Hunting was Wed-Sat last week, highs were 97/96/93/95.
Evening temps were decent but the animals were slow to move about which made for some long sit times and limited action.
My buddy Tim got me setup in a couple of stands Wed/Thurs, no sightings at all that night which is surprising because the field usually produces big numbers of hog sightings...
Thursday night - I sat in a blind overlooking a small depression between hills, the winds shifted from S or N right about sundown which sort of blew the chances being that my scent was carrying directly to the feeder, 100 yards away.
He has green lights on motion detectors which is what made a shot possible, by the time I turned on the scope and leaned forward the hog had caught a whiff of me and was exiting quickly. I’m not generally a very accurate snap shooter but I suppose I had been planning in my head to take the shot quickly if an opportunity arose. All said and done hog was under the feeder for. 12-15 secs and he caught a 308 round to the back right side of then lower head/neck.
I was impressed that the shot anchored him , I’m trying out some Sellier Bellot 150 grain Soft Point Cutting Edge (SPCE) ammunition and it certainly caused lots of damage to the surrounding area (no photos of necropsy as I was tired).
Thursday , I met up with Dennis in Ft Worth - in Stephens Co. We always have a ball hunting together (two shooters/one stand) and this was the only evening with early hogs. 750PM a group of 5-6 juvenile pigs emerged , I had about 15 extra seconds to flick on the video recorder, and Dennis began the countdown.
For all I know we both shot at the same hog as the one on the far right was acting skittish, one hog fell out of the group and the rest disappeared into the high crop. We gave it another 4 hours and with no more sightings it was a wrap. No photos of the hog , it was a headshot that did the majority of the damage.
Final evening we were in position early and had a cattle problem, they wanted to eat the corn and provide us with cover but too close is just too much to hunt well with. By the time a hog emerged, Dennis was sort of locked in place by a couple of cows and I dashed to the side about 20 yards to get an angle on the shot. I thought I drove the bullet square into a broadside shoulder but the hogs reaction indicated that I missed the mark. There was no follow up shot possible due to cattle in the vicinity, I helplessly watched as the hog disappeared into the crop.
We stayed in position till 3 AM, the wind was right we were quiet, no more hogs ....
Dennis drove the cut area next to the crop as I scanned with white light, thermal, and after an extensive search (no blood trail to follow) I noticed a depressed area of sorghum and the boar was dead and stiff about 25 yards from where he received the bullet.
All in all I’m happy with the SPCE performance on hogs , two were 150 lbs plus and 1 of those shots wasn’t optimal.
This was my first hunt with a new thermal scope from Bering Optics based out of Irving TX. The scope is accurate (gives a good sight picture and reticles are clean) and dependable (hasn’t glitched or let me down yet).
My one gripe about the scope is the image isn’t very crisp on small critters beyond 100 yards so it’ll only be used on medium to large game beyond that distance for the sake of positive ID.
Here is the video:
