Hunting

If you didn’t realize how bad feral hogs were…

/ hsoi / 8 Comments

… you need to read this forum thread.

It’s an engaging account of one man’s fight against feral hogs on his East Texas ranch. It’s a thread on a forum called The High Road, and the thread has been active for over 2 years. That alone should tell you something about his fight.

What I found so engaging about the thread however was the man’s willingness to recount as much as possible and answer all the questions he can. You gain a great insight into these creatures. It’s a mixture of a lot of respect, but also a lot of hate for the damage and hell they cause. Plus, reading his “play-by-play” you can see what is dealt with over time and just how smart and difficult the hogs are to control.

If you’re not here and living within the feral hog problem, you just can’t truly fathom what it’s like. But I will say, if you read this account all the way through, it’s just like you’re there in the thick of it and you will gain a deeper understanding of what’s involved and why this is a problem we have to work to remedy.

Back from hunting

/ hsoi

Just returned from a successful whitetail deer hunt with my father-in-law. Took Oldest and Daughter. We each got a deer. I’ll regale you with tales from the hunt later. Must catch up on numerous things first.

I need to buy an IR game camera

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

I live in the city. I can’t shoot any of the deer that come up through the greenbelt behind my house.

That’s ok tho… as far as I can tell, none are shooters anyways.

But they’re fun to watch, and Sasha sure loves to bark at them.

But that’s why I need a game camera… tho an IR one so my neighbors don’t get bothered by (or curious about) a flash going off at all strange hours. I’ve got a couple with a flash, want an IR one tho. Every time I go to Cabela’s I look at them then walk away because I just don’t feel right about dropping that sort of cash on one. Call me silly, but I’ve got this feeling that someone will notice and steal it and then I’m out a chunk of change.

I’m just curious about the deer that come around. Mostly it’s does, but we see a nice buck now and again. I’m very curious about those guys.

Then tonight as the sun was going down, I saw something I hadn’t seen before.

Looking out back and I see 1… 2… ah, 5 deer. A little one, a doe that’s probably 1-2 years old, a couple older does… and then a spike.

First time I’ve seen a spike around here this season. Hopefully won’t be the last we see of him… for years to come.

Sarrels Archery

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

The other day when I picked up my venison from the butcher, another gentleman was in there doing the same.

We all got to talking.

He’s a bow hunter. And not just any bow hunter, he uses long bows. I thought that was pretty cool.

In fact, he doesn’t just use bows, he makes them.

Sarrels Archery.

I don’t know much about archery, but looking at the one bow he had in his truck and it sure was pretty. Crafting looked fine and good.

I’m posting it here in case any of my readers are into such things and would be interested in checking them out.

Venison consumed

/ hsoi

Venison acquired.

And venison was consumed.

We pulled out a sika deer tenderloin and a fallow deer tenderloin. I sliced them up, no more than 1/2″ thick. Threw them in the pan with just a bit of canola oil to mitigate sticking. Otherwise, no seasonings, nothing. Let’s see what the actual meat tastes like.

In a wonderful bit of serendipity (because we didn’t expect to get the deer back today), Wife had started a whitetail deer roast (from the whitetail does I shot last year; all hail the FoodSaver!). So, now we had 3 types of venison to try side-by-side, tho of course the whitetail would be a little seasoned.

Verdict?

We all like. A lot. 🙂

Using whitetail as our baseline, we all agreed that both the fallow and the sika are similar in taste to the whitetail — it’s all deer meat, they’re all in the same ballpark, no radical difference (e.g. the vast difference between beef and chicken). The sika seemed a bit milder than the whitetail, maybe a bit smoother texture — Daughter said “buttery” in regards to the texture. I’m not sure I’d go there, but I know what she meant: it was certainly “softer”. Very nice. The fallow had a slightly stronger flavor. None of us could come up with a way to describe it, but it was something with the overtones, a hint of something more, a little bolder flavor but subtle. Texture was also quite nice.

