Father and Son Hunter Set for a pig hunt

[Woodchuck Forge]

I will be heading off this Thurs to my first hunt with my oldest son since about 1993. We are going to Texas to hunt pigs. I decided to commemorate the event I would make a set of hunters. Here they are.

Both are 6 bar Turkish Twist. Blades are 4.5 inches long and about .125 thick. Fixtures are 416SS with black, red and phosphor bronze spacers. Top knife is stabilized Maple that has been dyed brown. Bottom knife is stabilized claro walnut.



And a close up of the blades





And the handles



Hope you enjoyed the pics

[boatbuilder]

Very nice job on the knives. This is very similar to my favorite hunter style knife as well.
Jim

[Ed Caffrey]

I'm digg'in those Chuck! That damascus is so crisp and clean....and the spacer in the guard sets everything off very nicely!

[J. Doyle]

Very nice Chuck! Some of my favorites of yours to date.

[macaroni]

nice pig stickers Chuck. good luck on your hunt..

[Jeremy]

I really like the damascus you made those out of. Hope the hunt goes well.

Jeremy

[Woodchuck Forge]

Thanks all. That Damascus turned out pretty nice. Would have liked some more twists but still looks great. This was all done at the lower forge welding temps I posted about before. I feel this greatly helps keep things clean and well defined.

[Woodchuck Forge]

Well got back from Tx monday. What a hoot.. Here is the motley crew



Don't pay much attention to the time stamp it is about 1.5 hours early.

Left to right, David (my son) The Red Goat (the guy that set the whole thing up) and the old fart on the right is yours truly. The Red Goat and the Guide provided the weapons. Dave was shooting an AR15 in 6.8spc. TRG is holding (he was not shooting) his AR15 9mm and Savage .308 bolt. I have TRG's M16. TRG's weapons are all suppressed and the M16 is a true M16. The 6.8 and the M16 also had night vision capabilities since we were hunting at night.

We had a great time last Saturday. The guide is called The Dehoginator. He is something else. Cracking jokes and bouncing off the ceiling until the hunt was on. Then it was ALL business. He got us on hogs right away but needless to say we missed. Had a chance at a yote and I missed that. Should have sighted in the rifle for me. Shot at another Hog and hit it but it ran into some real thick pines. Found one spot of blood and some stomach matter. But after an hour of nothing we had to give up. The pines were so thick I could not see the guide and TRG 20yds into the thick stuff with a thermal unit. Yes we had thermals too. They are serious about killing hogs down there. Well about 2am we came back to the bait again and we found this guy.



Stalked to within 75yds to a fence-line. Set up on the sticks and 1 2 3 shoot, we both fired and the pig spun around, Dave fired 3 more times and I fired once. Well we know he was hit 4 times at least. Broke his back and he was down for good. The guide popped him in the head for good measure. Then we went back and dressed him out. The knives performed great. Hogs are brutal on blades. When we were done I did need to touch them up but I got all the way through. Came home with coolers that weighed 50lbs each. We did not weigh him but TRG estimated he was 250-275lbs. Could have hunted more but we had to take care of this one and we did not finish until 7am and had to go to the AP that night.

It was great to get out with the son once more. Been a lot of years since we hunted together.

Thanks for looking

[Woodchuck Forge]

BTW the hunt was in exchange for this. TRG saw it on another forum and had to have it.

[Horsewright]

BEAUTIFUL knives (all 3) and a nice pig too. They are tough on a blade. Like cutting up a 36 grit ceramic belt thats coated in dried mud. Lot of hogs here but they're hard to hunt. They move around too much. Here for a week and then gone for 6 months. Sure do a lot of damage, like a bunch of industrial rototillers and fixing fence is pretty much a full time job when they are around.

[Ed Caffrey]

OK! Time out! Who shot the pig in the butt!?? I know that's likely not the case, but when I first saw the pic, that way the first thing that went through my mind.

Heck, the piece of ironwood on the knife was worth the pig hunt alone! Whether they know it or not, THEY got a bargain on that knife.

[Woodchuck Forge]

Well I will claim the shot that was a bit far back. most of that blood came from the spine shot that put him down. However somewhere on the fray he got hit in the left rear femur and went thought the right rear ham. It turned the femur into splinters. I am a much better shot than that, but I did not sight in the rifle before we hunted so my bad on that. When I took the shot at the yote I saw a splash way right so that would explain a lot. Glad the son was there to help the old man out.. The hog did however have 2 holes in the chest cavity, one was the 6.8 and one was most likely the 5.56. What can I say, pork for dinner though.

[Horsewright]

Gotta deep pit him. Only way to go with them guys. Big party, invite everybody.

[Woodchuck Forge]

Pit bbq would be great. Next time I plan to be better prepared. Son and I are planning to drive down. Spend a week and have plenty of time to hunt. Plus we can bring back as much pork as we want. He is planning on making a 200 gal biodiesle tank. He has a little in with the owners of the biodiesle plant in san Diego. Oh that's right he is the owner.. Sorry proud papa.

[Woodchuck Forge]

Oh, I keep forgetting. Ed I have had that ironwood hanging around for 3 or 4 years. It was in k&g's bargain bin. Git it for a song. I know it is worth at least $100 today. It did not look nearly that nice in block. It did turn out pretty though.