I hate the stickers. They are worse more on some properties than others. On my most productive property, they are terrible...

Nice shootin' I too, hate them stickers; once had to carry a yellow lab out of a field of 'em.

Another good video!
Hog #3 is probably dead now. It looked like the crosshairs were on the head, but forward of the eye when the shot occurred. I'm pretty sure I heard the 'thump' of a hit. So, it may not have been an immediately fatal shot, but I doubt that hog survived long.

Now, in my case, the hog would have dropped instantly and been dead on the spot. That's because my wife is an animal over. None of the hogs I shoot suffer a bit, they're always dead before they hit the ground, and never know what hit 'em.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. My wife wants to believe it, so it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.

Stickers ....

What IS their purpose on Earth ?

Besides making every step painful - and they fill up the soles on snake boots to where they become caked up with them and then release all around the house. I didn’t know this but the wife pointed it out - many many many times.

Good stalk on those three pigs

Good shootin', DNS. And I hear you on the darned stickers. They are mean and plentiful this year! Are your downed hogs covered with them?

Quite correct on the stickers! Where I hunt there's a house and I have use of it. It makes for a very nice "hunting camp" what with hot & cold water, central air and heat, kitchen privileges and all. But I don't know how many times I've walked onto a rug barefoot only to discover that someone has deposited a sand burr there.

Sometimes. These each had a dozen or more on them that I tried to get off for the photos, but they certainly had less on them than I was getting on me!

I would burn that field to get rid of some of those damn stickers.

I call them grass burrs, but yes they are actually sand burrs I think. For sure there are way more of them in the sandy parts of our county than over on the tighter ground. Some places I hunt they are 2-3 times as thick as what you are showing there. Luckily most of my good coyote calling places are in a different part of the county where they are nearly nonexistent. Man I hate those things, especially out dove hunting. They get buried up in the feathers where you can't see them until you grab the bird.

Hog number 3, depends on distance and how your gun is zeroed. I think the lead you had was probably good with the speed and angle it was going. But if actual bullet path was a couple inches high at that distance then you might have grazed the top of the skull, knocked it out for a minute or two, and then it escaped in the grass. Hard to tell. Either way, still pretty good shooting IMO.

I shoot a 50/200 zero. At 100 I am about 1 3/4" high. Not much difference on a body shot but doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room on a precise head shot. You had a partially obscured target that was visually trying to force you into a high hold as well.

That is the thing about common names is that they are often quite varied by geography, tradition, and education. This particular plant has at least a half dozen different common names including sand burrs, sand spurs, grass burrs, buffalo grass, sticker burrs (aka 'stickers'), pricking monsters, lawn burrs, etc. They are all the same plant, under the genus name of Cenchrus.



I zero at 100 yards, which is about the most common distance I shoot. I specifically don't zero a couple inches high at 100 yards so that I don't have to make a correction for my most common shooting distances. I have seen the result of people shooting at their typical distance and forgetting that they are zeroed for farther. This is my buddy's pig from 7 years ago. He put his crosshairs right below the ear at 85 yards with a .308 that had a 200 yard zero. He hit the hog 3 time with one shot, but it did not go down until one of us shot it in the shoulder.

The 50/200 is what I use for all my coyote calling and have for many years. That stems from me (up until now at least) being primarily a daytime caller in open country. Even my LR rigs, even though they are zeroed at 100 are usually left dialed up to 200 for general use. My main worry is if I zero differently for my thermal, that in the heat of the moment I will revert to what I am used to and have trained myself for, which is compensating for the 200 zero. I do agree that a 100 yard zero more closely matches the vast majority of night time encounters, especially with hogs. I even have a 100 yard zero profile set up in my Thermion for that reason. But I haven't used it because I know if I swap over and then miss a shot because I compensated when I shouldn't have I would be pissed, lol. I keep telling myself I need to try it but can't make myself do it.

That is a cool picture BTW. Did it knock him out at all?

Prickly pears, briars, cat claws, jumping cactus, mesquites won't stop me. I come across a sticker patch and I will go the other way!

And another fine video!!!

Nothing wrong with a 50/200 zero, if you are smart enough to remember where you need to be aiming for precision shots at various distances. I don't think I am good under pressure like that and just keep it simple. My buddy was quick to point out that he didn't miss, LOL.

Nope, the hog didn't get knocked out or knocked down. It just took off and one of us took it on the run.

Thanks, OS! I don't like stickers at all. I don't like them even more when I find them in the laundry a few days later. It is really bad news if my wife finds in the laundry, LOL.