What do you hunt with?

[djones]

i hunt them pretty hard, so they don't stay in one place very long. here are some in a pecan orchard.

a lot depends on what crops are planted and when they are harvested. sometimes i have to bait near bedding areas to draw them out. that's when i like to try my luck with the long shots. i've taken them with long range rigs from 500 to 1,050 yards!

 

[JP100]

nice. are you allowd suppressors? are they legal in the USA?

 

[djones]

yea they're legal... with a little paperwork and some fees. texas legalized them for game animals last season. we can use them on deer! i use them because they are "farmer friendly". i may be in somebody's back forty in the middle of the night dumping a magazine while they're sleeping.

 

[JP100]

Thats good. they are becoming real popular in NZ as they have soo many benifits. great on big magnums for us scrawny guys that dont like recoil.

 

[oldvet]

Haven't hunted hogs, as yet. However, as they've moved to within a few counties of where I live, I plan on getting some hog busting in the near future.

I've been considering 3 weapons, with a GP-100 357 Mag 4" bbl as backup - in the following order preference:

1. A Rossi Pumain 357 Mag 20" bbl, using HARD cast bullets and/or LEVERevolution handloads.

2. A Mossberg 500 12 Gauge loaded with slugs out of a rifled barrel.

3. A Savage 340 in 30-30 Win, using LEVERevolution or Noslers handloads.gun)

I had a friend in the Army who had an argument with a hog, and I've seen the scars... I want to be able to put them down. Of course, putting bacon on the table would be nice, also.

 

[tim1457]

I hunt with a friend of mine in south Georgia. He is overrun with hogs and they have become a nuisance to the point of running off the deer herd. You can't keep deer feed out because they gorge on it until it's gone and run any deer off of it that try to eat. They also get smarter if you hunt too hard. For the big old boars 300 lbs. up, I feed them 647 gr. 50 BMG.

 

[djones]

i tried my hand at lever actions but i don't do well with open sights amymore. i finally bagged one with a 45-70, but i cheated and used an ir laser with a pvs14 mounted on a skull cap.

i like the shotgun more. again, i prefer some type of optic and i get decent range and accuracy with slugs. plus, it has the added bonus of being the perfect protection weapon when trailing wounded hogs in the brush. with a tac light and buckshot, what you see is what you get!

i like a big bolt gun as much as anyone. this is the latest 338 lapua kill. i have a friend with a 50 cal, but he/we haven't shot anything with it yet. waiting for the suppressor to come in. the recoil isn't bad, but the blast for bystanders is absolutely devastating.

of course there's the old fashion method of just driving up on them and sticking the gun out the window. got these last week. hoping some show up under the full moon this weekend!

good hunting...
dj

 

[Flaco]

djones, that's some serious pig kill'n. Really cool stuff.

 

[djones]

thought the super moon would be better, but had quite a bit of cloud cover. still managed to sneak up on some using an irrigation pivot for cover. got as close as i could without getting soaked from the spray and made a few lucky shots.

 

[Coy Franks]

djones- Where do you mostly hunt, town, county? We rarely have hogs the size you shot anymore because of the helicopter that comes several times during the winter thins out the big ones. Those are nice. I've only shot one that weighed 300 lbs. and that was several years back. Here most are 150-175 and down.

 

[djones]

i'm hunting in the texas panhandle area, wherever i can find them. helicopters have taken their toll here too. it's hard for hogs to escape the chopper. if the pilot can drive them out of cover the whole herd gets wiped out.

funny you mention the weight of hogs. the pair in the previous pic aren't that big. probably not much over 100lbs, but i really don't know. the single was hard to move around, but i'm old now and they all feel heavy to me! positioning the camera close to the ground and close to the hogs makes them look a lot bigger, especially if you squat down behind them. friends tease me lot about sitting too far behind them , so now i put the rifle in front of the hogs to prove i'm not that far back.

once i weighed a hog that looked A LOT bigger than me on certified scales. he only weighed 175lbs. I couldn't believe it. i got some game scales and weighed a few after that. i ALWAYS guessed too heavy. they were big, but not as big as i thought. the scales didn't last very long bouncing around in the truck, but here are pics of some of the hogs i weighed.


213lbs

266lbs

294lbs

 

[JP100]

djones These weights are live weight arnt they??(eg not gutted)
Ive seen alot of "info" on the weights on pigs in the usa and most of them seem to be greatly exagerated. As you said most pigs arnt much over 100lb. If you weigh everything you catch it can be bit dissapointing haha especially if you have carried them for a while.
A 200lb pig(gutted) is bloody big pig. Not many are caught bigger than that here in New Zealand.
Do you get most under the spotlight?

 

[djones]

none of the hogs were gutted, and many probably had a few pounds of mud on them! tv shows are real bad about boasting of a weight for a hog that is laughable.

don't use spotlights anymore. i have resorted to the easy (lazy) method of driving farm/ranch land with the lights out using a pvs14 to see. once spotted, approach on foot without getting winded. the closer i get, the more shots i can take before they're out of sight. i may be shooting at aholes and elbows, but it's certain none are going to die if i'm not firing gun)

if the vehicle spooks them on the approach, i'll drive into them if possible. sometimes that turns out even better if i can stay within pistol range!

 

[Coy Franks]

djones the reason I asked was in your photos you have shown pivots and no till cotton in wheat stubble. I live on the North Pease River in Motley Co. and thought you might not be that far from me.