None Shall Pass!.... Bringing home the bacon

[Johnsfolly]

My BIL has been on a bucket list deal since he turned 65 a few years ago. He shot a bison which we helped with the butchering and packaging. In turn got a bunch of meat. Then he did a high fence pig hunt. Livie went along on that hunt and shot one of the pigs. These weren't wild boar but released domestic pigs. She did drop the pig with one shot. We got it butchered and it was delicious. Last fall he did a high fence hunt and shot a five by six elk/red deer stag. We helped pack that one up as well and got more meat from that stag.

A couple of months ago he set up another pig hunt from the ranch where they got the last pigs. He bought five pigs. One guy dropped out. Livie is out in Missouri. I was originally to be out in OK this weekend. My wife was going to go along and have her brother shoot one for us. I ended going up with my wife as the OK trip didn't happen. I didn't bring a rifle since I really didn't need to shoot a domestic pig running around in the woods.

We get to the ranch and the owner tells us that he didn't see the pigs that morning. We all got into two 4 wheelers to go and find the pigs. The shooters would be my BIL, his son and the 13 yr old granddaughter of the friend of my BIL. I rode along to help where I could. This ranch is in the Appalachian mountains of PA. It has a large grass land area near a few grain feeders and open woods on both sides of a valley. We drive thru the tall grass and down into the woods where they saw the pigs the day before. Nothing. We sidehilled the 4 wheelers a couple of times that left a couple of us thinking that we might roll😒. We saw several white tails. A couple of the bucks already had antlers outside of their ears😧. Going to be some nice trophies. We also saw a few of their elk but no pigs. 

I was with the father of the owner and the father daughter duo. He felt that the pigs were likely in the tall grass. The land owner felt that they were in the woods. We split up with us going into the grass. About 120 yds in we nearly ran over the pigs😉. We got the attention of the other guys and got back to where the pigs were. One pig broke off from the group and we took off after it thru the grass on the 4 wheeler. We were trying to cut it off but it got into the woods. Once there it slowed to a walk. The girl got her gun ready and the old man got the wheeler in a position to have the pig go by giving her a broad side shot. Her first shot was high. She started to get nervous not sure she could kill the pig. Her father calmed her and she shot again. Another miss. The pig ran up the hill into some downfalls but left a broadside shot. She dropped it in the next shot. While this was going on we heard a couple of shots from back up in the grassland. 

The old man and I drove back up towards the grassland. Just as we got close to the field a pig popped out and headed down towards the father daughter taking photos. The old man didn't want the pig to get into the heavy woods on the other side of the valley. He asked if I wanted to shoot it. I said yes if I was able to borrow the girl's rifle and they didn't want to shoot another pig. She was more than happy to let me borrow the rifle. Her dad showed me how to work the safety and off I went to get setup.

The pig came down past me. It stopped a couple of times but not giving me a shot. After that it only gave me the moon as it headed down into the valley. I got back in the 4 wheeler and we drove down to get ahead of it again. I used the 4 wheeler as a rest and had to shoot the pig as it was walking by. 1 shot and it dropped 😉. I was worried that since I haven't shot a rifle at moving game for some time that I might miss or just wound it. No worries now. Got back in the 4 wheeler and turned to head back up to the others. We then noticed that another pig was coming straight at us down the trail. Not knowing if five pigs were already killed or if this one was the girl's if not fatally shot. The old man told me that they only had 5 pigs. There was no way to get any of the others to us before this pig would get into the woods behind us. While still in the seat I used the dash as a rest. Placed the cross hairs between the eyes and dropped it 25 ft from us. 

The old man went back to get the front loader for the pigs. While there he told my wife the guy that wasn't going to shoot one shot two😂.

Wasn't going to let them get past us.😉

[snagged in outlet 3]

Stone-cold killa!!!

[Johnsfolly]

8 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Stone-cold killa!!!

I do remember a deer hunt in the Natl forest land near Guthrie MO. I was in a small black locust thicket with lots of rubs. I had.hung some scent wicks. It was opening day. I was behind a multi trunk sycamore. A small eight point came into the thicket and checked out the scents. I didn't even move towards my rifle and was going to let him walk. Then he did start to walk away. There was a window thru the branches and the predator in me kicked in. I lined up the cross hairs on the dark line of hair running down the back of his neck and dropped him🤔.

[Quillback]

Sounds like you'll be living high on the hog!  (Someone had to say it).

Did you have to clean the hogs?  

[Johnsfolly]

26 minutes ago, Quillback said:

Sounds like you'll be living high on the hog!  (Someone had to say it).

Did you have to clean the hogs?  

No. They cleaned them. Then we just took them to the butcher to process😉

[Johnsfolly]

Just so there isn't any concerns, I had paid back my BIL for our part if his deposit and the outfitter for one pig and.a quarter of the fifth pig before we headed to the woods😉. All the other shooters had shot a pig before I shot the last two.

[Quillback]

17 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

No. They cleaned them. Then we just took them to the butcher to process😉

Sweet!

I have only cleaned pigs once in my life.  Shaving off the hair was the worst part.  

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

Sweet!

I have only cleaned pigs once in my life.  Shaving off the hair was the worst part.  

Not what I would want to do. I would consider just skinning them 😉

[Quillback]

Just now, Johnsfolly said:

Not what I would want to do. I would consider just skinning them 😉

Yeah so would I, but this was years ago while I was in the army.  One of the NCO's lived off base and raised a few hogs, he paid myself and another guy $10 per hog to clean two of them.  He wanted them shaved.  Took hours to get it done.  $10 was a lot of money to me back then. (1976).  

[dblades]

Shaved or scraped?