First Hunt Ever Advice

[DeNinny]

I'm now all set for my first hunting trip ever. It's a bucket list thing for me, and it's a hog hunt in October. It will be with a hired guide. I have reloaded and factory 123gr SSTs all ready and will zero my scope at 200yds with the best reloads in a couple of weeks.

Any advice or tips?

Thanks!

[Happy2Shoot]

Super cool! Congratulations. I would also like to go on a hog hunt.

Is 200 yds the max range you are likely to shoot? You may want to game out an intermediate zero range using a ballistics table with your muzzle velocity and 123gr SST BC.

I usually end up at 3/4 max range for a zero, but not always.

[Happy2Shoot]

Dupe

[Happy2Shoot]

Range (yds) 0 50 100 150 200 250
velocity (fps) 2500 2416 2333 2252 2173 2095
energy (ft.-lb) 1707 1594 1487 1385 1289 1199
trajectory (in) -1.5 0.5 1.1 0 -2.8 -7.4
come up (moa) 0 -1 -1 0 1.3 2.8
come up (mils) 0 -0.3 -0.3 0 0.4 0.8
wind drift (in) 0 0.1 0.4 0.9 1.6 2.5
wind drift (moa) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.9
wind drift (mils) 0 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.3

[EastTNHunter]

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Take your time and make good shots… unless it’s a depredation hog hunt where you are trying to thin the herd

[DeNinny]

Thank you Happy2Shoot for all of that. I think max range is ~400 yds. And I chose 200 yd zero to be at half that. 300 yds could work too.

[DeNinny]

Thanks EastTNHunter. It is a meat hog hunt for sure! I already have a butcher lined up to process the meat.

[Double Naught Spy]

I have several suggestions.

On zeroing, zero where you like, but unless you have heard differently from your guide, chances are you are going to be much closer to your hogs than 200 yards. I would zero at a more reasonable distance, such as 100 yards.

Again, opinions will vary, but don't waste your time and money for a butcher if all you are killing are mature boars. Generally speaking, better eating will be from sows and ideally immature females 80-120 lbs. As noted above, take your time with your shots and pick out the better eating hogs if your goal is meat. It can take a lot of prep and time to make a stinky old boar taste good, FYI, and they usually smell terrible when cooking as well.

Most of all, have fun!

[oyster]

Totally agree with DNS. You can either have your trophy on the wall or in the pot. Unfortunately hogs rarely do both well unless the boar has been cut earlier in life. Sows you can get away with on the large side but for general taste and tenderness less than 125# sows down to 20# er's.
Good hunting
Jay

[GREYBUFF]

Best advice I could give is HAVE FUN. It's all about the comraderie and the chase......

[DeNinny]

Thanks everyone! Great input by all.

As an update I have 3 hog targets that I will practice with at 100, 200, and 300 yds. I'm still leaning towards a 200yd zero and with the targets I will get an idea on how much to adjust dope or use "Kentucky windage" method as the distance changes from 200.

I also got some game bags.

Next question is - do I absolutely need camouflage? I have earth color clothing (brown) and I'm cheap. Sorry if this is a no-brainer.

[Double Naught Spy]

Next question is - do I absolutely need camouflage? I have earth color clothing (brown) and I'm cheap. Sorry if this is a no-brainer.

Yes, you absolutely need camouflage. How else will you project the correct hunting prowess?

Seriously, no, you don't need camo. I wear some camo to hunt hogs and a lot of earth tones. I have hunted with people in bright white or neon green shirts before that would do better for pedestrians crossing traffic and wanting to be high visibility to not get hit by a car, and who were still successful.

HOWEVER, and this is a huge point, I believe (that is the sum total of credibility for this statement) that camo and earth tones work in your favor. It is just something that helps give you some advantage and may be critical in wide open fields in daylight or at much closer range in low light. Hogs actually see pretty darned well and their limited FOV binocular vision in front is about as good as humans, only more narrow. They DO see better at night than we do. Their side views are with less detail but they can see something like 330 degrees around them, so I would have to believe if they see a brightly colored object moving in their periphery that they are more apt to take notice than something that doesn't stand out.

