Trad - Barebow at night

[SwampRabbit]

Going to be chasing hogs at night again in a couple of weeks. Last year, I was using my compound with a bow mounted light. Stalked up on a hog, drew and still had to flip on my light so I could see my pins up against the hog (don't use pin light because it washed out the target.)

Since I hadn't been practicing barebow at night, my plan was to revert to my compound when chasing the hogs at night... but Buff's thread about chasing bush pigs at night got me thinking... why not try? At this point, I haven't touched my compound since October.

So, what works for ya'll? Feeder lights are not an option. It is spot and stalk under moonlight (assuming no clouds...) I've got a bow light, so I could go that route. An alternative is to put some glow in the dark tape on the end of my arrow near the feild point. I'm pretty much a gap shooter, so I am thinking that might work to help me see the end of the arrow.

[Bisch]

If the moon is bright and you have a good caliche (or any light colored) road, you don't even need the light.

I have a homemade light bracket that I use on my takedown bow. It is the same one that I use to attach my string tracker also. They are very easy to make and work very well to attach anything that would go on a stabilizer hole.



Bisch

[Buff]

Pratice a little at home in the dark. you will be suprised how well you can shoot.
The challange is trying to pick a spot on the pig.
As far as the arrow goes, I dont look at it anyway so I shoot about as good in the dark as I do in the light.

But then again I shoot about as bad with my eyes open as I do with my eyes shut.


In the end I guess I have nothing of any use to add to this thread

[caughtandhobble]

Try practicing at night with your trad bow. A few friends and I will use a lighted nock placed on a very short arrow as a target at night time. We will stick the lighted nock in a cactus most of the time but it will work on any target. We have been known to shoot at the lighted nock at fairly long distances. The long range practice makes the close shots a lot easier... I have found that if I can see my target at all, it's not that different than shoot during the day. Good Luck!!!

[Buff]

Wait..... I have this from long years ago


Night Hunt




Setting alone in a dark river bottom is not for everyone, but for the twisted few it holds a special magic. The night sounds of unseen creature’s stirs the imagination and draws the hunter back to endure the heat and bugs of a hot, still summer night. I love the aloneness of it setting there with my thoughts; my imagination runs wild with every sound. An armadillo becomes a 500 pound boar as he stomps threw the leaves.
Hogs are the target that draws me and a group of friends to the dark woods of late spring and summer. Not noted for our intelligence, finding ways to fool pigs is a group passion.
It was a muggy night when I first got hooked; having endured the afternoon heat, frustration made me keep setting in my stand even after it was black dark. I knew hogs came to the feeder every night. The little bottom was tore up with sign but after four, hundred plus degree evening sets had produced no sightings, frustration had me determined to set until they came in.
Shortly after dark I was surprised to discover I could see very well in the little opening where the feeder sat. The otherwise solid canopy had a bare spot right above the feeder. Moon light shown down like a spot light leaving an area of about 20 feet lighted in the otherwise pitch dark woods.
About 10:00 I heard them coming from straight down wind. The normally timid pigs were making no effort to be quite. Thinking they had the night to themselves they stomped down the hill squealing and grunting headed straight to the feeder. The entire group stopped just short of the opening and stood for a long minute. They had formed a half circle standing still checking for danger, some of them so close I could hear them breathing.
I was in full system overload. Pigs were everywhere and I could see nothing. Twigs snapped, leaves rustled, grunts and moans filled the night air.
As if on command 6 or 8 small pigs piled in on the corn pushing and shoving. After a few minutes with the smaller pigs popping there teeth feeding the larger hogs began moving in. The large hogs seemed to since there was danger in the moon light as they would move across the small opening gathering a few morsels as they went never stopping in the light.

Within five minutes they all settle down to eat with no less then sixteen pigs under the feeder I was having fits picking out one to shoot. The moon light played tricks on me as the spotted ones seemed to appear and disappear. With my recurve at half mast I picked a solid black one and began to bare down on him. As he started to turn to his right I began to draw my bow, feeling the muscles tighten in my back as the all the world blurred except the small spot at the back of his ribs that would take my arrow through his back and out his throat. Once my fingers touched my face there was only a second before the 66# Blackwidow had buried the 700 grain Carbonwood shaft to the feathers in my hog. The 1-1/2” 200 grain Snuffer tipped the hog over on his nose. With a bone chilling squeal the hog thrashed through the brush for 3 or four seconds with his companions scattering every direction. The remainder of the herd stood around me wondering what had happened grunts and moans all around me combined with the adrenalin rush from the shot had all my senses on high alert. I was hooked for life.
Hogs while hated by some have been a boom for East Texas bow hunters. Providing year round hunting and big game in counties where deer were few and far between.

Whether you use a recurve, longbow with only the moon light or a compound with a red light rigged on the stabilizer Night hunting provides a unique experience that will have your heart in your throat as much with what you hear and can not see as what you can.

[TacticalCowboy]

I'm wondering about using a head-mounted light.

[SwampRabbit]

I'm wondering about using a head-mounted light.

I can say I have tried this. It doesn't work, at least for me, because the light is behind the bow and it casts a shadow of it.

[R.Armendariz]

[ATTACH]703121[/ATTACH]
This is how I put it on mine. I can mount it side ways on the riser also because I drilled and tapped it on the side of the plastic mount.

[Phillip Fields]

Mine is set-up pretty much like Roger's. If there's enough moonlight I prefer not to use the light. I need to make a bracket like Bisch's.

[Featherflinger]

I put some bicycle tubing on my light so it doesn't scratch the finish. Then use a rubber band to wrap around the riser.

[Bisch]

One more thing, if you use a light that is like a flashlight like most of the newer hog lights, you need to figure out a way to make sure it is pointed just right when mounted. The newer lights are more of a spot rather than flood. It is very easy, in the heat of the moment, to center the light beam on your target. If the light is not set up and pointed in the right place, your arrow will be off the mark too!

Bisch

[SwampRabbit]

One more thing, if you use a light that is like a flashlight like most of the newer hog lights, you need to figure out a way to make sure it is pointed just right when mounted. The newer lights are more of a spot rather than flood. It is very easy, in the heat of the moment, to center the light beam on your target. If the light is not set up and pointed in the right place, your arrow will be off the mark too!

Bisch

This right here is what I was concerned about.... focusing on that bright spot.

[killerbee]

I put some bicycle tubing on my light so it doesn't scratch the finish. Then use a rubber band to wrap around the riser.

x2

[tex4k]

My favorite way to hunt pigs, forget the lights you won't need them, practice at night as much as you can, a 3-d would be very helpful. The best thing I've found, when you get to your hunting area get yourself set to hunt then just hang out around the vehicle with absolutely no artificial light use-zip-zero -none of no kind for 20-30 minutes, then start your hunt, you'll be amazed at how much you'll be able to see. If you have an area to go try it before your hunt, give it a go, it'll help you to adjust to seeing and recognizing what you see, you'll be seeing everything in shades of gray but once you get used to that your good.

[LeanMachine]

This is a mount i fabricated to mount my flashlight. 1"x1/8" aluminum and 3/4 pvc. The design of my light allowed the battery cap to be unscrewed, the light to be inserted into a a length of pvc, and then the cap to be screwed down snug against the pipe. Very clean and tidy system. The aluminum can be bent to shine the light to desired area.