And in some weird way… the whitetail seemed to pale in comparison. Still good, just somehow the sika and fallow tasted a little better. Between the 3 types of venison, there was no grand consensus. Some liked sika more, some liked fallow more. Me, I think I liked the fallow more, but more research is needed. 😀

In the past we were always sparing with our use of venison because you shot what you shot during whitetail season and it had to last until next year. But now? Gee. Just use the venison at will. It’s no trouble getting an exotic, cost isn’t horrendous, and if that means better, leaner, tastier meat all year ’round? Heck, how can I say no? Well… I still love me some beef, but gee… I’m itching to get through all this meat because next I want to try red deer and axis.

New venison

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Just picked up the fallow deer and sika deer meat from Daughter’s first.

A little annoyed that I specified to keep the meats separate and label them “fallow” and “sika”, but they didn’t… well, they did on the backstraps but that’s all. *sigh* Never had either, wanted to keep them separate so we could know which was which as our taste buds experienced them. I’m annoyed, but I’ll cut them some slack as it’s the busy season and they may have just slammed through things due to volume.

We are guessing the little tenderloin is the sika and the bigger tenderlion is the fallow. Not 100% sure, but it’s a 99.9% good guess. They’re thawing and the family will try them tonight. Nothing to them: just defrost, throw it in the pan (maybe a little canola oil to avoid sticking), not even salt and pepper. Try the pure unadulterated meat and see how they taste, and how we compare them to each other and whitetail. Rumor is they’re good, and many prefer over whitetail.

We shall see.

I can’t wait. 🙂

On 6.8 SPC and Barnes bullet performance

/ hsoi

After yesterday’s successful hunt, I’ve a few random thoughts and pages to link to.

First, about 6.8 performance.

I admit, I was unsure of performance. It was a few things. First, all my past problems with this rifle. Was it the rifle? The ammo? The scope? The shooter? Something else? Too many factors in the equation, but over time I narrowed things down and am now 99% sure it was the scope. Still, you get your faith shaken that much, it takes a lot to bring it back. The range time I’ve had with the setup (plus rangetime with the old scope on another rifle), then with the 2 deer from yesterday, yeah I feel better about things, but I still want more field time to validate things. I’m pretty sure tho the problem is resolved… I just want an excuse to use the rig in the field more often. 😉

The other thing was the bullet itself, the 95 grain Barnes TTSX. I know Barnes Bullets are solid, no question there. I know the 85 grain TSX and 110 grain TSX have been well proven in the 6.8. And while the 95 grain TTSX is still relatively new, all signs point to the bullet being sound and good. Then looking at the performance the 95 TTSX handloaders are getting, comparing that to the Wilson Combat load, and of course knowing that Bill Wilson makes solid stuff (including his research on this load), I know — on paper — it’s all good. The question is, where’s the threshold of what the bullet and load can do? Granted, you can take almost anything with almost anything, e.g. many deer have been taken with a .22 LR. But even in doing so, there are parameters you have to operate within, such as those .22 LR deer harvests are headshots.  So what are those limits with this bullet and load?

I search the 68forums.com for such threshold information. It’s hard to get exactly the information I’m wanting (maybe I need to start a specific post on there about it). It seems you can take bull elk with 6.8… but then, what’s the limit? Should it only be neck shots? How about distance? I figured I would be OK taking a red deer, but still… were there any such parameters to have to operate within? I still wonder that, but after seeing first-hand the devastation those 95 grain TTSX’s cause? well… that gives me something to measure against in the future.

So to that end, HTR @ 68forums just posted this informative thread. Using the 95 grain TTSX in a load/rifle that slightly underperforms my setup (due to being an SBR), and nailed a hog to 300 yards. Looks like a neck shot (versus say going through the shoulder/shield), but still, hogs are tough to put down and if that 95 grain performs to 300 yards on a hog? That gives you some general knowledge about distance limits of performance.

Here’s another, of a big trophy whitetail buck taken with the 6.8 and 95 grain TTSX.

HTR posted a different thread with 2 useful tidbits. First, someone asked about the 3 Barnes bullets: 85 grain TSX, 95 grain TTSX, vs. 110 grain TSX. This is the best summary I’ve read comparing the three:

Well….hmmmm….best. tap, tap, tap.

Here are some minor differences. You will have to decide which is best for you:

1) The 85 has the flattest trajectory. You can get it to strike no more than 3″ from the LOS at up to 250 yards, and then only 8″ below LOS at 300. It requires around 1900-2000 FPS to open. It also has the lowest BC of the .277 X bullets.

