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I just returned home from a 5 day hunt in two different parts of the Appalachian Mountains. Light snow last night. One of several wallowing holes used by the hogs. A typical New England barn. Apples still clinging on the tree in defiance of the coming Winter.

The first part of my hunt was for wild Boar up at the cabin in North Central Pennsylvania about 20 miles south of the New York State border. I got skunked the previous two times I hunted these things after scoring a nice Boar on my first attempt last Fall. Not this time. The hogs were all over the place. We hunted them in the same way as we would rabbits. We walked slowly through the woods and jumped them out of their beds, which were always in thick downfalls under the heavy branches, or they were lying under a fallen tree. This was very exciting because they would jump out of their beds mad as Hell and run for cover. Luckily, none came toward us! I shot two boars on the same day by doing this. These two boars were not a match for a .340 shooting 250 grain Nosler Partitions. The Blonde Boar was my first of the day. I jumped him along with two others from a thick deadfall. He bolted out and was snorting like mad when he skidded to a stop, then turned around to look straight at me. I’m sure he wondered what jumped him. I shot him at the base of the neck from about 30 yards and the bullet made a complete pass through the length of the body. The black Boar was shot in the same manner except he didn’t stop. He was lying with two other hogs, one of which was very red in color. The red one would’ve made a better trophy, but he turned and ran down the hill. The black one trotted off to the right and I heart shot it as he turned from about 25 yards. Lucky! We saw many more hogs and heard the loud squeals of a couple boars fighting in a field of Goldenrod. The black and white one in the photo was another one we jumped.

After the Boar hunt, I headed north along the Mountain Range to New Hampshire to hunt deer on a special permit on private property. There was a dusting of snow up here, too. Rain and snow all along the Alleghenys and Appalachians up through the Catskills. The photo from behind the log looking down hill was from one of my stand locations. I’d seen this deer early in the morning and couldn’t get him in the scope with a clear shot. He bedded down about 120 yards away and all I could see was his head sticking above a fallen tree trunk as he was laying in a small depression looking downhill. I waited him out all morning. Around 2:00 he stands up, walks 20 feet to my left, then turns and starts walking uphill toward me. He stops at about 100 yards, then angles toward me but heading off to my right and toward a clearing near a lane. At about 90 yards he stops, angling away from me, looks away, and stomps his right foot. I shot him right behind the shoulder. The deer jumped about 4 feet straight up, hunched his back way down, ran 20 yards tops, then hit the ground.

Two hogs and a medium sized buck with a .340 Weatherby. The total yardage for all three animals was under 150 yards and certainly no test for a .340.

The freezer will be full this year!

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