18 March 2010, 20:18
RACPig hunt near Abilene
My friend Jared and I went pig hunting last weekend on a ranch not far from Abilene. It was a free hunt that another friend of mine had won in a raffle and was not interested in going. The landowner had feeders and stands but we hunted by spotting and stalking. We were instructed on the property boundaries, told not to shoot the cows and then left alone. Jared hunted with a Ruger 77 in 30’06 with 180 grain Nosler Partitions and a Marlin Lever gun in 35 Remington with 200 grain Core-Lokts. I hunted with my Chapuis 9.3X74 double rifle with 286 grain Privi bullets. We both killed 3 grown pigs apiece plus we took out four of the young pigs. The landowners were adamant about killing all the hogs we could. The previous week they had had a helicopter on the ranch and had taken out 35 or so. We got our pigs on 3 separate stalks while they were coming out to eat in wheat fields. On another occasion while stalking hogs, We almost had a shot at a coyote but he was over three hundred yards away and wouldn’t come any closer to my call. Cows nearby were also an issue. Too bad, as I would have liked to have taken a coyote from that distance with my double. I got good performance with the Privi bullets. The big sow in the last pic of me was shot far behind so as to angle the bullet towards her off side shoulder. It had about 2.5 feet of penetration and broke the offside shoulder. I recovered the bullet under the skin and it weighed 261.5 grains. Muzzle velocity was 2300 fps. Not bad for a cheap bullet. Most of our shots were around the 150 yard range. I did shoot smaller sow in heavy brush after we were looking for our pigs and it left a big hole in her side. The Privi bullets probably work best from a reduced velocity and longer distance though I don’t think any of the pigs noticed.
