Let’s talk hunting guns

[Nufo]

Well I’ll start off and say that I have not harvested a cat yet but have one bear. During cat season I always start off carrying my ruger sbh 44mag but then get tired of it and end up with just my Glock 43x which is my daily carry. The Glock shoots well but accuracy becomes questionable after 20 yards or so for a head shot etc. I usually have my 22 mag rifle in the truck but hate carrying it through the woods. I’ve been trying to find a a nice 22 mag pistol but have been unimpressed with the few I’ve handled. The 5.7x28 has intrigued me since I first heard about it. I ended up picking up a smith and Wesson m&p in 5.7 and slapped a red dot on it. 22 round magazine and my first mag at 10 yards it put every round in a 3” group without taking my time on each shot. I sighted it in at 25 yards and it shooting around 1 moa. I was totally blown away. It’s like a 22 mag on steroids. Only negative is the ammo is a bit pricey. Best I could find is $29 for 50 round with most going around $39 for 50rds. The gun is super slim and light weight. I’m gonna run it in a chest rig this cat season and see how it goes. I’ll switch back to my heavier guns 1911s & 44 mag revolvers for bear season)

[lawdawgharris]

We carry a 30/30 lever action on the buggy but it rarely gets used, maybe once a year. It’s great for hunting hogs in the brush. In the past I have taken a semi trailer load of hogs with a regular.22, rifle and pistol. I’ll never forget this one hunt. We had a sounder of hogs bayed, probably 30 head of sows and bigger shoats. They were bayed out in this mesquite pasture and we were just enjoying watching the dogs work. Well one sow and shoat kept breaking out and the dogs would turn them and put them back in the group, but each time they’d make out a little further. I told my buddy and his uncle that those two were getting ready to break bay for good and that when they did the hogs were probably going to scatter. There was one sow that had her or head down and eye balling us the whole time. I told them when the bay breaks I’m going to drop that sow right there. I had a .22 revolver on my hip. Sure enough in just a minute it happened like I said. I drew from the hip and dropped that sow in her stance. Another sow broke and ran to my left and I raised my left arm to shoot under it and I dropped her in stride, two hogs two head shots. My buddies uncle said GD you got both of’em, GD! Lol, I said yeah they call me the Duke and holstered my gun. It was pure luck but it was funny. I probably couldn’t have done it again in fifty tries. Another time I had a single shot .22 rifle. We were trying to wipe this herd of hogs out for some farmers. They had replanted their corn 3 times and these hogs had came in behind them and rooted every seed they planted. They had thermal hunters, helicopters, and other dog hunters all in there at one point or another and none of them had any success. They said if we didn’t do something they were probably going to have to hang it up. We get there and the dogs go to baying. We had slit bays in several spots. I was walking in to a bay and it was head high weeds, Johnson grass, mesquites, and various other scrubby saplings scattered around. The bay broke and I could hear the weeds and stuff popping, coming right to me. I stood there and a big sow came blowing out about 20 feet from me. As soon as she saw me I saw the look in her eye and she was coming to get in my britches with me. I was use to the ladies wanting me like that but the fine kind not the swine kind, lol y’all know that’s the truth too.I raised that single shot and popped her in the head and she slid right up to her nose touching my boot. We got 18 that day, and all good hogs. Those farmers were extremely thankful. I could tell more stories about a .22 but y’all get what I’m saying, they can get the job done for the way I was using them. In the brush though, they get deflected real easy. That’s where the 30/30 is so much better and plus the fact that it doesn’t have to be a head shot.


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[Nufo]

Sounds like good times Law!

[lawdawgharris]

Nufo to say they were good times is an understatement. Those couple of hunts with guns and several more with guns were awesome, but I won’t lie, watching a good catch dog is just the icing on the cake. You watch all the things the bay dogs do to locate a hog or hogs. The ability to work a track, hot or cold, pushing that track fast through rough conditions, be it really Jt and dry or really wet or through the thickest vegetation. Maybe it’s the way they cheat a hog when they get a chance or drift a track. It’s so awesome to see them wind a hog from a mile out go as straight to it that you’d think somebody told them where it was. Then you watch them bay and try to keep the hog there. Maybe it’s a rank boar that they have to give a little or a lot of space. Maybe it’s a sounder and they have to know how much pressure to apply to keep them in a bunch and when to get tougher and force them back in. Then there are those times that you see a hog try and leave and a particular dog can’t get to it to turn it or spin because of its position and it literally side passes over 3 other dogs and in two forward steps grabs a ham and yanks the hog back down into the belly of the ditch, forcing it to face back up and wait on the catch dog to arrive. It’s so cool to see dogs count hogs as an old man once told me. If they had five bayed, they relayed as soon as possible to the next hog when you caught the first, second, third, etc. Then you have the catch dogs. When you have that dog that wants to please you it’s awesome. No leash required, they just hang on your every word. It doesn’t matter if it’s catch’em or caught hog, they are listening and minding because they know it eases you and that the sooner we get up a move the sooner they get to catch another one. Watching a catch dog that is smart enough to ham a runner long enough to make it squat or spin so they can move to the ear. The catch dogs that don’t bow in there out of control and can think on their feet are game changers. That hard charger misses a lot because he isn’t in control and able to adjust when a hog makes any kind of move. Those hard chargers are usually straight line dogs. They run through the thickest stuff and get tangled up as well as bust the bay because it sounds like a herd of elephants crashing in. That thinker paid attention to the trail that was five foot over and went straight to the hog without resistance. The good ones know where they are going to catch the hog before they get up to it and will make adjustments if they have to. They are the accurate ones that rarely miss. So for me, eliminating the catch aspect would eliminate a lot more good dog work that really enjoy.

I do want one of those tiny .22 mag revolvers to put in my pocket in case I get in a bind. I’m getting older and sometimes I wonder who’s going to win lol.


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[Gee Creek curs]

I carry a Henry 44.mag for bear and hog