Those that know me a little will know I am telling the absolute truth.

Adrian led me astray. "Dad, lets go check the batteries on the feeders and fill them. We will be back by 10, no problem on a week night."

YEA RIGHT!!

After doing the fore mentioned chores it was lets just sit a blind a little while and see if anything comes in.

Sounded good.

About 8 pm I was settling into my chair in the blind with the intent of getting a nap as the action was non-existent, coyotes were not even in voice. It was pretty windy with a 3/5ths moon and scudding clouds.

Sure enough as soon as I am almost asleep I get the nudge, "We have company!" I don't see nothing. He says start at the far feeder and sweep, I lost it running in that direction. So I get the gun up and start at the far feeder, which in the moon light looks like a large shadow against the dark shadow of the trees and start panning to the left.

Half a moment later there stands a perfect silhouette of a boar, looks pretty big too. He is caught in the clear in moon light and the grass has a silvery shine for a boack ground. About half way to the far feeder which I know is 120 yards from our location. Just standing there like a statue.

I kick Adrian and put him on the pig. He has the '06, tonight I was carrying the 223 for little varmints and distance work on 'yotes if the chance came up. No he says I would have to shoot accross you too much, you take him.

Great, little gun big pig. How do I manage to get into these things.

We do not want to light him up with the flood lights as we will be off to the races big time. I run the cross hairs up to his head but cannot really make out the ears for a shot. Center of mass then. Back to the right I figure I have just passed his front leg and pop off a round. What I lke about the 223 is I do not loose targets during recoil. Nice little yellow rose blinked right at the center mass of the pig but he took off like a winner at the horse track. OK now we have a trcking job.

No reason to be quiet anymore so we saddle up and head for the truck. 200 yards later, I have cased my 223 and retrieved my 44 Special, Adrian is situated in the back of the pick up and we take a slow roll down the fence line where I saw him cross and dissappear. Going to drive around looking to see what we can find.

Pounding on the cab brings us to a halt, man this was quick Adrian has already spotted him........................................


No, Adrian has realized he has dropped his phone some where. That is more important than the pig. So for an hour we retrace steps with me calling his cell, which is set to vibrate of course but maybe we will see it light up. 1 hour later success the phone is found.

Now back to pig chasing. We have pretty much exhausted the close by possibilities while searching for the phone. So we go out of our place and into the neighbors, thank goodness we have already met and gotten the OK from them to track woundeds on their place. Every body out here it seems is absentee owners so we were not going to rouse any one up any way.

Back to the best guess for a fence crossing point but still no blood trail to be found. Decided to follow as close a s possible to the most major pig track in the direction he took.

Easing along the fence and dodging trees we are just about to run out of space for a truck and I am thinking of how much I do not want to stalk a big boar in the dark in heavy brush and how to convince Adrian it is better to go home and hope he bleeds out some where or recovers and we get another chance one day. Yea that is what I am thinking when the pounding on the cab starts again.

WHAT!!!..........................................................................


Lose your phone again?

No I see something, go straight ahead and watch the rise in fornt. As I ease along up the next rise the shadow between two trees and right at the fence line takes shape into the pig in the pictures. That boy sure can see in the dark, picked it up a good 50 yards before I did.

Then the real fun starts. We loaded him up and went back around to where the circus started. I am thinking this is going to be a long night. Now we had been told boars are not worth skinning, for sure this one does stink but I am not ready to abandon the meat yet. We started in the usual manner for us now in not gutting but skinning down to where we can take hams, shoulders back strap with the intent of leaving a carcas for the scavengers.

Hams came clean pretty easy, opened up the skin on down the chest and got to see the entry and exit of the 223 55 grain PSP Remington. You will see from the pictures it did not open a whole lot and was fairly far back. I think I hit the lungs at the far back enough to do the boy in. Frothy bright blood was coming out of his snout. This is noticeable in the picture with the fence in it. The little wet spot is the EXIT wound.

Then we started to bring the skin down the sides and back to be able to get at the back straps with intentions of getting the front shoulders. 30 minutes later we are still trying to do that, the thick skin started about 1/3 the way down the ribs and it got to be like cutting between two sets of ribs, no give and hard won progress. Now just back strap and hams is starting to sound good. What the heck we are not going to keep the boar, the meat is just going to make for tamale fixings for the landscaping crew Adrian is with.

30 minutes later again and we are ready to settle for two hams, 1/3 of the back strap and supper. It is getting onto 11:30, the ribs are still not giving up the skin and I am actually really tired of smelling the unbathed galoot.

That is pretty much where it all ended. We abandoned the rest to the yotes and woodland scavengers, happy we had a little meat and that a big boar was off the owners place. In the future eating pigs will likely be sows up to about a 100 lbs or so and the big boys will dropped to rot where they fall. The exception being if some one wants to mount one. That Taxidermist has my sympathy.

OH YEA
 
The shot was between 50-60 yards I think, will range find it in the light if we can pin point where he crossed the fence. Moon light, no help with artificial light.
 
Remington 700 BDL with Remington 55 grain PSP factory loads. Scope Simmons 6 power fixed.

Excellent story and images,...Alboy!... ......... BH51

very good story and a nice pig!

Hey thats a big ol pig you got there!  You might want to keep the skull and'or tusks for something.  If nothing else you might be able to make a powder measure from those cutters.  Or even leave them in his head, it will make a nice addition to your shop or whatever.
 
Good story.

I second that, the skull will be a good trophy to have.  If you don't want to skin it, find an ant hill and let them clean it off for ya.
MNH

Thanks for the kind words. Also I edited the first installment so it reads a little better and cleaned up some typo's and misspellings.
 
I wanted to skin the whole thing just could not get it done in the time I had to work with. Suggestions for a better approach are welcomed.
 
After the ants and other scavengers have done their part we plan on recovering the head and at least keeping the tusks. I will keep the progress on that up to date, the next installment may take a month or two.

Alboy, really good story and well written. You tell a story like a pro. Great pic's. too, not to mention the shot. I really enjoyed it................Paul H

What a Beauty!

bloody porkers........do they cause as much damage to crops as they do here? what are the numbers like?

(about a million bucks damage each yeah in aus, or something ridiculous like that)

Those numbers are most likely somewhere, bureaucrats do need something to do I guess. It is bad enough that in an area where hunting rights leases are a main source of income the land owners will welcome you at no charge and might even be persuaded to pay to have you shoot hogs.
 
It is a dirty job but some one has to do it. So far I have been able to volunteer successfully.
 
On this little place alone (75 acres) their rooting is bad enough that the share cropper is almost ready to quit the land because of the damage to his equipment trying to work the fields where pigs have been rooting. It is even hard to walk.

Good shot, nice pig, and great story Al!:biggthumpup:  You shore get plenty of hunting in. I'm envious.
 
Paul