This trip started one day when I saw a post on Randy Mitchell's Airgun Hunting Forum. I saw a title that read something like, "a few spots left on the Shioh Big Bore airgun hunt". My interest was peaked. I responded to Chris Butcher's post and got a spot on the hunt.
That was earlier this year and the aticipation of the hunt made it a long wait. Chris decided to fly in to Colorado from Oregon and share the ride down to the Shiloh Hunting Ranch with me. He needed to get his 909 from Leroy on the way down and it was nice to have the company for the twelve hour drive. As you might imagine airguns and hunting dominated the conversation.
We arrived at the ranch and met the other hunters, Will P. and his son Amon. Will's son in law was suppossed to come with them but was called into work, what a bummer. However, that meant there were only four of us hunting the entire ranch. We met Matt Napper, owner of the ranch, and a big bore airgun hunter himself. Matt has a Bontrager 45 and has taken a nice hog with it. He was happy to have a group of big bore airgun hunters come hunt his place.
After the orientation we all shot our guns and made any neccesary adjustments to be ready to take the required head shot on our hogs. We knew we would be hunting over feeders at about 20 yards or so and we sighted in at that distance. This ranch is very shooter friendly and it can be done whenever you want. You can shoot at 20 yards up by the cabins and out to 100 just a little further away from the cabins. It's nice to able to shoot during the day when your not hunting or if you take your hog early. Also, the fire department in town will happily fill your tanks for $5. I just wish I had brought more bullets.
Will P. brought his newly completed custom gun in 45 caliber. It was very nice looking and feeling. The craftmanship also looked top qualty and you could tell Will has real gunsmithing skills. It felt a good couple pounds lighter than most other big bores, The trigger of this gun was smooth, crisp, and light at a scant 10oz.
At around 5:00 pm we all headed out to our stands to get settled in for the active evening hours. It was about an hour and a half after that I heard a shot ring out from Will's direction. Having seen him shoot earlier I was pretty sure what the result was. It didn't seem like it was very much longer when another shot rang out from Amon's area and again I was fairly certain another hog had met its end.
Neither myself nor Chris had the how in front of us that we wanted to shoot. I was holding out for a nice size boar with some cutters or a real big sow, at least for the first hunt or two. All I had come in to my feeder were seven 100lb hogs and a very nice Sika deer. I had one bigger boar come in to the edge of the clearing around the feeder but he would not step clear for a shot. All he did was stand there and growl at the younger dumber hogs until the corn was gone and soon after all the hogs.
Once we were all back in camp my thoughts about the two kills was confirmed and Will and Amon had two nice hogs being brought into camp. Both guys took hogs with one shot kills through the brain. Amon's was a real nice 142 lb sow and Will's was a nice eater at 100 lbs. I could realy appreciate the father son moment since I hunt elk almost every year with my Dad and we just went on a hog hunt together ourselves (only he bagged one, argh). It was very cool to see them both be succesful in the same evening.
The next morning we all slept in since the evening hunt are much more succesful and we wnted to shoot a bunch more and then run into town and fill up on air. Will and his son decided to head out since they had their hogs and had family to visit in Dallas. They were nice enough to let us empty thier tanks for them at the range, thanks Will.
After much shooting and lounging Matt rolled into camp and asked me if I still wanted to go after one of his wilder fallow does, I did. He had a very pretty white one that I wanted to persue since I shot a spotted one a couple of hunts ago. I thought it would look good to have one of each hide, spotted and white. We headed out in persuit of the deer but could not find her anywhere. We tried looking for her safari style on the quad and on foot in the woods but to no avail. The deer on this part of the ranch are very wild and have not been fed over feeders and they were very weary. We decided to go after another white fallow that was in the same part of the ranch as the hogs. However, it is VERY thick in there and we decided the only real chance we had was to feed the road and try and get in close enough for a shot on these spooky animals. After a while of doing this we spotted the deer in the edge of the woods. They would run out and grab some food and dart back into the woods. If we tried to get closer they were gone. Finaly, we got into a position where I could see them as they started to come out again. The one I wanted started to walk towards the road but stopped short and they would not come out. I managed to line up a shot on her and she stopped for just a moment. BANG....A blast of air hit me in the face and my hat went flying into the air. I was stunned momentarily and then looked down at the gun and the bolt was open and all the way back. I guess I bumped it getting into possition and it blew open when I took the shot. I was worried that it didn't hit the deer with enough force but Matt said she was hit hard. She took a couple steps and bedded down. I could tell she was mortaly wounded and would eventualy die but I didn't want her to suffer so I crept in and delivered the finishing shot. The doe weighed a little over a hundred pounds and was two years old. I'm sure she will be tender and delicious. I love fallow deer but the last one I shot was old and a little tough so I was happy for this one.
The first shot hit a little far back either due to the bolt blowing open or the bullet I was using or both, (ok I guess it could have been a little me too but it was a fairly close shot and it felt good). It grazed a lung and blew through her liver tearing it to shreds and lodging under the skin on the outer side of the off rib cage. Impressive for an under powered shot!
That evening me and Chris had the ranch to ourselves and could hunt at any stand we chose. We both decided to hunt from ground blinds and I chose number seven becaouse several 200-300 lb hogs had been seen near there by Chris and Will. I walked out with Chris and said bye to him at his blind and walked on to mine. One of the ranch rules is you must only shoot hogs from your stand or blind. This was tough to do since I stalked very close to several nice shooters while getting to my stand. One was heading directly towards me as I was approaching the cut off to my blind. I took a couple steps off the road and let him walk right past me at less than ten yards, very exciting! As I turned and started working to my stand I could see that there were around 15 hogs eating all the corn from under my feeder. All I could do was move slowly and quietly towards my blind. One by one they either heard me, smelled me, or saw me and easily trotted off. Two boars decided to be stubborn and did not leave until I was pretty close and in plain view. Yes young and dumb.
A couple of hours went by and I saw several nice hogs skirting around the edges and walking in the woods but nothing came into range. These hogs know whats up around the stands and approach slowly and coutiously and only if the wind is right. I don't think the real big ones come in until dark.
At 8:00pm the last two hogs to leave when I came in were back and eating like crazy. I waited until 8:15 to see if a sow would come in to the sound of the others eating. No other hogs came in and I decided to go ahead and take the smaller boar as I figured he was younger and a better eater. Also, I only had 15 minutes left of legal shooting light and didn't want to leave it until the last morning. I lined up the shot and sqeezed on the trigger, BANG. When the rifle settlrd back down there was only one hog still there and he was down and doing a little twitching. I know these animals are tough and can get back up from being stunned if the shot is not in the brain. I decided just to go ahead and put one more between the eyes just to make sure this was a permanent dirt nap. The DAQ 457 LA had shown its potential and performed great on both animals.
Chris didn't have anything come into his area and would have to wait until the last morning. This ended up working out and at 7:30am he came into the cabin and said, "got a hog"! I jumped up and went out to check it out. Chris had made a great shot on his hog and was going home with some nice meat.
All in all, a very fun and successful hunt. Matt and the Shiloh Ranch are awesome and put on a good hunt for big bore airgunners. There are a ton of nice hogs on this place and several exotics as well.
I can't wait for the next hunt in October and hope to have five hunters besides myself. Please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to join in on the next hunt at the Shiloh.