posted
My two daughters and I went down to Pleasanton to help celebrate my mom's 80th birthday. I brought my bow so that my oldest and I could slip away and we could go hog hunting. Sunday morning about 10 we loaded up and went out to the place. After driving into the ranch a little way I got out and threw a handfull of mesquite leaves up in the air to check the wind currents. The wind was out of the South and very light. Just right for an easy walk into "the mudhole tank". I drive just a little further and stop the pickup. We both don our camo shirts. I snap a few pics of Avery in her "hunting duds". There was a cow that approached us, apparently wanting a little grub.
Well, we make our way toward the tank, a few hundred yards away. Avery is making quite a ruckus in her rubber boots. I tell her to stop and listen to how I walk, and how quiet I am. She mimicks me perfectly and walks very quietly after that. She just needs a few reminders as our approach progresses. We reach the tank and I tell her that we need to pause a while and just listen and look. There's not much happening, as far as I could tell, hog wise. We creep in a little closer and pause again, scanning the waterline for hogs. I see none. I do see this turtle shell
and we go to check it out. I'm pretty sure that ther are no hogs here, so I speak to Avery in more than a whisper. She reminds me to be quiet. Well, we're checking out this shell and I glance across the water and see another turtle shell. I point it out to Avery. I also see something make a slight move in the somewhat long coastal grass along the water line. I can't tell what it is at first, then I see that it is a hog, lying in the grass. I tell Avery I'm going to go aound an shoot it. I have her sit down on the bank in a spot where she can see all.
Her seat:
Her view:
I continue around, in the soft sand of the shoreline, nocking an arrow as I go. There is a small hackberry tree between me and the hog, so I keep it positioned so he can't see my approach. I close to within about 15 yards and pick a spot. He's lying on his side with his underside toward me, just like the first pig I shot with this recurve. I let an arrow fly and it strikes dead center, just back of his forelegs. Expecting him to jump up and run, I am perplexed when he doesn't. I send another arrow into him, just forward of the first. He makes only a slight movement. Keeping my position, I call Avery to me. She rounds the end of the tank and we both can hear something in the brush behind her. I can see the anxiety on her face, but she doesn't make a sound or quicken her pace. She was a little scared (later we found out that the cow followed us to the tank). We walk up to the hog and he is quite gaunt, and has a lot of flies on him He wasn't dead when I shot him, but he was darned close. Both of his front knees are rubbed raw and he has a badly cracked front hoof. Both of his back legs are swolen. I think he may have been hit by a car.
I expain to Avery what is going on and that we won't be butchering this hog. I also tell her that we have kept him from a lingering death. I snap a few more pics:
Thanks for reading.
-------------------- Martin "The first deer that gets close enough and I'm goin Womack on his ass!! " Charlie Lamb Posts: 1126 | From: Llano, Texas | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- "Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often and for the same reason" Posts: 1883 | From: Ryegate, Mt | Registered: Feb 2004
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- "Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man..." Benjamin Franklin
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[thumbsup]](graemlins/thumbsup.gif)
![[bigsmyl]](graemlins/bigsmyl2.gif)
