first chuck of the season

[ryutzy]

Well the soybeans are finally up!! kinda late this year due to all the rain. The field I was hunting is hard to hunt. It's only a 3 acre field with the only access from the road. I drove in the access drive and parked only to see a hog runnin for cover. I put my shooting bag on my door/window sill of my truck and got my gun ready fully expecting the hog to show up again. Sure enough hardly a minute later out she comes. I settled the crosshairs on her and whammo! She rolled over on impact DRT. Shot was only 128 yards. My 204 is at the gunsmith so I had the .243 this time. I was disappointed that the 75 grain vmax failed to blow up the hog. Usually it creates quite a splat but I only found the entry hole in the neck. No exit that I could find. Really odd especially since it was a close shot.


We recently had some hail that shredded our landscape damaged some crops. Heres some pics.

[Clint E]

Ryutzy sorry to here that the first didnt get the proper explosoin that you expected but look at the upside you broke the ice and got one instead of none.
You can keep the hail i have enough projects around the house i dont need any help .

[ryutzy]

Clint---speaking of projects around the house, I need to check our roof for damage. We just put a new roof on 2 yrs ago and with the amount of hail we recieved we may have to replace the shingles again. ugh!!

[RowdyYates]

Yes, we've sure had a wet year so far in this neck of the woods. I've somehow managed to put a credible start together after all, although nothing to brag about: shot #21 tonight, but only from 60 yds. with the .221. Only 5 so far with the .204s, and an unusually large percentage of close-range and rimfire kills. Maybe, now that the beans are coming up and (hopefully) it's drying out some, ranges and no.'s of kills will pick up...

[darchell]

Nice lookin hog and wow thats some hail.... I know the feeling about wanting the "blow Up" effect and not getting it. I was out a couple days ago and spotted three just inside the field by a hedgerow. I belly crawled around the bend and snuck up on them. One was still there. I was only maybe 30 yards or so. I was hoping for big splat.... I quickly got the cross hairs on him and ... nothing... the Savage has the two stage safety and I locked it all the way back due to crawling with the rifle. When I did click it off he darted in to the woods. No shot. Dam...... Well better safe then sorry but was realy hopin for explosive effect that close.

[Song Dog]

NICE! WTG!

[ryutzy]

rowdy yates----whats your location? you dont have it listed.

Well tonite I connected on Hog #2, well sort of. Shot was 110 or so. I settled the crosshairs on the hog and just as I pulled the trigger the hog made a quick movement. I did hit the hog but it was a poor shot. The hog was rolling, scooting, and jumpin around so I kept waiting for a clean clear shot among the weeds to finish it off. Well all of a sudden it made a beeline for cover and it was only five yards from cover. I fired a quick shot, but missed. I went up to the the spot where the hog was and it sure wasn't hard to find. Blood on the beans and weeds and chewed up wads of beans. I think I hit the hog low and must have blown out some intestines based on the large amount of stomach contents laying around. The hog also had a bad case of the shits to. With all the hog juices and food particles laying around I do not understand how it could run into it's den. I felt like getting a shovel and digging it out but oh well. I'm sure it's dead now. I'm determined to blow the living snot outa the next one.

[JLJ223]

I shot one a couple years ago that I ended up slitting open like I took a razor to her, came up to where I shot her at and she was in the weeds and there were unborn pups closer to where she was shot at. Shot her with a 223 and a 40gr V-Max, kinda felt bad about it like I should have made a better shot. I shoot a 75gr V-Max with a 250-3000 and it doesnt leave a giant exit wound either.

[Rick in Oregon]

ryutzy: It's amazing how tenacious some of our varmints really are. Check out the pic below....sort of reminds me of your chuck hit the other day.

This was a large CA ground squirrel that was hit with a 32gr V-Max out of a 204R at about 275 yds right in the boiler room, and STILL made it to his hole, dragging some important components behind him as he went.............



It's incredable how much damage these rodents can absorb and still manage to crawl off to their burrows. We've seen half squirrels crawling to their holes, with NO rear end gear in sight...completely blown off. No wonder your chuck managed to get to relative safety, eh? Good luck with No. 3........No more prisoners!

[ryutzy]

Rio--yeah that's impressive right there. I usually dont count kills if I cant physically recover the critter, but I decided to count that particular hog because with the goods he left in the beanfield there is no way possible he could live. Kinda like your ground squirrel there Rio just larger pieces. That one just aint gona make it. I did shoot number 3 and it was DRT. however there was little blood n gore. Cant figure it out. I've blown these critters in half before with the 243 and this year I'm struggling to create lotsa red mist. Just hitting them wrong I guess.

[bow shot]

I stopped shooting squirrels (the grey tree variety) with judo points on my arrows because I had so many run away with my arrow trailing behind, wrapped in intestines. Up the tree, down the hole: $10 in hardware gone for good ... 'till I come back and chop the tree down...

Now its broadheads only!!!

[fishy]

Bow Shot: You just reminded me of a time about 7-8 years ago when I was walking back from my treestand and shot a prairie dog with my bow. At this particular spot, I walk about a half mile to the tree, and along the way, there is a small p dog town. It was a morning hunt, and didn't see much for deer action, so about 9:30 or so I head back to the truck to head into town for breakfast. I get to where the dog town is and at about 25 yards, theres a p dog barking at me. I'm thinking to myself "Man, there is no way this dog is going to let me get an arrow out and let me get a shot off". Well, the little critter did and it was a good hit. The bad part was when I went over to retrieve my arrow, it was snapped in half. I dont know if it had to do with the way the p dog jumped and flopped or what but I had the same notion "there went 10 dollars"

[bow shot]

fishy, I think they take our artillery and sell it to their evil friends.

Once I shot a squirrel in the head with a judo (10 yards...). It was raining and I was on the ground waiting for a small group of doe to rise up from their beds. The squirrel came down to the base of a tree whle I was waiting, and was sitting upright eating a nut. I smacked him, and the deer rose, and took about 5 minutes to decide that they wanted to go away. When I went to get my rat, he was still alive, panting, and blinking at me... I mean no nervous twitching, he was really alive. The arrow did a Steve Martin right though his skull, entering above one eye, and exiting the lower skull behind. I had to unscrew the judo off, slide him off the arrow (ruined of course: $10, LOL!!) and stand on his head forever to kill him...

And it ruined my arrow, of course. I ate him, so I felt a little better about that...