Well, it's been a while since hogs have been around, but three medium-sized boars showed up right at dark this evening. One of them decided to stay here on a permanent basis.

I first noticed them cresting the creek bank, and they soon began moving east towards a feeder they must have heard. They were extremely skittish and were darting in and out of cover. I was hoping they'd line up for a double, but that didn't seem like it was going to happen. All of a sudden, two of them bolted to the west; the other ran about five yards north and stopped. All three were now looking back towards the creek from which they emerged. With their ears perked and their body positions in full alarm mode, I figured it was now or never, so I picked the largest of the lot, aligned the dot of the Docter scope on the vitals and sent a 100 grain Ballistic Tip from my 24" 6.5 Bullberry downrange.

From 140 yards, the bullet took the ever-so-slightly quartering boar through the heart and simply decimated the lower portion of the opposite shoulder before exiting. The hog folded in his tracks. As darkness had set in, I didn't bother wiping down the blood, so you can see the bullet's entrance in the photo. The other image shows all that I could find of the heart.

You are a surgeon, Bobby, with a scalpel by Bullberry.

I am glad you got one! I have one boar hitting the feeder at around 1 AM just sometime and only one night at a time. No rhyme or reason, only he knows when he will show! Mile and a half of dead end family road to the wife's place. Maybe 300 yards in there was a sounder of 15 to 20 150 pounders! Two miles at the most, they never made it to my feeder! Lots of corn on the ground at 8:30 PM, water hole in the creek right there! I just don't understand!

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Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
You are a surgeon, Bobby, with a scalpel by Bullberry.

That Bullberry barrel makes accurate shot placement a breeze. When I do my part, it tends to stack bullets into teeny, tiny cloverleafs with monotonous regularity.

Just off the top of my head, I've used this barrel to take game with the 100 grain TTSX, 100 grain Ballistic Tip, 115 grain Barnes Tac-TX, 120 grain Ballistic Tip, 120 grain Sierra Tipped GK, 123 grain Hornady SST, 123 grain Hornady ELD-M, 129 grain Hornady SP and the 130 grain Accubond. And they've all shot incredibly well with the most minimal of load development needed.

It's sad that Bullberry is history. Ditto for Van Horn. Barrels from either of those makers were among the most accurate shooters I've had the pleasure of using.

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Originally posted by Live Oak:
I am glad you got one! I have one boar hitting the feeder at around 1 AM just sometime and only one night at a time. No rhyme or reason, only he knows when he will show! Mile and a half of dead end family road to the wife's place. Maybe 300 yards in there was a sounder of 15 to 20 150 pounders! Two miles at the most, they never made it to my feeder! Lots of corn on the ground at 8:30 PM, water hole in the creek right there! I just don't understand!

You're right: sometimes there is no logic to what hogs do, and I have found them to be the most un-patternable of all larger game animals here in TX. Sure, sometimes they'll fall into a routine, but then lo' and behold, it'll seem as though the've fallen off the face of the Earth...only to resurface weeks or months later.

My local place had pretty good traffic - 5-6 medium hogs pretty regular. They are in the trap just about every night and tomorrow night I will set the trap as the landowner at my other place needs one for sausage makings. That alone tells you that traffic at his place is sparse.

The two big sows dropped their litters and one picture I posted had 13 piglets in it—but not a sign of them in a month.

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Well done Bobby, good shooting !

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