ElevenBravo
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The Mrs. and I are fairly avid hog hunters and venture down to East Texas around Easter every year to do our part to help control the feral hog population.
This year was a bit more exciting year for us, we recently moved from Las Vegas to Idaho Falls and planned on going on a bear hunt in Idaho shortly after our hog trip in Texas.
[b]Preparation....[/b]
An old saying (incorrectly) attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree, I'll spend the first four sharpening the axe". I'm a meticulous planner, probably to the point of overplanning. A habit I picked up while in the Army. This was our third hog hunt, and our second to this particular ranch. Last year, the Mrs. got her first hog after coming up empty on her first trip the year before. That's hers on the left:
[IMG]http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos3/5757hogmounts.jpg
I had sold off her Remington 700 7-08 last year as it was not shooting acceptably and wanted her to have something with a bit more horsepower for bear. We settled on a Tikka T3 in .308 Winchester as it isn't too heavy on recoil and can take down just about anything. I shoot a Tikka T3 in 300 WSM, which has proven to be complete overkill for anything under 100 yards... but my Rule #1 is bring enough gun.
I'm also a reloader and do all of our target and hunting loads. Since our bear trip was 2 weeks after our hog trip, we used the opportunity to test out our bear loads on the hogs. I planned on using a 220gr Nosler Partition Round Nose, and for the wife's .308, a 180gr Barnes TSX.
Using the OCW method, I came up with a pretty good load for my 300 WSM:
Mrs. 11B's shooting with her Tikka with Barnes bullets. That's 2 shots through the same hole:
Since we had planned the hunts a year out, we'd spend at least one day a month at the range (usually more), and go more often as the day of the hunt got closer.
Oh, did I mention that we had just purchased archery equipment and were going to be bringing our bows along? This was going to be a wonderful experience going through the airports with a rifle case, a bow case and a crossbow case.
Traveling
I wished we had flown out of Idaho Falls to Houston, but it costs somewhere around $300 extra per person to fly out of here, so we drove down to Salt Lake City (4 hour drive) and flew out of there. Where we hunt in Texas is about halfway between Dallas and Houston, but we had flown into Dallas twice before and wanted to check out Houston.
So of course, we have to show up early so TSA can X-ray our rifle case. The airline flipped over the Mrs.'s crossbow case- it was pretty large, bulky, and unusually shaped. I spent at least $20 on cart rentals for the whole trip, sideswiped several people with the rifle case, and not a few unkind words yelled at various people. Lots of hostile looks on the shuttle bus to the car rental agency.
... and tomorrow actual hunting stories!
The Mrs. and I are fairly avid hog hunters and venture down to East Texas around Easter every year to do our part to help control the feral hog population.
This year was a bit more exciting year for us, we recently moved from Las Vegas to Idaho Falls and planned on going on a bear hunt in Idaho shortly after our hog trip in Texas.
[b]Preparation....[/b]
An old saying (incorrectly) attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree, I'll spend the first four sharpening the axe". I'm a meticulous planner, probably to the point of overplanning. A habit I picked up while in the Army. This was our third hog hunt, and our second to this particular ranch. Last year, the Mrs. got her first hog after coming up empty on her first trip the year before. That's hers on the left:
[IMG]http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos3/5757hogmounts.jpg
I had sold off her Remington 700 7-08 last year as it was not shooting acceptably and wanted her to have something with a bit more horsepower for bear. We settled on a Tikka T3 in .308 Winchester as it isn't too heavy on recoil and can take down just about anything. I shoot a Tikka T3 in 300 WSM, which has proven to be complete overkill for anything under 100 yards... but my Rule #1 is bring enough gun.
I'm also a reloader and do all of our target and hunting loads. Since our bear trip was 2 weeks after our hog trip, we used the opportunity to test out our bear loads on the hogs. I planned on using a 220gr Nosler Partition Round Nose, and for the wife's .308, a 180gr Barnes TSX.
Using the OCW method, I came up with a pretty good load for my 300 WSM:
Mrs. 11B's shooting with her Tikka with Barnes bullets. That's 2 shots through the same hole:
Since we had planned the hunts a year out, we'd spend at least one day a month at the range (usually more), and go more often as the day of the hunt got closer.
Oh, did I mention that we had just purchased archery equipment and were going to be bringing our bows along? This was going to be a wonderful experience going through the airports with a rifle case, a bow case and a crossbow case.
Traveling
I wished we had flown out of Idaho Falls to Houston, but it costs somewhere around $300 extra per person to fly out of here, so we drove down to Salt Lake City (4 hour drive) and flew out of there. Where we hunt in Texas is about halfway between Dallas and Houston, but we had flown into Dallas twice before and wanted to check out Houston.
So of course, we have to show up early so TSA can X-ray our rifle case. The airline flipped over the Mrs.'s crossbow case- it was pretty large, bulky, and unusually shaped. I spent at least $20 on cart rentals for the whole trip, sideswiped several people with the rifle case, and not a few unkind words yelled at various people. Lots of hostile looks on the shuttle bus to the car rental agency.
... and tomorrow actual hunting stories!