Jorge, I promised to report on my hunt so here it is- light on narrative with pix:

My 13 year old grandson, Troupe, and I arrived with two friends, Richard and Sterling at 5 PM last Friday at the high fenced Hondo ranch of another friend, Joe. That afternoon, Sterling had to sight in his rifle and at 6:30PM we headed out into the ranch to shoot does and hogs. Troupe scored first with his Howa 7mm-o8, dropping a red deer doe with one shot through the heart.


Next morning, Richard shot a 220 pound hog with his.257 Weatherby::


Sterling saw a beauty of a 2000 pound water buffalo bull and changed his target from a doe to a bull.

Since these bulls can be dangerous and Sterling had his single shot Browning 1885 30-06, Joe borrowed my .405 and a handful of my hand loaded 400 grain Woodie RN SN (soft point is a misnomer, as these bullets really hold together on DG) and off they went. Upon locating the bull standing broadside at 40 yards, Joe planned to let Sterling shoot his single shot, switch to my rifle and shoot while Joe reloaded his single shot,and then switch back to his 30-06 and so on until the bull was down. The first 30-06 went high on the shoulder and the bull turned to face them. The .405 shot between the shoulders went above the heart, but the bull's front feet came off the ground(fatal, but not final), so he left. After another stalk and 2 more 30-06 shots and one .405, the bull was done and should make a fine shoulder mount:


That afternoon, I knocked down a fallow deer with the .405 300 grain Hornady (I had not got around to reloading any Barnes bullets)and Richard took a red deer doe, meeting his objectives;


At 6:30 Sunday, Sterling, Troupe and I went out for hogs and Sterling had only one bullet left after his range time and punching holes in the buff. Our guide, Toby, told Sterling to shoot the largest(250 pounds) of a group of hogs we came upon and he did; however, the hog just ran for cover, so I dropped it with my .405. Note the big entry hole on left shoulder:



Toby and I ran a few yards and found the sleepy pigs milling about and my only shot was at a black one with head and tail in the brush- so I shot it in the middle and it staggered and stepped into the cover while several smaller (150 pound) hogs ran off.
Toby knew where they would go so while Sterling awaited a truck to pick up him and his hog, we drove to watch for the escaping hogs.
While Troupe was lining up a shot at one of the hogs, my big black hog came up so he shot it in the head at better than 30 yards and down it went! Note .405 entry hole behind shoulder but above the heart.




After field dressing the hog and having a quick breakfast, we went out to get another. Toby saw some red in the black and green mesquite brush and his binoculars revealed the head of Rusty, a young boar he had been after for weeks. He told Troupe where to shoot and down went another hog with a head shot! Rusty's buddy hogs scattered in a split second!

We had a great time and blasted some game, however, being shown how to shoot game by a 13 year old may take some getting used to!

Congratulations on a fun hunt!Awsome

Great report! Love that 405
s performance! Glad to hear the Woodleighs and held up well for you. Wait until you try the TSXs and I'm sure the North Forks will do the job as well.

Great hunt,thanks for posting,must be a special treat hunting with your grandson

Bill73,
Yes, and it is amazing how some real world experience changes kids! Troupe went from not wanting to touch the dead critters to helping Toby clean his red hog to wanting to shoot and field dress his own deer and hog this fall. He also found a skinning knife like Toby used on Amazon.com and conned his uncle into giving him one for his birthday!

BTT - pix added.

Outstanding! Always fun to turn a kid on to hunting!


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