robtattoo
AH veteran
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2022
- Messages
- 123
- Reaction score
- 448
- Location
- Tullahoma, TN
- Media
- 11
- Articles
- 1
- Hunted
- Namibia
Back in the glorious days before the pandemic (2020, to be exact) a couple of my friends happened to mention that they had a huge pig problem on their dairy farm hunting lease. Neither of them having a minute's interest in shooting at anything that doesn't have antlers or a fan-tail, they asked whether I'd be interested in helping them with their issue.
Being the rabid hog-botherer that I am, I couldn't really refuse! I asked about the general layout of the property, boundaries etc & went a scouting.......
3 days I tramped up & down Tennessee hills, crossed creeks, glassed, watched, sniffed & scoured the entire 800 acres for the slightest sign of sounders of pigs. I found, in that time, absolutely nothing. No rooting, no tree rubs, not a single track. Nothing but cows.
"Hahaha.......bastards. Nice joke guys!"
.
"We have trail camera photos, I'm not kidding! Massive hog problem! "
.
"Nnnnno....no you don't. There are literally zero hogs here."
.
"No, there's not a lot of pigs. Just one."
.
"Massive hog problem?" I asked again....
.
"Yeah. One massive hog"
.
"Bollocks" I replied, slipping back into my native, English vulgarity
.
"Hang on..... here"
"Oh. Oh wow! Kinda hard to scale it with no frame of reference, but he certainly looks big enough"
.
"Gimme a couple of nights, I'll put a camera on some feed"
Fast forward about 3 weeks & I receive a text:
I'll refrain from posting my reply verbatim. I'm new & don't want to get banned, but it ran along the lines of:
.
"Good golly! Oh my! I'll be! Gosh, that's got some size!" Etc....
I ended up being indisposed for a couple of weeks following the message, but you can be sure, that photo was etched into my brain. Several other photos followed & one thing was certain, this pig was nocturnal. Not a single picture of it during daylight. I spoke with my guys & they confirmed it. They'd only ever seen or heard the thing at night & all the photos were in the dark.
Now, that presented me with a bit of an issue. As a non-citizen I'm not legally able to possess or even use any night vision equipment. Neither IR nor thermal (stupid ITAR laws) & my only rifle equipped with a light is my .300blk AR.
Now, I've shot a LOT of pigs with that rig & I'm incredibly comfortable with it. It's silly accurate & I know I can put 4 shots into a 2" ring in under 2 seconds at 50yds. I load Barnes, 110gn TacTX bullets over H110 at 2400fps & I know they'll go rooter-to-tooter through an average 100lb pig at 100yds so I figured, if I keep it close, broadside & in the CNS, I'll probably be OK (although I'd be happier still being really close to a climbable tree....)
The night of, I set up my plan. I updated the cattle feed pile (which my mates had been refreshing weekly) & figured out the wind vs possible approaches. I decided against using a blind or hide because I thought that if things didn't go to plan, I didn't want to be trapped. I've never actually been intentionally charged by a hog, but I've been in their escape route a couple of times & having once lost a fight to a chipmunk (that's a whoooole other tale) I know I can't take a pissed off pig in a fist fight.
So, I set myself on a small seat pad, on the ground, at the base of a small tree with lots of back cover & nothing in front of me. 32yds from the bait pile, mostly corn & white cattle feed, I figured I'd be able to see the pig outlined, aim, hit the light & shoot all at the same time.
So I sat. I sat & watched cows. I sat & watched rats, raccoons & squirrels. I sat and watched more cows. I hissed at cows. I threw rocks at cows. I threw freaking bricks at cows. I realized that cows are really, really hard to get away from food.
I considered shooting a cow......
About 6pm & well into the dark, the cows finally decided to leave. By now, I was concerned that either I, or the walking burgers had scared everything away.
Then I heard footsteps. Coming from the opposite direction & I braced myself. All I saw was a huge, black backline moving towards the bait pile (coming from my 7 o'clock about 15 feet from me)
.
"Jesus!" I thought to myself.
The form moved towards the light background of the corn pile & just as it became recognizable as an actual pig, the wind that'd been so steady for 3 straight hours, dropped. Then swirled.
The next segment happened over the space of maybe 3 seconds.....
