Consolation prize

[pdk25]

I spent the last 10 days or so chasing elk in Colorado, but was unable to drop the string.  My hunting partner and I had several close encounters, and for the first 3 days we were into elk each morning and evening we went out.  It was a great hunt, but it got a little frustrating toward the end.  We saw two herds of nearly 20 elk pushed across the border into NM by hunters coming up a drainage with the wind at their back, and the combination of hunting pressure, ATV's, and mushroom hunters over the holiday weekend became too much, and I headed home a day earlier than planned.  We were seeing far more hunters than elk by that point.

I got home after dark last night, and after taking care of some chores and partially unpacking, I decided to see what the hogs were up to on my place.  It rained last night, and there were fresh tracks all over the place, but I decided to sit at a particular feeder that has been good to me.  The feeder went of at 7 o'clock, and around 7:30 I heard hogs squealing in the drainage to the east.  It didn't take them long to get there, but when they did, they were so bunched up in a black ball of feeding, that it was very difficult to get a shot.  Finally a decent sow got a little separation from the bunch, but she was steeply quartering away, but only around 10 yards away.  

I will make a little disclaimer here.  I have killed a few hogs with similar shots, but usually they need to be found using a grid search or by using one of my dogs for tracking.  There are probably a lot of scenarios where this would not be a desirable shot.  In any case, I was pretty confident that I could make the shot, and when it comes down to it, one less hog is a good thing.

I took the shot, and the arrow buried in front of the hip to the fletching, and I was confident that it had gotten into the goodies. I was using an illuminated nock, and it was easy to see where the hog had disappeared into the drainage.  Hogs scattered in every direction,  but most of them came back to finish up the small amount of corn that was left on the ground.  A medium sized boar got wind of the wounded sow, and started growling, and making a circle, and eventually all of the sows gathered the younger hogs, and they disappeared into the drainage.

I figured that they would be back, and I had the feeder set to go off for a few seconds at 8.  I was hopeful of killing a second hog.  4 or 5 medium sized hogs came into the clearing just seconds before the feeder went off, and when it did they acted like they had been electrocuted, scattering in all directions.  I waited, figuring that they would be back.  Another 5 -10 minutes, and 10-15 hogs came into the clearing, but they got chased by a nice boar, and unfortunately, they went to my south and caught my scent with the north wind.  That was pretty much all she wrote, although I gave them around 20 more minutes to make a mistake.  

By now it was dark, and I couldn't find a drop of blood at the spot of impact, so I went to where I knew the sow had gone into the drainage.  Still no blood.  I eased into the dense cover, and after I had gone around 10 yards, I could see the faint glow of my illuminated nock.  I had my headlamp on and another arrow nocked on the string as I slowly ease up on the sow.  No need to worry, as she was dead when I got there.  She only went 60-70 yards total.  Here is how I found her.  There was a small amount of blood on her leg, but the arrow had backed out a bit and the hole clogged with intestines.




And here is another pic with my silvertip.  She probably weighed 125-150#

[wapiti]

Eggs and chops coming right up!

[Matty]

Nice pat! Glad you got to make it out here. I hope you've been applying for preference points here. It makes all the difference going into a draw unit with multiple points. It's so nice to be out there hunting and seeing hardly anyone. I'm bummed about your bad experience. But that's what comes with OTC tags here.

[Jayrod]

Congratulations pat way to get after the hogs! Sorry to hear about the elk hunt wished it would have worked out for you guys

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Congrats on the hog Pat, sorry to hear your elk trip turned into a circus.

Way to go Pat! I spent all day making pan sausage yesterday from the last two I shot!

Congrats,

Bisch

[Anointed Archer]

[Mudd]

Nice!

Congratulations!

God bless,MUdd

[pdk25]

Thanks everyone.  I think that I probably made it sound worse than it was.  There were some really great experiences that we shared, and the hunt was a success just based on the first 3 days, no matter how it finished up.  We came up on a waterhole with a couple of wallows along the edge one evening.  There were little cows being chased in circles by the bulls, a 3X5 was stomping the ground and throwing mud over his back with his antlers, with 4x4 in the background, and another elk that we couldn't see hitting a wallow and making an incredible amount of noise.  Must have been over 10 elk there, with a lot more in the woods to the right.  No shooting lanes, and no real way to close the gap before the wind changed, but we had a real good view for nearly 30 minutes from around 70 yards away.  That made the trip.

[KyStickbow]

Congrats!

[pdk25]

Bisch, I am glad to see that you are into the hogs again.  May have to hit you up for your pan sausage recipe.

[CoachBGriff]

Nice work! I'd take that consolation any day!

[Jerry Jeffer]

Nice pig Pat. Sorry your Elk trip was a little frustrating. I think you had similar troubles last year if I remember. Better luck next time my friend.

[A.S.]

Congrats Pat!!