Rancho Loco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2002
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My hillbilly friend lives up between SJB and Salinas - it's a little slice of heaven up there - deer, pigs, and more turkeys than you can count...Real nice and out of the way.
So I was talking to him New Year's Day, and he was way pissed that the pigs had roto-tilled a huge area around his kids play area. He was pretty used to them being around, and his neighbor had been popping them on a pretty regular schedule, but now it had gone too far.
I reassured him that I could help.
We set up on the edge of a pasture at sundown - freezing our tookis' off behind a fence. It was getting dark fast, as the sun had gone behind a ridge quite early this time of year, but within fifteen minutes a dark shape came out of the chaparral at the edge of the pasture about 150 yards off. The moonlight was now filling in, and through my '06's Bushnell Elite, a real nice meat pig came into sharp view. It was their typical evening routine, where they come out - root a bit, and then follow a trail through the pasture next to a willow filled draw that leads to a creek. I held off shooting due to range, but also because it was right next to what looked like a sheep on the other side of that pasture. They were both milling about, and I held my crosshairs on the black pig - and I mumbled that I really wanted him to get away from that sheep. My hillbilly friend laughed - "There's no sheep in that pasture!".
As soon as he said that - they both started trotting down the trail towards us, and what I thought was a sheep turned out to be a white faced hog, with a very light body....Could it be? The Great White Pig... Well, not really great - it was average sized, and moving across our view pretty fast, and in the filling moonlight in front of the willows wasn't showing a real good target.
The dark one though hesitated back up the trail, put it's head down and started nosing around some more about seventy-five yards away. It was facing right at us with it's head down. I placed the crosshairs right on the back of it's neck behind the head and lit off a 180 gr. Swift Scirocco. It fell right there and did the dance - no follow up needed.
The Average White Pig turned around and made a run for the hillside from which it came. I cycled the bolt for a fresh round, found it in the scope - followed it with the crosshairs on the shoulder, and let it go....It was running pretty fast, and a bad shot would make a cold night of crawling around a scrub filled hillside looking for it.
It'll be back.
We hung the pig, and estimated the sow to weigh at about 120 lbs. The bullet entered right behind the head exactly where I aimed, and turned the spine into little pebbles from the head back to the shoulder. I'm taking it to the butcher in a little while. Pix later..
So I was talking to him New Year's Day, and he was way pissed that the pigs had roto-tilled a huge area around his kids play area. He was pretty used to them being around, and his neighbor had been popping them on a pretty regular schedule, but now it had gone too far.
I reassured him that I could help.
We set up on the edge of a pasture at sundown - freezing our tookis' off behind a fence. It was getting dark fast, as the sun had gone behind a ridge quite early this time of year, but within fifteen minutes a dark shape came out of the chaparral at the edge of the pasture about 150 yards off. The moonlight was now filling in, and through my '06's Bushnell Elite, a real nice meat pig came into sharp view. It was their typical evening routine, where they come out - root a bit, and then follow a trail through the pasture next to a willow filled draw that leads to a creek. I held off shooting due to range, but also because it was right next to what looked like a sheep on the other side of that pasture. They were both milling about, and I held my crosshairs on the black pig - and I mumbled that I really wanted him to get away from that sheep. My hillbilly friend laughed - "There's no sheep in that pasture!".
As soon as he said that - they both started trotting down the trail towards us, and what I thought was a sheep turned out to be a white faced hog, with a very light body....Could it be? The Great White Pig... Well, not really great - it was average sized, and moving across our view pretty fast, and in the filling moonlight in front of the willows wasn't showing a real good target.
The dark one though hesitated back up the trail, put it's head down and started nosing around some more about seventy-five yards away. It was facing right at us with it's head down. I placed the crosshairs right on the back of it's neck behind the head and lit off a 180 gr. Swift Scirocco. It fell right there and did the dance - no follow up needed.
The Average White Pig turned around and made a run for the hillside from which it came. I cycled the bolt for a fresh round, found it in the scope - followed it with the crosshairs on the shoulder, and let it go....It was running pretty fast, and a bad shot would make a cold night of crawling around a scrub filled hillside looking for it.
It'll be back.
We hung the pig, and estimated the sow to weigh at about 120 lbs. The bullet entered right behind the head exactly where I aimed, and turned the spine into little pebbles from the head back to the shoulder. I'm taking it to the butcher in a little while. Pix later..
