Sawman's first hog in quite a while

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  • Daezee

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    Received a call from a property manager asking us to come out to kill and thus discourage hogs from doing damage (we'd not been hunting this property for a few years, as there'd been no further damage since Sawman had killed his last hog there for the property owner). Met the manager, he gave us a tour of the damage area, and showed us game camera videos of the offenders. Formulated our plan, told the manager, and went out last night. No hogs showed...not unusual in our experience.

    Stopped at a peanut field for a quick look on our way home and found hogs that "should" have been seen on the damaged property eating the turned over peanuts in a field next to the property (harvest had been delayed by the rain) (we have permission to hunt hogs on that field, and in fact, the farmer calls us every year asking us to come back). They were many hundreds of yards away. Took a while to close the distance. Sawman felt he had a steady rest shooting from his electric buggy and had practiced same; I felt we should be closer, but that's me, and my Blackout isn't as flat shooting or powerful as Sawman's 6.8SPC (85gr Barnes at 3000fps). The plan: I leave the buggy and walk to be in position to safely shoot at the hogs running away after Sawman shoots from the buggy. Midway in my walk, hogs start leaving, but not in a panic (there is no way they could have heard or seen me...best guess is a swirl of breeze alerted them to my scent or they simply had eaten enough). I turned to take another thermal look and found 5 hogs had moved and were now by the very edge of the field. Sawman had seen them start to leave, so he decided shoot now or never. I got to see a hog take the hit, and 2 hogs went left into the swamp/jungle and 2 to the right into the swamp/jumgle. Hog went right down and started the "kick", so I knew it was done.

    Sawman drove near and was looking for the hog in the field...it was further than he thought. I generally knew where it had dropped and found it, left my flashlight on it and walked over to Sawman. He aimed for the head and hit the brain. We estimated (based on having weighed many wild hogs) him at 120-130lb. Don't know about the distance...hard for us to estimate distance with thermal...that's one of the reasons I try and get real close, but it was too far of a shot for ME to have tried. This is what I'd call a successful night. Got home at 01:25.

    PS. Edited to add: At no time was I, when walking, in the shooting line of direction of Sawman...safety, safety, safety.

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    SAWMAN

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    Yeah,Bruce stayed off to my right and when he got out I did not move the buggy. We had agreed that he was to move to the right ONLY. Not forward. Also that if the sounder moved off to my right,that I would not swing on them.
    We first saw the targets from 800+ yards away. We had to drive through a harvested,rough,field just to get to the field that they were in. Then they were still about 350yds away.
    We had to close that distance,dodging farm equipment left in the field. The field that the hogs were in was pretty rough and we had to move very slowly to avoid making noise.
    As we got closer we had to keep swinging off to the right to keep the wind in our favor. Basically . . . we could not move straight at them.
    This all took time and the hogs were starting to either get skittish. . or full of peanuts,and started to move back towards the woods. ( There looked to be two sounders for about 24 total.)
    I have installed a "gunners belt" in my buggy. It hangs from the above roll cage and can be adjusted for up/down. It is about 3 inches wide. Got the idea from the assault helos that had door gunners. Just something to take the weight of your gun but you can still swing right or left and move up and down.
    I put the guns forearm in this belt and stabilize it on top the steering wheel. The stock is adjusted out and on my shoulder which is pressed against the back of the seat. It is a really steady shooting platform. --- SAWMAN
     

    M60Gunner

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    Nicely done. Very good shooting for daytime and I’d say exceptional at night. Thanks for the report!
     
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