Story submitted by Lance Astle
This was quick weekend trip, I left work Friday afternoon and we drove all afternoon to get down to our hunting spot. It was dark by the time we arrived, but we knew the area well and were equipped with rifles that had lights on them. We laid wait on some trails we knew received a modest amount of traffic during the night. We didn’t see any pigs on the trails during the evening but were lucky to see some beautiful bucks in velvet come by that had some very nice antlers. They didn’t seem to mind us much and we had a great time observing them while waiting for some pigs.
In the morning we moved into the thick brush where we know they feed and bed down. At about 9:20 a.m. I came across some fresh rooting sites and located the pigs tracks. I tracked them for about half an hour, moving as quietly through that thick brush as I could manage. After tracking them for a while I could hear snorting about 100yds in front of me and I knew I was closing in on them. I moved as quietly as I could to get into position, stopping frequently to duck down and look through the bottom of the thick brush, as that provided the most visibility. When I was about 50yrds from the pigs, I saw a set of legs and a pig belly walk by as I was looking under the brush. My presence was not yet known to the pigs, but I had no shot. I could intermittently see a black patch of hair here and there between some twigs, but was getting frustrated that I couldn’t clearly see any of the animals. I noted that they were circling to my right, so I started looking for any open shooting lanes they might cross. I noticed a small 12” opening in the brush about 50 yards away, that was the biggest opening I had, so I lined up my sights at that location and got ready. About 10 seconds later a pigs head, then chest cavity, came into view. I took the shot and the rest is history.
When I did take the shot, the bushes erupted with pigs running in all directions. We even saw some caramel brown and white pigs, so not all of them down there are the dark black.
All in all it was a very quick hunt, lasting less than 24hrs, but it was a lot of fun. Thanks to Barnes for making a great product I can count on when I need it to!
Note: Lance is an R&D Engineer at Barnes Bullets. He used his DPMS LR-308 with a 150gr TTSX
