Velo Dog
AH legend
Greetings each and every one,
PRE-HUNT:
Yours truly just returned from a family vacation, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, AKA Kaua'i.
All told, there was my young trophy wife (still only in her 50's), both sons, (in their mid and late 30's) the older son's excellent wife and my wacky self, staying in two separate places.
My wife, younger son and myself rented a small 2 bedroom 1 & 1/2 bathroom place, across the street from a small beach, (Poi Pu area).
It included a propane outdoor grill on our very private lanai (patio), facing the water.
We grilled fish, pork, beef or chicken pretty much every day.
Our place was actually a duplex, landlord lived upstairs and downstairs unit is rented to vacationers.
We did plenty of scuba diving and snorkeling as well as, "boogie-boarding" (a boogie-board is essentially 1/3 of a very cheaply made surf board that, you hold to your chest while riding the incoming ocean waves, it's a real kick in the shorts) .
Older son and his wife opted for a package deal in one of the better hotels, also near Poi Pu.
Those two, almost still newly-weds, do not scuba dive but, they joined us for all the other activities mentioned plus, they did some side excursions by themselves, such as jungle hikes and one day of guided kayaking, on the only officially "navigable" river in the Hawaiian islands.
Both of the boys and myself all gave the local reef fish some good laughs as we tried and tried in vain to spear them.
I managed to bag one rather small one but that was it for our considerable time spent x3 with our spears and snorkel gear.
I've always considered spearfishing while scuba diving as un-sporting, (whether legal in some places or not).
IMO, it's about like taping a spotlight to your rifle barrel, for shooting deer at night, not very cool at all.
Great snorkeling fun anyway, in spite of having to buy our dinner from the local grocery store every time - LOL.
Our only defense is that, the surf was up the whole two weeks, due to the Trade Winds constant presence during our vacation.
This made water near shore rather murky, with the sand staying agitated by the large and constant waves.
Getting in and back out with scuba gear on was extremely sporting as well.
But at least with scuba equipment, once we made it through the surf itself, we could then casually swim on the surface, a good way from shore, prior to submerging and thereby avoiding at least part of the churned up sand / poor visibility conditions.
That is our fishless story and we are sticking to it.
This "Surf's Up" condition made for very fine boogie-boarding though, so there is that.
A LUAU:
One evening the entire family attended one of these Tourist Trap Luau supper buffet / outdoor floor show events (the show amounted to lots of singing and dancing, on a large wooden platform outdoors, that was located within a fancy hotel's property).
The show was geared for, I'm not sure what type of persons.
They shamed a few people with birthdays and a few people on their honeymoons, etc., to climb onto the stage for hula dancing lessons, etc., etc.
Glad I wasn't one of them.
However, the food was definitely outstanding plus, after a couple of the excellent local Longboard Lagers, I began to find entertainment value in their show, if perhaps only in my own dysfunctional kind of way.
HUNTING HAWAIIAN BOARS:
My younger son decided he would save his money for more scuba diving and so did not hunt pigs this time.
My older son and I hunted with Patrick Fisher's "Hawaii Safaris".
I rented a rifle for this and my boy brought his favorite compound bow (Mathews brand?) for spot and stalk of piggy wiggy.
And, he bagged a very fine old boar with a heavy arrow / two edged broadhead.
He is a member of this forum ("DoubleLunger") and I was off somewhere else for my bacon when he scored, so I will not attempt to tell his story.
He will do that and he will post our photos as well.
RENTED RIFLE:
It was a Ruger "American" model, bolt action, green plastic stock, caliber 6.5 Creedmoor, Hornady
140 grain A-Max factory ammunition.
The trigger was very Glock-like, looooong squishy pull, ending with a very hard "speed bump" that took a determined lurch of my trigger finger to make it "go bang".
This rifle was equipped with newer Redfield 3 to 9x scope, that had more hash marks in it than on the sleeve of any evil dictator's uniform.
There was a folding bi-pod attached to the forend.
This futuristic looking rifle proved very accurate, in spite of the sad trigger design and maybe 20 or more graduated / busy looking aiming points or reticules in it to choose from.
My PH said no need to actually fire this thing as it was "already dialed in".
But thankfully he did instruct me to dry fire it a few times and I did.
THE SHOT:
Mid afternoon, my PH drove us to a place where we could see perhaps about 500 meters or yards, looking slightly downhill, on a track / sendero / game trail, that went more or less in a straight line through some of the thickest true jungle I have ever seen (and I've been in more than one or two jungles).
We exited the 4x4 truck quietly and made the long and difficult hike of about 5 or 6 steps beyond the front of the truck - exhausting, I thought walking those half dozen paces would never end, good thing they were slightly down hill.
Anyway, then we made ready behind a slight rise in the earth.
He whispered for me to chamber a round and stay close to the rifle.
I just left the scope on 9x, as instructed to do.
