Good day hunting with some fellow Levergunners

[FWiedner]

I was invited by CRS to hunt with him, some of his friends from Dallas Woods and Waters Club, and Piller at an outfit called The Boars Nest in Kenefic, OK. Had a really good time. CRS brought along his new .405Win double-rifle. I brought my .356Win, and my .358Win. Piller brought a Ruger .44Mag carbine. There were also a .30-30 and a .308 in the field. Not all levers, but all made hogs dead today.

We had (8) hunters loaded into the back of a pick-up truck on bench seats following a hunting-pack of bay dogs, and then we walked the property to spot-and-stalk a few meat-hogs.

The terrain was rough and we had to develop an expedient warning to alert one-another to duck so that we didn't get whipped and slashed by bushes and tree branches as we traveled up and down, and over and through the tracks, chasing the dogs. The bed of that truck was like a rodeo ride. I told the guys that I had not been bounced off the tailgate of a pick-up since I was a teenager, so if I made a noise when it happened please don't hold it against me. I believe that "LOOK OUT" and "DOWN" were the most used phrases of the day.

The hounds bayed (3) large and very angry hogs which we promptly shot. The dogs were as game as any I've seen, and a few got cut pretty good (badly) by the hogs. I took my first hog, a boar bayed by the dogs, with my Model 94AE in .356Win using the 200gr factory ammo. A pretty big hog. DRT. CRS washed, curried, and shot a hog taking a bath a few minutes later.

Actually, the dogs bayed a big mean hog in a creek bottom, and one of the hounds dragged it to land by the ear so that Charles could shoot it. Good dog. Good shot.

I think the spot-and-stalk hogs wanted to get shot. Like... Suicide by Hunter. As we were getting ready to break for lunch a group of small hogs just came walking out at the front of the property. We were like "Can we shoot those?" Uh... "Yes." I walked for about 15 minutes before I took my second hog (a sow apparently taking a leisurely stroll down an open lane with a friend) with my Savage Model 10 re-barreled to .358Win using a 220gr Speer HCFN over 51.6gr of Win748. Nice sized meat-hog. This was the first time I'd had this gun anywhere but at the range, and I am quite happy with the field test.

Overall, it was an efficient operation, well-staffed with guides, dog-handlers, and prompt retrieval of downed game. I thought that the cost to hunt was very reasonable, and there was plenty of available game.

I didn't get photos of everybody after their kill , or of all the hogs pre-skinning, but I did get a few good photos:


My .356 Boar


CRS .405 Double-Rifle Boar


A close -up. Quite handsome for a pig.


The Skinning Rack. These big hogs have some good winter fat.


My .358 Sow. First hunt for this rifle. I am pleased.


The beauty pageant.

It was a good day, with a fine group of men. Totally enjoyable.

[ollogger]

Looks like that would be a grand time!! Like your 356 nice gun!



Brad

[fordwannabe]

Man that looks like it was a good day! Glad to hear you had a good time. Tom

[plowboy 45]

Looks like a good hunt, but beauty padgett not so much

[Blaine]

Good write up..Nice hunting....
(That's a bucket list for me)

[tman]

Always great to get a field report on the .356WCF.

[Tycer]

Green with envy. Good to put a face to the posts.

[AJMD429]

Now that just looks FUN...

[Bill in Oregon]

Nice job, FW. Eager to hear Charles weigh in on how he liked his double. Dry weather and sunshine would be most welcome here.

[M. M. Wright]

Looks like you had a wonderful time. Thanks for the report.

[Pete44ru]

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I like it - but I just can't decide which lineup is the purdiest.......




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[crs]

Good report Fred and I am glad everyone had a good time.
To everyone else - you know that Fred has a wry sense of humor, so please consider that when I embellish his account of what that big bad dog did to my poor little 300 pound dead boar!
I will cover this in a separate post when Fred, Richard, and Sterling email to me the pix they took.

