RedRocket1647545505

After the hog rundown, we drove around some more fields in hopes of finding the 2nd part of the pack that split off. We never did. I did, however, spot to small sets of eyes about 100yd off the access road. I told Abe to stop and my dad jumped out with the LR-308. Abe told us that they were badgers, which are legal to shoot in Texas. Anyways, my dad starts walking towards them while Dave and I are in the bed of the truck shining the spotlights on them. I told my dad to step back so we could shoot them, but his ears must have still been ringing too much from the hog roundup to hear me. He proceeded to walk up about 20yd from the first one and blast it. He took a few more steps towards the 2nd badger, took aim, shot, and missed. Well, Mr. Badger apparently didn't like that too well because he took off running straight towards my dad. My dad, now in a frenzy to kill this thing before it tears off a piece of his leg, starts lighting off round after round of .308 towards it as he's trying to run backwards, away from it. The badger had moved in too close to use the scope, so he just had to point and pray that he hit it. Finally, about 3 feet before the badger had got to him, he sunk one in him. Abe, Dave and I were absolutely falling on the ground from laughing so hard . I'm still not sure what exactly he was thinking by getting that close to a badger. Those things are known to be vicious. Badger #1 -He was making a gurgling sound when I walked past him ~5min after my dad shot him. So I put a .40 in him to make him quit. http://i29.tinypic.com/hsv18z.jpg Badger #2 -Not to be fucked with http://i31.tinypic.com/2cyiczt.jpg ...Days 10 and 11 coming up

The kill pile http://i26.tinypic.com/246upms.jpg Myself, Abe, Dave (my dad's camera fucking sucks ) http://i25.tinypic.com/zthox5.jpg Father and son hog massacre:Popcorn: http://i29.tinypic.com/690w3o.jpg I decided to see why this sow was so fat... http://i30.tinypic.com/a4tpih.jpg C-C-C-C-C-C-C-Combo!!!!! http://i30.tinypic.com/2d9d4lj.jpg We shot 2 total pregnant sows. If you figure each sow had 5+ piggahs in her, then we took out a total of 20+ hogs. Not bad for a little over an hours work. :bangbang: ...still more to come.

