I intended on going to the duck farm to do some pest shooting but wasn't sure if I wanted to hunt starlings or woodchucks. I thought about bringing two guns, a .177 and a .22, so I could shoot either, then I remembered I hadn't shot my Black Shadow Supreme .22 in quite a while so I decided to take that gun. It's nice and light, is sighted in for RWS SHP's and I have a ton of those pellets on the shelf so I figured even if I did alot of starling shooting I'd still have plenty of the SHP's left for small game season.
Got to the farm and drove straight down the dirt road to the breeder farm since that's where most of the birds have been lately. There were some starlings, but not really that many and and after sitting for 30 minutes in my usual sniping location inside one of the barn I had only gotten one shot, although I did nail the starling. The starling did a death glide into the swamp so I couldn't retrieve it for pics, so I decided to head over to the main farm and see if there were any pests over there to shoot at.
The main farm didn't have that many starlings either, but it did have a couple large flocks of pigeons. Several attempts to get within range of the pigeons failed, so I gave up on them. They were just to wary today to get close to. I kept moving around the farm, looking for targets of opportunity, but simply couldn't find any willing targets. As I was walking around the perimeter of a small field I suddenly saw something looking at me from the grass. It was a medium sized G-hog. He was peeking out at me from underneath a very large commercial topsoil sifting grate that's been lying in that field for as long as I've been shooting there. Half his head was poking out and the distance between us was 25 yards. I had a perfect head shot and the Black Shadow shoots ragged hole groups with the SHP's, so I decided to take the shot. I put the crosshairs on his head and squeezed the trigger. The pellet hit with a pop and the G-hog slumped in the dirt. I quickly loaded another pellet and began approaching the G-hog. I was going to put another pellet in him just for insurance, but he showed no sign of moving so I waited. That mistake cost me my dinner. As I approached him he suddenly summoned up one last effort and dragged himself further under the grate. He died right after that, and I could see him under the grate, but there was no way to get him out. I certainly couldn't lift it and he was to far in to reach, even with a stick, so I left him where he lay. I guess some other critter will crawl under there and pull him out for dinner. I walked back to my truck and decided to drive back to the breeder farm to see if the birds had returned yet.
As I was driving past one of the barns I saw something brown moving in one of the duck pens. I stopped the truck just in time to see a G-hog run up to and under one of the feeders. I didn't see where he had come from but I knew where he was now. I parked the truck right where it was, grabbed the Black Shadow and began my stalk.
I quickly worked my way to the corner of the barn. The grain feeders were 25 yards from my position. All I had to do was peek around the corner and hopefully I'd have a shot at the G-hog. I took the safety off, took a deep breath and leaned around the corner of the barn. Sure enough there he was. He was underneath the feeder, but his entire head was poking out and gave me a clear broadside head shot. I put the crosshairs just behind his eye and pulled the trigger. At the shot the G-hog slumped motionless. I immediately reloaded reloaded and even though he wasn't moving I put a second pellet into his head. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice,,,, I needed dinner :)
When I walked up to retrieve him I suddenly realized what had happened. I thought the G-hog had run from his burrow, wherever it was, to the feeders to eat grain, but I was wrong. He was in the process of digging a burrow directly underneath the feeder when I shot him. He must've just gotten started on it because the hole was only about a foot deep, with all the excavated dirt strewn around the feeder. To bad I ruined his day,,,, this G-hog had picked the perfect place for a burrow,,, directly under a never ending food source.
I collected my trophy, walked back to the truck and headed home for to clean the kill and take some pics. In one of the pics you can see clearly where the SHP struck him right behind his left eye. I love my Black Shadow .22,,, it's light enough to carry for hours, shoots a number of pellets extremely well and once again she proved herself a capable hunter. Hope you like the pics.....................
Jeff