2) the 95 has medium trajectory, a bit more drop than the 85, but opens at slower speed….1600 or so. The BC is .296, and it is accurate with a reasonable variety of powders. It has proven itself to me, in the field, over many kills, including a hog I shot at just under 300 yards this past weekend.

3) the 110 has the highest BC but also requires at least 2000 FPS to open. Given that its hard to drive it past 2650 in a 6.8, your range will vary accordingly. It will also have a little less flat trajectory than the lighter X bullets.

All 3 work, but my opinion is that the best compromise of all the features that make the TSX / TTSX line great, is the 95 TTSX, for a variety of game.

And the reference to “a hog I shot at just under 300 yards” is the very hog I linked to above.

BTW, HTR speaks with a lot of credibility. Take a look at his posts and performance on that forum, and you can know he knows what he’s talking about.

The other thing in that same thread, rather the main point of that thread — neck shot.

Everyone tells me about taking the neck shot, and I’ve thought about it, but was still not 100% sure just where to place it. HTR’s post — with pictures — did a great job of describing and showing exactly where to put it. I’ll spend a bunch of time visualizing it, trying to make sure I know it solidly. Heck, next time I go to Cabela’s I’ll look at some of the full-body deer in the dioramas and make sure I’m seeing what I need to (nothing like a 3-D model). Next time I’m out in the field, I’ll try it.

Anyways, I’m growing more comfortable with the 6.8. Now that I’m pretty sure there are no issues with equipment, this is going to be my primary rig for the foreseeable future.

Her first

/ hsoi / 12 Comments

Daughter got her first deer. 🙂

Setup

I’m overbusy these days and I knew spending many mornings and evenings in a deer stand for whitetails was just not going to happen due to lack of time. Still, I wanted to get something. A little time in the field. A little meat in the freezer.

So I thought, how about some exotics (since they can be hunted all year round)? I’ve never had but have wanted to try the meat of axis, red, sika, and/or fallow deer. Everyone tells me they’re better than whitetail, with axis being the best. So for the past some months I’ve tried to make time to go out to DB Hunting Ranch to harvest an exotic but just wasn’t able to make it out… until now. DB works well because the prices are reasonable, it doesn’t have to be a huge time investment, and I have yet to leave the ranch empty handed. No, it’s not hunting in the truest sense, but it’s not like going to the grocery store either. You still have to work for the opportunity. Daughter knows too… she’s been out with me a few times before, so she has some perspective.

The original plan was to do a stalk hunt for a red deer hind (doe, female). Then since Daughter wanted to go with me, originally she was going to just be along for the ride, but since she’s been out with me before but had yet to bag anything well.. I asked if we could get her something. No problem. The plan was to sit in a stand for her, because for a first time that would work out a lot better (could sit, rest the rifle, easier to manage  the excitement and nerves, etc.). I was going to have her get some doe like a sika or a fallow or whatever trotted across. Then after a few hours in the stand, we’d stalk for a red deer hind.

But it didn’t work out that way. 🙂

What Happened

As soon as we got into the stand, critters came out. It was dark, 5:30 AM or so (sunrise at 7:00), but thanx to having my Sniper Hog Light on the gun we were able to watch things. Lots of deer, some rams too. But being so dark and with only red light, we couldn’t tell for sure what everything was. But we watched them and really enjoyed how much the new Leupold VX-R 3-9×50 scope worked (yes, my prior 6.8 rifle problems, I’m 99.99% convinced now it was due to a busted scope). That thing really is crisp and gathers light wonderfully.

6:30 and the sun was rising enough we could start to make things out without the light. Most of the deer had left, just a few rams and one sika doe. The rams were beautiful, but we had no interest because I’m to understand they don’t taste very good and we’re out for food. Daughter kept wanting a buck because there’s nothing to put on the wall with a doe. I was generally against it due to cost and that we’re here for meat… but, I also knew that for a first time, there’s nothing like a memento. So I did some math in my head and kinda figured that if an opportunity presented itself, I’d probably let her take it.

