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Sunday January 3rd 2016
It’s good to wake up in camp! Doug and I get up around 7am and have some coffee. Doug gets a wrangle on the kitchen, stove, pots, pans, etc. He makes some eggs and bacon for us.
We set out on the Gator and swap memory cards at Charlie’s Field, Gumbo, Blue Top, and in the camp camera across the pond. I also put out a new camera at Hog Wallow.
On this trip we also take bolt cutters and a hammer along with my safety harness and climbing sticks. We knocked down old steps and stands at Wild Fire, Hog Wallow, and over on the ditch by Blue Lake Field. Very good day! We found the raccoons disabled the feeder at Pine Field, so we doctored it up enough to hold until Charlie can really fix it.
I look at the Picnic area and it’s even deeper than two weeks ago. I snap a picture of Doug for perspective, it’s nuts.
Later in the week these trees would be underwater too!
Back in camp Doug browns up some venison and makes his famous (and award winning) chili for our dinner. Doug wants to sit Blue Top to do a night sit, That is the only feeder going off at 7pm, 8pm, and 9pm with a new Blind Side-R light I just put out two weeks ago. I really want him to get a pig tonight so he can fully focus on cooking the rest of the week!
While I have been pursuing this one really big boar for almost a year and a half, this trip is about handling logistics and trying to get all the guys into pigs. I decide I want to minimize pressure in any way I can. I decide to put up my Lone Wolf in a big tree over the "camp feeder" and that will save one extra stand for a first-sit.
We clean up, do some shooting, and climb into our spots at 4:30. I see nothing as the temperature drops over the next 5 hours. I come down at 9:50 and walk to camp to warm up. I’m just starting to get a little worried about Doug when the headlights come around the corner. I tell him my very short tale about nothing, then he tells me a much longer one!
The hogs came in a full 2 hours earlier than what the trail cameras were showing! They were there before sundown but they stayed to the far side of the feeder offering no shot. After darkness fell they stayed at the far end of the feeders throw for quite a while. Eventually they got close enough to set off the motion sensor and they would just stand there and feed. Apparently a few weeks to get used to the light was good enough!
He was presented a nice shot on a good meat pig, and he put a good shot into it! It trotted off silently while the rest kept feeding. The next few times he started to draw on a hog the light would go out forcing him to let the string down. About 4 draws later it came together again and Doug shot a second hog! The motion light turned off right as the arrow impacted, but Doug wasn’t as happy with that shot’s placement. After that a hog fight broke out and he sat and listened to the melee at about 15 yards.
By 9pm it was quiet and he found blood and most of his first arrow which had passed through he first hog. He packed up to come back to camp.
As he was walking out he heard hogs off the side of the road, he shined his light on 3 of them at about 30 yards. He then saw a few more closer ones to his right. They let him hold the light on them and cross an opening to just under twenty yards. He held his flashlight precariously in his bow hand and drew an arrow back. Release was terrible and the arrow settled into the mud without touching the hog. Back to camp he comes.
We decide to leave it all til morning, at 44 degrees it would be just fine! We both enjoyed two helpings of that chili (did I mention it was award winning
)
Off to the bunkhouse about 10:30pm.
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Busy day ripping out old stands, busy night for Doug shooting his bow!
Thom
Topic: some big boars getting killed at Wild Things! (Read 3504 times)