Final update: I've been busy killing shit but just got back into Ohio this morning so I figured I'd update this one last time. 7/9/09 = Day 8 I didn't do much on this day. Took my dad's Remington 7400 (in .270win) to the range to make sure it was still hitting Minute Of Hog. It was. 7/10/09 = Day 9 Hog Hunt v.2.0 Like I said, I decided to switch guns to something that was a bit more reliable. I decided to use my dad's Remington 7400 chambered in .270win w/ irons instead of an optic. I figured that oughta knock the shit out of them, especially at close range. We cleaned up the LR-308 and got all the freaking sand out of it and decided we'd give it another shot. It's super tight from the factory so I racked the BCG about 300x to try to loosen it up a lil bit. My dad chose to use it this time since he stays in the front seat of the truck; away from the sand. Anyways, we spent most of the day getting our shit in order for the evening hunt and generally relaxing and resting up since it was almost certain that we'd be up all night, again. Around 5pm, we packed up and headed to meet our buddy, Abe, who was bringing along his younger brother, Dave, this time instead of his friend John. I knew full well what to expect this time around. I brought my 12FV as a backup/long range weapon, and had my G23 strapped to my side with 2 spare mags, all loaded with 180gr of FMJ goodness . Should something malfunction, AGAIN, I'm dropping the rifle and going to my trusty Glock, which I KNOW won't fail me. Anyways, onto the important stuff: (also, pics are from my dad's camera. I forgot my memory card in my laptop ) First kill of the night = coyote shooter - Dave gun - CZ 550 American in .308win note - 200yd shot using only the lazerbeam. http://i25.tinypic.com/2r4tytw.jpg About 2am, we made it to our 3rd spot of the night. Abe told us to get out of the truck and to walk up over this hill to see if we could see anything with our binoculars (which work surprisingly well at night...). As soon as we all got out of the truck we heard some pigs squealling. Oh hell yes. We walked up over the top of the hill and there in the middle of a crop circle was a pack of probably 35 hogs. Abe told us to get ready and to hold on tight because he was going in hard after them. We all got back in the truck. Abe was driving and manning the spotlight. My dad was in the passenger seat with the LR-308. I was standing behind the cab with the 7400 locked and loaded with a couple spare mags in my pockets and a G23 strapped to my side, ready to do some work should I need it to. Dave took up the position beside me behind the cab. Abe took off. Within seconds we were beside the pack, who now had taken off running. I drew the 7400 down on the first hog I came to, a small one, and cracked one off. That hog dropped, squealling like crazy. I turned to aquire my next target, another small one. I cracked a shot off, missed, and took another shot; direct hit. It, too, fell off from the pack squelling like crazy. By this time, everybody else was shooting as well. I heard some more hogs squealling and my dad yelling, "HIT!". He was going for the bigger hogs that ran towards the front of the pack. I wasn't paying too much attention to what Dave was doing, but having a bolt action gun, he wasn't doing too much shooting due to reloads being a bitch in that environment. I acquired my next target, a rather large hog that had fallen towards the rear of the pack. I squeezed the trigger and.....nothing. I looked down at the bolt on the 7400 and it was stuck open. I tried to rack it but it did nothing. So I dropped the mag, cycled the action and threw in another fresh mag. Still nothing. So, I laid it on our packs and drew out the Glock. :bangbang: I pointed it at the big hog which was still there and fired. It slowed down and started squealling. I had managed to hit it. So, I shot it a couple more times, just for good measure. I then proceeded to shoot a few more smaller hogs (with the G23) before the pack decided to split up. We were approaching the end of the field and turning around to catch up to the main pack. During the turn, there was a large one running out in front of the truck which my dad then shot with the LR-308. It's hind legs dropped to the ground and it was pulling itself along with just it's fronts. Musta been a spine shot. Anyways, he didn't suffer long because when he got within my killbox, I fired off a few .40s at him. . He dropped for good. We then looped around the other side of the irrigation pivot that the hogs were running beside. We caught up to the remainder of the pack we'd been chasing and I shot at some more small ones. I hit another 1 or 2, and then Abe proceeded to run over them to make sure they stayed down. The 2 small remaining hogs slowed to a walk about 75yd in front of us and Abe came to a stop. These were Dave's. Abe told him to take his time because they weren't going anywhere. Dave shot, and dropped one and the survivor ran into the weeds. That was the end of our hog run. We spent the next hour or so trying to round up all the hogs we had killed. I know I personally hit 7-8 of them (I had the best position in the truck of anybody), but I think a few got away or we just didn't find them once they dropped in the tall grass. While we were rounding up the hogs we'd killed, I shined the spotlight on an access road to the field. Low and behold, a couple small, dumb ones trying to find their pack. Dave was standing beside me and I told him to drop them. He put the laser on the bigger of the two and shot. It started spinning around in circles biting at it's ass. Dave had attempted the infamous Texas Heart Shot. The other piggy took off. Dave shot the bigger one again and it dropped. In all, we found 10 hogs; the most Abe's ever killed in one night. It must have been my presence. :bangbang: In total, I had fired 3 rounds from the 7400, and 27 from the G23 . Hitting a target thats moving at 30+mph while you're bouncing through a field at 30+mph is hard. So, onto the pics: http://i25.tinypic.com/2qm22ko.jpg Check out the tusks http://i28.tinypic.com/muuaad.jpg This dude (Abe) is well over 6ft. tall; just to give you some size perspective. I'd say this one weighed 250lb+ http://i29.tinypic.com/vmq2dj.jpg Aaahhh Piggah Aaaaaahhhhhhhh........ http://i26.tinypic.com/110ds29.jpg ....More pics coming

pics of actual gun?

Dreamgirls has the twins.

Werd.

People really are fucking idiots.

This man speaks the truth.

Does she consider herself a good driver? Does she carry full coverage car insurace?

They deserved it.

