G-hog and Bird Hunt

[longislandhunter]

Well,,,, my ongoing war with my oil burner is over,,,,, I ran the white flag up the pole and did the smart thing,,,,, I called a professional plumber. He showed up nice and early, spent about an hour repairing my oil burner and now it runs better than it has in a long time. While I was at it I signed up for a service contract so I'll never have to worry about it again. The best part was that after the plumber left I had the whole day to myself and decided to go hunting.....

I figured I'd combine a starling and pigeon hunt with a G-hog hunt so I grabbed the .177 CFX, along with the tomahawk pellets it loves and then grabbed the .22 Talon and the CPH pellets it's been dining on :)  I figured I'd start out hunting birds then switch over to the Talon and go for G-hogs later in the afternoon.

Well, there were plenty of birds, pigeons and starlings,,, but they were very spooky and when I did get a shot the stiff wind coming out of the south didn't help matters. I missed a bunch of shots at starlings and clipped tail feathers on a bunch of other birds, but I finally did manage to nail 4 birds after finding a new sniping location that gave me a 20 yard shot as the birds landed on a telephone pole. I was happily picking away at the birds when I suddenly noticed a fat G-hog out in a field about 50 yards away munching on new grass. I didn't think they would be out until later in the day but if they were out now then I was going to switch guns. I made my way back to the truck, stowed the CFX and took out the Talon. I had filled the air tank to 3000 psi before I left home so I was all set. I Loaded a CPH and started a slow stalk to get a clear shot at the unsuspecting G-hog.

It took me about 15 minutes to get to a shooting position 45 yards from the G-hog, but he must've sensed something because he had moved much closer to his burrow. I leaned on an old piece of farm equipment, put the scope on 12x and took a peek. Yup, there he was. All I could see was his head sticking up above the grass. He hadn't seen me but he knew something was up and was very alert. I watched him through the scope for about 5 minutes and finally decided to take a shot.  I put the crosshairs right between his ear and eye and squeezed the trigger ever so gently. The gun fired and through the scope I saw the G-hogs head drop straight down. It looked like he ducked down at the firing of the shot so I was convinced I missed, but I loaded another CPH, shouldered the rifle and made my way quickly to his last location hoping perhaps for a quick second shot if he popped his head up again.

When I got to where he was when I fired I was amazed. He hadn't ducked down at the shot, his head was covered with blood and had a nice hole right between his eye and ear. The other surprise I got was that I thought he was within a couple of feet of his burrow when I fired but he was actually inside the burrow with only his head sticking out. The CPH took him out so quickly that even though he was already lying in his burrow he never even got to flinch, he just died right there on the spot. I pulled him out of the burrow and carried him back to my truck where I laid him down in the shade,, then I headed off to find another one.

I slowly worked my way around the farm, scanning the fields and the edges of the woods. I had covered a couple hundred yards when I saw some movement just up ahead of me in some tall grass bordering the woods and stream that run the length of the farm. As I slowly approached I saw a good sized G-hog scurrying into the underbrush. I stopped and scanned the weeds and grass and made out an eye and the top of a g-hogs head about 20 yards away. All I could see was the eye and part of the head but that's all I needed. Gun went up, fired and heard the pellet hit home. I walked over and there lay the smallest G-hog I had ever killed. It was a very young one. Had I know it was that young I would've have fired but it was to late now. As I entered the brush to retrieve it I looked to my right and there were 2 more little ones crouched in the weeds motionless watching me. They were cute little things. I just smiled at them and told them we'd play the game again when they were bigger.

I decided to head back to the truck and on the way I missed a 50 yards shot at a fat pigeon. I think I might have clipped him, cause I saw a couple of feathers fly at the shot, but he flew off as healthy as all of his buddies. When I got home I took some pics for my GTA buddies, hope ya likem em. BTW,,, that little g-hog tasted just like veal :)

Jeff

[CFX Marauder]

Very nice Jeff !!! Those Starlings are huge compared to the ones I see here in Florida. Can the larger G-Hogs be eaten also or are the tough?

[shadow]

Jeff is keeping the fires burning in the Hunting Gate with our other great hunter's.:0 Great shooting Jeff and fine hunt for sure. The pic's are fantastic buddy, live for them. I'm getting back into the groove slowly and WILL! be getting after em in no time. Ed

[only1harry]

Nice shooting Jeff!!  A very successful hunt! Nice pics, nice size groundhog too, very good day indeed.  

