I'll be adding to this as I go through pics from the trip. Some of you asked me questions in my live hunt thread that I didn't have time to answer. I will be going back through that post to reply to the ones I can.
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Well I'll start off that I have missed this Texas brush country something feirce! This may sound twisted but it was great to get my first cactus thorn in five years jabbed in my back, hand, thigh, etc. It will be weeks before I have them all yanked out. It's weird how a guy can relate thorns and sunburn to a good time. Hunting different terrain and climate really adds to the whole experience.
We started out our hunt on Sunday evening to light variable swirling winds. It made it tough to set up on the hogs. I had a large rank boar to deal with the first night. He stayed just out of my shooting range all evening. There were times he would be a few yards from offering me an oppertunity and then the wind would swirl or he would just get behind me in the bush and woof and breathe hard. This went on untill 4 am when I gave up. I had been battling gnats and skeeters the whole time and decided it was time for camp.
I met Jeff at camp and he had a very similar hunt. Food, a few cold beers and it was time for some shuteye. After four hours of quick sleep we were back up and at it. We seperated and checked all the places we had fed to find quite a bit of hog sign and lots of javelina sign. I was leaving a blind I cut in when Jeff called to tell me he had arrowed the first javie of the hunt. A short drive over on the quad and we were ready to blood trail. As jeff was explaining the shot he tells me there is a javie coming out of the cactus behind me. I get my bow off the quad and nock an arrow while he tells me to hurry up. The lone pig has somehow not seen us and is closing in fast. At fifteen yards he comes back to reality and sees the spot hes walked into. Facing us i think he will blow out, instead he turns broadside and stops. In an instant my arrow has found his shoulder and he's plowing dirt with his snout. We tracked Jeffs first and then mine. Neither pig went over sixty yards! We headed back to camp to skin and relax for the evening hunt.
Jeff with his.
Me and mine.
Doubled down in 14 minutes!
Being that we arrived on the ranch on Saturday afternoon, we allready had spots that had been fed for three days at this point. I decided on my way to my hog blind to circle around a sendaro that was being hammered by javies. I shut the quad down in time to see a group of javies up wind from me. I made a stalk as they fed away. It seemed like they went a mile before I could catch up to them. I was within thirty yards when a single boar joined the back of the group. He had a bad limp and I decided he needed taken out. I continued following them for awhile untill I had closed within eighteen yards. The boar turned and was quartering hard away from me when I released. I hit him at the back of the ribs angling towards the opposite shoulder. It was far back but a good angle. Bad thing was he went way to far and the entry and exit plugged fast. I found minnimum blood and no pig. By the way this is hunting and never a given.
Are they on me?
I arrived at my blind to find the wind had once again shifted. I decided to stalk the sendaros once the moon was out instead of the blind. During the next few hours I had close calls with a group of sows and young that were at least twenty strong. The young were all forty pounders and up. I would have loved to wacked a few of them but it never came together. After being busted, again, I decided to head back to the quad and rethink my plans for the night. As I turn to walk away two young feral boars appear out of thin air on the sandy road behind me. In a flash they see me and vanish. I decide to shed some layers and wait to see if they will come back out. I layed my bow down and and took off my wool sweater (it was about 45 that night) and carried it across the road so it would be upwind of where I thought the hogs would come back out. I look up in time to see one of them making his way down the road away from me. Now I need to get to my bow and he's only thirty or so yards away. How stupid of me to lay my bow down. Luckily I made it to my bow without being busted just as the other boar starts his way out of the bush. He stops broadside at 17 yards long enough for me to drill him through the boiler room! I heard him go down right inside the bush. After tracking him I decided to call it quits for the night. I had a heck of a time getting him loaded by myself. He ended up being in the 160 range. Jeff experienced the same wind and had no shots.
This ones a little blurry, but the only one I have of me and him.
The next evening I had bad wind again and cut my hunt short to get some sleep. We were starting to average three or four hours a night. Jeff on the other hand waited out this young boar! In the mix of all this I ran into a few snakes. I'll get pics of them up as well.