Well, that sika doe just kept hanging around… so I told Daughter to put the glass on it and get ready. We watched for maybe 10-15 minutes and couldn’t get a shot for some reason or other: ram walks in front, whitetail (too young to shoot) walks behind, doe walks behind a tree, you name it…. and just when the doe was close to a perfect shot, something would always happen to blow it. Oh, it was frustrating! I was afraid that she was going to run off or get run off by the rams, but while she’d trot away, she never left our field of view… just never gave us a shot.

But then….

Out walks a fallow buck.

Me: “If you can get a shot, you can take it.”

Daughter: *quiet squeal of joy*

But of course, the buck was completely obscured by other things, just like the sika doe had been.

After a couple of minutes of waiting… 2 more fallow bucks walk in from stage right, and the first buck walks over to meet them. They formed basically a “choo-choo train” line. I mean, 3 bucks in a row, all perfectly broadside. About 45 yards away.

Me: “Pick one. Go for it.”

Unfortunately, they kept walking towards stage right, and Daughter could only pivot so much more to her left. I made some kissing noises to try to get the bucks to stop. They did. GO GO GO!

The 6.8 roared.

I watched the middle buck rear up… I watched the whole thing, knew he was hit. He took off. I kept my eyes on him to see where he went, but he didn’t get far… ran into a large bush, kept running against it, relaxed, reared up, flipped onto his back (NO! I hoped no antler damage), then that was that. We waited for a bit tho… because oddly, after the gunfire many critters ran off but the other fallow bucks didn’t run very far at all; in fact, one of them was right next to his fallen friend and hung around him for maybe 10 minutes or so trying to figure out what was up with his buddy.

While he waited, that sika doe came back to the area.

“Daughter, hand me the rifle.”

I glassed her. She was perfectly broadside. I let it fly. Hey… opportunity was knocking, I answered the door. No, it wasn’t the red deer I wanted, but that’s fine… just leaves me something to try for on another day.

I wanted to wait a little bit longer, who knows what else might present itself… but Daughter was done. So we left the stand and went to see everything. Oh, little girl was happy. 🙂

We called the folks to come get us. Jake cleaned things up. And I’ll drop them off at the processor’s after a couple of days of soaking.

We’re going to get the antlers mounted, and since the coat was so pretty we’re going to get the hide soft-tanned so it could go on a bed or a couch or something. Might take up to 3 months before we see the hide (maybe a couple of weeks for the antlers), but didn’t cost much and should make a nice memento. And so, little girl… next time we’re getting does. 😉

The fun part? Youngest is now starting to show interest in shooting and hunting. He asked when he gets to go. Going to have to enlist the help of their grandfather and uncle to take these kids into the field more… I can’t do it all.

Gun Geek Corner

Now for my fun. 🙂

The rifle is an AR-patterned rifle chambered in 6.8 SPC. The upper is from Wilson Combat (16″) and the lower is a Rock River Arms lower with their sweet 2-stage match trigger. The scope is a Leupold VX-R 3-9×50 on a Larue LT104 mount. The ammunition is Wilson Combat’s 6.8 SPC 95 grain Barnes TTSX.

This is not the first animal I’ve taken with this rifle, but it is with this particular setup.

I had my faith in the 6.8 shaken because numerous hunts and range times were showing odd behavior. Heck, the whole reason I took that water buffalo was because the 6.8 failed. But it turns out, it was the scope… or at least, I’m now 99.99% sure of it based on all that I’ve seen and experienced since then with that rifle and scope, including today’s performance. But after seeing today’s performance? Man… my opinion of a few things has really improved.

First, the scope is awesome. The picture is so crisp, so clear. The light gathering ability is wicked awesome. That night “ccoker”, of TacticalGunReview, and I did a bunch of scope comparisons? It was amazing how well the Leupold stood up against scopes that cost 3-4x as much. I will say, I’m still not sure I like the “Ballistic Fire-Dot” reticle in this context… but I think I need to have it out a few more times before I really pass judgment. I did find my eyes liked the dot being 1 setting above the lowest setting, else the dot was too bright and got in the way (in the early morning light). But all in all, I’m very happy with this scope.

Second, the 6.8 performance was awesome. The rifle worked well, did it’s job. Worked well for daughter, in terms of feel, trigger, etc.. A little heavy, but that’s part of why I wanted to use a stand, so she could have a rest.