Along similar lines, noise discipline is important as well, though I have hunted with folks who were nearly deaf and who spoke way too loudly and yet the hogs didn't run off that time. I have had a guy stumble and fall in front of me, his gear noisily clattered to the ground and him cussing, and not had hogs run away at 80 yards. I have accidentally clinked the leg of my shooting sticks against my partner's shooting sticks, not very loud, but that one clink was enough to cause the hogs to immediately bolt at over 100 yards.

I think light discipline is important as well in low light, but hogs won't always bolt if they see lights.

Odor discipline, also important, but again, not 100%. I have had hogs down wind of me that took off running, RUNNING before I ever got into range (inside 300 yards) and I have gotten to within 40 yards of hogs down wind of me that didn't run.

All in all, I think the impact is cumulative, but nothing is 100% detrimental or effective to helping your hunt.

Lone boars can be awfully skittish whereas the same approach used on a foraging sounder might not even get a head raised from the ground.

In sounders, there is commonly one or more sentinel individuals that do security checks. They will typically be the individuals that you see that stop, stand still (freeze), and more often than not, raise their noses in the air. They are basically doing a "Stop, Look, Listen, and Smell" for situational awareness. These will be the hogs that will most likely bust you from a distance. If they detect a threat, they may start trotting away and then grunt or grunt and start moving off. If they just start to run, one or two individuals (or all their piglets for a Sow) may go with the runner, but if the alarm grunt is given, they will all go into motion. If you see hogs doing security checks and you are within shooting distance, then be prepared to shoot at all times lest you may lose your opportunity in short order once the alarm call is made.

Lastly concerning their behavior/capabilities, there are a lot of things hogs tend to do or tend to not do, but hogs are very individualistic like people as well. For every common behavior, you can find (often numerous) exceptions. Expect the unexpected and be happy if you aren't surprised.

-----------------

On Killing Hogs...hogs have a great reputation for being "killed" and reanimating almost immediately to up to 20 minutes later. If you ever have any doubts about how well a hog has been shot, just go ahead and shoot it again, ideally with a well placed CNS shot.

True story, my old partners Dave and Alex were hunting the pecan orchards and had killed 7 or 8 hogs. The hogs on this property have to be collected and taken to a disposal area. They drove the truck around and collected the hogs, piling them in the back. They arrived at the collection area and started unloading. Alex said he had just tossed his 2nd hog onto the ground when he turned to grab the next hog....that was standing up and looking at him. The hog then turned and jumped out of the side of the truck. After recovering from the shock of what he had seen, Alex took off after the wounded hog, pistol in hand and run it down after 80 yards or so and killed it again.

[DeNinny]

Thank you Double Naught Spy for all of that. Appreciate the effort!

[DeNinny]

I plan on taking a side shot at the area between the heart and lungs. If I miss the heart, then hopefully I'll hit the lungs or it will hit something else that incapacitates it. Is there any other scenario/shot to consider? Like is there a condition where taking a headshot is better?

[Clintster]

You might find this video interesting. Note the 'smell' conversation about cooking starting around 6:05 minutes.
I've never used a guide but suspect they will put you on 'em. Have a great time!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-BmX-3Q...nt&index=1

[603 Country]

For years, we only processed and ate the piglets and sows, but that has changed. A few years ago I was talking to a snuff dipping squatty body lady, the mom of one of my tennis kids, and she said she was a full time pig hunter. And she ate the stinky boars too, but those boars had to be put over ice and the water drained regularly for 4 or 5 days. It takes the blood, and the associated stink, from the meat. Well, I was skeptical, but the favorite grandson was coming to pig hunt soon, so I took it under advisement, though I suggested to him to shoot a fat sow. He came back from the stand later and said he had indeed shot a fat sow, so we went to get it to clean it. As I told him when we got to the hog, “for a sow, those are some large testicles. So, I decided to take the woman’s advice and drain the blood from the stinky boar using the ice approach. It worked perfectly, and took every bit of gaminess from the meat.

So, give it a try. The stinky boars can be made un-stinky and not gamey. The process also works on smelly rutting bucks.

