18 October 2024, 12:10
Bobby TomekFINALLY!!!
Clear skies, a bright moon, crisp temperatures and low humidity made for a beautiful night. But there's one certain sow that may not agree.
After not seeing a hog here since June, a sounder of eight showed up tonight. They were extremely skittish and were darting in and out of the brush. I originally spotted them in the field west of the house, where I had my .25 Bullberry directed for just such an opportunity. But before long, they vanished into the brush and seemed to be heading southeast toward the creek. So I slowly made my way to another shooting rest. I was not feeling the best tonight and didn't want to tote a rifle to and from the two yard rests, so earlier, I had put my .223 onto the sandbag facing the creek.
It's a Contender with a 24" 1:8 MGM barrel shooting the 55 grain Barnes TTSX at 3294 fps MV. It belonged to my son Andy, but he really wanted my heavy-barreled Creedmoor, so we worked out a trade this past Spring. I had loaded quite a bit of ammo for him that featured the Sierra 65 grain GameKing, and he used it successfully on deer and hogs. I KNEW that load worked without fail, but I really wanted to try a new load and thus settled on the 55 grain TTSX.
But for a while, it seemed I would not get to try that new load on game just yet. The hogs did surface on multiple occasions. Each time, there was intervening brush or grass. And then, when a doe spotted them, she snorted and sent them into flight. Within seconds, though, the largest of the sounder decided to take a look back at the doe and crested the bank of the slough she had dropped off into. She was only 120 yards away when she turned and gave me a slight quartering-to presentation. In the brilliant moonlight, the shot with the Zeiss Diatal Classic 7x50 with illuminated #40 reticle was a piece of cake. I put the dot low on the shoulder and touched off a round.
The bullet flew true, heavily damaging the onside shoulder, wrecking the heart and the frontal portion of the lungs before exiting tight behind the opposite shoulder. The hog ran downhill and only made it 20 to maybe 25 yards before tipping over. The exit in the hide had the classic cookie-cutter Barnes shape and was just a bit smaller than the size of a nickel. There was no evidence that any of the petals had sheared off, which I confirmed with my cheap metal detector while examining the wound cavity.
Breaking the drought on hogs and getting to try a new load in a new-to-me barrel made it a pretty decent night.
