The hunt was a success!
All three of us got a hog. All of them were our first and certainly not our last!

The lodge was great and the guide was too.

This was a little more than shooting them as they came into the feeder too! I had hoped that the collars would have been off by the time we got there and they were!

No, honestly, these were wild hogs. They were in a fenced in area but haven't been touched by a human for at least 5 years or more. They feed but not from feeders. Corn on the ground over a cliff! They have been hunted enough that stand hunting didn't work at all. The smell of us humans I guess! We used dogs. They had herded up pretty good on the first day and we didn't have good shots because of getting more than one at a time. So, the hogs would break out and run to the other end of the property and off we went following! Then up there, everything in Tennessee is up one hill or another it seemed, and no shots only to have them break and run to another place on the property.


Then while nearing the end of daylight, the dogs bayed again. We made our way there and they had a lone hog by a creek bed. I told the wife to get in a line of fire that kept the dogs safe and let him have it. Here is her VIDEO.

Then on the next day we were set for another all day affair but it wasn't to be! We went to another part of the property and within 30 minutes the dogs bayed! We got over there as fast as we could and found they had 2 nice size hogs cornered. My son shot first and his hog took off running, but not far and not fast. He had scored a good hit with his '06 from about 40 yards away. I waited to see which one he was going to shoot, we were yelling back and forth like crazy men anyway, and when he shot I moved over and shot the other one. It took off and ran in the same direction as his. The only problem though is I wasn't as sure about my shot. Having worked the lever on the Marlin 1894 after the first shot I was ready as the hog crossed 30 yard in front of me. I leveled the lever gun off and squeezed of my shot. Now there isn't near as much recoil from the 44mag as there is from a '06 so I could see what happened too! That hog folded up and didn't take another step. It's front feet stopped working and it did a nose dive into the dirt!
When I got up to it I could see my shot placement clearly. Squarely behind the crook of the front elbow and about 4" higher. According to the information given me by Paul, that is just right!

Now I have witnesses, albeit they are family, except the guide!



We didn't recover any of the bullets as they passed through. But the 44 mags traveling at 1500fps did a number on my hog! My wife and son both used the '06 loads at about 2400fps with good success.

In the future we have all decided that with dog hunts all we need is a good lever action rifle in a standard pistol caliber. Sound like a reason to buy some new guns and books some more hunts!


Isaiah and his boar:


Me and my sow:

Nice little pigs y'all got there Skip!

As you noticed, they aren't armor plated and a .44 Mag is more than sufficient, even out of a handgun and even on bigger hogs.

The .30-06 with a 311291 might make a nice load too.

Roger the 311291 Paul!

quote:

they aren't armor plated

You are right Paul, they technically aren't, at least not all over. On the Russian boars though there is an "armor plate" (at least that's what the guide called it) in the rib area. Evidently when they fight this is useful to keep them from getting too deep of cuts from thier tusks.

The guide told of the days when bows weren't what they are today and having seen arrows literally bounce off of that plate!

That wasn't going to happen with what we took to the field, that's for sure!

For that matter we heard several stories while there of "sticking a pig". That's where the dogs catch and hold the hog while you climb on it's back and stick it with a knife. That's not something that appealed to us though!

Then there was the story of the older gentleman that brought a spear and wanted to get a hog that way. This old gent was going in for a surgery soon that his doctors weren't sure he was going to come out of. He thought he needed to spear a hog before he died I guess. At any rate, that is exactly what he did. Of course the hog was still good and alive on the other end of the spear after it was administered and was the only thing between the old guy and his hog. Again, no thanks!

Thanks for the suggestion for the '06. I'm not going to develop a lead rifle round unless it is in a pistol caliber, at least not at this point.

It was a good time had by all to say the least.

I did the spear thing. You ain't lived till you've had 400 lbs of P.O'd pig on a stick! The hog wasn't the dangerous part though. They had 4 good bay dogs and two catch dogs.The catch dogs were named rocket one and rocket two. White, half plott and half pit. They led them around on logging chains. When the dogs bayed a hog we couldn't get to to kill, they sent the "rockets" in. I've never seen anything so fast and deadly in my life. In the blink of an eye, the dogs were on the hog, made a loud CRUNCH and we had a dead hog. Only one firearm was allowed on the hunt. The guide had a ruger 45 LC in case of emergencies. After I saw the catch dogs work for the first time, I instructed the guide, " Hey, if I'm between you and the hog when you let those rockets lose, never mind about the hog...just shoot me quick before the dogs get there!" Glad you had a good hunt Skip. Congrats!

Paul,
I thought you would like this picture. It is staged but you can see what my wife looked like in the woods!



p.s. She is quite the seamstress too!

Yep, that's a nice camo skirt/dress!

Most women think they have to dress like a man to do things like hunting, but it's obvious that isn't necessarily a fact.

How many holes did you put in that bottom hog? It looks like one is right in back of the jaw and one is about 4" above the "elbow", like you said.

To be honest I felt it wasn't dying fast enough so while it was on the ground I put another one in it. That ended it by the way!

So, I do see three holes in that hog! The first shot was between those two and a little higher. The scope may have been a problem at that range. That's one reason I'm leaning toward the cheap BSA holographs, like what I have on my .35/55 NEF Target rifle. The red dots would probably be good for lever actions too, like when I had one on the Target rifle (it's been shortened to 22").