7/7/09 = Day 6 My scope finally arrived. So I wanted to take it to the range to get it sighted in. It'd give me a chance to shoot the 12FV as well, which I haven't shot in almost a year. The wind was wreaking havoc on those little 17gr. bullets. Groups weren't as good as they normally are (.5-.75"). Todays groups were well over 1". The 12FV was solid as a rock, though. Nailing an 8" gong at 400yd was cake. I managed to hit it a few times as well with the .17, so long as the wind calmed down for a few seconds. No pics though. I forgot my camera. 7/8/09 = Day 7 Woke up about 4am to try my luck with calling in a coyote for the purpose of murdering him. I got a bunch to howl back at me, but that was about it. I never did get any to come on in. I think my calling skillz need some work. I did see one though running along the side of the road. I tried to catch up to him, but failed at that too. So, I defaulted to rabbits. However, I only had my .22-250 with me. It turned out to be a bit overkill for rabbits. :bangbang: Rabbit #13 - Cottontail shooter - me gun - 12FV (.22-250) Note - 100yd shot. wasn't expecting this http://i29.tinypic.com/23tmp2u.jpg A piece of rabbit #13 on a bush about 10ft away http://i31.tinypic.com/2cijd1.jpg 'nother chunk http://i29.tinypic.com/288797s.jpg Rabbit #14 - Jackrabbit shooter - me gun - 12FV note -~200yd. http://i25.tinypic.com/25khchg.jpg Rabbit #15 - Jackrabbit shooter - me gun -12FV note - Aimed for it's head. Hit its head. It's now missing most of it's head. http://i25.tinypic.com/wmhz4j.jpg

Combinationforwin.jpg

Where do I sign up?

The South End?

Rabbit #12 = Jackrabbit shooter - me gun - 597mag note- I think I shot this one a couple times. http://i28.tinypic.com/27xii5x.jpg Rabbit #13 = cottontail shooter - me gun -597mag note - didn't feel like taking a pic I thought about it......... http://i29.tinypic.com/2q21z43.jpg And damn these things are big. I think it's a brahma bull http://i31.tinypic.com/e8qweg.jpg

7/5/06 = Day 4 I slept. 7/6/09 = Day 5 Rabbit #8 = Jackrabbit shooter - me gun - 597mag note- BOOM! Head shot! (.17 to the back of the head) http://i31.tinypic.com/358s11c.jpg Rabbit #9 = Jackrabbit shooter - me gun - 597mag Note - I think this was a ~125yd. shot per the range finder http://i30.tinypic.com/33zd9vb.jpg view of truck from rabbit #9 http://i26.tinypic.com/dfu804.jpg Rabbit #10 = Jackrabbit shooter - me gun - 597mag http://i31.tinypic.com/20fdx6a.jpg Rabbit #11 = Jackrabbit shooter - me gun - 597mag note- shot this one twice. Once in the mid section, and then one to the back of the neck. Both from ~100yd. Side note - I <3 the .17HMR http://i26.tinypic.com/259fqe8.jpg

1. How much more effort do you want towards ending it's life? I can't think of many other quicker way towards death than a .357mag to the dome piece. 2. He's 'strolling around it' so that he didn't get a tusk through his leg. Walking right up to a 200lb hog that's wounded is not smart. I'd also say that not walking straight up to the thing is being respectful. I can respect the fact that that hog could whip our ass if it decided to get up. That's why I'm in the truck. 3. And no, it did not get eaten. Hogs of that size rarely get eaten. When they get that big, they get tough. The babies taste great, though. 4. Also, I don't think you really understand why they're being killed in the first place. There's an infestation of them in the South. They don't get killed for their meat. They get killed because they need killed. Do you cry this much when someone calls an exterminator? Perhaps I should put a wreath on it's final resting place?

None of them. That dog is ugly. kidding. I'll vote for #3.

Oh it is. I'm quite convinced that had my gun not malfunctioned, it would have been a hog massacre.

