Saturday evening was spent at camp making dinner and cleaning and as always planning the next mornings hunt. Based on the predicted wind direction Les and I decided that we would hunt the “Pine Stand” and try to do a video. I would be on the “Platform” and Les would be in the “Pine” 5:00 am came around and then it was in to the truck to make our way to the stand. As we quietly approached we could hear the pigs rustleing and grunting in the nearby palmetto stands. We quickly got in to our stands and got everything ready. My new Purple Heart/Zebrawood Longbow was in my hand.
There is a bit of a story with this bow. I had been aiming for a 55# longbow for Chip of Wildfire Artistry. After the tillering was done the bow was pulling 70# at 28 inches. A wee bit heavy. So I set it aside with the plan of finishing the heavy bow in the future. Well I was building the shipping box to send the bows down to FL and realized I had room for one more. I knew that all I had to do was finish the nocks which had been glued on. 35 minutes later I had rough shaped the nocks and took the bow to the back yard. Ok, It shoots just like Les’ longbow. I’ll take it! In the box it went. Oh yea, I sprayed a quick coat of clear lacquer on it to protect it from the Florida elements.
I got my little space on the platform organized. Backpack hung, bug machine positioned, stool set properly, bow with arrow knocked in the holder ready to go. And then we waited. As the sun slowly made its way towards its appointment with sunrise, the sky in the east brightened. Ahhhh shooting light was present. Here is the scene that greeted my eyes as they adjusted to the new found light.
We waited on a few more minutes and then Patches and another black sow meandered out from the palmettos and over to the feeder. I turned to Les looking for the high sign to shoot. “Go for it” was the gist of his reply. After a few minutes of munching corn and jostling for position the black sow was in perfect position for a shot. The sow was 15 yards out and just quartering away. I checked with Les again. “Shoot.” I already had my bow in hand so I slowly drew back. As my index finger touched my anchor I hesitated just a moment to check my aim. All looked good so I let that arrow fly. And it went right to its mark. The last thing I remember seeing was the fletching burying in to the shoulder as the pig began reacting to the shot. I expected and explosion and a squeal but it didn’t happen. Instead the pig acted more like a well hit white tail. The pig bolted and then just trotted away. At about 35 yards out I saw the sows legs go goofy at which point she turned in to the thicket where I lost sight of her. It then sounded like she took off for all she was worth running in to the next county. Les gave me a thumbs up on the shot and quickly took a compass bearing on the last sighting. We remained in our stands for the next two hours during which time I noticed my arrow laying on the ground, Ah good a pass through! If you look closely at the edge of the light grey sand you can see the arrow. It is below the logs that are in the sand.
At 8:30 we climbed out of the stands and took a look. The arrow was well coated with dried blood by this time. I went to where the pig had been standing and there was blood on the ground and we could see the evidence of bubbles.
Les and I began following the trail easily leading us to where we last saw the pig. Of course we couldn’t find any blood continuing on the trail ahead because the pig had made a sharp left. As we turned to look we didn’t notice a large blotch of blood but instead a pig laying dead 6 feet in to the thicket. What I thought was the sound of running was obviously the pig thrashing. Success!
And so ended my second hunt with my new longbow.
pete
Topic: Ferretwyo comes to Florida! (Read 3242 times)
