In my 6 years of hunting, I have never seen more hogs in one place and had some much trouble getting to shoot them. My cousins heard I hunt hogs and said I was welcome to come shoot some of theirs. Turns out, they have a field of oats that is the only food crop in the immediate area, the rest of the land being hay or just unplanted (fallow or natural). They have 27 acres of oats, but the field has houses off in two directions that are unsafe for shooting. The oats are also up to waist high, which makes spotting hogs and getting through the oats to get into a safe shooting direction is very difficult. The oats are loud to move through and the tall oats block your view while those laying down entangle your feet. Once you shoot hogs, they disappear from view and become difficult to find. After that, dragging them out is a nightmare. In all, we saw 3 different sounders and at least two lone boars. Most of the time, you can't see the piglets and smaller hogs. You only see the backs of the larger hogs.
The moon was so bright that at one point, we could see the backs of hogs above the oats. So no doubt the hogs could see us approach.
We stalked over 750 yards to get into position for this first sounder. We tried to get closer, but just resulted in pushing them away. We only found one hog, but buzzards found a couple more the next day.
I am shooting my Grendel. My partner is shooting a .308 DPMS, suppressed.
The 2nd sounder was too far off to approach and was crossing the far end of the oats. It did not stay.
The third sounder got spotted when we were back at the truck, getting refreshments. So we hopped the fence and tried moving into a safe shooting direction and not be up wind of them. We got about as far as we could go to do that and set up when my buddy had some gear issues. These hogs we could see some of without NV/thermal. We fiddlefarted with the problem too long and one hog got curious and busted us. I have seen this behavior before and should have recognized it, but I was more concerned as to why my buddy could not resolve his issues. Live and learn.
The moon was so bright that at one point, we could see the backs of hogs above the oats. So no doubt the hogs could see us approach.
We stalked over 750 yards to get into position for this first sounder. We tried to get closer, but just resulted in pushing them away. We only found one hog, but buzzards found a couple more the next day.
I am shooting my Grendel. My partner is shooting a .308 DPMS, suppressed.
The 2nd sounder was too far off to approach and was crossing the far end of the oats. It did not stay.
The third sounder got spotted when we were back at the truck, getting refreshments. So we hopped the fence and tried moving into a safe shooting direction and not be up wind of them. We got about as far as we could go to do that and set up when my buddy had some gear issues. These hogs we could see some of without NV/thermal. We fiddlefarted with the problem too long and one hog got curious and busted us. I have seen this behavior before and should have recognized it, but I was more concerned as to why my buddy could not resolve his issues. Live and learn.
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