cam set up that kept seeing hogs:
20140830_201615_zps70246ab6.jpg

Here is that game cam two hours after I hauled off the sow:
IMG_6066_zpsd6646ad8.jpg
 
Hear ya, ClickClick.

Much to my dismay, my game cam shows the group came BACK yesterday evening about 5:20 and again this morning at 6:45. :(

I am going to stay out of there for a few days and let them settle in again.

As soon as I get another East wind I will go back with some 540 grain (pile driver) hard-cast bullets.

If you put out a 'run' of corn perpendicular to your stand site, the hogs will often times line up (as if at a feed trough). They will push, shove and fight for a bit at first, but I've had good luck getting them to huddle together that way.

Two or Three with one shot is the way to go. The Beartooth piledriver is easily up to the task.

It’s a BIG bullet that just keeps on going:

BT1.jpg

BT4.jpg

PDex1.jpg

hogs_lined_up_zps19b58950.jpg
 
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