29 November 2009, 00:35
new_guyMoonlight Boar
Kent [450/400] and I took his two boys out hog hunting last night. I’ve had a camera up on the feeder they were hunting for over a month, and the hogs have been hitting it daily at about 8pm. The three of them were hunting that blind and waiting for this Dalmatian colored boar.
We arrived about 6:30, but that turned out to be too late for me, as there were hogs on the feeder I was hunting when I got there. Of course, my getting into position moved them off.
About 8:00, the clouds cleared and the mostly full moon illuminated the field quite well. I glance over my shoulder and caught the silhouette of a hog coming across the open field towards me and the feeder. He must have caught wind of me because he came to an abrupt stop about 50-yards and turned broad-sided.
I flipped the little illuminated reticle lever on the Swarovski, and pulled down on his shoulder. First, I was really impressed with how well the scope worked, how much brighter the image was through the scope, and how visible the details of the hog were. Secondly, the illuminated reticle makes a ALL of the difference in making a shot like this.
Without it, I would have been guessing where the cross-hairs were, and it would have taken me several seconds more to “place” the black reticle on his black body. With it, however, the placement of the reticle on his shoulder and the shot were immediate. I couldn’t have made the shot as quickly or as accurately without the illum. reticle.
Anyway, I could tell from his shape he was a boar, and let the right barrel go on the 7x65. He ran around me in a semi-circle and made it about 80-yards to the tree line. He must have forgotten that there were two fences there and bunch of brush because he got caught up in the two barbed wire fences and died there.
Unfortunately, Kent and the boys didn’t see anything at their feeder, but the boys had a good time, and we definitely whet their appetites for more hunting.
Nice work!