But where things really impressed me? The ammo.

I’m a huge fan of Barnes bullets. The TSX’s are awesome and perform so well. But ever since they introduced the 95 grain TTSX’s specifically for the 6.8 well… I read a lot about the performance, and have been itching to try it for myself. The trouble has been that this bullet was only available as a component, so you had to handload. Well, I’ve not had time to get back to the reloading bench to work up a load. I was hoping a factory would produce something. Finally, Wilson Combat came out with a load that measured up to the performance handloaders were seeing. I bought a few boxes. Zeroed things in. And finally got to try.

They knocked the stuffing — literally — out of these 2 deer.

This is the left side, entrance. Daughter shot him in the shoulder. Massive trauma.

And here’s the right side, the exit wound.

Of course, skin peeled back. The actual external holes were small, which is typical of the Barnes (T)TSX bullets. But internally, massive damage. The vital organs? there wasn’t much left on the fallow. On the sika? as soon as the chest was cut open so much poured out… things were truly liquified. Yes I know, a little gross to some, but such is reality.

Comparing this to what the 85 grain TSX does? There’s no comparison… the level of damage done by the TTSX is astounding. Compared to what I’ve seen a .308 Barnes 168 grain TSX do? It’s well… different, but seems almost the same. That’s one thing about these bullets: smaller ones do a lot more damage than lead (core) bullets of the same weight/size/shape. I am just floored at how well this bullet from Barnes and ammo from Wilson performed.

Unless context dictates I need another gun (e.g. nilgai hunting? moose hunting? elk at 500+ yards?), this is my rifle, this is my ammo.

Fin

So, a great morning.

Time with my Daughter.

Got to get away from the computer for a while.

Got some meat in the freezer, and it’s things we’ve never tried before but are looking forward to.

Got to finally get this configuration of rifle/scope/ammo out into the field, and the results were great.

I wondered about the perception of a young girl shooting animals and what some people might think, especially after she puts antlers and hides on her bedroom wall. What are her friends going to think? Well… I’ll tell you what I see.

I see a girl who knows how to take care of herself.

I see a girl who knows how to provide for herself, and her family.

I see a girl who’s not afraid to get a little dirty, and even do things that some may find distasteful… because sometimes life is like that.

I see a girl that knows where her food comes from, and understands other realities about life.

But most of all? I see that boys better watch out… because it’s not just her Dad they have to worry about. 😉

A little rifle work

/ hsoi

Slipped away to the gun range this morning.

Hunting season is upon us. Whitetail deer season starts in November (gun), but with the weather cooling down if I wanted to go on a quick hog run I could do that too. Need to get things in order.

The Rifle

My rifle of choice is again my Wilson Combat 6.8 SPC. That’s actually just the upper, the lower is a RRA with their sweet 2-stage trigger; a few other odds and ends on the rifle too. But the key here really is that RRA trigger and the WC upper.

In the past I had shot Silver State Armory‘s 6.8 SPC, 85 grain Barnes TSX, “tac load” and had reasonable success with it. Then I started to hear about Barnes Bullets making a 95 grain TTSX, purpose-built for the 6.8 SPC (i.e. not just another .277″ bullet). Unfortunately, it was only available as a hand-load component, but the handloaders were having great success with it. I fully intended to hand-load for it, but life got in the way and I have been unable to sit at the reloading bench. Since I don’t expect life to let up any time soon, I was hoping someone would make factory loads of the 95 TTSX. Silver State tried it but results weren’t that great.

Then Wilson Combat made one. And the results were excellent.

I was finally able to put in an order for some, had to wait for the backorder to be filled, but a couple of weeks ago 4 boxes arrived. Huzzah! It’s my hope this will be THE round that I can use for all my hunting needs (deer, hog, etc.).

On top of that, the old Burris Fulfield II 3-9×40 I had well… I’ve long been suspecting the scope is broken. I’m no Marine Sniper with my rifle, but I can shoot and hit things, but any time I’d shoot with this scope I’d have problems, but not consistent problems. I loosely poked at it a few times to see, but results were always inconclusive. Still, being convinced that it’s broken I bought a new scope: a Leupold VX-R 3-9×50, and mounted it with a LaRue QD LT-104. While this gun doesn’t (yet) have iron sights on it, I want to get some because well… while it’s still just a hunting rifle, it would suck to have my weekend go kaput because of a failed scope.

