I took the family to a wonderful ranch on the headwaters of the Llano river for spring break. The ranch owner and I slipped off each morning for a little hunt while the ladies slept in. The first morning had pea soup fog at down. Tom and I sat on a cliff overlooking a feeder a wheat field. The point was to put some meat in the freezer and take a first animal with my new (old) Hollis 450-400.

As dawn came we saw two blurs at the feeder, and slowly emerged two ugly hogs. As hogs are considered vermin on this ranch, Tom asked me to lob a shot at the ugliest of the two.

With iron sights, a 3/32 bead and thick fog, I realized the bead just about obscured the whole pig. Now is when I wish I had a scope on the ole gal. Tom called the feeder at 140 yards, by far the longest shot I've taken with the Hollis.

I let fly, the pig ran right towards our cliff stand, and I let fly again. Off to the right, and he stopped and grunted in displeasure. We hoped it might have meant I put a round in him, but when we checked for sign, to no avail. The first shot had gone over his back, the second was a wing and a prayer at a boar running full bore (boar?).

So, after feeling very confident at 50 yards at the range, it's time to start the real practice at the range for 100 yards +.

On another note, the next morning we cruised the ranch looking for an axis doe when a small whitetail buck ran in front of us and ran headlong into a cattle fence and broke it's neck. I put him out of his misery with a head shot and had to leave the venison on the ground as whitetails are out of season of course. It pained me to see the animal suffer and to leave the meat to the vultures. Not the way I wanted to blood the new double. Bob

You did the right thing with the whitetail. Best to end the suffering.

Better luck will come with the double.

JPK

140 yards with an iron sighted double is a tough shot. There is a huge difference between 50 and 100 at the range even with bright targets. It sounds like you had a good time though.

Running Pigs! Don't ya just hate em!

Thanks for the report, Bob!

oh how i hate a running pig....i jumped the 2 biggest wild pigs i've ever seen and promply missed the second one that i saw......at about 30 yds. i did redeem myself somewhat this past saturday by killing 2 standing still pigs. and of course they weren't anywhere near as big as the missed one. oh and i was using my 450/400 Searcy loaded with 210 hornady hangun bullets and 5744.

if i could make a sensible post the 1st time i'd be dangerous.....the hog missing incedent took place friday before last.

i had a similar happening on my 1st outing with my 470, but a far worse thing. the thing i missed had a mane and roared