I'll have more to add soon, but I need a break from typing.
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Well I'll start off that I have missed this Texas brush country something feirce! This may sound twisted but it was great to get my first cactus thorn in five years jabbed in my back, hand, thigh, etc. It will be weeks before I have them all yanked out. It's weird how a guy can relate thorns and sunburn to a good time. Hunting different terrain and climate really adds to the whole experience.
We started out our hunt on Sunday evening to light variable swirling winds. It made it tough to set up on the hogs. I had a large rank boar to deal with the first night. He stayed just out of my shooting range all evening. There were times he would be a few yards from offering me an oppertunity and then the wind would swirl or he would just get behind me in the bush and woof and breathe hard. This went on untill 4 am when I gave up. I had been battling gnats and skeeters the whole time and decided it was time for camp.
I met Jeff at camp and he had a very similar hunt. Food, a few cold beers and it was time for some shuteye. After four hours of quick sleep we were back up and at it. We seperated and checked all the places we had fed to find quite a bit of hog sign and lots of javelina sign. I was leaving a blind I cut in when Jeff called to tell me he had arrowed the first javie of the hunt. A short drive over on the quad and we were ready to blood trail. As jeff was explaining the shot he tells me there is a javie coming out of the cactus behind me. I get my bow off the quad and nock an arrow while he tells me to hurry up. The lone pig has somehow not seen us and is closing in fast. At fifteen yards he comes back to reality and sees the spot hes walked into. Facing us i think he will blow out, instead he turns broadside and stops. In an instant my arrow has found his shoulder and he's plowing dirt with his snout. We tracked Jeffs first and then mine. Neither pig went over sixty yards! We headed back to camp to skin and relax for the evening hunt.
Jeff with his.
Me and mine.
Doubled down in 14 minutes!
Being that we arrived on the ranch on Saturday afternoon, we allready had spots that had been fed for three days at this point. I decided on my way to my hog blind to circle around a sendaro that was being hammered by javies. I shut the quad down in time to see a group of javies up wind from me. I made a stalk as they fed away. It seemed like they went a mile before I could catch up to them. I was within thirty yards when a single boar joined the back of the group. He had a bad limp and I decided he needed taken out. I continued following them for awhile untill I had closed within eighteen yards. The boar turned and was quartering hard away from me when I released. I hit him at the back of the ribs angling towards the opposite shoulder. It was far back but a good angle. Bad thing was he went way to far and the entry and exit plugged fast. I found minnimum blood and no pig. By the way this is hunting and never a given.
Are they on me?
I arrived at my blind to find the wind had once again shifted. I decided to stalk the sendaros once the moon was out instead of the blind. During the next few hours I had close calls with a group of sows and young that were at least twenty strong. The young were all forty pounders and up. I would have loved to wacked a few of them but it never came together. After being busted, again, I decided to head back to the quad and rethink my plans for the night. As I turn to walk away two young feral boars appear out of thin air on the sandy road behind me. In a flash they see me and vanish. I decide to shed some layers and wait to see if they will come back out. I layed my bow down and and took off my wool sweater (it was about 45 that night) and carried it across the road so it would be upwind of where I thought the hogs would come back out. I look up in time to see one of them making his way down the road away from me. Now I need to get to my bow and he's only thirty or so yards away. How stupid of me to lay my bow down. Luckily I made it to my bow without being busted just as the other boar starts his way out of the bush. He stops broadside at 17 yards long enough for me to drill him through the boiler room! I heard him go down right inside the bush. After tracking him I decided to call it quits for the night. I had a heck of a time getting him loaded by myself. He ended up being in the 160 range. Jeff experienced the same wind and had no shots.
This ones a little blurry, but the only one I have of me and him.
The next evening I had bad wind again and cut my hunt short to get some sleep. We were starting to average three or four hours a night. Jeff on the other hand waited out this young boar! In the mix of all this I ran into a few snakes. I'll get pics of them up as well.
I'll have more to add soon, but I need a break from typing.
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