Dancing her way to heaven
I guided a young lady, Jill (not her real name), in foster care on a deer hunt last Saturday as part of the Operation Orphans hunts.
The landowner, Richard at Blue Mountain Peak Ranch, said the shoot all hogs and exotics and gave us some restrictions on deer.
We climbed into the stand about 20 minutes before daybreak and my partner took her girl to the other side of the ranch for their hunt. After the precursory dry fires and firearm safety walk through, we started talking about different things. Jill mentioned that she had 2 show pigs for FFA. While she was talking, I looked out and from the brush on the right came some wild hogs. First, there was one, then 2 then 4 ... you get the picture.
I whispered, "Look! Pigs! Do you want to shoot a pig??"
Jill: "I don't want to shoot pigs! I got 2 that I like at home."
Me: "You don't want to shoot wild hogs? The landowner said to shoot them and if you don't I will."
Jill: "Wild hogs? Give me the gun!"
They were only 60 yards away at the feeder. She settled in but was nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I told her to take a deep breath, settle in and squeeze the trigger.
KA-BOOM! The pigs scattered and I could tell one had been hit. It ran with the sounder back where they had come in from.
Me: Give me the gun!
I took it and shot another one on the run. I actually thought I missed because it went down so close to the brush.
We high fived and laughed and talked about what just happened.
In about 15 minutes the crows and buzzards started landing where the one I shot went down. We decided to climb out of the stand and collect our pigs. We went straight to where the buzzards were and just as we were going to pick it up we caught sight of a sow and piglets walking toward us. They spotted us at the same time.
I had 2 bullets in my rifle. I quickly raised it and shot at the sow as she turned to the right. The piglets turned left. I hit her in the hip and she started dragging herself toward the brush. I shot again, but I think I missed. I turned to Jill and said, “I’m out of bullets! Run back to the blind and get the box!”
By the time she had gone 10 feet towards the blind, the pig had disappeared into the brush. This brush was the thickest stuff I’ve ever seen. It was like looking through a sod of grass to see the soil beneath it. When Jill returned we walked toward the brush and could hear the sow rustling around and grunting. Then she growled at us. We couldn’t figure out how to get into the brush without getting entangled so we decided to go back to the blind in hopes of getting to see some deer.
Of course, we took the required photos and smeared blood on our faces.
About 45 minutes later, a button buck made his way toward us then turned down to the right into draw. Then it was quite until my partner showed up at 11:30. While she loaded the truck, I took the girls to search the brush for the hopefully now dead sow. It had been 3 hours.
The girls darted into the brush on their hands and knees and I walked around to the other side to see if I could pickup the blood trail. There was one obvious well use trail that I had missed earlier and sure enough, there was some blood. 3 yards in, to the right about 8 yards away lay that sow. I called the girls around to pull her out since they seemed to be enjoying this task.
I stepped out while they squeezed past me and a few seconds later they came running out screaming! “She’s still alive!!”
I went back in and was really hoping my partner’s girl could shoot it but at 8 yards a 9 power rifle scope is worthless. I made some careful calculations and adjustments and as the sow stood up I shot her in the head. Then I told the girls to go get her.
Of course, the pig is doing the death kick and the most memorable and enjoyable and instantly classic thing happened –
one girl said to the other, “Look! She’s dancing her way to heaven!”
The landowner, Richard at Blue Mountain Peak Ranch, said the shoot all hogs and exotics and gave us some restrictions on deer.
We climbed into the stand about 20 minutes before daybreak and my partner took her girl to the other side of the ranch for their hunt. After the precursory dry fires and firearm safety walk through, we started talking about different things. Jill mentioned that she had 2 show pigs for FFA. While she was talking, I looked out and from the brush on the right came some wild hogs. First, there was one, then 2 then 4 ... you get the picture.
I whispered, "Look! Pigs! Do you want to shoot a pig??"
Jill: "I don't want to shoot pigs! I got 2 that I like at home."
Me: "You don't want to shoot wild hogs? The landowner said to shoot them and if you don't I will."
Jill: "Wild hogs? Give me the gun!"
They were only 60 yards away at the feeder. She settled in but was nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I told her to take a deep breath, settle in and squeeze the trigger.
KA-BOOM! The pigs scattered and I could tell one had been hit. It ran with the sounder back where they had come in from.
Me: Give me the gun!
I took it and shot another one on the run. I actually thought I missed because it went down so close to the brush.
We high fived and laughed and talked about what just happened.
In about 15 minutes the crows and buzzards started landing where the one I shot went down. We decided to climb out of the stand and collect our pigs. We went straight to where the buzzards were and just as we were going to pick it up we caught sight of a sow and piglets walking toward us. They spotted us at the same time.
I had 2 bullets in my rifle. I quickly raised it and shot at the sow as she turned to the right. The piglets turned left. I hit her in the hip and she started dragging herself toward the brush. I shot again, but I think I missed. I turned to Jill and said, “I’m out of bullets! Run back to the blind and get the box!”
By the time she had gone 10 feet towards the blind, the pig had disappeared into the brush. This brush was the thickest stuff I’ve ever seen. It was like looking through a sod of grass to see the soil beneath it. When Jill returned we walked toward the brush and could hear the sow rustling around and grunting. Then she growled at us. We couldn’t figure out how to get into the brush without getting entangled so we decided to go back to the blind in hopes of getting to see some deer.
Of course, we took the required photos and smeared blood on our faces.
About 45 minutes later, a button buck made his way toward us then turned down to the right into draw. Then it was quite until my partner showed up at 11:30. While she loaded the truck, I took the girls to search the brush for the hopefully now dead sow. It had been 3 hours.
The girls darted into the brush on their hands and knees and I walked around to the other side to see if I could pickup the blood trail. There was one obvious well use trail that I had missed earlier and sure enough, there was some blood. 3 yards in, to the right about 8 yards away lay that sow. I called the girls around to pull her out since they seemed to be enjoying this task.
I stepped out while they squeezed past me and a few seconds later they came running out screaming! “She’s still alive!!”
I went back in and was really hoping my partner’s girl could shoot it but at 8 yards a 9 power rifle scope is worthless. I made some careful calculations and adjustments and as the sow stood up I shot her in the head. Then I told the girls to go get her.
Of course, the pig is doing the death kick and the most memorable and enjoyable and instantly classic thing happened –
one girl said to the other, “Look! She’s dancing her way to heaven!”
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