And, take care where you place the bullet. It matters on tough hogs.

[Double Naught Spy]

I plan on taking a side shot at the area between the heart and lungs. If I miss the heart, then hopefully I'll hit the lungs or it will hit something else that incapacitates it. Is there any other scenario/shot to consider? Like is there a condition where taking a headshot is better?

Heart/lung shots are going to be lethal, no doubt, but rarely immediately incapacitating. Failure to do sufficient significant damage to the upper central nervous system will result in the hog running. They can run upwards of 100 yards with a double lung shot or a heart shot, though they usually run much less.

You can damage the upper CNS either by the bullet directly hitting the spine or with a little luck, you might get the benefit of a hydraulic shock damaging the spinal cord or hydrostatic shock actually damaging the brain/brain stem.

A bit higher shoulder broadside shot will usually result in a double lung hit and potentially a spinal hit as well.

I like headshots, though because of doing ammo testing, I don't take as many as I would like. People will tell you that head shots are risky, mostly because the hog's head is often in continual motion. This is mostly, but not completely accurate. Note, you should not take a "head shot" so much as taking a BRAIN shot. There is a lot of hog head for a small brain. It helps if you actually know where the brain is. That isn't being flippant. People often consider shooting a hog "behind the ear" as a head shot. So not only do they not know where the brain actually is, they don't know where the head stops. For external anatomical reference, the ears represent the back end of the head. Keep that in mind.

The best times I like for brain shots are when the hog and hog's head are stationary. If hogs are almost constantly in motion, when are the heads stationary? The two most common times I find are when the hog has its head down feeding or rooting, and when hogs do their security checks. During a security check, hogs will stop, stand still, often with their head raised and nose in the air. Sometimes they just freeze while looking forward. During these times, they are looking, listening, and smelling the air for threats. It helps if you watch the behavior of hogs to look for a pattern. You may find that a hog stops every few feet and freezes for 2-3 seconds before continuing. After you see this pattern repeat 2 or 3 times, you can prepare and wait for the next stop and be ready to shoot. Of course, you don't have to shoot it in the brain at that point, but that would be one of the best times.

Aside from the hog's behavior, I like such shots when I am calm and steady and generally speaking inside of 150 yards and particularly inside 100. If I am not steady enough, then I take a neck shot or heart/lung shot.

The other reason for doing this at shorter ranges is because of bullet flight time. A hog can move its head a few inches in the time it takes a bullet to go from your barrel to the hog's head at 100 yards. So, shorter distances are better.

One way to double down on your possibility of making an upper CNS shot is to wait until the hog is quartered away and to make a shot into the neck where your shot lines up with the back of the hog's head. You have the possibility of damaging the cervical spine and/or the brain.

Frontal brain shots are most problematic, but not impossible. I would suggest it is better to wait for a better shot. Brain shots are best from the side or rear of the head going through the neck, first. Note that from the side, probably your best shot on the brain is just in FRONT of the ear, about 1" below the top of the head.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19157[/ATTACH]
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If you attempt a broadside "behind the ear" shot that so many people swear by, you run the risk of hitting nothing but muscle tissue and skin if your shot goes above the spine. This can be survivable and I have killed a couple of hogs with such wounds, that were all but completely healed. Here is the first one that I killed with such a wound...

[video=youtube;N73hReqkpmU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N73hReqkpmU[/video]

[DeNinny]

Heart/lung shots are going to be lethal, no doubt, but rarely immediately incapacitating. Failure to do sufficient significant damage to the upper central nervous system will result in the hog running. They can run upwards of 100 yards with a double lung shot or a heart shot, though they usually run much less.

You can damage the upper CNS either by the bullet directly hitting the spine or with a little luck, you might get the benefit of a hydraulic shock damaging the spinal cord or hydrostatic shock actually damaging the brain/brain stem.

A bit higher shoulder broadside shot will usually result in a double lung hit and potentially a spinal hit as well.

