Another big boy bites the dust to the .308, in the teaming rain no less....I was worried about all the lightning going on, but at least the thunder is good sound cover.

Another one bites the dust @ 120 yards:

Is that the grandkid? did they shoot it??  Good on ya one way or the other....

She is still a hunter in training. Has been on dozens of hunts as a helper/observer, so now she is getting some solid firearms training for when we set her up in a stand.

Good for her.  And good for you training the next generation.

Another big boy falls to the T-70 with a headshot, lots of good meat on this one!

Picked him up with the helmet mounted FLIR M-24, was a piece of cake to stalk him down after that!

It really is simply perfect for what I do, thanks!

I had been after that big boy boar for about a month and a half until our rendezvous the other night ended up with him getting a sizzling slug in the ear!







He thought he was some hot stuff to all the other sows around, but now he be chillin'.....

Sausage time for him!

Yup, nice ribs too!

Now that's just wrong.  Now I'm hungry.

Those are some real meaty looking ribs.  Almost looks like you fattened him up first.  Must have been eating really well.  Good to get them out of the food chain so to speak.

Having slaughtered thousands of hogs during veterinary school and afterwards, it is simply amazing that these wild tuskers can put on so much weight and have so little fat. Especially since the hogs are completely feral in the wilderness here, there are no ag crops whatsoever for them to "Pig Out On."

Doing a necropsy on each and everyone of them for any signs of infectious diseases and/ or parasitism they have all been very very clean, although that does not mean they are not carrying some kind of subclinical virus, bacteria or nematodes.

I always slice their kidneys with a sharp knife, should cut like butter and no resistance, if friable then suspect possible brucellosis, leptosporosis, Salmonella cholerasusis, etc. systemically, especially if any of the mesenteric lymph glands are swollen or small intestines inflamed.

Also, liver should be same way, no spots or blotches, cuts like butter and check the gall bladder and bile duct for fluke worms.

If I discover any swollen lymph nodes, inflammation/tumors, friable liver/kindeys, or flukes, its buzzard bait, too many good ones to worry about a bad one.

Great info there.  Will look for that on next hogs we take.  Thanks for the great thread.  Always look forward to these posts.

Great info there sky pup.  Sometimes with all the fun of the hunt important details on diseased animals can be forgotten.

In the last ten years or so of butchering wild hogs, the MAJOR danger signs that I've noted have mostly been the result of boars fighting.

As such, they often will have penetrating subcutaneous wounds into their musculature beneath their shields where another boars tusks have entered, also sometimes their scrotal sac is punctured since it is so large and exposed and very thin epidermis covering it to protect the crown jewels.

Three times I have found a large softball sized abscess under the shield up against the scapula filled with pus, I have also seen this twice in their scrotum.

Most likely, this is a gram positive Staphylococcus aureus infection (think flesh eating bacteria), although hogs often get Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, another gram positive bacteria that causes septicemia and is zoonotic to humans.

The danger with Staph infections, besides the fact that the bacteria is highly concentrated and hyper infectious to you itself, is that Staph excretes a powerful endotoxin that is super bad to ingest and will make you sick as a dog (think bad food poisoning). So do not eat any carcasses with any pus sacs.....it does not help to cut out the infected pus sac as the endotoxin is water soluable and already has permeated the entire animal....

I have also found a couple of the large boars/sows I have taken down with previous older .223 and .308 slugs in their shoulders with the resulting scar tissue and bone/muscular tissue damage from previous shootings that they recovered from in the past, generally this is not a problem health wise if you just cut around this damaged tissue, it is not infectious.

In general terms, wild animals do not live long healthy productive lives in the wild when ill or sickly, they die. So 99.8% of the time they are basically GTG if they are mobile, eating, and running around, a sickly animal is immediate prey or dies of disease/stress/starvation in the wild.

But, you do need to be aware, especially with Brucellosis and Leptosporosis bacteria which are zoonotic for humans and cause devastating diseases in man. If you ever are sick as a dog and at the docs for some bizarre reason, be sure to let the doc know that you are a hog hunter as most general practitioners/internists do NOT have a clue to diagnose these types of zoonotic diseases without a referral to an infectious disease specialist.

And for God's sake, if you ever get a tick on you, carefully remove it and put it in an aspirin bottle with Isoproponal rubbing alcohol so if you ever do come down with any of the large number of terrible tick transmitted diseases, they can extract the DNA from your preserved tick and find out what the fuck you got from the tick. Ticks are bad, real bad......ticks really sux bad.

