A pig's brain is the size of a golf ball or up to at best a mandarin orange, and it's the part of the pig that moves most. It's also encased in heavy, sloping bone and can easily send a .223 off course. This is the only part of your hunting I can suggest needs improvement, and there's a good reason head shots are so frowned upon in experienced hunting circles. Hearty congratulations in general and good work, tuck your bullets right behind the "armpit" and your success will go up drastically. Much larger vitals target, and a reliable kill.
thank you for the words of advice and encouragement.
went down this afternoon -26c and 40kmh wind,not ideal for standing around,but hey ho.
five little turned up,we waited around for the sow to show but one didnt.
my mate shot first(i went in with back up this time) and i shot.
both of us missed!!!!
i have changed my baiting set up with a 60gal plastic container full of grain with 1 1/4 inch holes in,rachet strapped
to a tree.the area was flatten with hog activity and 70 pics on cam since 2pm yesterday.
i just need to make 2inch holes so the grain flows a bit better.
And sight in your gun...
Ahemmmm...
... I have blood trailed bears on my hands and knees .
Be careful tracking. Things can go wrong...
Yes, be careful... be cautious... be alert... BUT if you are not prepared to follow to the end, then don't squeeze the trigger in the first place...
I have recovered a dozen wounded bears over the years that were given up on by fearful hunters, who had done little more than a cursory search and then bailed out... all of those times the phone rang at midnight or one in the morning... I pulled on my jeans, grabbed a flashlight, spare batteries and a belt knife and went and crawled around in the bush until I had determined that the bear would recover from a non-fatal wound or we had found the animal... and of course there were a few unhappy conclusions, but more often than not a recovery was made in short order.
how could the hog try to get up after 5 minutes of being shot .after you shot a hog to butcher you stick them to bleed them out right away well thy are stiff .if you were to wait 5 minutes before sticking them you are no butcher .I have butcherd 200 hogs 5 days a week for many many years .never seen a hog get up after being stuck .give me a break Dutchno experience shooting boars but lots shooting farm pigs... a little OT but some what relevant ... was asked to help a friend shoot his bacon hogs ( way over fed 400lbers ..lol ) usually shoot them between the eyes and above (butchers cross ) was how i was taught.. check this site to see the brain location
http://www.vdpam.iastate.edu/HumaneEuthanasia/anat.htm
long story short... my friend insisted we shoot one hog as his text book said... on the side, behind the ear with a 410 slug... ! which he did himself.... pig went down, and legs stopped moving... 5min, and pig starts moving and trying to get up !!! I told him to shoot it right, before that sucker runs off... .. shortly he agreed and shot the pig on the front with the standard butchers cross... except.... now there was a 45 cal hole on the side of the pigs head... and as you can imagine when he shot, we were showered with brain material, exploding out that side hole in a huge pink mist !!! .... theres a right way and a wrong way... LOL
if it were me, I'd use a 308 semi on those pigs.. heart/lung ... Make'em dead and make'em bacon !!! yes
mabbe load up the shotgun with 00buck if your blood trailing them.. just incase backup gun
Hoyt......these things breed so fast and are so successful that sometimes one needs to throw ethics and sport out the window and put as many holes in as many critters as possible in an attempt to control numbers OR the prairies could end up with the problems Texas has. They need to be thought of more as really big and destructive gophers...
going down again today and will try heart lung shot.this is not my prefferred shot placement,i have always been a head shot man.
the sow did deserve more of my time,you are right,but finding the beds of the other eight large boars,being on my own,in thick bush.
i got from there for my own safety.
safety first,i really dont wish to be the first person in sask to be mauled to death by boars.

Douglas... I'm no bleeding heart... and I have NO problem perforating feral pigs... but using your gopher analogy, I would feel the same way... if there were a hot, active town and I shot the hind leg off a gopher... I would not be searching for a new target until I put that wounded gopher down... no matter how many rounds it took... here is another analogy... hunting late season divers in big, frothy water generally means a short flight of birds... but if you happen to cripple a goldeneye, you will loose the bird if you don't get after it immediately... it means spending perhaps 10-20 minutes chasing it through the waves and burning up half a box of shells trying to anchor the cripple, while in the meantime missing out on a big portion of the flight... but that is what we do... because our responsibility as hunters continues after the boom as much as before and during... for me it is a principle that extends from mice to moose... that is just the way my father trained me... and the way I trained my kids...
So... by all means, blast some pigs, as many as you can... but FINISH the job...
JMO



























