Spent most of the day working around the house getting some of the things on my "list" completed, but come 4pm I had was done working and ready for some shooting :)
I know the duck farm is full of starlings now and I was tempted to grab one of my .177 guns and do some bird huntin,,, but when I opened the gun safe and saw the Talon standing there looking so pretty I knew I was going G-hog hunting instead :) I Gently took the Talon from her rest, grabbed a container of CHP's, my hunting vest and headed out the door.
I arrived at the farm, parked in my usual spot, loaded up the Talon and headed off to skulk around the farm. It only took me 15 minutes to locate a couple of possible targets. At the north end of the farm, as I exited from one of the large barns, I spotted 2 good sized G-hogs feeding on grass in a small field approximately 60 yards from where I was standing. There were a couple of large grain feeders between me and the G-hogs so I decided to see if I could sneak to the nearest feeder. If I could get to it I would have a 50 yard shot and a nice steady rest to lean on when I took the shot. Well, I hadn't even taken 2 steps when both g-hogs stood up on their hind legs, looked right at me and then ran like the dickens to the nearby woodline. Oh well, round one goes to them. I made a mental note of where their burrows were for future reference and then headed off hugging the woodline as I went.
The last couple of times I've been to the farm I've seen a good sized G-hog that comes out right around 6:00 pm to feed so I decided to head over to his feeding pasture and wait for him to emerge. This G-hog has a burrow in a strip of woods and brush that borders the stream that runs the length of the farm. My plan was to pick out a good sniping location just inside the woods and wait for him to emerge. I was hugging the tree line as I made my way along the edge of the stream and as I got to within 30 yards of where the G-hog usually feeds I suddenly saw something brown moving in the grass up ahead. Yup,,,, it was him,,,, he came out early for dinner :)
The G-hog hadn't seen me so I froze where I was to assess the situation. All of a sudden the G-hog must've sensed something because he stood up on his hind legs and started looking all around. Luckily for me there was a large tree branch hanging down very low right in front of me and it hid me from the G-hogs view. He started to get nervous and suddenly dropped down to all fours and started walking, but amazingly he was walking towards me :)
He only went about 5 yards then stood up again for another look, but he had closed the distance between us to 25 yards :) I waited for him to turn away from me and when he did I took a couple of quick, quiet steps forward and to the right of the tree branch hanging down in front of me. He had dropped back down into the tall grass again, but if he stoop up again I would be ready. I took the Talon off safety, shouldered the rifle and waited. Didn't take long,,,,,, he stood up to take another look around, I put the crosshairs right on the back of his head directly between his two ears and fired. The gun fired and I heard that beautiful "POP" as the CHP slammed home.
At the shot the G-hog dropped instantly. I quickly loaded another CHP, shouldered the rifle and moved in ready for a second shot if necessary. No second shot was necessary,,,, he was laying right where he dropped, with blood pouring out of his head. Picked up my trophy and headed back to the truck. When I got home my daughter took a couple of pics of me, my lovely Talon and the G-hog.
Jeff