Good gravy, if you ever decide to write a book or teach a class on hog anatomy/physiology/pathology I would be all over it.

This one lost his hearing:

I would say he lost his mind too

Had an exciting hunt by myself tonight and nailed another large 400 pound boar hog.

Walked out behind the house with my FLIR M-24 helmet mount and hiked on my forest trail out about a half mile when I saw a hot thermal spot in some really thick brush. Looked at it for a few minutes and moved around trying to get a better look but could not tell what it was as it looked like it may be a dead tree trunk in the brush.

Turned on the FLIR LS-XR and InstaAlert instantly lite him up bright red and knew it was a hog, but still very difficult to see in the thick cover, walked around trying to get  a better angle and finally he heard me and raised his head up and I put a 77 grain SMK in his ear at about 80 yards with the HK 556 and FLIR T-70 thermal.

I have been after this large boar for about four months now and have seen him on the game cams numerous times, in fact I had previously shot him in the side from a long range about six weeks ago and he had a deep wound about five inches long in his side from the previous shot.

Nice!!! Love the knife..  Spyderco custom.  What did you shoot him with the first time?  Large wound gash.  Them hogs be resilient.

I believe I hit him about six weeks ago from 200 yards out with a Sierra Match King 77 grain, they don't penetrate worth a damn and apparently left that huge entrance wound. I did have the same round tonight though, and from about 80-90 yards in the ear was not a problem....

Yea they are pretty shallow penetrating and fragment explosively.  Did a number just not a big enough number.  You had his number tonight though.

That Sterling Silver Spyderco is 9 inches long and that was the entrance wound, did not penetrate worth a shit, should have had my Barnes 70 grain then....

Nobody`s perfect.

Every time I think I've gotten ahead of them and cleaned things up around here somewhat, they keep coming back for more!

Big Black Boar hog down on Good Friday Night, Easter Ham being prepared!














Happy Easter!

Looks like you got the Easter ham.  Good job!

HD You-Tube Video of FLIR ThermoSight Hog Hunting in the backyard:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LAnpgWAbSw#t=71

Discovered a huge fresh hog wallow back behind the barn, looks like a big boy loaner boar hog has been hanging out here, will try him out tonight after dark with the helmet mounted FLIR M-24 and FLIR RS-64 scope!

Any luck finding the wallering boar??

We had a huge dangerous squall line pass through here right before dark with power off, electric lines down, trees down and a hard soaking rain with 60+mph winds and I went out anyway and got soaked.

Boar did not show up while I was there, but I am going to pattern him and see when he is getting all muddied up out there, it's only a 15 minute walk out behind the house with the helmet mounted FLIR M-24 thermal to take a peak.

I'll toss some corn out to anchor him and maybe move a game cam over there to see exactly when he's having some fun!

Keep dry,  sounds like a plan.

It is pretty awesome to be able to head out into the woods at night on my property with a helmet mounted thermal, a thermal hand scanner, and a thermal weapon scope as long as the bastards do not sneak up behind me....!

Need a rear view camera.

http://barnesbullets.com/recipe-of-the-month-april-2015/

Nice.  Now I just need some boar ribs!!

Left the barn doors open and had a couple of reptilian visitors, wondered what the scurrying scraping hissing noise was when I went in to get one of the tractors out four of the buggers!

Ain't they cute.....

Shot this boar hog in the head in some really dense snare brush at night two nights ago with the RS-64 and could not get in there to find him.

Was out putting corn in feeders this afternoon and the buzzards notified me as to his location.

He'll make some nice coyote bait this weekend!

All mouth too, snapping like crazy all the way back to the pond where momma hangs out.

Looks like he's ready to pop.  Them buzzards sure made short work of the head.  I guess that was the only part opened up.??

And another one bites the dust at 3AM!

Sweet happenings.  Nice looking pig.  Is the rifle a 762x39?

KAC SR-15 LPR shooting 77 grain SMK handloads with Flir RS64-35mm.

That mag does look Russian though.

Yea that mag looks like it came off an ak.  Great hog.  You keep things lively around here.  You need to let them walking boots grow up a little though.

One Barnes 70 grain TSX to the neck, DRT;


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1VG4n-2eDk&feature=youtu.be

Nice one again.  Link won't load though.

Try You-Tube again, works for me?