I like headshots, though because of doing ammo testing, I don't take as many as I would like. People will tell you that head shots are risky, mostly because the hog's head is often in continual motion. This is mostly, but not completely accurate. Note, you should not take a "head shot" so much as taking a BRAIN shot. There is a lot of hog head for a small brain. It helps if you actually know where the brain is. That isn't being flippant. People often consider shooting a hog "behind the ear" as a head shot. So not only do they not know where the brain actually is, they don't know where the head stops. For external anatomical reference, the ears represent the back end of the head. Keep that in mind.

The best times I like for brain shots are when the hog and hog's head are stationary. If hogs are almost constantly in motion, when are the heads stationary? The two most common times I find are when the hog has its head down feeding or rooting, and when hogs do their security checks. During a security check, hogs will stop, stand still, often with their head raised and nose in the air. Sometimes they just freeze while looking forward. During these times, they are looking, listening, and smelling the air for threats. It helps if you watch the behavior of hogs to look for a pattern. You may find that a hog stops every few feet and freezes for 2-3 seconds before continuing. After you see this pattern repeat 2 or 3 times, you can prepare and wait for the next stop and be ready to shoot. Of course, you don't have to shoot it in the brain at that point, but that would be one of the best times.

Aside from the hog's behavior, I like such shots when I am calm and steady and generally speaking inside of 150 yards and particularly inside 100. If I am not steady enough, then I take a neck shot or heart/lung shot.

The other reason for doing this at shorter ranges is because of bullet flight time. A hog can move its head a few inches in the time it takes a bullet to go from your barrel to the hog's head at 100 yards. So, shorter distances are better.

One way to double down on your possibility of making an upper CNS shot is to wait until the hog is quartered away and to make a shot into the neck where your shot lines up with the back of the hog's head. You have the possibility of damaging the cervical spine and/or the brain.

Frontal brain shots are most problematic, but not impossible. I would suggest it is better to wait for a better shot. Brain shots are best from the side or rear of the head going through the neck, first. Note that from the side, probably your best shot on the brain is just in FRONT of the ear, about 1" below the top of the head.

...

If you attempt a broadside "behind the ear" shot that so many people swear by, you run the risk of hitting nothing but muscle tissue and skin if your shot goes above the spine. This can be survivable and I have killed a couple of hogs with such wounds, that were all but completely healed. Here is the first one that I killed with such a wound...

Thanks for all of that. And I think you made a really smart shot from that angle and range. I don't know what other type of shot would have been better. Also it looks like your aim drifted to the left and you brought it back to the shot nice and steady and level and then...BOOM...DRT!!!

[DeNinny]

Ok so I have my ammo lined up in the order of preference:

1) Hornady 123gr SST, 27.5gr TAC, new Starline brass, 2.245" COL, CCI #41s
2) Hornady 123gr SST, 28gr Varget, new Starline brass, 2.245" COL, CCI #41s
3) Alexander Arms 129gr SST

I really want to use my own reloads for this, but I'm conflicted because the Alexander Arms factory ammo is just slightly more accurate. Like ~0.5 MOA as compared to my reloads group at < 1 MOA. That said, this is using a buttstock bag with my bipod. When I shoot with my bipod only it seems like all my groups are ~1.5 MOA, so it really won't matter other than the weight difference. 129gr might be more lethal. Any thoughts on all this?

Also, what about hearing protection? I was thinking of just wearing my noise cancellation Walker earmuffs and no plugs.

[DeNinny]

Range (yds) 0 50 100 150 200 250
velocity (fps) 2500 2416 2333 2252 2173 2095
energy (ft.-lb) 1707 1594 1487 1385 1289 1199
trajectory (in) -1.5 0.5 1.1 0 -2.8 -7.4
come up (moa) 0 -1 -1 0 1.3 2.8
come up (mils) 0 -0.3 -0.3 0 0.4 0.8
wind drift (in) 0 0.1 0.4 0.9 1.6 2.5
wind drift (moa) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.9
wind drift (mils) 0 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.3

Went to the range last week. Scope is zero'ed at 200 yds, and my dope adjustments are really close to this. I adjusted to +4.25 MOA at 300 yds and -2 MOA at 100 yds.