Within 10 minutes, and to my delight, a pig here and a pig there began to walk back and forth across the trail, constantly sniffing and feeding as they went, beginning around 150 yards and clear out 500 yards.
Most were sows and piglets.
Soon (sun was still up) when a mature boar appeared at about 275 yards (according to certain down range land marks the PH used for distance markers).
Piggy was constantly moving about, busy eating grass that was growing beside the trail and rooting in the wet earth, presumably for bulbs, bugs and worms.
I was on him and aiming according to how the PH had instructed me to use the multiple-reticule scope (I sort of almost followed his instructions for using this scope - LOL).
In other words, I could not actually see the specific hash mark he said to use in that "tacticool" scope, against the black haired target, in the considerable shade, down range.
So, when piggy suddenly stopped rooting around, his head snapped upward, as if to listen to something in the forest, which we could not hear so far away.
He was positioned somewhat quartering toward us.
I quickly settled the main / center cross wires, just a tic above the juncture of his neck and shoulder, to allow for what I understood the bullet's trajectory would be and I torched one off.
"Whack" came back the faint but satisfying music of a kugel schlag (bullet impacting in this case - pork and bone).
My boar rolled down hill a few yards.
The 6.5 Creedmoor has so little recoil that, I was able to watch him through the scope as he tumbled, until stopping in a shallow washed out depression.
Straight away, we hot-footed over the 275 yards to him and discovered he was stone dead.
The little 140 gr A-Max spitzer impacted farther back than I was aiming but, good enough for the kind of girls I go with.
The entrance wound was immediately behind the left shoulder, and a little higher than I would have liked (damage to the pork chops, AKA: back strap).
The exit wound was about the size of an American or Canadian quarter, and located on his right side, high on the last rib.
The PH graciously declared that piggy had suddenly moved forward at the moment of ignition however, I'm not so sure about that.
When the planets don't line up just exactly right, I have been known to muff a shot now and then.
CONCLUSION:
I'm unable to post photos, because computers dislike me personally and they just won't cooperate beyond simply typing words for me.
However, my previously mentioned archer son will post our photos when he either adds to this thread or posts his own separate thread on this Boar Hunt.
Cheers,
Velo Dog.
PS:
I realized half way through typing this that, I should have done so in another spot within the forum (Hunting Reports USA & Canada).
So with my apology and appropriate embarrassment, hopefully one of our excellent Moderators might be willing to move this whole crashbangeroo over to the appropriate section ?
If not, you guys are still the best.
PRE-HUNT:
Yours truly just returned from a family vacation, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, AKA Kaua'i.
All told, there was my young trophy wife (still only in her 50's), both sons, (in their mid and late 30's) the older son's excellent wife and my wacky self, staying in two separate places.
My wife, younger son and myself rented a small 2 bedroom 1 & 1/2 bathroom place, across the street from a small beach, (Poi Pu area).
It included a propane outdoor grill on our very private lanai (patio), facing the water.
We grilled fish, pork, beef or chicken pretty much every day.
Our place was actually a duplex, landlord lived upstairs and downstairs unit is rented to vacationers.
We did plenty of scuba diving and snorkeling as well as, "boogie-boarding" (a boogie-board is essentially 1/3 of a very cheaply made surf board that, you hold to your chest while riding the incoming ocean waves, it's a real kick in the shorts) .
Older son and his wife opted for a package deal in one of the better hotels, also near Poi Pu.
Those two, almost still newly-weds, do not scuba dive but, they joined us for all the other activities mentioned plus, they did some side excursions by themselves, such as jungle hikes and one day of guided kayaking, on the only officially "navigable" river in the Hawaiian islands.
Both of the boys and myself all gave the local reef fish some good laughs as we tried and tried in vain to spear them.
I managed to bag one rather small one but that was it for our considerable time spent x3 with our spears and snorkel gear.
I've always considered spearfishing while scuba diving as un-sporting, (whether legal in some places or not).
IMO, it's about like taping a spotlight to your rifle barrel, for shooting deer at night, not very cool at all.
Great snorkeling fun anyway, in spite of having to buy our dinner from the local grocery store every time - LOL.
Our only defense is that, the surf was up the whole two weeks, due to the Trade Winds constant presence during our vacation.
This made water near shore rather murky, with the sand staying agitated by the large and constant waves.
Getting in and back out with scuba gear on was extremely sporting as well.
But at least with scuba equipment, once we made it through the surf itself, we could then casually swim on the surface, a good way from shore, prior to submerging and thereby avoiding at least part of the churned up sand / poor visibility conditions.
That is our fishless story and we are sticking to it.
This "Surf's Up" condition made for very fine boogie-boarding though, so there is that.
A LUAU:
One evening the entire family attended one of these Tourist Trap Luau supper buffet / outdoor floor show events (the show amounted to lots of singing and dancing, on a large wooden platform outdoors, that was located within a fancy hotel's property).
