Yesterday afternoon I decided to take the Ruger No.1 out for another stroll in the hills. I'm very keen to blood it. Immediately after work I flew home, grabbed the rifle, three rounds, daypack, new clothes, new boots and headed off to the property for the second time this week.

At the property, the afternoon air was cooling down to the mid teens making me a tad too cool in the Cabelas super mesh gear which worked so well a few days earlier.

With the wind in my face I descended into a gully down stream of a spring fed dam in search of a pig, goat or wild dog. For the next hour I followed a small creek to an area that had seen a lot of pig activity since the Valentine's Day deluge. I haven't seen a pig on the property since August 2008.

Within 10 minutes I heard the crackling of twigs and leaves just up the slope from the flats of the gully. There was a small spotted pig waving its tail happily rooting away ~80m from me. Movement to the left caught my eye; another two smaller pigs were making their way down to the lush green flats. They weren't much larger than a fox.

I froze anticipating a larger pig would eventually present itself for a shot. With the Ruger at the ready I kept listening hoping to hear a heavy bodied animal approaching. No such luck.

The two smaller pigs were getting very close and still heading straight for me. The other spotted pig was now ~50m away. At the 2m mark the smaller black pig must have got a nostril full of my scent, recoiled and ran off up the into the scrub with the other smaller spotted pig in hot pursuit.

This was it, the safety was off and through the scrub I lined up the spotted pig's shoulder in the scope and squeezed off. The pig ran off seemingly unaffected! I was momentarily flabbergasted at what happened or should I say what didn't happen; it was an easy shot. Marking my position with the daypack, I headed to the spot where the pig was; there was no blood from the wad punch.

Walking back to my pack I found a tree with ~5" thick branch with a .410 calibre grove on top. The tree was ~10m from where I took the shot – that may explain how I missed the pig. The hit on the branch would have deflected the 400gr RNSN just enough to miss the small pig ~40m behind.

Disappointed and with the light failing, I commenced the walk back up the gully to the dam and then back to the vehicle which was still half a kilometre away. At least the new Irish Setter boots were very comfortable.

I might head out again this Sunday.