21 August 2020, 21:11
Bobby TomekGrady's first hog is a double
Sometimes, things have an amazing way of working out.
A sounder of about a dozen small hogs has been working the area, and tonight, it appeared if they would finally cooperate. Two nights ago, they were within 50 yards of the feeder when it went off. They spooked and did not return that night.
Tonight, they came in but had a run-in with a skunk near the creek and were extremely skittish and hesitant to come all the way to the feeder. They milled around but then melted into the brushline. Around 10:50, I picked up a heat signal -- and it was the sounder. But they were not coming in to the clear and nowhere near the light of the feeder. They'd emerge and disappear. We played this game over several times. Finally, one of them bolted towards the feeder, and the others followed suit.
I whispered to Grady to take the first decent shot because they were about to be gone for good when the feeder spun -- and it was set for 11:00. My view was slightly blocked, but as soon as they made it into the fringe of the light, Grady touched off the Contender wearing a 24" Van Horn barrel in .300 Savage and sent a 125 grain Accubond downrange. I heard the "whop" of bullet impact, and in the thermal could see an unmoving hot spot near the feeder.
I exclaimed "You got him!", but before I could even finish the congratulatory line, Grady asked "Did I get the 2nd one also?" And at that very moment, the feeder spun -- no more than 30 seconds after he had pulled the trigger.
He said a second hog passed behind the first and stopped just as he was pulling the trigger. They were different in size, but Grady assured me the slope of the ground there should have had the vitals fairly well lined up. Still, I only saw the one hot spot.
So we drove down there, and just a few yards behind the first hog was the second, which was downhill just enough that we couldn't see it from our vantage point earlier.
Sure enough, he popped the smaller one square through the shoulder, the exit being about 3 inches behind the opposite shoulder. The Accubond, which has an MV of 2740 fps, entered the 2nd hog at the back of the lungs. The entry was the size of a nickel, as was the exit. The liver in the 2nd hog was heavily damaged as well.
Like with Andy's hog, the twins worked well together, from retrieval to setting up for photos to hauling off the entrails -- and Andy, of course, took the photo of his brother.
So, both twins wrapped up their first hog kills this month. I envision many more in their future.
