A friend Neal and myself snuck off to make a little hunt near his house on the other end of the county. We began the hunt in his yard practically. We were dog short, as we have had encounters with some good boars of late, and unfortunately the dogs have paid the price. Still we had 5 bay dogs, but no catch dogs. My catch dog Dogo is recuperating from heartwarm treatments, and Neal said he didn't have any. I didn't ask why but I guess they were K.I.A s.

As we didn't have any catch dogs I decided to bring my carbine instead of my usual .41 mag. Neal brought a .22 revolver.

The dogs weren't out more than 10 minutes when they got on a hog. I had seen some tracks which I figured belonged to a 100 lb. animal, and I was glad, cause I need some pork to mix with my venison to make ground meat.

The dogs were unable to hold the hog as we made our way through the thickets. Neal was leading and I told him to follow me a couple times as I had the rifle, but he was beyond words by this time. The dogs had the hog stopped for a little while but I couldn't see as the brush and Neal were in the way. The dogs took off and Neal got a glimpse of the hog and yelled "it's huge". We followed the dogs to a slew which had Knee deep water.

As we entered the slew "Striker" Neal's three legged catahoula was leaving the fray with a nasty gash to its side. He turned around though and went back to it when he saw the calvary was here. I managed to flank Neal in the slew but the slew was almost impentrable with some type of small bushes.

Finally I was able to see the dogs and hog through the jungle just yards away. The hog looked like a heffer, he was indeed huge, and he was flinging dogs aside, like they were nothing. I raised my rifle and got off a hurried shot, I had to shoot quickly before the dogs got in the way or the hog moved behind the brush. The hog took off at the shot, and I shot again as he was bounding off. I never really caught up with him with the muzzle, but I felt like I'd caught him somewhere.

The hog was making his last stand maybe 15 yds. from where he was shot. It was kind of open here and I was able to put a shot into his shoulder, and he dropped at the shot. No doubt that the boar could have easily elected to run, as the dogs would not have been able to stop such a beast. Evidently he was not used to running and wanted to fight, that was his undoing.

Usually I find that the hogs get smaller after they are dead, not this guy, he was huge, with great big cutters. Those cutters had done some damage, as three of the five remainding dogs were now out of commission with their wounds. The two remainding dogs were wounded, but still able to hunt.

We put them out later hoping for a small hog, but they got on another boar as we could literally smell him. A big boar hog smells pretty intensely. We had also smelled the first boar before we saw him. The second boar was just too much for these two remainding dogs and he could not be stopped.

All in all, it was quite the morning. This picture doesn't do him justice, I'll try to get another.

Here's another pic.

Looks like good weather yet, not too hot.

Tell us what kind of rifle is that?

KB

Yep, kind of warm ahead of a front, but not bad at all.

The rifle is a Steyr Mod. 1895 in 8x56R, military surplus. They make great little carbines for hog hunting, short, light, and powerful. A neat little straight-pull going for about $90 dollars these days.

Larry,

Nice Porker, good photos and a great story to tell, too!

Waidmannsheil!

Nice rain suit - looks familiar; appears the carbine isn't the only "surplus" you're toting!

Dang, Larry, he's a horse!! That is one heck of a hog! Great report! Congrats! I would have that one mounted -- at least keep the skull!

Thanks Marco, and Jerry, glad you liked my little story. Yep the rain coat is surplus as well, like all gore-tex it will not keep out an all day down pour, but I'm too old or too smart to hunt in those conditions nowdays.

Neal has the head, it was all we could get out as we weren't dragging that animal far, and we could not get a 4 wheeler in there. I think Neal deserves the head, it was his dogs that paid the price for that trophy. They all are healing up, and doing well, and will be chomping at the bit for the next hunt. Dogo has to wait 6 weeks, poor darling, it sure is tough on him to miss so much hunting, he loves it so.

Anyhow it was a fun little hunt and the excitement of it still has me buzzing, I like it almost as much as the dogs.

