Birdbow, if I may hijack as well, I was with Rick Butler and Irv this past week and had a blast. I believe Rick got his sow on the same property that Todd got his pig! BTW, Rick made a PERFECT double lung shot THROUGH a barbed wire fence!
I also arrowed a pig on that property, but unfortunately the blood trail led into alot of standing water and thick brush and we eventually lost the trail.
To back up: It was Sunday night, the last night of our hunt. In the morning I would be flying out and Rick would be heading up to see his daughter. I had not put eyes on a hog yet on this trip. It was very wet when we were there and they weren't hitting the feeders hard. We assumed that with all the moisture they were content to root.
So, Sunday night, this is my view of the feeder:
Sunset is 5:45 with shootable light till 6:15ish. Rick texts me at 5:37 "Shot a pig in the pines". Sweet!
I text Rick at 6:03 "I'd like to sit here just a bit more".
Well, with darkness creeping in at 6:10 I decide I'm gonna turn my headlamp on, point it at the feeder and stay a bit after dark. Just after I turn on my headlamp and get it facing the feeder I hear and vaguely see a spotted hog coming in from the left. Here's where I screw up.
I turn my head to look at the hog, turning my headlamp as well! I fumble with trying to turn it off quickly, making the light dance around a bit. He doesn't like that and changes his angle to avoid the feeder to my left.
He's 25 yards out, moving at a slight trot and will soon be too far left for me to shoot from this stand. I had taken a picture from this stand earlier in the day and by happenstance captured the exact spot he would be at, just to the left of that water.
Now, this is not the shot I wanted, but it's the only shot that presented itself. It was the last sit and I really wanted to bag a hog! So I took the shot: 25 yards, moving target, dying light. Jeesh.
The hog bolts and I can see my arrow, with it's reflective wrap, sticking up out of the ground where the hog had been. I climb down and this is what I find:
We've got blood! And it looks like good blood, though I didn't see the location of the hit. I had watched the hog enter the swamp right behind me and made a mental note of where to start the blood trailing, but first I head out to meet Rick and Irv and recover Rick's hog.
Well, when we get back to my shot location we pick up the blood trail right away, and continue to have a solid trail for some time. BUT, with all the shin-deep standing water the hog is getting a bath every 20 feet. The water gets worse and we eventually lose the blood trail.