It was the dark of moon on the 6th of June... Well not really it was early May, but it was a moonless pitch black night. Over the week prior I had an adult boar that had become a regular, but he was a night owl.... late night owl, often not making an appearance until 11pm or later. However, I was undeterred and headed West to see if I could get a shot.
I arrived in time to actually drop by the feeder and dump 10 pounds of corn that had a packet of strawberry jello mixed in, and set the throw duration to double what it normally does. This is because I've been under siege by a group of 8 racoons, and I wanted to make sure there was corn on the ground for my swine friend when he decided to show up. Then it was back to camp, unpack, double check the bow, and have dinner. Sure enough at 10pm I still only had racoons and I was down 2 beers. About 10:20 my phone lit up, and there was a pig shaped dark shadow at the very edge of my camera's flash range. I set the camera duration to 2 minutes, and started packing. The shorter camera duration, let's me see updates of where said pig is easily as I drive a half mile to a parking spot, then speed walk another half mile before getting within stalking range.
When I got to within 100 yards I was mildly out of breath, but could hear some serious chewing. I took off my red headlamp, donned my action camera, and nocked a broadhead. Now it was time to get low, get slow, and get quiet. 15 minutes later, I eased from behind some brush and got my first look at the lip smacking pig. My knees went weak, and I started immediately and visibly shaking. There standing in front of me enjoying his pile of corn was a truly massive hog. You don't have to think about it or ask yourself how big he is, your primal instincts broadcast it immediately.... BEAST!
I could feel my release shaking in my hand, my breath was labored and totally out of control. I was watching the boar's head as it was up while he was chewing, and I decided I would wait until he went down for another mouthful to draw. It was a good time to try and pick a spot I could aim at when the time came. There was a small spot of mud that was showing up really well in the red light, but it was in the crease. I prefer to shoot them a few inches further forward, so I made a mental note to put my pin just to the right of that mud dot. The shaking was only getting worse. The massive head went down, and his hips shifted slightly my direction. My brain was still functioning sufficiently that I noticed the angle shift and altered my plan to put my pin on the mud spot, I came to full draw... I put my pin on the mud spot, my pin started making all sorts of psychedlic patterns over the boar's shoulder. I had made my aim, now I just watched the mud spot and to a lesser degree my pin like it was a TV, all my focus was on working my release... my mantra was cycling at a million hours through my head: pull, pull, pull.... it was taking forever (though the video showed a handful of seconds) so I mentally got more agressive screaming a few choice words into my mind about I had to control this.... *CLICK* then a thump like I had hit a foam target. I saw my arrow bury to the fletch in his chest as he whirled left to exit.
There was immediate crashing in the brush only a few yards outside the feeder circle, it went on for several seconds but wasn't really getting further away or quieter. Was he still on his feet and about to walk back out to get to a trail opposite of where he was? It took some effort, but I managed to get another arrow nocked and eased out more in the open where I would have a better viewpoint if he came trotting back out across the clearing. After a few seconds, it went quiet. Being out of breath, and still having the shakes I dropped to my knees and set my bow down.
I took a few minutes to breathe, text my wife, let her know I had just slayed a beast, and switch my headlamp LED from red to white. I've had issues lately with coyotes jumping on my pigs fairly fast, so I decided I would track him immediately and drag him to a better spot. Usually I have my dog on a tracking lead in front of me as we dive into the thickets, but he was back in camp and I wanted to make a quick recovery. Given the situation, for the first time in a long time, I set bow down unholstered the .40 S&W, chambered a round, and brought it to low ready as I started tracking. Now I was uneasy, but for a different reason. In the back of my mind I was wondering if that boar had just laid down and was waiting on me in that thicket. Fortunately the track was very short, and when I saw him 2 feet away he was very very dead. It took some effort to get him the short distance out to where I could lay my gear on top of him to deter coyotes while I went to get the ATV trailer at camp to load him up.
My scale said 213#, which beat my previous personal best of 196# by a good margin. I don't know that he's a once in a life boar, but he was definitely a rare one with those cutters.
Bow: 70# Prime Nexus 4
Arrow: Victory VAP TKO 300 with 95gr Outsert, 510gr total
Broadhead: Iron Will Wide 100
If interested I've been keeping "hog logs" the past two years and all the stories and photos are available here:
2021 Hog Log
and
2020 Hog Log
There will be a video soon, when I can piece it all together, I'm a few videos behind.
