Early May at the Tree Farm
Published#0023
I drove to the tree farm one afternoon. There was work to be done, always is. This was in May. In the fall I have been planting a winter mix of seeds in my food plots: wheat, oats, clover, etc.
When I got to the tree farm I could see that the hogs had been in the food plots eating the heads off of the wheat. They waited until the heads were ripe, of course. Well, it is a food plot after all.
I went to bed at about 2100 and got up about 2130 to scan around the house with the thermal. Sure enough, I saw two hogs in the food plot next to the house. I stepped back and got the AR with night vision – no pigs to be seen. I thought that maybe I had spooked them.
With scanner and rifle in hand, I walked in the opposite direction to look at the other food plots. No joy.
Coming back to the house, I looked again at the first food plot – two pigs. That is, two pigs in the grain that is about waist high. They were visible through the thermal scanner but not through the night vision.
I went from the house the other way and swung way around in order to approach the food plot from a different direction hoping to get closer and to have a clearer view. After some hands-and-knees work, I got under a few pine trees that cast a nice shadow. The first quarter moon really made the night bright.
They were visible through the thermal eating away. Trying the night vision, I could see the pig’s eyes. The tree made a solid brace – bang. After the shot, I couldn’t see anything with the night vision. Shifting to the thermal scanner, I could see the pig right where I had shot her. It was a 20 yard shot.
This was a sow. It was dead, dead, dead.
Get the tractor and go to work. I took the hams, shoulders, and the back straps. Now on ice.
This was not the ideal neck shot. It was through the shoulders but not through the shoulder joints, a small loss of meat. I continue to be very happy with the 25-45 Sharps with 117 grain round nose bullets.
0320 update. Camera woke me at 0100 with a spotted hog at the camera. I had seen this one before, it has built in bullseyes. In that it was alone, I had assumed it was a boar. The sky was still clear, and the moon lit everything up. I went down the road trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible. When I got close enough, I used the thermal scanner to find the hog. Great image using the red hot setting. Again, I got next to a tree and was able to see the hog in the night vision. OSK (one shot kill). I got him through the neck. When I got close I could see that he was very dead with just a few twitches. There was a small, steady fountain of blood coming from his neck. Maybe it was residual blood pressure in that it was not spurting, just steady.
The boar is now on ice. Based on last weekend’s work, it should make about 50 pounds of ground pork and sausage.
A good night’s work.
Porcus Hogrelius
Make Yourself A Better Hog Hunter