Remember that new varmint rifle I got last month. It's first kill was caught on film. It was Fun!!!



We arrived at the exotic game ranch (FARM) on Thursday night and sighted our rifles in Friday Morning. The new Savage BVSS 300 WSM shot my hand loads into a quarter size cluster. I tried some 150 gr factory loads and they shot well too. The 150gr @3300 to 3400 fps are a lot faster and flatter than my 180 Gr.loads so I decided to adjust the scope to shoot these. We sat in a ravine and tried to call Coyotes Friday but saw nothing but Bison, Elk and other high dollar pelts. Saturday morning I saw a nice 6 point, kangaroo, turkey and a skunk. The ranch game manager said that I could harvest an Axis Doe and all the hogs I wanted. The other people in our group were hunting racks. All I wanted was some fun and meat. After lunch Saturday we went on a safari (Window Hunting in a Dodge Durango ). Soon after entering the ranch we were driving around a large man made lake, when we saw large white swans and geese about half a mile down the far bank. On of our safari guest ( The guy next to the right back seat window) notice that one of the objects closest to us was a hog. I leaned over and peaked out the window with my binoculars and noticed it looked like a nice size and was not moving very fast as it drank water. I asked the tour guide if I could shot it and he said sure. I pulled my new gun from the back and rolled out the left side of the truck. I moved to the front of the truck were I could see the hog. My first instinct was to lay across the hood to shoot. As soon as my forearm touched the 180F hood, I changed my mine. Next I went for the trucks grill guard as a brace. This worked but the truck engine was shaking it. I asked our Guide ( Truck Driver) to shut off the engine which he did. I had twisted the zoom ring when I got out of the truck but did not look to see where it had stopped. I just knew that I would need more that 6x for this shot. When I settled across the grill guard and held on the hog, I noticed that it was quartered toward me. I could take a head or shoulder shot. All four of its legs were in the water and he was not moving. I flipped off the safety and started to squeeze the trigger while I held the cross hairs just under it's left eye. Bang-Pop. As the 150 Gr bullet entered the hogs left tear duct, the front seat passenger of the truck had just snapped his camera with it's zoom al the way out. What the camera caught was the cloud of dirt, mud and dust that flew off the hog as it went pop and flipped towards the bank. It took us 20 minutes to get to the hog. Recovery was easy, as when the hog landed it was almost on the bank. The guy that took the pic said he saw the cloud but did not know what it was. He was surprised how fast the hog went down, It looked as if the hog had dropped out of this dark cloud.



This hog wanted to die.

When I pulled it up the bank I noticed a hole in its right front shoulder that looked grayish brown down into its chest. It also had a fresh red hole the size of a golf ball just behind its right eye that had pieces of skull and brain hanging out. We figured the old wound was several weeks old and that the Hog was on its death march. That is why the hog was standing at the edge of the lake drinking a high noon. This old boar was at piece now. We fed him to the buzzards as the rotten smell did not bother them. [ [image]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid140/p6766769f94c787de0ea354604df15ee5/f6ede54e.jpg.thumb.jpg[/image] [image]http://www.imagestation.com/mypictures/inbox/view.html?id=4142785872&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imagestation.com%2Fpicture%2Fsraid140%2Fpb1c306eda0eb2aed58604a0dcd3f21b9%2Ff6ede550.jpg&caption=Dust%20Cloud[/image]

Marcus -- tried in vain to look at this photo, but the link didn't work. Would love to see the photo. Can you post it by chance?

Whitworth