Strange title for a thread in the hog hunting/killing forum-right? Well, read on. I went back to my local pecan bottom where I am supposed to be doing feral hog control as well as squirrel control, but haven't been doing the hog part very well.

Got in my seat at 7:53, about 25 minutes before sunrise. 7 minutes later see a squirrel in the big willow, then another one. Takes almost 10 minutes before I get a clear shot now that the trees are leafing out and the squirrels were super active. At any rate, bang, pop, plop. 3 minutes later I get another shot-bang-miss??? Bang, pop, plop. 15 minutes later, another shot-same result. Then about 5 minutes later I hear 2 barking down the creek to the east, to my right. I swiveled around so I could see in the general direction, and see one in a big pecan tree--finally gives me a shot and I miss-twice--but I killed two sticks/twigs. 10 minutes later nothing is moving so I figure enough shooting in the area and decide to move down the creek in my usual tactic. Walked over to pick up the 3 I'd shot and can only find 2 of them. The grass is almost non-existent and there is no squirrel to be found. I looked up and down the creek, to include the bank and bottom for about 20 yds without success. So, I take the two I picked up, walk back to the chair, put them on my "squirrel stringer", gather up my stuff and start a sneak to the east. I get about 100yds to the east and I see a sounder of hogs on the other side of the creek headed from left to right angling away from me. I put down my chair, stringer, and shooting sticks (mistake) and hot foot down my intercept angle, staying in defilade behind a large pecan. I close to within 60 yds or so and see 3 largish sows on the other side of the creek. I shoulder the rifle (Remington 511 w/Leupold 3-9) and pick one up but can't get a clear shot through the limbs and leaves. Finally one stops in the opening and pop-flop, down she goes. Next thing I know there are pigs pouring out of the creek bottom headed my way. So--bang-whop, bang-whop, bang-whop, click!!! Quick mag swap and continue banging away until there are no more in sight. Reload a mag and swap it out, then notice a black one on the far side that isn't moving too well. She finally gives me a long shot-about 75 yds and I pop her too, but she starts to trot away--I shot her twice more but she doesn't go down. She even stopped in the open and I took another shot using the tree as a rest--oops, forgot about holdover as I'm sighted in for 25 yds and the bullet hit low. She decides she's had enough of me shooting at her, and obviously sick, heads for the mesquite. I get one more round into her while she was running off.

By this time my heartrate is about 220 beats per minute and my hands are shaking. I reload the spare mag "just in case" and walk towards the hill where the majority of the ones I shot/shot at disappeared. Walked up towards the brushline and saw a black blob in the brush--one of the hogs laying on its belly, but not expired. Put a LR behind the ear and that was that. So, now I know I have 2 on the ground and decide to walk back to get the truck to load them up. I load the first one, which I estimated at 50-60 lbs and drove to the other side of the creek and walked down to the first one I shot--I have a problem, as this hog has suffered ground growth, not shrinkage. Finally got her dragged to near the truck where I can get her on the hoist and scale--160 lbs!! The first one weighed in at 100 even.

Here's what you get when you play "Pecan Bottom Poker--2 pairs!! grin



But, here's the "rest of the story"--walked over to where the third one had entered the mesquite--and it is relatively clear in the mesquite as it has been too dry for grass/weeds to grow, and I find the third one. All swollen and nasty already, even though it has only been about 2 hours since I shot her. So, instead of 2 pair, I have a full house, hogs over squirrels.


Stopped to visit with the landowner on the way out and after telling my story, he said he'd buy me a brick of ammo if I would get results like this every time. And, by the way, two of the three sows killed were pregnant--one had 5 inside and the other had at least one--but I didn't fish around too long as I needed to get the first two skinned and on ice.

Now THAT is hog hunting with a difference! Congratulations.

Congrats, great shooting with a .22!

Too bad you didn't have a big gun, something like a .223.

Gatogordo---I thought how it might have been with a .223, but then the louder report might have scattered them like a covey rise instead of them just milling around in the bottom while I plinked away at them. I was shooting standard velocity ammo.

First gun (and .22) I ever shot was a well used farm (my grandfather's) Rem 510 single shot when I was just past 3, had to have some help holding gun and a hand covering left eye, couldn't close it yet. Those 510s and related rifles are still some fine shooting .22s, especially for the money they bring these days.

Good stuff.

Nice work. You also killed the theory how tough hogs are.

Can't begin to count how many hogs I've killed with a .22 LR, but most of them were close (25 yds) and caught the bullet between the eyes or at the base of the ear.

Have killed scores more with my .22-250.

I have had my 511 for 41 years. Need to get it out more It looks like.

quote:

Originally posted by J_Zola:
Nice work. You also killed the theory how tough hogs are.

This doesn't kill the theory that hogs are tough. Shoot any animal in the head and it's over. Problem with hogs is that they are perpetual motion machines and the head shot doesn't always present itself. They don't always bang-flop (nor do deer). Shoot enough and you'll see.

Great work and great shooting, dustoffer! Congrats!

Whitworth is right--it takes a good shot to kill an animal. Gut shoot a squirrel and it will run up the tree and into a hole.

But, a CNS hit puts 'em down. I worked in a slaughterhouse in college and saw lots of 1000lb+ cows/bulls killed dead in their tracks with a .22 LR.

It is as much or more where you shoot them as what you shoot them with.

Well, both of you are right and wrong. True a CNS shot is the DRT kill shot, but I know of a quite a few wild hogs that have been killed with a .22 LR lung shot. One that comes to mind is a 350 pound boar shot by a friend of mine while he was squirrel hunting last fall. He came on it sleeping under a brush pile, couldn't get a clear head shot so he shot it in ribs just behind front leg, hog jumped up, ran about 30 yards and keeled over dead. Same as the sow mentioned above, dustoffer shot her several times in guts, she ran a short ways and died.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not saying a .22 should be used on hogs by choice, but I am saying nothing goes very far with holes in both lungs or the heart. The penetration of .22 standard velocity solids is more than most people would believe.

I don't think that hogs are that difficult to kill, though I sometimes find it difficult to find them dead in heavy vegatation, and no blood trail. So, I'm looking to head or neck shoot them at every opertunity, regardless of what I shoot them with.

Don't leave out the liver hit either as a quickly fatal hit. The tissue is fragile, has lots of blood vessels, and bleeds freely.

Nice going! Though I wasn't sure where the title was going to lead.