[Nath]

Impressive stuff gents, well done.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Looks like fun. We don't have hogs here.

[spaceman spiff]

color me green that's a lot of pork

BTW, where is the snow? you mentioned winter fat in the post



spaceman

[Rube Burrows]

Looks like a darn good time.

[C. Cash]

Good going Fred! What load with the 356 and what effect, if you don't mind me asking?

[piller]

It was a great time.

For my part, I hunted one of the smaller pigs without use of the dogs. A member of the Dallas Woods and Waters Club, Jeff, who is about 70 years old, went out in the scrub and trees area at the same time I did. We separated about 100 yards, and I went through the heaviest brush. About the time I reached the fence at the end of the property in the direction Jeff and I were traveling, I heard a rifle shot. Jeff got his pig with 1 shot. I saw one pig then walk past me, and it was a small one, so I passed on it. I walked toward where I heard the shot, and Jeff had a nice fat pig on the ground. We looked to the left, and saw a couple of pigs coming down the fence line directly at us. The one in the lead was about the size I wanted, and it didn't seem to have a care in the world. I moved away from Jeff, and took a position behind a small tree to break up my outline. About 20 yards from me the pig stopped. I took a moment to aim, and put a .44 Magnum from my Ruger semi-auto carbine through its head. One shot and the hog was down with its legs twitching spasmodically. After the twitching stopped, Jeff walked up and we went to examine the pig. That is where it got odd. A second pig had been following the one I shot, and the second one was injured. It walked with a pronounced limp. As we got near the dead pig, the second one started popping its teeth together and limped toward us. We yelled and acted as if we were going to come at it, and it did not back down. A suicidal pig? Two hunters with guns, two dead fellow pigs, and this pig did not choose to back off. We backed up until it stopped, but we both watched it the whole time. Neither of us wanted that pig, but we were even less interested in visiting an emergency room. It might have been asking us to put it out of its pain, but we didn't. The young man who worked there, and did the skinning, came down after the shots. With 3 of us, the injured pig backed up---a little. We were told that the pig had been in a fight with another pig and was a little injured, but it was healing. The young worker picked up my pig and carried it back toward the skinning station. He made it about two thirds of the way before the owner came along with the 4 wheeler. At that time I looked back and the injured pig was still pointing its nose our way. Really? A suicidal or extremely angry pig. A short time after that, Fred got his second pig. Despite being whipped by a few small tree branches while in the back of the pickup, it truly was a fun time. We successfully ducked the big branches and we held on to the benches in the back of the truck, so no one had any new scars to brag about.

[FWiedner]

Good going Fred! What load with the 356 and what effect, if you don't mind me asking?

I used the 200gr factory stuff for this hunt, Chris.

It was a pass-through shot entering behind the left shoulder and exiting in the middle of the rib-cage on the right side.

I watched while the animal was skinned and eviscerated, nice clean entry and exit wounds, and there didn't seen to be a terrific amount of organ damage. Now, if this hog wasn't 300lbs, it was darned close. I prefer to take neck shots on hogs, and for anything but a head or a neck shot I expect the hog to keep going. I must have hit 'something' vital because the boar went straight down... But I WAS ready for a second shot.

[C. Cash]

I'd say ya got em! Thank you for the field report and glad to see you are doing well. I've got Turkeys on my mind now but the hogs are a close second.

[crs]

It is time for "The Rest of The Story! I will only cover things not in Fred's story above.