I arrived in time to actually drop by the feeder and dump 10 pounds of corn that had a packet of strawberry jello mixed in, and set the throw duration to double what it normally does. This is because I've been under siege by a group of 8 racoons, and I wanted to make sure there was corn on the ground for my swine friend when he decided to show up. Then it was back to camp, unpack, double check the bow, and have dinner. Sure enough at 10pm I still only had racoons and I was down 2 beers. About 10:20 my phone lit up, and there was a pig shaped dark shadow at the very edge of my camera's flash range. I set the camera duration to 2 minutes, and started packing. The shorter camera duration, let's me see updates of where said pig is easily as I drive a half mile to a parking spot, then speed walk another half mile before getting within stalking range.
When I got to within 100 yards I was mildly out of breath, but could hear some serious chewing. I took off my red headlamp, donned my action camera, and nocked a broadhead. Now it was time to get low, get slow, and get quiet. 15 minutes later, I eased from behind some brush and got my first look at the lip smacking pig. My knees went weak, and I started immediately and visibly shaking. There standing in front of me enjoying his pile of corn was a truly massive hog. You don't have to think about it or ask yourself how big he is, your primal instincts broadcast it immediately.... BEAST!
I could feel my release shaking in my hand, my breath was labored and totally out of control. I was watching the boar's head as it was up while he was chewing, and I decided I would wait until he went down for another mouthful to draw. It was a good time to try and pick a spot I could aim at when the time came. There was a small spot of mud that was showing up really well in the red light, but it was in the crease. I prefer to shoot them a few inches further forward, so I made a mental note to put my pin just to the right of that mud dot. The shaking was only getting worse. The massive head went down, and his hips shifted slightly my direction. My brain was still functioning sufficiently that I noticed the angle shift and altered my plan to put my pin on the mud spot, I came to full draw... I put my pin on the mud spot, my pin started making all sorts of psychedlic patterns over the boar's shoulder. I had made my aim, now I just watched the mud spot and to a lesser degree my pin like it was a TV, all my focus was on working my release... my mantra was cycling at a million hours through my head: pull, pull, pull.... it was taking forever (though the video showed a handful of seconds) so I mentally got more agressive screaming a few choice words into my mind about I had to control this.... *CLICK* then a thump like I had hit a foam target. I saw my arrow bury to the fletch in his chest as he whirled left to exit.
There was immediate crashing in the brush only a few yards outside the feeder circle, it went on for several seconds but wasn't really getting further away or quieter. Was he still on his feet and about to walk back out to get to a trail opposite of where he was? It took some effort, but I managed to get another arrow nocked and eased out more in the open where I would have a better viewpoint if he came trotting back out across the clearing. After a few seconds, it went quiet. Being out of breath, and still having the shakes I dropped to my knees and set my bow down.
I took a few minutes to breathe, text my wife, let her know I had just slayed a beast, and switch my headlamp LED from red to white. I've had issues lately with coyotes jumping on my pigs fairly fast, so I decided I would track him immediately and drag him to a better spot. Usually I have my dog on a tracking lead in front of me as we dive into the thickets, but he was back in camp and I wanted to make a quick recovery. Given the situation, for the first time in a long time, I set bow down unholstered the .40 S&W, chambered a round, and brought it to low ready as I started tracking. Now I was uneasy, but for a different reason. In the back of my mind I was wondering if that boar had just laid down and was waiting on me in that thicket. Fortunately the track was very short, and when I saw him 2 feet away he was very very dead. It took some effort to get him the short distance out to where I could lay my gear on top of him to deter coyotes while I went to get the ATV trailer at camp to load him up.
My scale said 213#, which beat my previous personal best of 196# by a good margin. I don't know that he's a once in a life boar, but he was definitely a rare one with those cutters.
Bow: 70# Prime Nexus 4
Arrow: Victory VAP TKO 300 with 95gr Outsert, 510gr total
Broadhead: Iron Will Wide 100
If interested I've been keeping "hog logs" the past two years and all the stories and photos are available here:
2021 Hog Log
and
2020 Hog Log
There will be a video soon, when I can piece it all together, I'm a few videos behind.
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