I've had this G-hog living under my backyard shed for quite awhile now and despite my best efforts I haven't been able to take him out,,,,, until tonight that is :)
I've waited many times for this G-hog to show himself so I could get a shot at him, but the only time I ever saw him was when I was pulling into my driveway or leaving the house and of course I'm always without an air rifle. I haven't seen him for awhile so I thought perhaps he moved on to greener pastures for some reason so the other day I took a shovel and pushed all the dirt back under the shed and smoothed it out nice and even. It stayed just like that for a few days, leaving me to believe he had in fact moved on, but the other day I went to the shed and sure enough he had re-excavated and there was that darn burrow hole string me in the face again.
Tonight, about an hour ago, I had just finished dinner and was walking past the large sliding glass door that leads to my rear deck and gives me a wonderful view of the backyard and I just couldn't believe my eyes,,, there he was in the middle of my yard munching away on the growing grass. I told my wife and daughter to stay clear of any windows and don't make any sounds. I ran down to my basement workshop and opened up one of my gun safes. As I opened the door there she stood,,,, my beautiful black stocked Panther .22,,,, staring back at me. Yup,, she can get -r-done !! :)
I put on my hunting vest, it has a pellet pouch that I sewed onto to left breast pocket area, poured some CPH's into the pouch, then grabbed the Panther and loaded a CPH. My plan was to quietly open the bilco doors to the backyard then sneak to the corner of the house and hopefully get a shot at the G-hog,,,, however as I raised the bilco door I saw the G-hog. He had moved 1/2 across my backyard and was now 25 yards directly away from me feeding right in front of where I have my target area set up.
I immediately laid down on the basement steps to lower my profile and put the scope on the G-hog,, who was now standing erect looking around and apparently sensing danger. Before I could pull the trigger he dropped down to all 4 legs and started to walk back towards his burrow. I kept the scope on him as he moved but figured my chance was gone,,, however I was wrong.. After walking about 10 feet he suddenly stopped and again stood up on his hind legs,,, here was my chance :)
I quickly put the crosshairs between his eye and ear,,, I had a slight upward angle shot as I was still lying down on the stairs,,, then pulled the trigger. The Panther fired and I heard that "SMACK" as pellet hit fur. At the impact the G-hog fell over onto his back and just laid there quivering. I quickly loaded another CPH and approached. At 10 yards, as I approached, I decided to put another CPH into him just to make sure although he was still laying on his back with his tail quivering so I know he wasn't going anywhere,,,, but sometimes with G-hogs you never know.
The first CPH hit him right where I aimed and the upward angle of the shot drove the pellet right into the sweet spot. If you look closely at the closeup pic of the G-hogs head you can see the pellet hole clearly. It kinda looks like a round drop of blood but it's actually a perfectly round hole. I also had my daughter take a couple of pics of me holding my beautiful Panther and the G-hog. That Panther is a small game killing machine and it shoots those CPH's one on top of another.... :)
I still have one more G-hog in the yard but that one built his burrow at the very back of my property near a fence and isn't damaging anything yet so I can take my time and hunt him. Well, hope ya like the pics. As for the G-hog,,,, as my good buddy Ed (Shadow) would say,,,,,, "he's resting comfortably in the freezer" :)
Oh yeah,,,, I forgot to add,,,, when I picked up the G-hog I noticed for the first time that he had just a "nub" for a tail. Don't know what happened to the rest of it. I also added a couple of pics of the apartment he dug under my shed......
Jeff
