31 January 2021, 00:40
Bobby TomekHOGZILLA vs. 6.5 Bullberry in the moonlight
Somewhere around 3 a.m., I decided to venture outside and see if anything was roaming. It has been drizzling and breezy earlier, but the clouds were breaking and the wind was dying down -- a perfect time for animal movement.
At first, all I saw were deer and rabbit, but within a couple minutes, the deer bolted towards my direction and circled the wagons, so to speak. Shortly after, a huge dark blob appeared at the end of our field. The hog was moving towards a feeder, but the clouds covered the moon, leaving me without enough ambient light to assure ethical shot placement. But I had a red light mounted atop the scope, so I flicked it on. To my dismay, the hog headed for cover. I turned off the shooting light, set down the rifle and picked up my thermal. It still showed a huge hot spot at the back of the field. I could not see anything though the scope, so again I turned on the light. I caught a glint of an eye at at ground level, and then the second eye appeared (hogs eye don't glow/reflect much at light like a coyote, deer or bobcat).
It appeared the hog hunkered down under some huisaches and was assessing the situation, a behavior I have not encountered before. This had gone on for at least 10 minutes, and I was about ready to give up and head back inside. Years ago, I simply would have cut the distance to try and get a clear shot, but I don't have the mobility to do that anymore and am relegated to my shooting rest in the front yard.
Just then, however, a different group of deer began to head that way -- and that got the hog's attention. He left his cover and -- with the moonlight barely diffused now -- gave me a good opportunity for a shot.
With the Noblex 2.5-10x50 set at max magnification, I placed the dot on the vitals and wasted no time tripping the trigger. I never heard an impact, and the hog was on the edge of a brushline, so I did not get to observe any reaction. Nonetheless, all felt well about the shot.
The commotion got the attention of our oldest son, who then volunteered for the chore of retrieval. We drove as close as we could and picked up the hog's heat signal in the thermal within seconds. The hog had gone barely more than 20 yards but wound up in a thick, thorny bramble while wedged between small tree trunks.
Bullet performance from the 123 grain SST, launched at 2536 fps, was excellent. The bullet penetrated the mud-caked hide, drove through the inch-thick cartiligous shield, broke two ribs, heavily damaged the lungs, broke another rib on exit and was found nearly all the way through the opposite shield. A small section of core was found about two inches away and barely into the shield. The range of the shot was approximately 195 yards. The estimated impact velocity would be in the 2225 fps range.
This boar did not have great length but was exceptionally thick. We weighed him on a Moultrie scale. Anyone want to venture a guess?