The show was geared for, I'm not sure what type of persons.
They shamed a few people with birthdays and a few people on their honeymoons, etc., to climb onto the stage for hula dancing lessons, etc., etc.
Glad I wasn't one of them.
However, the food was definitely outstanding plus, after a couple of the excellent local Longboard Lagers, I began to find entertainment value in their show, if perhaps only in my own dysfunctional kind of way.
HUNTING HAWAIIAN BOARS:
My younger son decided he would save his money for more scuba diving and so did not hunt pigs this time.
My older son and I hunted with Patrick Fisher's "Hawaii Safaris".
I rented a rifle for this and my boy brought his favorite compound bow (Mathews brand?) for spot and stalk of piggy wiggy.
And, he bagged a very fine old boar with a heavy arrow / two edged broadhead.
He is a member of this forum ("DoubleLunger") and I was off somewhere else for my bacon when he scored, so I will not attempt to tell his story.
He will do that and he will post our photos as well.
RENTED RIFLE:
It was a Ruger "American" model, bolt action, green plastic stock, caliber 6.5 Creedmoor, Hornady
140 grain A-Max factory ammunition.
The trigger was very Glock-like, looooong squishy pull, ending with a very hard "speed bump" that took a determined lurch of my trigger finger to make it "go bang".
This rifle was equipped with newer Redfield 3 to 9x scope, that had more hash marks in it than on the sleeve of any evil dictator's uniform.
There was a folding bi-pod attached to the forend.
This futuristic looking rifle proved very accurate, in spite of the sad trigger design and maybe 20 or more graduated / busy looking aiming points or reticules in it to choose from.
My PH said no need to actually fire this thing as it was "already dialed in".
But thankfully he did instruct me to dry fire it a few times and I did.
THE SHOT:
Mid afternoon, my PH drove us to a place where we could see perhaps about 500 meters or yards, looking slightly downhill, on a track / sendero / game trail, that went more or less in a straight line through some of the thickest true jungle I have ever seen (and I've been in more than one or two jungles).
We exited the 4x4 truck quietly and made the long and difficult hike of about 5 or 6 steps beyond the front of the truck - exhausting, I thought walking those half dozen paces would never end, good thing they were slightly down hill.
Anyway, then we made ready behind a slight rise in the earth.
He whispered for me to chamber a round and stay close to the rifle.
I just left the scope on 9x, as instructed to do.
Within 10 minutes, and to my delight, a pig here and a pig there began to walk back and forth across the trail, constantly sniffing and feeding as they went, beginning around 150 yards and clear out 500 yards.
Most were sows and piglets.
Soon (sun was still up) when a mature boar appeared at about 275 yards (according to certain down range land marks the PH used for distance markers).
Piggy was constantly moving about, busy eating grass that was growing beside the trail and rooting in the wet earth, presumably for bulbs, bugs and worms.
I was on him and aiming according to how the PH had instructed me to use the multiple-reticule scope (I sort of almost followed his instructions for using this scope - LOL).
In other words, I could not actually see the specific hash mark he said to use in that "tacticool" scope, against the black haired target, in the considerable shade, down range.
So, when piggy suddenly stopped rooting around, his head snapped upward, as if to listen to something in the forest, which we could not hear so far away.
He was positioned somewhat quartering toward us.
I quickly settled the main / center cross wires, just a tic above the juncture of his neck and shoulder, to allow for what I understood the bullet's trajectory would be and I torched one off.
"Whack" came back the faint but satisfying music of a kugel schlag (bullet impacting in this case - pork and bone).
My boar rolled down hill a few yards.
The 6.5 Creedmoor has so little recoil that, I was able to watch him through the scope as he tumbled, until stopping in a shallow washed out depression.
Straight away, we hot-footed over the 275 yards to him and discovered he was stone dead.
The little 140 gr A-Max spitzer impacted farther back than I was aiming but, good enough for the kind of girls I go with.
The entrance wound was immediately behind the left shoulder, and a little higher than I would have liked (damage to the pork chops, AKA: back strap).
The exit wound was about the size of an American or Canadian quarter, and located on his right side, high on the last rib.
The PH graciously declared that piggy had suddenly moved forward at the moment of ignition however, I'm not so sure about that.
When the planets don't line up just exactly right, I have been known to muff a shot now and then.
CONCLUSION:
I'm unable to post photos, because computers dislike me personally and they just won't cooperate beyond simply typing words for me.
However, my previously mentioned archer son will post our photos when he either adds to this thread or posts his own separate thread on this Boar Hunt.
Cheers,
Velo Dog.
PS:
I realized half way through typing this that, I should have done so in another spot within the forum (Hunting Reports USA & Canada).
So with my apology and appropriate embarrassment, hopefully one of our excellent Moderators might be willing to move this whole crashbangeroo over to the appropriate section ?
If not, you guys are still the best.
Last edited by a moderator:
