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    Back-to-back Personal Records (Hogs)

    Fair warning this is a long read. I thought about breaking it up into two posts, but what the heck, we should all read more anyway

    After 10 years on my last lease, the fates saw fit for me to leave it. I was very blessed to find a place down in Gonzales county to adopt as my new hunting grounds. It seemed to have a decent number of hogs, and some deer. I would be sharing it with another TBHer that is just good people. It took me almost 3 months to get things setup and running like I wanted, but with help from the new friend I'm on the lease with and friends it got done.

    I was pleasantly surprised when I put up a new set and two weeks later there was a really big boar frequenting it. He was even a daywalker sometimes. I had no stands setup, but I did have my cell cam up and a slow-glow light. He got regular enough I decided to make the trip and see if my mojo of night time pig stalking was attached to the previous piece of ground, or actually things I was good at. I had nicknamed this big guy bulldozer as he was big, and I now knew who was responsible for some of the rooting in the immediate area I had put the feeder. I had added a Spartan GoLive to my camera arsenal, and over the next week in the evenings, when dozer came in I would watch the live video learning what his demeanor was. He was jumpy as all get out. He'd step on a twig and run off. Most of the time I noticed he'd come back in a few minutes though. I filed that away.

    It went as typical, I was having dinner and watching a little TV when my phone buzzed informing dozer was having his dinner. It was around 11pm. I drove my ATV to about 600 yards away and started a long sweeping U walk to sidewind the area first, then come in from the down wind side. On the walk in I had the camera snap a pic and make sure dozer was still there, yep he was all settled in. Just as I made my turn to walk into the wind and toward the feeder I bumped into a cow. We were both startled, but it reacted by crashing through the trees and I was pretty sure right through the clearing the feeder was in. I immediately sat down on the ground behind a cedar tree, pulled out my phone and checked the camera... dozer was gone. I texted my wife communicating my frustration, and that I was going to sit for a few minutes. That tid bit I had filed away about dozer being easily spooked but coming back... yeah I actually remembered it. About 5 minutes later, I snapped another pic.... he was back. I got an arrow nocked, headlamp off and in my hand to keep it close to ground, and started snaking my way through the trees. This was the first stalk I had made in this spot, and when I got to the shooting lane, I was pleasantly surprised to see the whole clearing lit up. Dozer was just out of sight to my right, but slowly feeding left. I nuzzled up to a cedar, hooked up my release and waited. A short while later he took a few quick steps putting him right in front of the feeder just very slightly quartering away. Since I was shooting literally over the top of the slow glow light, as I came to full draw I hit the button for my bow mounted sniper bow light, and dozer might as well have been standing under the noon sun. My pin found the back of his front leg and I started pulling. My pin had decided to make small circles, but they were all in the right spot, so I just concentrated on getting a clean break on the shot. *click* *sssffftttt* *thump* The lighted nock disappeared into dozer and he ran left through a small gap in the trees. I heard him run a ways and it sounded like he turned North. Then I heard a thump and all went quiet. My initial reaction was... he's dead 30 yards to my left, YES!

    I immediately backed out and went back to the ATV. On arriving there, I slammed a bottle of water, and noticed a second pig had come in on my other set. Heck why not try for a double. Long story short, that didn't work out, and I came back to look for dozer. I had put a very very very sharp Iron Will Wide through him, so I was only mildly anxious about blood. Mainly because in my experience, the big ones... they just don't bleed. Too much mud, hide, fat, and muscle to soak up and close off wounds, even if they run 15 yards and fall over. No blood on the ground at impact. The front 3/4 of my arrow was 5 yards behind and to the right of the feeder.... what the heck. It was covered in ants... covered. I picked it up and shook it off.... no blood. This is when my brain starts asking the painful questions... did you miss and glance off the feeder? I saw a few specs of blood on the arrow after closer inspection. I walked back over to feeder, and there at the top of the feeder leg was a big splash of blood. Ok that's more like it. I went ahead and walked to the gap where he had gone... no blood yet. A few steps on other side of that tree line were a few tiny drops for about 5 yards... then nothing. Doubts started to creep in. I did a fair sized circle from last blood but couldn't pick up any. I went back to camp, hooked up a small trailer to ATV, and put Bowie (my dog) in the trailer. I started him at the feeder and he immediately headed to the gap and through it, went a few yards, then kinda veered off randomly into an area with a bunch of small mesquites. There was pig rooting and beds everywhere. Bowie has never been formally trained, but he's found quite a few animals in his day, probably 8-10 a year the last couple of years. After a few minutes we backtracked and I started him on the first few drops of blood I had found, he went a few steps and made a hard left up an alley flanked by cedars on each side. After 10 yards I noticed some decent blood spots on the ground. After 20 yards the cedars opened up into a grassy area, Bowie was several yards ahead of me on a long tracking lead, and I could see big red patches in the brown grass he was walking through. Doubt began to diminish fast. I noticed up ahead the red path made a hard left that Bowie was following, I glanced left, and maybe 10 yards away was the dead pig. He had made a U-turn in the last few moments, and Bowie was dutifully following the blood. OnX put the blood trail right at 60 yards, and he was only about 40 yards due east of where I was standing when I shot. Right where I thought I heard a thump. This was my first pig on the new property, and he was huge! I grabbed a leg to pull him away from the two saplings he was against and got a reality check. I couldn't drag this guy very far. I dropped a marker with OnX and went back to ATV. I was able to get trailer within about 10 yards and it was all I could do to get him to the trailer on it. By this time I was soaked through (this was mid July) and exhausted (it was now 2am). When I got back to camp I took my customary LDPs and got him hooked up to my scale.... new personal record by less than a pound, 213.7#

    I was pretty dang happy, first pig on the new place, was the biggest one I'd ever shot. Things couldn't get any better.... or could they....

    A couple weeks later I was headed back down to put stands up. A buddy was letting my borrow his Maverick, and I had a nice tripod to put up. We arrived pretty late Friday. The whole drive down I didn't look at my phone, knowing pigs would be on feeders, and no way I could make in there in time. When we pulled up to camp I checked it.... no pigs. Huh. We unloaded for the night and had some dinner. My lease mate lives locally and had done us a big favor by swinging by earlier and turning on the AC, made all the difference. We got ready to turn in for the night, and I casually remarked I'd give the pigs till 1am. About 12:45... phone lights up. A monster, at least to me, black boar was on the far West set. My buddy was already in bed and remarked to let him know how it went. It all went about perfect. I got to a parking spot a few hundred yards away, snuck up my previously mapped route, and swung in from downwind. As soon as I had a visual on my sniper feeder light, I pulled out the remote, and hit the medium button, waited a few seconds, and then hit high. The whole feeder area was now bathed in shootable red light. When I got about 40 yards away, I put a patch of brush between me and the feeder, knelt down, nocked an arrow, took off my headlamp, and laid it on the ground. I could hear chomping, my heart was almost as loud as the pig chewing corn. The ground was like walking on eggshells as it hadn't rained in so long (this was mid-August). I took my time, telling myself not to rush. I had time. I got to my pre-scouted shooting spot and peeked around the brush. There was a huge black hog perfectly broadside right at 20 yards. I turned on my sight light, came to full draw... and one of those really fast decisions happened. He was big enough I actually didn't want to put an arrow right in his shoulder like I do with a lot of pigs, event decent size ones. I brought my pin to the back of his front leg a few inches above the body line and pulled. The green lighted nock streaked through the night disappearing into the boar's chest and eliciting a squeal. He dove for cover and all went quiet. I had no idea where I hit him, at night, even with lighted nocks, most of the time its still a guess on where the arrow hit. I texted my buddy and informed him we had work to do. I met him back in camp and we immediately got the trailer hooked up and went back. I had learned my lesson from the first pig on this property about ants and sand soaking up blood. There was blood within the first few yards, and my arrow was laying on the ground on the far side of clearing soaked red end to end. The blood trail was the best I had experienced on a pig of this size, and about 50 yards later we found him laid out on a trail. Just like dozer, this monster had no ground shrinkage. When I grabbed a leg to start dragging I was pretty sure I had a new personal record. With the both of us, it took about 15 minutes to get him to the trailer and loaded. Back at camp he went on the scale.... *drumroll moment*.... 216.6# He was almost 3# heavier than dozer.

    It was a pretty awesome way to start out on a new property. I'm looking forward to deer season to see what comes around later in the year. At least I know I'll probably get to launch arrows consistently at the pigs though.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Loneaggie; 08-26-2022, 03:57 PM.

    #2
    Awesome write up!

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      #3
      Originally posted by Tejas Wildlife View Post
      Awesome write up!

      Thank you sir

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        #4
        Enjoyed the read. Congrats on 2 great bow kills! Bowhunting pigs at night is a riot. Stalking them like that is awesome. Great job [emoji1303]

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          #5
          Well done Matt!

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            #6
            Well played Matt! Well played! Great write. And congrats on both PBs!

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              #7
              Awesome!!!

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                #8
                Nice job and write up, Matt.

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                  #9
                  That's a couple of nice bowkill pigs and gotta love the on the ground stalking action. Congrats.

                  Hogboy

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                    #10
                    I am loading up my stuff and heading out today to see if I can get one. Nice write up and very nice pigs.

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                      #11
                      Congrats! Enjoyed it!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Awesome

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                          #13
                          Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

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                            #14
                            Back-to-back Personal Records (Hogs)

                            Great write up and congrats on the pigs Matt! Good too see some more hunting threads to break up the tbh off-season monotony ..[emoji23][emoji23]

                            You should post more on tbh like you used to Matt instead of just your “braggin board” threads.[emoji23]

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                              #15
                              Congrats on those big stink nasties!!!!

                              Bisch


                              Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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