I had planned on doing a bit of shooting yesterday but the rain was so heavy it just wasn't an option. With the help of a lot of good karma from fellow GTA members the weather finally cleared up around 2 pm and I got my chance. Originally I was going to do some shooting with the GAMO .22 1250, the 350 Magnum and a couple of other rifles that I haven't spent a lot of time with lately but I changed my plans. I decided to take the .22 Talon, an assortment of pellets, my portable target setup and my chrony and spend some time doing some testing. I have the Talon sighted in for CPH's, which it loves, and I wanted to test the CPH's and their accuracy at different power wheel settings so I could find the "sweet spot" ,,,, but I figured while I was at it I'd retest the other pellets that shoot exceptionally well in the gun (prdators, JSB Exacts and Kodiaks) for accuracy and for chrony numbers . I figured this way I'd have power wheel setting info on hand for those pellets in case I decided to resight the gun in, either today or in the future, with one of these pellets. Well, long story short,,,,, the testing went well, I wound up with a mountain of useful data for the Talon, and in the end the CPH's was still the winner in the accuracy dept. After making some power wheel adjustments I now have the rifle set up shooting the CPH's at 925 FPS into beautiful ragged hole groups at 40 yards. After final sight in I also took the time to shoot some targets at 10, 20, 30, 50 and 60 yards to get comfortable with pellet trajectory at those ranges as well. Time to go huntin :)
I started out my hunt by doing my usual routine which is slowly still hunting my way around the edges of the farm staying close to the wooded border and trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible. It was tough hunting today. The farm workers had been out all day clearing brush, trimming trees and mowing some of the fields so the critters in the area weren't so quick to come out and play even after the workers called it quits for the day. The heat and humidity didn't help matters but I kept at it figuring the G-hogs would come out once the sun started to set. The funny thing is that the starlings were out in force, with flocks of hundreds of birds everywhere, and for some reason instead of flying away upon seeing me they'd just sit there and watch me. I was tempted to pop a couple but I wanted a G-hog. I guess they knew I wasn't bird hunting.
I worked the farm hard and while I did see 5 G-hogs I couldn't get a shot at any of them. I almost got a shot at one but I screwed up and lost the shot. I saw him sitting on top of a small cement block wall 30 yards away and in my excitement I shouldered the rifle, took aim, pulled the trigger and realized I never took the gun off safety :( it only took me a second to push the safety off but that second was all the fat G-hog needed and he rolled off the top of the wall and scurried off into the bushes. Round one definitely went to the critters :)
I continued to work the main farm until 7 pm and finally decided to call it quits. As I was driving out of the farm I suddenly decided to drive down the dirt road to the second farm which is where they raise all the egg laying ducks. This farm is much smaller than the main farm so I figured it'd only take me about 30 minutes to make one swing around it's perimeter. As I pulled into my usual parking spot, which is in between 2 large duck pens, I saw a mature, fat G-hog at one of the feeders shoveling grain into his fat face. He saw me pull in and immediately took off running for one of the barns. I figured he must have a burrow inside the barn but I grabbed the Talon, exited the truck and loaded a CPH. I watched him hauling butt across the duck pen and when he reached the barn wall he suddenly stopped, turned around and to my disbelief began running straight back at me. I couldn't believe it. He was running so fast that by the time I raised the rifle he came to a screeching 10 yards in front of me and he just stood there staring at me. I quickly let of a shot and saw him shudder as the pellet hit. As I reloaded he took off again heading straight for the barn wall again. I had a good sight picture but all I could see was his butt as he ran away from me so I held the shot. He hit the barn wall for the second time, turned to his right and began running along the outside of the wall towards the high grass at the end of the barn. Since he was running at a right angle from me I had a perfect side profile of him. I shouldered the Talon, found him in the scope, swung the crosshairs across his body and past his head to what I figured was a good lead and as I continued to swing the rifle along with him as he ran I fired. The distance was 20 yards The pellet hit home with a loud "POP" and the fat G-hogs face hit the dirt as he crumpled up into a ball and rolled several times. When he stopped rolling he just layed there,,, it was all over.
When I retrieved him I could see that my first shot had hit him low, at the base of the head and while I think the shot might have been enough to take out a young G-hog this one was just to big and fat for the shot to take him out. I would never normally take a running shot at a G-hog, but this one was already wounded and I would've felt terrible if he'd made it into the brush only to suffer and perhaps die later from the pellet wound. I'll also be the first to admit that the element of luck played heavily into the shot.
As I was walking back to my truck with the G-hog something caught my eye at a feeder about 40 yards away, a light brown object. I dropped the hog, put the scope up and took a look. Yup, a rabbit nestled up next to the feeder having a snack. Well we can't allow that, that grain is for the ducks. Cranked the scope to 12x, held right on his head and fired. Heard that beautiful "POP" again and Mr. Rabbit simply fell over on his side, didn't even kick his legs or anything. Retrieved the rabbit and headed home. My youngest daughter and I greedily dined on fried G-hog and rabbit for a late dinner but I did take a pic for the good old "Hunting Gate" before I skinned and fried em :)
Jeff
