The hogs in my area have largely moved to hitting feeders well into the night. My wife decided to put the kids down early so I decided (very last minute) to go check a particular feeder where I had an encounter with a boar a few nights before. The last time he came out about 9:15PM and immediately smelled me because the wind was swirling. That night he worked his way all the way around me in the trees just out of sight but I could hear him for 30 minutes or so (I even doubled back and heard him again but never saw anything).
As I worked my way up a path I take to move into the feeder discretely I noticed a group of deer that could clearly see me but were far more occupied by something in the direction of the feeder.
At this point I assumed hogs were there and moved slowly to where I could see and, sure enough, there is a big boar feeding at the feeder but once again the wind swirls (it was gusting up to 25mph) and he trots off into the woods. I know he hasn't seen me because of the way he left so I decide to double back again and approach from a better wind angle. This takes me 5-10 minutes as I have to cross a couple of deep dry creeks and work my way around an oat field. When I have a visual line I can see that he felt comfortable enough to come back to feeder and now the wind is on my side.
I line up for a shot but am distracting by something running toward me at a pretty decent clip. I swing that direction and wait and it's a smaller boar that hauled tail when he caught my scent... I'm glad because having to shoot him would've scared the big boar away.
After collecting myself I line back up and take the shot. He drops from the shot placement but is kicking his back legs so I anchor him with a lung shot... He never moved an inch:
As I worked my way up a path I take to move into the feeder discretely I noticed a group of deer that could clearly see me but were far more occupied by something in the direction of the feeder.
At this point I assumed hogs were there and moved slowly to where I could see and, sure enough, there is a big boar feeding at the feeder but once again the wind swirls (it was gusting up to 25mph) and he trots off into the woods. I know he hasn't seen me because of the way he left so I decide to double back again and approach from a better wind angle. This takes me 5-10 minutes as I have to cross a couple of deep dry creeks and work my way around an oat field. When I have a visual line I can see that he felt comfortable enough to come back to feeder and now the wind is on my side.
I line up for a shot but am distracting by something running toward me at a pretty decent clip. I swing that direction and wait and it's a smaller boar that hauled tail when he caught my scent... I'm glad because having to shoot him would've scared the big boar away.
After collecting myself I line back up and take the shot. He drops from the shot placement but is kicking his back legs so I anchor him with a lung shot... He never moved an inch:
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