Well we got to shooting the rifle I've been posting about, a Pedersoli .45 cal Pennsylvania.
After about 150 rounds of practice I felt Michael, known as BloodyMick was ready to hunt. I had taken him out on a few hunts and shown him the rops of whats happens and he did quite well with stalking, sneaking and keeping calm.

Most of the practice shooting was offhand, I taught him to use the set trigger and it was never a porblem.
He was shooting into 1 to 3 inches at 50 meters. Good enough, if we limited shooting in the field to the same distance.

The story, in a nutshell;
After spending a few hours in a tree looking for game, a large sow came into view about 400m away. We got down and planned the stalk. Down a hill, through a gap in some trees, along the edge of a field where we jumped a roe deer that had beeen hidden till now. He started to bark as if we'd been trying to rape him, only 80meters or so now from the pigs but they paid no attention to him. Propably thought the deer was barking at them. In the meanwhile the pigs had come out into the open and pegged us down to our position, which was about 2 meters from the edge of teh scrub, out in the open. I had been distracted looking for the alarmed deer and not seen this coming. We ever so slowly lay down and waited as the pis got nearer. After about 5 mins, mozzies buzzing around our heads and the pigs were getting to 50m. I had the rifle since I thought I'd just show him how it was done before he had a shot. At 40 meters, I chose one of the last years young, since now there were two sows with last years young and another sow with tiny striped suckers. Broadside and calm I took the shot, prone resting of my overturned hat. The smoke cleared and no pig. We checked the spot and found no blood, the pig showd no sign of being hit, so I must have missed...

Sooo... We head back to the house. I decide to load up just in case we came across anything else, and on the way back we spy another group of pigs on the top of anoher hill, out in the open about 500m away. With daylight fading, we make a jog around a small hill into dead ground and start to sneak the last hundred or so meters. The pigs were no longer in sight, hidden behind the rise we had put between us but I had an idea of where they would be. Inching up over the hill, I spy one, then three more pigs grazing peacfully. Luckily there was a low patch of brambles that gave us some cover and still let me keep an eye on the pigs. We crawled up to around 30 meters, when I instructed BloodyMick(he's shoooting now) to stand slowly and shoot the one farthest to the right. At the shot the pig flinched visibly then took off disorientated, a cartwheel and a stumble, it fell and stopped at the edge of the field, only to get up and dissappear into the thick stuff.

We stood at the edge listening to it thrash around, finding a piece of bone(leg) and blood at our feet. So we re loaded and and I set off into the bush looking for it. I left BloodyMick out side to listen for any more movement. By now it was dark inside the scrub and all I could find was the obvious marks from the thrashing, no blood since it was too dark.

We came back a half hour later with torches and crawled through the scrub following a fairly light and irregular blood trail. It was obvious that he had busted both front legs but I didn't think he'd hit the chest cavity. The trail was fairly easy to follow but there was little blood, and even then I guessed it wouldn't last long. After about 80 meters the blood finished and the trail, partly confused with so may others and partly due to the harder drier ground was lost in the dark.

This morning we went back, quickly picked up the trail and got a good look around. The pig had gone into a gully, with fairly steep sides that would have been impossible for it to climb with even one busted front leg. Following the game trails down another 100 or so yards we decied to go back up and follow the most obvious trail back down, rather than try and comb the area. 20 meters apart we headed back up but I decided to check the less steep side, and after a short while I kick the pig out of a bush, still very much alive but hindered.

I start yelling to Mick to get over quick and finish it. We hadn't taken the rifle, partly because the bush was too thick to wield the thing and partly because I was hoping to find it dead. I had a forward curved beak shaped machete the locals use to cut through this mess so after catching the pig, fending it off a few times, Mick got over just in time to deliver the killing blow.

After a smoke and a breather we inspect it better. The bullet had busted both legs, below the brisket. Very glad to put an end to it all, but in part happy to have taken this guy full circle at the same time too. We'd practiced, stalked, run and hidden, tracked and finally wrestled too, so I got to show him the worst case scenario and what we don't want to see happen again. Mick has decided to practice a lot more before he shoots at any more game, and I want to get a Creedmore sight for the rifle because the factory irons are not great.

Now He's over the moon, he wants to eventually get some more, possibly original muzzleloaders and can't believe he wasted the first 47 years of his life without hunting and guns.

quote:

so I got to show him the worst case scenario and what we don't want to see happen again.

Hey Express, Nice story that was well told. And you all did end up getting the Pig, plus since it was still alive, the meat wasn't spoiled - nor bloodshot .

Things just don't always go as planned when Hunting. One day you and BloodyMick will be able to look back on this same hunt and say, "Do you remember our first Pig hunt when ....

Nice to see you introducing another fellow into Hunting too.

Good hunting to both of you, and in the future - clean 1-shot kills.

Pig hunting sounds like fun, wish we had some around here! Good story! Glad your getting to use that smoke pole
It is very important to always reload. I don't care what happens when I shoot at a deer I immediatly reload.

Bring your gun next time!! It was a great story, thanks for sharing.

the chef

I applaud you guys' perserverance. A lot of folks would have given up, thinking the animal just "got away". A tip of my Texas cap to you both...

Good Story about the one that didn't get away

Thanks guys, to end it all with the pig hanging in my butchery I walked BloodyMick through the dressing, quartering and butchering process. And he didn't even make a mess of it!

Keep well folks.