The hog stopped like it'd run into a wall as it caught my scent & faster than I thought possible, spun end to end, facing back along is own path. It gathered it's feet & took off. In the space of time it took to cover 23yards (a second, maybe) I flipped of the safety, pulled my knees up, braced, pushed on the light's tail cap & instinctively decided on a neck shot. I don't remember seeing the crosshairs in the 1.5 power scope & I may have used the light as an aiming device! But my brain figured out lead & pulled the trigger without my body or finger having a damn thing to say about it.
Between the intense green light, muzzle flash & recoil in an awkward & hurried shooting position, I lost sight of my target.
My instinctive though was that as quickly as all that had happened, I'd just flat out missed. No way on earth I'd made an, estimated, 9 yard, running shot, at night on a freaking pig. No way. Nuh-huh. You can't do that.
But I went to check for blood anyway. Leaving the light on & the safety off, I walked up to the last tree I remember seeing before I blinded myself. There was a small drop on the other side of it. Maybe only 6 feet, but almost vertical.
.
"How the hell did I not see that?!"
That explained how she (she was a she) managed to not appear until she was so close.
I shone my light down the defile & to my utter amazement, she lay wedged under a fallen tree. I just stared at her for what seemed like minutes, reluctant to drop down the little cliffette, knowing that I wouldn't be able to quickly get back up. My brain, again, independently from the rest of me went:
.
"Nah, eff that mate!"
And slapped another 110 grains of gilding metal through the back of her neck, then jumped down the hill. My brain is a lot braver, or dumber, that the rest of me.
Shock, doesn't really cover it. Like, from 10 feet away, I knew it was the biggest hog I'd ever seen, let alone shot. But once I laid hands on her, the adrenaline really kicked in hard. I'm not going to lie, I was shaking like a dog shitting bottle caps. I finally mustered the wherewithal to call my buddies & let them know I'd got her.
They both showed up on their ATVs to help me get her out of the woods & thankfully, Dale brought a chainsaw. Stone me, it took 3 of us, none of who are small lads, nearly 4 hours to get her the 3/4 of a mile back to the truck. Then another hour to find a tractor & chains to load her onto a trailer. All the while, we're trying to guess her weight (closest wins a 6- pack from the other 2)
I don't even remember what our estimates were, but I know mine was around 300 pounds. I lost. By a long way.
Back at Dale's, we used his tractor & scale to haul her up & get an actual weight.......
My jaw hit the floor. Mostly because I do all the game processing & butchering in my friends group *facepalm
So there it is. The story of my biggest ever hog & probably the nearest I'll ever get to hunting a buff!
For comparison, here's her skull next to my previous record, 278 pounder......
Being the rabid hog-botherer that I am, I couldn't really refuse! I asked about the general layout of the property, boundaries etc & went a scouting.......
3 days I tramped up & down Tennessee hills, crossed creeks, glassed, watched, sniffed & scoured the entire 800 acres for the slightest sign of sounders of pigs. I found, in that time, absolutely nothing. No rooting, no tree rubs, not a single track. Nothing but cows.
"Hahaha.......bastards. Nice joke guys!"
.
"We have trail camera photos, I'm not kidding! Massive hog problem! "
.
"Nnnnno....no you don't. There are literally zero hogs here."
.
"No, there's not a lot of pigs. Just one."
.
"Massive hog problem?" I asked again....
.
"Yeah. One massive hog"
.
"Bollocks" I replied, slipping back into my native, English vulgarity
.
"Hang on..... here"
"Oh. Oh wow! Kinda hard to scale it with no frame of reference, but he certainly looks big enough"
.
"Gimme a couple of nights, I'll put a camera on some feed"
Fast forward about 3 weeks & I receive a text:
I'll refrain from posting my reply verbatim. I'm new & don't want to get banned, but it ran along the lines of:
.
"Good golly! Oh my! I'll be! Gosh, that's got some size!" Etc....
I ended up being indisposed for a couple of weeks following the message, but you can be sure, that photo was etched into my brain. Several other photos followed & one thing was certain, this pig was nocturnal. Not a single picture of it during daylight. I spoke with my guys & they confirmed it. They'd only ever seen or heard the thing at night & all the photos were in the dark.
Now, that presented me with a bit of an issue. As a non-citizen I'm not legally able to possess or even use any night vision equipment. Neither IR nor thermal (stupid ITAR laws) & my only rifle equipped with a light is my .300blk AR.
