Big 314 lb boar down

JTPinTX

Custom Call Maker
I've had a really big boy coming to my barrel the last couple weeks, but he has been kind of spooky and hitting random times and days as big boars are prone to do. Usually when he shows though he is there a pretty good while. Friday night he showed early and gave me the perfect chance to go get him. I was on the couch in my pajamas but that barrel is just about 10-12 minutes from my house. I already had the pickup loaded just in case he showed so I threw some pants/boots on and rolled out to get him.

We have had rain nearly every day for a week here. Humidity is through the roof and thermal conditions were horrible. Mosquitoes are really starting to crank up too so I wore my bug suit top. I knew I would need it. The sun had just gone down and it was still not real dark yet either. And it was very still. Sound was carrying well so I knew I needed to be super quiet if I wanted to get close.

I came to the cut in the shelterbelt and moved through it. Once on the other side I could see him at the barrel about 170 yards away. I took my time cutting the distance. First 50 yards, then 30, then 15, 10, 5 at at time until I got in to where the LRF was telling me was 51 yards. His butt was to me and he was rolling the barrel slow so I had to settle in and wait, but no problem since the wind was perfect for the way I came in.

Last week a friend of mine busted a big boar with what looked like a perfect shot. Pig went down hard but when he went to go get his tractor to load it up, it got up and got away. He never found it. With that in mind and knowing how big this guy was I decided I would not take any chances and do a double tap on him to be safe.

I waited until the shot I wanted lined up for me. I was shooting my 300 HAM'R with 125 TNT's. All of the training I have done in the past doing double taps was with my little 556 piston gun, and it has been a while. Turns out that HAM'R recoils a bit more than that 556, and I whiffed the second round just barely over the top of his neck. It didn't matter I don't guess because the first round dropped him like a brick. Still though, thinking about the size of this boar and my friends experience, I "paid the insurance" with a spine shot to make sure he did not get back up.

Once I walked up to him I started to figure out just how big this old boy was. He was covered in big deep scars, had one ear split all the way. I went and got my truck with the hoist and scales. Once I started lifting him I realized I might be in trouble. My hoist was starting to bend a bit, the winch was groaning, and I felt like something was about to break. But I was able to get him lifted and in the truck. My daughter and grandson wanted to see him so I brought him home and showed them. Then I took him across the street to my barn where I had a good overhead hoist to help me move him around and took some pictures.

Here is a video I put together with trail cam pictures, the thermal video, and some other still shots.

https://rumble.com/v2qyfnu-314-lb-boar-5-26-23.html




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He was the real deal for sure.

I chopped his head off and have it staked out in a tomato cage out behind work. That way nothing can run off with it while it is cooking down some. But yes, I plan to do a euro with it eventually.
 
Good job, Jeff! He won't be diggin' up any more peanuts!
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Quote:My hoist was starting to bend a bit, the winch was groaning, and I felt like something was about to break.

If you're gonna keep going after those biguns you might think of something like this. You wouldn't need the "drawer" since your bed is open; all it would take is a piece of 3/4" plywood for a ramp and you could make a bracket at the tailgate end of bed to hold your boat winch, run cable to front of bed through a snatch block and drag 'em right up the plywood ramp into bed. I've pulled a lot of 3-400# nilgai up the ramp with this setup:
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(I used the drawer because of the cover on bed and my bad back, lets me pull out drawer rather than crawl up into bed to get stuff up front.)

Regards,
Clarence






 

JTP, that is a bruiser, has some cutters on him too. Great story. I thoroughly enjoyed the read. Felt like I was there.

HM, good idea on the hoist.
 
Thanks for the nice comments guys.

Clarence, that is a pretty good setup. Goes to show there is always more than one way to skin a cat if a guy wants to put his mind to the problem and think about it.

So far my hoist system has been working pretty good for me. When I built it I was not sure what the limits for it would be. I know now that it could be a bit taller, when a pig gets around 250+ lbs then you can't pick up from the back feet without their nose still trying to touch the ground. Lifting that way makes good pictures but makes it hard to weigh. I've had to dig dirt out from under their nose before to get an accurate weight. Big ones I have to grab one back foot and an opposite side front foot in my cable drag and pick them up that way. Horrible for pictures but it will get a clean weight and get them in the truck.

Hopefully some day I will get a chance to see how much heavier my hoist will go. I think it will hit the limit before 350 though in its current configuration. Not like I get to test the top limit very often anyway, lol. I may go another 5-10 years before I get another one that big or bigger.
 
Quote:So far my hoist system has been working pretty good for me. When I built it I was not sure what the limits for it would be. I know now that it could be a bit taller, when a pig gets around 250+ lbs then you can't pick up from the back feet without their nose still trying to touch the ground. Lifting that way makes good pictures but makes it hard to weigh. I've had to dig dirt out from under their nose before to get an accurate weight. Big ones I have to grab one back foot and an opposite side front foot in my cable drag and pick them up that way. Horrible for pictures but it will get a clean weight and get them in the truck.


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Know what you mean about height restrictions. I built my first lift back in the '70s and it served me well as long as I hunted deer and hogs. (back problems made lift necessary) When I started hunting nilgai came up with the ramp. Of course you can't weight them with that setup, but gave easier access to the covered bed. Only problem is if you had much junk in the bed you had to unload before loading game. Used 1.5" & 2" pipe for this telescoping setup which rode in a socket on my pickup for work and moved to the old Ford @ the ranch. No way it would hadle your last hog extended, though!
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Now, go get another one to test that lift.
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Regards,
Clarence
 
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