Took the G-1 Extreme to the duck farm this afternoon,,, thought I might give her a go at some G-hogs. There is this one G-hog that I've tried to get a few times. He's very elusive, very nervous and very careful but I figured I'd try one more time to nail him.
The G-hog lives under some old farm equipment laying in a small field which gives him great escape cover and great visibility, but a mere 20 yards away are 4 large aluminum grain silos with a network of metal support rods connecting the 4 silos together and securing them to the cement foundation they sit on, a great sniping location. I knew the G-hog would be coming out to feed in the waning hours of the day so I set up behind one of the silos and waited. My position gave me a good shooting lane to the 2 main holes the G-hog used and if I didn't move he couldn't see me. I got set up and waited.
All my years of bow hunting deer has served to instill patience in me while hunting and today it came in handy. I sat in my hide for almost an hour and 1/2 with no sign of Mr. G-hog. All of a sudden I saw a new patch of brown sticking out from under the farm equipment. Yup, there he was, surveying his kingdom for danger before exposing himself further.
For the next 45 minutes I sat there and watched him as he would poke his head out, look around, then dart back into cover. One time he almost came completely out, but a low flying hawk put an end to that. I had numerous opportunities to take a head shot on him, but I really wanted to wait until he was further away from cover so I kept waiting for him to venture further out. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he came half way out from under cover, which was good enough for me to shoot, but the problem was he came out from his alternative burrow which gave me a less than perfect shot. There was some grass right in front of where his face was and I kept trying to decide if it would present a problem for the path of the pellet. After staring at that clump of grass forever I decided the pellet should be able to hit home just fine and I got ready for the shot.
Put the crosshairs on his eye,,, then slid the crosshairs just a hair to left putting the point of aim in between his eye and ear, pulled the trigger and instantly saw the G-hog spin around, take one more look over his shoulder, then disappear down the burrow. A clean miss. Walked over and inspected carefully the spot the G-hog was when I shot and saw what had happened. Yeah, there was grass there alright,,, there was also a thick stalked plant stem in the middle of the grass that missed my attention.
Once again this G-hog had come out the winner. Speaking into his burrow I told him we'd meet again and I headed back to the truck for the ride home. Came home without my critter dinner but I had a great time matching wits once again with what has to be the smartest G-hog on the duck farm.
Jeff