Now, I've shot a LOT of pigs with that rig & I'm incredibly comfortable with it. It's silly accurate & I know I can put 4 shots into a 2" ring in under 2 seconds at 50yds. I load Barnes, 110gn TacTX bullets over H110 at 2400fps & I know they'll go rooter-to-tooter through an average 100lb pig at 100yds so I figured, if I keep it close, broadside & in the CNS, I'll probably be OK (although I'd be happier still being really close to a climbable tree....)
The night of, I set up my plan. I updated the cattle feed pile (which my mates had been refreshing weekly) & figured out the wind vs possible approaches. I decided against using a blind or hide because I thought that if things didn't go to plan, I didn't want to be trapped. I've never actually been intentionally charged by a hog, but I've been in their escape route a couple of times & having once lost a fight to a chipmunk (that's a whoooole other tale) I know I can't take a pissed off pig in a fist fight.
So, I set myself on a small seat pad, on the ground, at the base of a small tree with lots of back cover & nothing in front of me. 32yds from the bait pile, mostly corn & white cattle feed, I figured I'd be able to see the pig outlined, aim, hit the light & shoot all at the same time.
So I sat. I sat & watched cows. I sat & watched rats, raccoons & squirrels. I sat and watched more cows. I hissed at cows. I threw rocks at cows. I threw freaking bricks at cows. I realized that cows are really, really hard to get away from food.
I considered shooting a cow......
About 6pm & well into the dark, the cows finally decided to leave. By now, I was concerned that either I, or the walking burgers had scared everything away.
Then I heard footsteps. Coming from the opposite direction & I braced myself. All I saw was a huge, black backline moving towards the bait pile (coming from my 7 o'clock about 15 feet from me)
.
"Jesus!" I thought to myself.
The form moved towards the light background of the corn pile & just as it became recognizable as an actual pig, the wind that'd been so steady for 3 straight hours, dropped. Then swirled.
The next segment happened over the space of maybe 3 seconds.....
The hog stopped like it'd run into a wall as it caught my scent & faster than I thought possible, spun end to end, facing back along is own path. It gathered it's feet & took off. In the space of time it took to cover 23yards (a second, maybe) I flipped of the safety, pulled my knees up, braced, pushed on the light's tail cap & instinctively decided on a neck shot. I don't remember seeing the crosshairs in the 1.5 power scope & I may have used the light as an aiming device! But my brain figured out lead & pulled the trigger without my body or finger having a damn thing to say about it.
Between the intense green light, muzzle flash & recoil in an awkward & hurried shooting position, I lost sight of my target.
My instinctive though was that as quickly as all that had happened, I'd just flat out missed. No way on earth I'd made an, estimated, 9 yard, running shot, at night on a freaking pig. No way. Nuh-huh. You can't do that.
But I went to check for blood anyway. Leaving the light on & the safety off, I walked up to the last tree I remember seeing before I blinded myself. There was a small drop on the other side of it. Maybe only 6 feet, but almost vertical.
.
"How the hell did I not see that?!"
That explained how she (she was a she) managed to not appear until she was so close.
I shone my light down the defile & to my utter amazement, she lay wedged under a fallen tree. I just stared at her for what seemed like minutes, reluctant to drop down the little cliffette, knowing that I wouldn't be able to quickly get back up. My brain, again, independently from the rest of me went:
.
"Nah, eff that mate!"
And slapped another 110 grains of gilding metal through the back of her neck, then jumped down the hill. My brain is a lot braver, or dumber, that the rest of me.
Shock, doesn't really cover it. Like, from 10 feet away, I knew it was the biggest hog I'd ever seen, let alone shot. But once I laid hands on her, the adrenaline really kicked in hard. I'm not going to lie, I was shaking like a dog shitting bottle caps. I finally mustered the wherewithal to call my buddies & let them know I'd got her.
They both showed up on their ATVs to help me get her out of the woods & thankfully, Dale brought a chainsaw. Stone me, it took 3 of us, none of who are small lads, nearly 4 hours to get her the 3/4 of a mile back to the truck. Then another hour to find a tractor & chains to load her onto a trailer. All the while, we're trying to guess her weight (closest wins a 6- pack from the other 2)
I don't even remember what our estimates were, but I know mine was around 300 pounds. I lost. By a long way.
Back at Dale's, we used his tractor & scale to haul her up & get an actual weight.......
My jaw hit the floor. Mostly because I do all the game processing & butchering in my friends group *facepalm
So there it is. The story of my biggest ever hog & probably the nearest I'll ever get to hunting a buff!
For comparison, here's her skull next to my previous record, 278 pounder......