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It was pretty cold at - 10 C / 17 F ! Has not been that cold for a while. But its good and necessary for the flora and fauna, a good freeze to clean the air so to speak!

Plenty of layers, my "Ansitzsack" (read loden winter body bag) and what rifle? With some big Keilers (boars) around and the breeding season around the corner, I left the R8 .223 in the rack and borrowed my wife's trusty old CZ .30-06. Funny, I do not have a .30-06 myself and always have to reach for hers when I want to shoot the 06! In fact between us, we do not have more than one gun in any caliber....

I was in the Kanzel overlooking a maize bait at 18:30. I left my springer at home - she has had a few busy hunting days the last weeks and can get a better nights sleep in doors rather than outside in 17 degrees! Plus I was planning to sit til around 03:00 ...... I wanted a pig!

Nothing really happened until 23:00 other than a roe buck barking off to my left at one point.

I was warm in layers and my loden bag. Outside of the open Kanzel windows everything was frozen crystal white! Beautiful. And so perfectly clear in my night vision handheld!

Around midnight a roe doe came followed by her yearling buck kid. They fed, cautiously, moving from one of the maize / corn holes to the next. I watched them through my infra camera. When he gets some antlers on him he will make a decent buck. A good solid body and an alert and arrogant attitude! Nice to watch!

A short while later the two deer stopped feeding and picked up their ears and looked towards the west woods. This lasted some 5 - 10 minutes and then they slowly moved off into the tree line, the young yearling buck high stepping away in agitation!

Pigs? Had the deer sensed or heard pigs and had moved away? Maybe?

Sure enough pigs ! A sounder of 6 pigs slowly and cautiously came in from the right, stopping, waiting, testing the air, listening, a sow, followed slowly by her 5 young hogs. Black shapes against a white background in my night vision. I watched and waited, my breath forming clouds through the open window of the Kanzel.

The sow came in and started feeding and the hoglets quickly followed.

After watching the sounder for a couple of minutes, I picked out a broadside hoglet feeding to the left of the group, set the hair trigger of on the CZ, sighted on the shoulder of the feeding piglet and squeezed the trigger.

The pig dropped on the spot and did not move any body part at all! One hundred percent dead on the spot! Good old .30-06 and premium ammo! The rest of the sounder bombshelled in all directions only to come together some 100 meters to the east and away into the woods.

The hoglet weighed in at 24 kgs dressed out and we will BBQ it whole a couple of days before the Christmas weekend!

BBQ whole pig and a few cold beers! And they will be cold if it stays at 17 F which it looks like doing the next few days !

The .30-06 entered the ribs, exploded the heart and exited the off side with minimal damage other to than the ribs. A great caliber and a great, cold night out!





Cheers, Charlie

Ps. not the greatest of pictures but it was too cold to play around for the camera!

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Great story! That Loden must be super warm to keep you on the stand.
Waidsmann Heil!

Good story Charlie:
Thanks for sharing with us

It's mighty hard to beat the old '06 for hunting anything.

George

quote:

It's mighty hard to beat the old '06 for hunting anything.

George

Hard to beat might be like saying Rocky Marciano was hard to beat. It never happened.

Too cold for this old boy to sit in one of my tree stands, but an enclosed blind wouldn't be bad. Only real problem is that by the time I get enough layers on to be reasonably warm, I can't draw my bow. Oh well, guess the .25-06 or .22-250 will be fine this afternoon.

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So true about the .30-06! Interestingly, we purchased the CZ for my wife some 20 odd years ago from a hunter who had developed MS and was quitting hunting. My wife has shot a ton with the rifle in Europe and Africa and I have used it a lot too. Our youngest son shot his first blesbok in Africa with the same rifle. Accurate, reliable and nice to shoot. Probably deserves a better scope than the Kettner 1,5-12x56 that it has on it, but heck it works well with that scope and if it ain't broke, don't try and fix it!

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Here is a feral hog that I sent to its reward this last weekend with my Sako .30-06. About 175 yards, 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip @ 3,000 fps. It fell over, made it to its feet, and went about 30 steps before keeling over.

When I was younger I avoided the .30-06 because "everyone had one". Now everybody wants a rifle chambered for whatever cartridge is the latest rage, even if it makes no ballistic sense. Experience has taught me that when it comes to hunting if it can be done, it can be done with a .30-06.

Right on!

From prairie dogs to moose the '06 is up to it with the right bullets.

George

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Stonecreek, What a wonderful looking pig ! I assume a boar. Please tell me you kept the skin / hide !!

And I hear you on the 30 odd 6 !


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We see an amazing variety of colors and appearances on the feral swine in our area. Some, you would swear, look as "pure" European Boar as one can get. Others are gray & black, or solid red. One huge sow I saw at a distance too far to shoot last weekend was pure white with floppy ears and was followed by half-grown pigs, none of which resembled her. The one I shot in the photo is a rare combination of colors -- come to think of it the lighter patches almost match the wood finish of the Sako which presented the hog's demise. But I didn't have the motivation to remove that hide, and am not sure what I would have done with it if I had since there are no longer any local tanneries left in the U.S.