myfriendis410
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- Dec 11, 2006
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Steve and I headed down to Sudden Ranch for a morning hog hunt. We got a little later start than normal due to on-base traffic so were about 20 minutes late getting down there. As we were easing along Steve spotted an animal walking up a tertiary road half a mile away and said it looked like a hog. I put the binos on it and said "Nah, gotta be a cow". We looked a little longer and when it's head started rocking side to side, we both realized it was a BIG hog. Steve put the spotting scope on it and it turned broadside, giving us a great look at him. Boar! We hustled up there just in time to put him to bed in a deep ravine.
We headed back down in the p.m. after a lunch break and worked a couple of canyons. Saw a few smaller hogs--it was a gorgeous day down there with almost zero wind and clear and bright out. At about 4:45 we set up and started walking up to a little hillside to allow us a look in where we'd seen the big boy. We immediately spotted him and off we went! Steve allowed that I should shoot, and I didn't hesitate. I was shooting a friend's rifle that I put a stock on and worked up a handload for: a Ruger 77 stainless with a Timney trigger and a laminate stock glass bedded with a 150 gr. Barnes Tipped Triple Shock in 7 mm Rem Mag. It's shooting in the 1/2" range and my friend had told me to kill a hog with it. Okay.
We stalked up to within 170 yards and set up on the sticks. We had a barbed wire fence between us that I needed to avoid and it was open and a mostly level shot. he had no clue we were there--a nice down-canyon breeze from him to us. I set up and when he turned broadside I said: "I'm taking him" and squeezed the trigger. It broke perfectly and we heard the "Whop" of the bullet. He took off running and made a U-turn and headed toward a deep ravine we DID NOT want him to go into. Just as he was going over the hill (straight away) the crosshairs settled on his bunghole and I touched another one off. We heard THAT one hit too and he was out of sight.
We policed up my brass and it was then that Steve said: "That's a BIG, BIG hog, dude!" We came up around and down through the fence to where we last saw him and immediately spotted him about fifty feet down the side of the hill in a bush, dead. Our jaws dropped when we got up on him 'cause he looked like a freakin' Rhino laying there! Holy cow! It took us two hours to gut him, drag him up the hill and over to where we could get him in the truck. My back is killing me. Steve actually said: "I'm getting too old for this $hit". (Don't believe him)
He weighed in at 262 lbs. gutted, he has at least 3" cutters and he's caped and in the freezer with the carcass hanging. We recovered both bullets and you could sell 'em to Barnes as an advertisement. (I'll get pictures up here tomorrow with Lt Dann's help)
He's the largest hog that I've killed and one of the three or four largest killed on Vandenberg in the last fifteen years. I think I'll shoot skeet for a while; no room for pork!
We headed back down in the p.m. after a lunch break and worked a couple of canyons. Saw a few smaller hogs--it was a gorgeous day down there with almost zero wind and clear and bright out. At about 4:45 we set up and started walking up to a little hillside to allow us a look in where we'd seen the big boy. We immediately spotted him and off we went! Steve allowed that I should shoot, and I didn't hesitate. I was shooting a friend's rifle that I put a stock on and worked up a handload for: a Ruger 77 stainless with a Timney trigger and a laminate stock glass bedded with a 150 gr. Barnes Tipped Triple Shock in 7 mm Rem Mag. It's shooting in the 1/2" range and my friend had told me to kill a hog with it. Okay.
We stalked up to within 170 yards and set up on the sticks. We had a barbed wire fence between us that I needed to avoid and it was open and a mostly level shot. he had no clue we were there--a nice down-canyon breeze from him to us. I set up and when he turned broadside I said: "I'm taking him" and squeezed the trigger. It broke perfectly and we heard the "Whop" of the bullet. He took off running and made a U-turn and headed toward a deep ravine we DID NOT want him to go into. Just as he was going over the hill (straight away) the crosshairs settled on his bunghole and I touched another one off. We heard THAT one hit too and he was out of sight.
We policed up my brass and it was then that Steve said: "That's a BIG, BIG hog, dude!" We came up around and down through the fence to where we last saw him and immediately spotted him about fifty feet down the side of the hill in a bush, dead. Our jaws dropped when we got up on him 'cause he looked like a freakin' Rhino laying there! Holy cow! It took us two hours to gut him, drag him up the hill and over to where we could get him in the truck. My back is killing me. Steve actually said: "I'm getting too old for this $hit". (Don't believe him)
He weighed in at 262 lbs. gutted, he has at least 3" cutters and he's caped and in the freezer with the carcass hanging. We recovered both bullets and you could sell 'em to Barnes as an advertisement. (I'll get pictures up here tomorrow with Lt Dann's help)
He's the largest hog that I've killed and one of the three or four largest killed on Vandenberg in the last fifteen years. I think I'll shoot skeet for a while; no room for pork!
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