Saturday was like any other day for Brian and myself in terms of having a pre-planned hunt in North Texas - we'd get the household affairs in order during the morning hours and make sure all was square before meeting at his range to verify some zeros on rifles and set out before dark for a hunt.

Except that last Saturday (May 30th) was different, as the video will outline we've taken on a new rifle project and our anticipation of it's first shots and adding thermal optics to it had us eager to get the day started.

Here is a short background on how the testing and evaluation (T&E) of the Lone Star Armory (LSA) TX-15 MPC-Enhanced came to be:

Brian hunts, almost exclusively, with 6.5 Grendel for the last 4-5 years and I have personally owned and tried at least 6 various 6.5 Grendels from different makes and models. We find the caliber to be quite effective in taking varmints and hogs while staying within the weight and size of an AR-15 platform.

Shortly after SHOT 2020 this year as I perused the online reporting from various individuals who attended and broadcasted coverage. I read an article about a Fort Worth gun manufacture who produces "in house" precision firearm systems. As I directed my browser to their website I was delighted to find that 6.5 Grendel was an offering in their TX-15 series of rifles, actually it was the lesser known .264 LBC caliber but hey it shoots factory Grendel.

I talked to Brian about having found a local (Fort Worth Texas) gun manufacture who produces Grendel rifles (along with many other calibers) and how it would be neat if we could highlight this rare combination on his YouTube channel - I think I pretty much had him at Grendel...

We made contact with LSA ownership (Mr. Andrew Brady) and through a series of emails we decided to meet and discuss the testing and evaluation of their Multi-purpose carbine.

And here we are -

Link to the rifle: https://www.lonestararmory.us/shop/...ine/tx15-multi-purpose-carbine-enhanced/

So, for the foreseeable future Brian and I will be putting the LSA TX-15 to use and reporting our feedback and observations on the rifle system - we are certain the product isn't for everyone and you can rest assured that neither of us is trying to sale the product - I can't underestimate how sweet it is to have a full gun manufacture in Fort Worth TX who is MIL , LEO, AND Hunter friendly so consider these folks in support of local Texas Feral Hog business!


The hunt:

Brian and I arrived on the first property right at 830 PM, and set out into the nearest field to the vehicles where we had prior success (two weeks ago) and lo and behold we had our second encounter with a day light hog !

I nearly blew our chances as I am still getting my bearings on this property and being extra careful to scan the surroundings for bedded cattle so when the countdown began I called Brian off (TWICE) We ended up sinking this boar at roughly 185 yards (tandem shots) just feet away from his escape route.

About an hour later a coyote wandered into view - I had the shooting honors - and I made an okay shot (a bit further back than I like) but it clipped the spine. A quick follow up shot put Mr. Coyote down.

At this stage we'd pretty much broke the stillness of the evening here and so we decided to move on to the next property.

At about 1115pm Brian spotted a sounder of hogs many many yards away (the days activities of mowing the range, working the range, and hunting were being felt by the body) but like a couple of good hunters we set about to take some hogs down. By the time we arrived they had moved to the neighbors place and we watched and cringed as one big boar teased me with a fence walk a mere 40 yards in front of me and then dodged out.

As we walked back to the truck to call it a night we spotted this group on our property across a creek they had used to access the field.

We were nearly in place to open our shooting attack when somehow, someway, they detected our presence and began to flee. Brian let a large boar have it and I settled in eventually for a couple of shots at runners.

It really sucks to lay eyes on 30 pigs and get 1 - but hey I tip my hat to the lookout hog who perhaps has the latest and greatest human detection tech.... They certainly won this time.

Thanks DoubleNaughtSpy for the hunting invite - it was a great Saturday for sure!

P.S. - The rest of you reading this, if you come across a 6.5 Grendel that needs a home - do the right thing and open your safe's doors to it - it really is a great caliber for Texas hunting

Looks like a fun evening!!

Nice write-up. It was a good evening, very busy, but very good. The rifle performed very well and I can't wait to get a thermal on it for some hunting.

That last group of hogs sure beat feet when they saw you coming.
I think the word's out — DNS + PP = TROUBLE!

Keep After 'Em!

Good write up PP. As far as the hogs busting you when they shouldn't have with the wind - I had the same thing happen to me last time out. I was just about to lower the boom on a sounder and they just took off. I can't see how they smelled me with the wind. Fortunately, I was able to drop three. I'm getting better at running shots.

Keep up the good work!!

JR

In our case, I mostly think that with the bright moon, they simply saw us as we sort of emerged from behind the trees as we approached the corner. It could be that they ran for some completely different reason unrelated to our approach, but I doubt it.

UPDATE on the testing and evaluation of the LSA TX-15 MPC-E:

No worky-worky!

Nice shooting! Time, attention to detail, and patience to reload properly is why I don't reload. A squirrel would run by my window and I would lose track of what I was doing...

The video didn't work for me until I closed and restarted my browser.

Don't really know why, but then it played fine.