With slightly cooler temps, I had a gut feeling that a hog or two may be on the prowl last night, so right at dark, I put my 24" Van Horn .300 Savage on the shooting rest in the yard. There was just enough twilight to use my Conquest V6 2-12x50 with the illuminated #60 reticle, but all I saw the first three times I checked were deer and raccoons. It was nearly 1 a.m. , and I was ready to call it a night, but I decided to check once more before going to bed.

That proved to be a good decision.

I scanned the pasture with my old Leupold hand-held thermal monocular and quickly noticed something out of the ordinary. Sure enough, a hog was cruising the top of the creek bank and seemingly wanted to come in to the protein mix and corn that we put out for the deer. But he was skittish and on several occasions just melted into the background. The rich smell of the protein feed definitely had his attention, but he wasn't going to risk his hide by coming in any closer. Rogue boars don't get age and size on them by being dumb, and this one was no exception. In these cases, if you don't get a shot at your first decent opportunity, you'll likely not get a shot at all.

The next time he emerged, he was around 140 yards and walking to my left. Because he was on the backside of a slight downhill grade, I didn't feel comfortable trying my usual and preferred heart shot (very low in chest on hogs) since there could be intervening grass, etc., that could deflect a bullet and cause a miss or -- worse yet -- a poor hit. To compensate for his movement, I swung the tiny red dot to what I believed to be the front edge of his chest and touched off a shot, hoping to lace the bullet through the center of the lungs.

I heard no distinct bullet impact but felt good about the shot. So I went back inside, grabbed a sidearm and drove down there. The hog was piled up about 45 yards from where I shot him, and the 125 grain Accubond -- which leaves the muzzle around 2740 fps -- flew true, taking the hog mid-lungs and doing lots of internal damage before nearly exiting. I found it lodged in the thick gristle plate on the opposite side. It was perfectly mushroomed. I am including a phone picture here but will get a better photo later on and will list the retained weight as well.

We weighed the hog, so does anyone want to venture a guess as to his weight? I'll post that in a day or two. Also had a mishap in doing so. Instead of using the gambrel to hold him in place, I took the easy way out and used a rope to dangle him beneath the Moultrie 440 scale -- the same way I have done many times in the past. I was ready to begin lowering the hog when the rope snapped. The carcass knocked me onto the ground. I am quite sore but fine. The scale was not. While the exterior was basically unscathed, the needle broke off from its retaining nut and also nearly split in two. I didn't see what happened to the scale, but I am guessing it recoiled hard and swung against the legs of the tripod or against the pulley system at the top.

I guess the hog got his revenge on me posthumously.