edit:forgot to say the bullets used on this hunt were made by Mark Whyte of Mark Whyte Leather Works. I used the 250 grain "Big Lube" design bullets in .454 caliber with a .32 Meplat he sent me, made from dead soft lead"
http://www.whyteleatherworks.com/ and now plan on returning at LEAST twice a year if I can get into the schedule. It was a completely awesome weekend of airgun hunting for all involved.
Got back home about 3 am. What a weekend!!! I will get to posting more pictures as they are sent to me.
Matt and Cheryl are two of the best people you can hope to ever meet. I just cannot wait to go back!
Let me say one thing right off the bat; this hunt really put to rest the mistaken notion that ranch hog-hunting is a sure thing. Going into a hunt at Shiloh Ranch with that idea in your head could very well leave you feeling quite foolish at the hunts end.
This past weekend I saw the wariest animal I have ever seen in my soon to be 36 years; a BIG loner boar that must have been very close to 200 lbs, possibly even more (huge for a truly wild hog and the largest hog I saw the whole weekend though I'm sure there were probably others the same size and larger) about 100 yards out from my stand making his way down a trail. Even at that distance my heart got to racing seeing how huge he was and that he may very well make his way over to me.
As luck would have it he DID come to my feeder and the manner in which he made his approach spoke volumes. By the time I spotted him coming off that trail towards my blind he was about 50 yards out.
He would walk about five or six feet then stop dead still for about 10 seconds, followed by sniffing for scent from his left to his right, then he looked STRAIGHT AT ME as I sat about 15 feet up in the tree stand. Then he would walk another 5 or six feet, sniff to either side, then look STRAIGHT AT ME AGAIN before repeating the process the whole way up to the feeder. It felt like he was looking directly into my eyes each and every time he did that (kind of eerie).
This was one smart, veteran boar hog and has obviously ducked more than a hunter or two in his day. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind he knew EXACTLY where that stand was located and was checking to see if it was occupied.
If his vision was any better or had I made any movement at all he would have busted me for certain. The wind was also in my favor. I kept my cool until he was passing behind a small tree about a foot and a half in circumference that blocked his view of the stand for about a second at about twenty yards out; allowing me to quickly shoulder my rifle as he made his way to the feeder and began feeding at about 15 yards.
I put the cross-hairs between the ear and the eye a little more towards the ear and took the shot. I was very surprised to see him turn tail and run off like a "hog out of H&^%" showing no sign of being hit! Boy was he ever fast! Ben Johnson couldn't have outrun this boar on his best day.
I could pretty much tell by the reaction of the hog (which came as my scope returned on him after the slight recoil of the 909) that I had completely missed him!
I just couldn't comprehend how that could happen at such close range with my rifle so I went down to check for sign of a hit and found none (as you can see from my shot on the ram, there would most likely be SOME sign of a hit had I struck him).
I returned to camp and checked my POI with a couple of shots as I did before I left for the hunt that evening with a single shot and spent a whole lot of time (and I'm willing to bet more air than all the small bores at camp put together; ask anyone that was there) working on getting my 909 to group properly throughout the weekend. The POI was about 6-8 inches above the POA and spread out over five inches across! Meaning I had shot WAY over that hog!
I just couldn't understand what was happening as the bullets were the proper diameter and I saw no reason for them to be this inaccurate. My 909 has ALWAYS proven to be a tack driver in the several hundred rounds i have put through it with any bullet I have shot between 180 and 265 grains and .451-.456 diameter and these were 250 grain .454's. My first sight-in of the weekend had produced a perfect dead center hit on the stick-on target at thirty yards (I was real happy with that one).
I had ordered dead soft lead bullets especially for this hunt from Mark Whyte of Whyte Leather Works (a good man to do business with) and had them sent directly to the Shiloh Ranch on the advice of Veral Smith due to the design being very similar to his highly regarded WFN (wide flat nose) design. They were 210 and 250grainers with a .32 meplat. The 250grainers proved to be very effective on the ram I took the first day before I had fired so many of the bullets through the rifle.
The more I shot these bullets through my rifle the more inaccurate and sporadic it shot. It would hit way off the POA one shot and be way off the other way the next, always shooting real high. The gun was also shooting real soft. On the last day of the hunt the problem was discovered.
The special soft-lube used in these bullets had built up so much in the barrel that you could barely tell there was rifling in there at all. I have never experienced this with any other lubes. These are "Big Lube" bullets and carry more lube than any other bullet design I am aware of (also reducing bearing surface which is a plus with airguns) and the lube is designed for black powder guns that will benefit a great deal from it.
After some serious sludge was cleaned out of the barrel and also removing the lube from the 250grain bullets it was back to being the tack-driver it has always been for me. Great pellets!
Had I discovered this before coming into contact with that big ol' veteran boar, or used the 250 grain Hornady's or any of my other proven bullet designs instead, things would be different and that big ol' hogs career as a professional dodger of hunters would have been over. There will be a next time.
I came away from this hunt without taking my boar hog and having learned some very valuable lessons. One being that the slightest change in equipment during a hunt can make the difference between success and failure and to always have your set-up tuned in long before a hunt using pellets you have shot a whole lot and know for a fact work every time.
I will definitely be completely prepared when I return to the Shiloh Ranch to redeem myself and to once again attempt getting the rare opportunity to take a shot at a big wild boar.
I will NOT miss next time.
DrDoug; I am assembling a hunting party for the next available opening available at the Shiloh Ranch which is hopefully around May. I would really like you to be a part of it and experience these hogs for yourself. All of the hogs are completely wild from the area and have never seen a pen (no clean-cut, zoo-bred "Russians" at this ranch).
There were also some fine Sika and Fallow deer that I would have happily taken if I could afford to deal with mounting them as they were certainly worthy. I will have pictures of them as well. One hunter was fortunate enough to witness two Sika stags fighting it out!
