Lone Star Hunting Forum

Took Lora(campcook), out Saturday morning to one of the places a few miles southwest of our house for a short hunt.

Got a late start, did see several hens, but did not get any response from any of the boys, but at least Lora has a basic idea of how the hunt works.

Went back out to same property about 5:30 that afternoon to do a little fishing at one of the ponds.

I caught one bass and one crappie, Lora ended up with 2 perch, a bass and a crappie and a few other bass she throwed back.

Around 7:30 I left the pond and walked over to watch our feeder set up that is a couple hundred yards from the pond, thinking some oinkers might come in.

Sat there until the sun dropped below the horizon, then went across the top of the hill headed back to the pond.

When I got to the point above the pond, I could see that Lora was bringing a fish in, but as I looked past her on to two of the wheat fields on the place, I saw a good sized group of hogs out in one field grazing on the wheat.

I dropped off the hill and down past the pick up and told Lora what was going on, and I headed over to the field where the hogs were.

The field the pigs were in, is about 600 yards or so to the east of the pond, and the wind was out of the south east.

It was a quick hike over to the field and because of brush in the fence line, I was able to get to within 150 yards or so of the group without their knowing it.

There was about 30 + or - hogs in the group, anywhere from little piglets to a couple that were pushing the 200 pound mark.

I get set up and when the group spread out a little and picked what looked like a 50 to 60 pounder and lined up on it.

It finally seperated from a couple of other similar sized animals and when it stopped I dropped the hammer.

The pig went straight down and the rest took off.

When I got out to the pig, which turned out to be a small boar, I went to looking to see where I hit him.

It was not an intentional hit on my part, as I did not think I was aiming that far forward, but hit the critter smack in the head, did not lose any meat.

I did take pictures and once I figure out how to post them I will, also when we got the pig out to the cabin and put him on the scale he weighed exactly 82 pounds.

Cool story, Good luck with Turkeys! What rifle were you using?

It is a Model 77 Ruger (tang safety) in 35 Whelen.

I bought the rifle back in 1991 or so, have killed 3 elk with it and one of the caribou I have shot, along with a few other critters.

The rifle came from the factory with a heavy 22 inch barrel and in 1993, I left it in Fruita Colorado with a gunsmith friend of the guide I hunt elk with.

He re-worked the riofle for me and replaced the factory barrel with a 26 inch, No.3 sporter weight barrel.

The shot on this oinker was made using a 250 grain Remington Factory load Core-Loct.

My normal hunting load for this gun is a 225 grain Barnes "X" Flat Base, which will change to a 225 grain Barnes "TSX".

Nice Shootin' Crazy Horse congrats. Nice to know the fish are coming on gonna be out at the lease the next few weekends myself.

nice

Thanks for the info, I have wanted a 35 caliber for a while now. I always like to here what people are using to hunt with.

I really enjoy the Whelen. The biggest problem with the various .358 cartridges, is the selection of bullets available for them.

Most or all are hand loader propositions, as factory loadings are anemic or none existant.

As much as I like the Whelen, the 9.3x62 is gaining in popularity here in the states and from what I am seeing around on various sites, it is a good round, little on the large size for white tails, but not out of the question.

I hope the next rifle I build will be a remington 700 in .257 weatherby.

Great story and nice pig!!