Sterling, Fred, and I did the Trophy Hunt of the large boars 300 + pounds and ours were all between 300 and 400 pounds. We were in the back of the pickup following the sounds of the dogs on false trails and it was about one hour before the dogs cornered the first hog and our driver took us within about 50 yards of it. Sterling went first, hopped out of the truck, loaded his 30-30 and disappeared down into a wooded draw where all the dog and hog noise came from. There was nothing to see from the truck. We heard the dog handler call of the dogs and then it was very quiet as Sterling waited for the hog to move to where he could see enough of it for a shot. Then his rifle cracked and it was silent again - the we heard voices again and it was obvious the hog was dead. A handler on an ATV wedged his way through the thick cover and came out a few minutes later with an enormous boar tied on it; he reported a big black boar had been there too, but it had escaped.
Now it was Fred's turn and off the dogs went looking for another hog. This time they "treed" another boar within about 30 minutes and Fred bailed out (without falling out) loaded his rifle and went into the woods, again out of sight of the truck. Before long his shot rang out and it was quiet again. For some unknown reason, he decided to ride the boar and someone took a picture of that.

Several more attempts by the dogs before they finally struck the trail of the big black boar that had escaped earlier and we heard them to the left and then behind us and then coming up on the right from the rear. Then the black boar streaked through the woods a few yards to the right with the pack right on his heels.
Our driver drove slowly after them and stopped when the dogs bayed "treed"; I hopped out, loaded two 300 grain .405 rounds into my double and walked toward the din of noise from the dogs and hog, followed by Rich with his .45 auto as backup. We eased down the track into a creek bed and finally saw the quarry backed up to the side of a stream facing the baying pack. When the handler saw I was within 20 yards and ready to shoot, he called off the dogs and they backed away from the boar, leaving him looking around for an exit path - time to shoot before he took off again! The orange front bead settled on his left shoulder, the rifle went off and down he went. As I moved forward to examine my prize, (this what Fred did not see) a large hound streaked in, grabbed the boars right ear and began shaking the head violently, causing them both to slide into the muddy creek. The shaking and dragging went on for a while as the handler called the dog to the creek bank and then the handler dragged the hog out and onto some dead limbs where the picture was taken. The little creek is in the background of the picture Fred took and posted.
And that is the rest of the story of my boar. My boar was too muddy and wet to ride so I stood behind it for pix.


_________________
CRS, NRA Patron Member, TSRA, DRSS, DWWC, Whittington Center
Android Ballistics App at http://www.xplat.net/

[FWiedner]

HA! I'd totally forgot about that big black boar running by us, going the other way.

I remember CRS stepping around me to get ready to hop off the truck. Ever the gentleman, he says: "Let's trade places..."

Me... I was sittin' there bugged-eyed with my mouth open, watching the big black hog go by...

[JohndeFresno]

Great posts, all!

[Griff]

Wishin' I'd been there! Congrats all!

[crs]

OK Griff, I will invite you next time!
You may want to bring your couch cushion as those board seats in the back of the pickup are not padded.

[Blaine]

OK Griff, I will invite you next time!
You may want to bring your couch cushion as those board seats in the back of the pickup are not padded.

Don't forget Griff's son: Blaine...

[crs]

Blaine,
You know that you would also be welcome if you choose to fly down for the one day hunt.

BTW, I sent a link to this thread to some folks and 4 of them are now talking about coming down to follow the dogs following the hogs at the Boars Nest! Go figure!

[Griff]

OK Griff, I will invite you next time!
You may want to bring your couch cushion as those board seats in the back of the pickup are not padded.

You sent me an email announcing it... but I couldn't determine if I'd be in town in time... I shoulda been... but wasn't as it turned out. Maybe next time! Padding's nice... but not necessary ALL the time!

[crs]

Griff,
I found this 2004 picture of a group on a DWWC - Boars Nest hog hunt back when the seats and backs were insulated! Jeff, Richard, and I were there then too!

[peter richards]

Looks like you folks have a great day, as much as I like my levers, I sure like the look of that 405 double Charles, great to see you give it some work.

[crs]

Thank you Peter.
BTW, this is the place that I offered to take you last December when you were in Texas.
The offer is still good if you have time on your trip this year.

[crs]

Note to trophy hunters !! Do not shoot your hog in the head!

Sterling took his hog cape with head to taxidermist and was turned away because of cracked skull where .30-.30 bullet went through!

Naturally , I suggested a good rug maker-