SPA Modeler

"One pig at a time, Sweet Jesus, that's all I'm asking of you."

Another feral pig went down yesterday at our ranch, Brokenoak. I shot this young sow just before dark from the box blind. She was about 55 yards away and had her snout up, sniffing all around while her piglets gobbled up feeder corn. I think she thought something was wrong and man, was she right. Bang. One shot behind her ear and she was DRT. I took a couple shots at the fleeing piglets but to no avail. The rifle used was the first FAL I had built by Randy Kline, back in 2002. It has a Weaver V3 1-3x scope and I used a single PPU 150 gr. soft point .308 round to exterminate her. Let the swine jihad begin!

An FAL? Now those are one sweet shooting rifle. Pigs are pretty smart creatures. I wonder how long it will take the local population to figure out that coming onto your land is dangerous.

Now it is a bit of a shame that the meat off of that sow is not used to feed the hungry. That would be a true win/win.

Stikpusher wrote:An FAL? Now those are one sweet shooting rifle. Pigs are pretty smart creatures. I wonder how long it will take the local population to figure out that coming onto your land is dangerous.

Now it is a bit of a shame that the meat off of that sow is not used to feed the hungry. That would be a true win/win.

Yes sir Carlos, those FALs are good rifles. That set-up is too heavy to lug around however, but that's not a problem sitting in that box blind. The rifle lays across the window "sill" and is very stable. I think with the scope, mount and a loaded 20 rd. magazine, she pushes 13.5 pounds. I would sure need to hit the weights if I had to carry it and shoot off-hand!

They are damned smart Carlos. A friend once said he had read that they were the fourth smartest mammal. I told him that must put me around 5th or 6th then. Oh, if hunted hard, they will definitely change their habits and these will probably go back to night feeding. Or preferably, just leave for a safer home.

It is a shame for that pork to go to waste. So many people could be fed from the millions killed each year in Texas alone. That was a good size for eating I'd think but I would worry about swine brucellosis in the meat. Many feral pigs carry that bacteria. Here's a bit about that:

https://www.cdc.gov/brucellosis/pdf/fer ... ochure.pdf

If I can shoot one of those little piglets we see on the camera, it would be great cooked whole on the pit I think. Wouldn't that make some delicious pulled pork sammiches?

A pig's gestation period is always 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days. You can set your satchel down on that. A sow can start breeding as young as 8-9 months old if food is plentiful. So, if a sow produces just two litters per year with, let's just say, 8 piglets each time and let's just guess that half are female. In 9 months, those four young females may start breeding, and of course their mother and grandmother (if alive ) are having more litters too. And 9 months later, their own piglets begin breeding too. It's really easy to see how they can increase so fast exponentially. There's no way to shoot them fast enough to keep up with sort of prolific reproduction.

Glad to hear you got another! That FAL is beautiful would love to build one someday.

Thanks Clint! Yeah, those pigs are easy killin' right now; just get into the blind and wait for them to show up at the feeder. But, when hunted hard, they will start feeding at night and lay low during the day time. Then, I am not sitting in that blind all night, hoping they will show up. So, getting them now while it's easy is the game.

That FAL was the first one I had built, back in 2002. Randy Kline (Sledgehammer) was the builder and was at the top of his game then. It's still a good looking rifle and has never had a single issue. It's a pretty good "pig getter" too. This young sow is the sixth pig I've killed with it.

Here's a pic of me and Randy taken the day I picked up that rifle at his shop. You can see why he's nicknamed "Sledgehammer"...

That's a big dude

He is, isn't he? My son and I ran into Randy at a big gun show in Dallas several years after I got to know him. I introduced my son Carson, who is 6'3" tall, to Randy and had to chuckle a little because Carson doesn't usually need to look up to people when meeting them. Randy was a good deal taller than Carson; or as we say down here, full grown!

But, he is also one of the kindest, most easy-going guys you'll ever meet. I've never heard him say a bad word about anyone or even use a bad word. A true gentleman and a great craftsman, I would trust him with any gun-smithing job. If he felt inadequate for the work, he would say so and help you find someone else. At the time of that photo, he was living in Burleson, Texas, just South of Ft. Worth. Since then, he has moved to Jacksonville in East Texas. As far as I know, he is still in the business if only part-time.

tempestjohnny wrote:That's a big dude

What they call corn fed…

With his size, he could run the hogs away from a feeder to get at that corn. Randy may be more svelte now though; he had a serious episode with his heart a few years back. In fact, our last communication concerned his health. He's probably had to drop some of that weight since then...

I have always wanted a FAL but never took the time to purchase one when they were fairly reasonable.
I used to reload myself for a couple of years. I did have my favorite bolt guns before the heart attack took me off of the road. Remington 700 in .308 and one in 22-250 then a Savage 110 bean field rifle in 25-06. Tack drivers out to 300 yds then the 22-250 fell off rapidly. I can't remember my load recipe for either. All I have now is a Beretta PX4 Storm full size.