I had a young g-hog just like yours on my property last Summer and let it go a couple of times but I got its moma in the Fall because I figured the young one had grown a bit and should be able to make it through the winter sleeping.  When I shot its mother, it just hung around and kept low in the grass and didn't know what to do.  Eventually a minute later it slowly made its way down the hole under my shed and I never saw it after that (it was end of Sept.).  I don't really like telling that story because I felt bad for it but since you shot a young one, I feel I can talk about it now :-)

So are you using 14.3gr CP Hollow Points?  Did you recover any of the pellets from either g-hog?  What kind of expansion and penetration did you get with the CPHP's and the g-hogs?  I used mostly CP's on them last year because they are a very hard pellet and penetrate really well, but if the CPHP's penetrate in a similar manner with a little more expansion than CP's, I may give them a try this year.  I have several tins but use them mostly on the 850 .22 and "Gene's" Diana 36 likes them as well in .177.

[VINNY]

You are THE MAN!!!

[longislandhunter]

Thanks guys,,,,, I really enjoyed spending the afternoon skulking around the farm, gave me some much needed stress relief :)

Brent, to answer your question,,,, yes,, the larger g-hogs are indeed edible, matter of fact that's what I had for dinner tonight :) and yes the larger ones tend to be tougher than the younger ones. Like I said in the post,,, had I realized how young that one g-hog was I wouldn't have shot him but the larger young ones are very tasty and actually fairly tender. Tonight I just cut up the 2 G-hogs into pieces, seasoned them with all my favorite spices and quickly fried them in oil with some bacon grease added (of course) until they were golden brown. The larger one was a little tough, but not to the point where it was difficult to eat. One of my favorite ways to prepare the larger ones is to season them and then brown them either under the broiler or in the frying pan. Then I take the browned pieces, put them in a large crock pot with some carrots, potatoes, onions and celery,,,, throw in some spices along with a packet or 2 of onion soup mix and let it simmer for several hours on low. Mmmmm Mmmmmm,, nothing better than G-hog pot roast. The meat just falls off the bone and absorbs all the flavors of the spices. My 2 daughters absolutely love G-hog pot roast and are always asking me to make it.

Harry,, yes,,, I'm using the 14.3 CP Hollow Points and they are working fantastic. I've taken 3 G-hogs now with the Talon and CPH's, all head shots, and all 3 g-hogs died instantly right where they were standing. All 3 of em also had massive blood loss and tissue damage at the point of impact. I didn't recover any of the spent pellets but when I cleaned the G-hogs I inspected the damage under the skin and it was clear to see why they died so quickly.  I've come to really like the CP Hollow Points for hunting. My .22 Panther loves them and the pellets worked phenomenal on the squirrels I bagged this year. My Talon is the same way,,,, absolutely loves the pellets and I am definitely impressed with their performance so far on the G-hogs. The other nice thing about them is that they are cheap compared to most of the other .22 hunting pellets. Last time I ordered them from Pyramydair I stocked up on em and I'm glad I did :)

Last week when I was a Cobra Airguns I bought some more Kodiaks,,,, planning to use them in the Talon,,, but since the CP Hollow Points are working so well I think I'll just leave the gun sighted in for them and keep on huntin :)

Jeff

[Big_Bill]

Great account of your hunt Jeff,

I have been waiting for you to take that Talon out again, and boy was this worth waiting for. What a rifle !

Great shootin and great photos !

Thanks for sharing, Bill

[30-06]

Lookes like another successfull hunting trip for Jeff!! Great shooting buddy. Would like to get me one of those Talons here in South Africa, but shipping and taxes included she's gonna cost me about $800-00. A little rich for my pocket at the moment.

Hey Harry,

I use the .177 CPHP's in my model 34.  It really shoots them well, averaging about 3/8" groups at 20yds.  I've recovered a few from snowshoe hares I've shot.  They actually perform very well, seem to penetrate about 2" of rabbit flesh, if shot in the vitals.  Expanded diameter was about .22-.25 (a bit ovalized), and the damage was significant.  Shot was about 20yds.  Head shots with them tend to be devistating.  I actually shattered the skull of one hare a while ago, and wiped out half his brain in doing so.  Litterally, the top of his skull was no longer attached to the bottom, just held together by the soft bits.  Strangely, he did the longest death-dance I've ever seen, the brain wasn't workin', but the rest sure was.  Put him down with another.

I've also shot them at longer ranges, and at 70yds I'm getting about 2" groups (really that's all the guy behind the trigger is capable of.... yet....).  Judging by drop, the BC of them is almost exactly the same as it is for the regular domed CP's.  I use the same ballistic table as reference for both, and it's within 1/2" out to 70 yds.  Way closer than I am.

They're a good pellet, if your gun likes'em.  The hard alloy will lead bores beyond say 800fps, so pledging them is beneficial.  I get a very clean barrel since I started doing that.

J

[PeakChick]

Very nice account of your hunt Jeff. That Talon is very impressive in performance. I have found the CPHPs to be good performers too, in my guns that like them. Both my HW30 and my HW50 are tack drivers with them, and they drop Grackles very effectively.