Went hunting this morning and we got 3, two smallish boars and one small sow. We had only 3 dogs available and one of them ran on 3 rather than 4 legs most of the time.

We got into some really dense vegatation, and almost all of it had thorns of one flavor or another. I look like I fell off of my motorcycle and got a good case of road rash. I carried the carbine and took the sow with it, but I paid the price. Going through really thick stuff in a hurry really takes two hands. Carrying the carbine with one hand and trying to pull through with my body has me pretty well cut up. I'm taking the .41 next time unless we are hunting some big oak flats. Going through immature pine thickets one handed is not recommended. My friend Neal killed the two boars with his .22 mag. revolver. One of them he put the barrel of the revolver on the pigs head as it swam by, yep we were in a thigh high water at the time. The other he took at about 5 yds with a head shot in a thicket, shot or shot at another at the same time but we found no sign of that one.

Sorry I have no photos as the camera got left behind in heavier clothing as it warmed up.

Congrats, Larry! Sounds like you guys are having too much fun!

Yes indeed, too much fun. God willing I'm going again in the morning. In a side note, we just had dinner (lunch out side of the south) of the young sow''s ribs, too good as well.

Good luck to you, Larry!

Great accounts Larry, and what a monster that big boar was. I'm glad you had the carbine since you were adventuring without catch dogs.

Matt

Thanks Marko, I need some luck if I'm going to keep up with the youngsters I'm hunting with. It's amazing how a little gray hair will slow you down.

Thanks Matt, the big one is without a doubt the biggest I've encountered. Wasn't able to weigh him, but my friend Neal said it was the biggest he's seen and he has seen a pile. We guess well over 300 lbs. I really would have like to have seen howmuch over 300 lbs he went, but it was not to be. Would be nice if they would all be readily accessable to transportation when you killed them, but that is seldom the case.

Made a little hunt yesterday morning. Hadn't got the dogs hardly out of the box and they took off and ran out of hearing. Neal didn't bother to put on tracking collars as we were hunting behind his mother's house. About three hours later we found the dogs not too worse for wear, but no hog.

Later we got on another an it ran off and we were able to get the catch dog on it but we still couldn't get it stopped and we came up empty again. These hogs are runners and have figured us out.

I didn't come home empty handed though.



A little Catahoula jip of good stock, the boss wasn't too happy, but she warmed up quick.

nice rifle and beautfill trophy Larry

That was quite a pig Juan, my best so far. I swear when I saw him in the brush I though it was a heffer.

That little rifle is so well suited for chasing hogs. Military surplus so you don't have to baby it, about 6lbs, I'd guess, handy as heck, and packs a whallop. Set me back about $90 dollars not including the red dot sight and mount. I also have a Brit. Enfield jungle carbine in .303 that I use some, has all the same attributes as the Steyr, minus the red dot sight. I use the Steyr more because I've grown accustom to the red dot, I think it's a tad faster than iron sights.

Regards,
Larry

Larry,
Tell us more about the red dot sight. Is it one of those made by Burris? I forget what they are called.

I didn't initially see that when I looked at the pictures.

Also how is it attached to the rifle? With Weaver type base?

KB

Kabluewy, the sight is an Ultradot Sight, I think they call it Ultralight or something. I don't think they make it anymore, but it is very simular to the Burris sight, I think they call "firesight" and simular to an Leoupold model. It is very small and doesn't weigh much at all, which is the reason I chose this model. I wanted the sight to not add much weight to the rifle.

The mount I had made by a gunsmith, he mounted a weaver base to the military sight base. S&K now makes a sight base very simular to the one I had made for about $70 bucks which is less than what I paid. It cost I guess to be on point.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with the package. I even took a doe with it this past season, just for kicks.

Thanks Larry. Those sights are getting smaller all the time. But they can be expensive. I figured one would work well attached to a Weaver type base on the front ring of a Mauser.

KB