Here's a quick vid:

I guess I should also mention that I know why the LR-308 fucked up. My father likes to take care of his guns, which is understandable, but sometimes he gets a bit excessive. When he oils the gun, he OILS the gun. I'm talking everything. It all gets drenched. Upon throwing it in the sand where it belongs, the sand sticks to everything and now you've got a completely useless gun. I'm convinced that had it been dry, the sand would have fallen right back out, and my hog count would have been higher than 0. Anyways, here's some pics. I didn't get a whole lot of them since I was too busy trying to kill something. http://i41.tinypic.com/jztpid.jpg http://i40.tinypic.com/35izwd3.jpg http://i44.tinypic.com/2r477eo.jpg http://i39.tinypic.com/2z4xtw0.jpg

7/4/09 = Day 3 We didn't do shit for the most part today. There was talk of going out to slaughter some more bunnies, but we decided to get some rest instead for our hog hunt that was planned for the night. As was stated earlier, I decided to use my father's DPMS LR-308 for our hog hunt. At first, I thought it might have been a bit overkill. I've never been hog hunting before, so I was expecting to see 1.......maybe 2 small hogs. However, after talking to our 'guide', I learned that these things run in packs, sometime up to 300+ in numbers and 500+lb. . It was then that I realized, I brought the PERFECT gun for this mission. We met up with our guide, Abe, at around 5:30pm and drove 10 miles east of Hobbs, NM, and then 30 miles up the state line to one of our hunting spots. Our guide, Abe, is certainly a character. He is the spitting image of what I'd picture a Texas rancher. Picture a lanky Yosemite Sam, with gold teeth, and a sick-ass Howa .223 set up for hog hunting. Abe has a friend, John, who met up with us a bit later on our quest for some hogs. Both of these guys were some seriously good dudes. The stereotype for Texas hospitality shines through here. These guys are also SERIOUS about hunting hogs. They go out 2-3x every single week. There's endless hogs to hunt out here. If you've ever seen the special on the Discovery channel, you'd know that Texas actually has a hog problem. They multiply like crazy and destroy everything they touch. We went out with one goal in mind: Kill as many as you can. Pssh. Sounds good to me. We arrived at our first location around 6pm and got started right away. We loaded our gear into the bed of Abe's white Dodge Ram; my father hopped into the passenger seat with his Wby Vanguard .243, and I jumped into the bed with what I thought was a trusty LR-308. I'd learn later that it wasn't as trusty as I would have liked. We took off down our first access round. Abe's got several farmers that give him permission to hunt their land, mostly to try to save their crops (peanuts). The basic idea of hog hunting is to drive around the crop fields (circles) and keep your eyes open. About 5 minutes into our hunt we spotted a young coyote about 600yd out. Abe and I took up positions on the backside of a small sand dune. This same sand dune was what ultimately fucked up my night. I mono-pod'd the LR-308 off the magazine on top of the dune and waited while my dad tried to call in the coyote for a closer shot. Unfortunately, this coyote was not interested in our sales pitch. In fact, he pretty much ignored it completely and took off the opposite direction. After wallering around in the sand for about 15 minutes, we decided that to continue on with our hog hunt. We glassed the Texas fields for hours without seeing anything. Abe wasn't discouraged. He preferred the night hunts anyways. At around 10pm we moved to another location where we met up with Abe's buddy, John. John's a hell of a good dude, and hilarious too. John took up the position beside me in the bed of Abe's truck and off we went again. At this point, it's raining fairly hard. We're on my first ever hog hunt, in the middle of the fucking desert, and it's somehow raining. That's my luck. While riding in the bed with John, I learned a bit more about how they hog hunt. What I learned was that they will drive around with multiple spotlights (it's legal. [side note- pig eyes don't glow when a spotlight hits them, :/ ]) until they find a pack, sneak up on them (if they can), blast as many as they can while they're sitting still, and then run them down in the truck and shoot as many as you can. I pictured the scene from that Jurassic park movie where they chase the dinosaurs down with the Jeeps. Only, instead of trying to put a noose around their neck, we're trying to put a bullet in their head. We drove around for hours. John and I are soaking wet, and though we're in the desert, it's cold. Remember that new mesh camo I bought? Yeah, bad idea for hunting at night. But, we finally had some luck come our way. At about 3:30am, John spotted a pack of about 12 pigs running along the edge