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One of my customers works on a large property, about an hour from my place and he invited me out there for a bit of Pig and Goat hunting when his job was finished.
I brought his repaired rifle up with me today and we met at the prearranged spot.
He was to be the guide and so we went out in his vehicle. It was hard to take, being the passenger. He even brought his 15yo son along to open the gates!
We were driving past the old Rabbit trapper’s hut, when the first pig was sighted, just standing in the dead thistles and watching us drive past.
I jumped out, loaded up and went looking for it, but it disappeared into the Blackberry patch. I was asked what I was using and how much ammo I had. When told that I had only brought 11 rounds, my host said “Gee, you’re not much fun”
My guide had spied some more pigs about 150yds away, so we prepared to stalk them. I was carrying my Vergueiro 7x57 loaded with Barnes 140g TSX’s and I was eager to see how they would perform on game, as they are quite accurate in this rifle.
I spied a large black pig at about 70m and took an off hand shot at it’s chest. It ran around in a circle and I could see blood on its flank. We got closer and I gave it another in the brisket, but it still didn’t fall over. My host fired the coup de grace with his 44Mag Marlin and it fell over this time.
These bloody expensive bullets were hitting where aimed, but just sailing straight through like solids! Unbelievable!!

We discussed the dubious merits of these bullets and after taking a photo , we drove to the back of the block, where we came on a good mob of Goats and after driving around and down wind, I prepared to stalk them.
At one stage I was crawling on my hands and knees through the dead thistles to get close enough and I’m still picking the thorns out of my skin.
I was about to fire on the goats that I could see, at 80m away, when I saw some more coming towards me at only 25m. I picked out a nice young billy and shot it through the shoulders.
Goats, being as they are, milled around at the shot and I knocked another bigger billy over. The sound of the shots was echoing off the far hills and the goats panicked and all raced towards me. All I had to do was load and fire. I got another two before they woke up and bolted for the hills.
I was rapt. This time the bullets seemed to perform as they should and dropped the goats on the spot, but it seems that they have to hit bone to work properly.

My host drove up and we got some photos and took the meat.

We then drove up onto a hill top and followed an old track that would take us back down to the main track. More goats were found, but we left them, as we were looking for some more pigs. We saw some on the next hill and there was one feeding on the short green grass beside the track we were on.
I stalked to within about 50m of it and gave it a Texas heart shot. It went down squealing and thrashing and was dead by the time I got to it. The bullet had gone through the spine, just above the tail and didn’t exit. YooHoo! I was having a ball.

More pictures were taken, then we headed home, as the light was fading on a very enjoyable afternoon.

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Flinch ? Wot flinch ? Gunsmithing is my PASSION.

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