A Hit, But It Still Misses

#0014

This hunt took place during the Covid-19 shutdown.

Today, Sunday, was out of the ordinary for me much like for you, I’m sure. For Perry and me, we are members of the same church, and we are not meeting for now. 

So, I met him this afternoon at his house, and we rode his side-by-side into his neighbor’s pasture where we hunted a couple weeks ago. 

We sat with our backs to a fence looking west down a wide, clear corridor. Perry has a pig pipe in place there about a hundred yards away and had re-baited it this morning. (A pig pipe is a made of large PVC pipe with holes drilled into it. The pipe is filled with corn, and the pigs push the pipe to keep the corn falling through the holes. It’s chained to a post or tree to keep it in place.) The woods were thick to the south and north of the cleared lane. We were settled in at about a quarter to six. Within five or ten minutes we heard some noise to our left and saw some pigs moving west and going into the thick area to the south of the cleared area.

In a few minutes Perry started using his call making sow grunts. Within a few minutes a sounder of hogs came from the south looking for the grunting sow. Perry gave me the word to take the shot. I squeezed off the round, and the hogs scattered.

I was surprised that she didn’t fall immediately as I was rock steady and was aiming at her neck.

We sat for quite a while with some calling and no more pigs. It was still light, so we took a walk to find the dead hog. There was no blood, but there were splotches of what looked like half-digested corn. Obviously, I had shot her through the stomach. The trail of stomach contents led into the thick area to the south.

Perry knew a way into this area so we took a walk. Perry was using his thermal scope to try to locate the downed hog. No joy.

After some walking we set up the call in a different location. Still no hogs.

As it got dark we went back to our first spot. No hogs came back. So, we packed it in.

While it was still light, I did some troubleshooting on the scope. I put the rifle in a steady spot and withdrew the bolt. I compared the point of impact through the barrel with the aim point of the scope. The scope was aimed to the right of the point of impact of the barrel. This was consistent with the impact point of the hog compared with where I was aiming. This is the 308 that was used last month to take a couple of hogs. I’m thinking that the scope may be defective. Further troubleshooting to follow.

It was a fun hunt. And, it was unfortunate that the hog did not fall where I shot her. I much prefer that they drop in their tracks. 

In other news, there are not reported cases of the China flu in our immediate area.

Porcus Hogrelius
Make Yourself a Better Hog Hunter