of a field, parallel to us. GAME ON. Abe stompped on the gas to try to head them off. We cut down another access road to get in front of the pigs. About 300yd before they got to us, they took a hard turn to their left. John turns to me and said, "Let'em have it!" I took up position on the bedrail of Abe's truck. I zero'd in on the general area that they were in and attempted to hit a few of them. My problem was, I could barely see shit. Between my rain-soaked scope lenses, and a distance that the spotlight barely reached, I was essentially firing blind (not a big deal out here, there isn't shit for miles). Anyways, I cut loose a couple 110gr hollowpoints, having no idea if I'd actually hit anything. It was at this point that the actual chase begain. Abe stomped on it again, bouncing off through the fields to catch up with the pack (apparently these things can run at up to 40+mph ). We catch up to them fairly quickly, probably because we were going 60mph through a dirt field. John and I are bouncing everywhere, just trying to hold on. We get into firing range, about 30ft to the back and left side of the pack. I take a general aim at the biggest one, click the selector switch to fire, and squeeze the trigger. CLICK!.................. No BANG. At this point everyone else is cutting loose on the pack. My father had his .243 hanging out the window, and John's standing behind the cab with his .357 Blackhawk. I give the 19rd magazine a good WHACK, and attempt to rack the charging handle. No dice. Remember that retarded ring setup my dad went with on this gun? Yea, it pretty much fucked me. I could barely get ahold of the charging handle to attempt to pop the carrier loose. I tug and tug and tug but it won't fucking budge. I drop the mag, and start beating on the charging handle. All the while, WWIII is going on around me. I hear shell casings hitting the bed floor as John's reloading. Dude is tearing them up. I finally get the bolt carrier un-stuck. Drop the round in the bed, tap the mag on a cooler to try to dislodge some sand and slam it back into the magwell. I hit the bolt release and it slams forward. I take a quick look at the carrier to make sure it's in full battery;........it's not . It's stuck about 1/2" from full battery. So, I drop the mag again, and attempt to pull the charging handle AGAIN. Again, it's fucking stuck. At this point, we're going through some rough terrain and it's all I can do to keep from getting tossed out of the truck. The packs split up, and we are chasing after a lone two hogs. I drop the gun in the bed because I'm tired of fucking with it (I'm also questioning myself at this point as to why I decided to leave my G23 at home. I didn't think I'd need it ). I grab a spotlight instead in hopes of helping the other guys do something productive. I see a hog or two take a couple rounds to their rear and drop off. We stop the truck and everyone gets out to B.S. about it and laugh. I pick the LR-308 back up and manage to get the carrier unstuck again. We all dick around with it for about 10-15 minutes, but it's got entirely too much sand stuck in it. The carrier won't close to save it's life (or to end a pig's life ). We get back in the truck to retrace our path and to see what kind of damage we (they) did. Unfortunately, we only find one. These things (pigs) are built like a fucking tank. They can take several bullets and still run off pretty much unphased. John lets us know that he's confident he hit atleast 4 of them due to watching them drop off from the pack, but we can't find them anywhere. My dad's unsure if he even hit any. Scoped guns aren't condusive to up close running and gunning hunting. We spend the rest of the morning trying to find the pack again, but were unsuccessful. John shot a a few coyotes but never did hit any. I took a shot at one with the .243 that was well over 1000yd out with no expectations of actually hitting it. We only had the .243 dialed in to about 300yd and I had no numbers to go off of to compensate for the yardage; so I guessed. The first shot was well over his head, the 2nd was about 50yd in front of him which was apparently too close for comfort because he took off. We stayed out til sunrise looking for some more coyotes but failed to see anymore. At about 8am, we called it quits. We went home cold, wet, and tired but I had an absolute BLAST. This type of hunting > *. :bangbang: *Pics to come. Will proof-read later*

Yea, I know. Next time I'll put them ALL in the original boxes. It just sucks that I was following their rules and they still dumped them.

They state in their rules that loaded mags are allowed so long as they're encased in a secured enclosure. Mine were in mag holders and then locked in the hardcase.

My father shooting his CZ 550 SM for the first time. He had the shooting sticks a bit too high and obviously not a good enough grip on it. I 'd