I’ve been itching to get her zeroed in and finally was able to do so this morning.

The Performance

Since it’s my hope for the 95 to be my go-to round, but I still had a bunch of 85 around, I figured to start off with the 85 to get the scope roughly dialed in. I was happy to see that windage was centered and elevation wasn’t off by much. A few clicks of the knobs, recheck it at 100 yards and it was good enough to switch to the 95.

Here’s a sample of the Wilson Combat 6.8 SPC 95 grain Barnes TTSX ammo. 3 shots, 100 yards, out of my Wilson upper:

And I’m sure a better rifleman could do better. I’ll take that tho. 3 shots, under an inch at 100 yards. And technically these Barnes bullets aren’t “match” bullets, they are hunting rounds. So, good enough.

I did a little more shooting with the Wilson ammo to check point of impact at 25 and 50 yards, and they were about the places expected. All seems good. AND, everything shot consistently and as expected.

But then….

The Other Scope

I put the Burris onto a 5.56 upper. My feeling was I could at least use that for some plinking… to help the kiddos get used to the form factor of the rifle, the trigger, and so on, with just a simple upper swap.

The ammo was just some Georgia Arms .223 55 grain plinking stuff, so not the best, but it’s not unreasonable.

However, everything was all over the map.

I started at 25 yards for a rough zero, was a couple of inches off zero, so I dialed it to zero and it seemed good. In fact, I figured I should crank it about an inch low at 25 yards to try to have more of a zero impact at 100 yards. Whatever I adjusted it to tho, the point was that I adjusted the elevation so the point of impact would go down.

When I shot at 100 yards? The point of impact was about 4-5 inches high! Eh? And rather a wide spread too. I cranked the elevation down more and shot, and it seemed spot on. I then tried shooting the bottom-right diamond and was shooting a little low right. Then I cranked the magnification up to 9x (from 5x) and shot the bottom-left diamond… and those shots were about 2″ low and made a nice horizontal “line” about 4-5″ wide along the bottom of the target.

WTF?

Now sure, this isn’t match grade ammo, but it shouldn’t perform like that. And this barrel is a nice stainless 1:8 Wylde barrel that every other time I’ve shot it, even with this ammo, has performed excellent. So this?? This makes no sense to me, but it’s continuing to reinforce my feeling that the scope is fubar. I’d really need to sit down and do more scientific-like testing to be sure, but I’m getting more convinced it’s screwed up.

I’m not going to blame Burris or swear off their products because I have no solid knowledge yet if it is a messed up scope and then if it is, what caused it to get messed up. But I am going to go back and look at their warranty again….

And so…

Anyways, I feel the 6.8 is in shape and ready for action. Next up, taking the Kiddos to the range to let them try it out.

And yes… I’d love to see about a quick little harvest/hunt to see how she does in the field. 🙂

Addendum

I posted, then I realized I didn’t mention a few things I wanted to say.

The Leupold scope. The more I look through it, the more I love it. Compared to the Burris? No question, the Leupold is better. Crisper picture, brighter picture. Sure the Burris isn’t bad in this areas, but the Leupold was obviously a step up. Very happy there.

The Wilson ammo… I still need to do some work with it, like I’d love to run it over a chronograph. Wilson reports 2850 fps out of a 16″ barrel. Well, I have a 16″ barrel, and it just so happens I have a Wilson barrel so… I would expect to get 2850 fps, but it’d be nice to know what was really happening. I will say, shooting the SSA 85 grain tac load then shooting the Wilson load? The Wilson load felt like there was a little more oomph at the beginning… I certainly recall hearing more rattle in the buffer spring. It’d also be cool to see some gel performance of this particular load, but I don’t expect to do that myself nor see it any time soon.

Aporkalypse Now!

/ hsoi

Oh yes. I would so love to do this.

For those quick to condem this, you’ve obviously never experienced the destructive power of feral hogs. Nor how tasty they are. 😉 Talk about your lean free-range organic meat.