Texas pig hunt . . story and pics added

[AZStickman]

Got in late last night after a 15 1/2 hour drive and got my meat processed and in the freezer....First night I got dropped off away from where I wanted to hunt but decided to make the best of the situation.... I slipped offf the road and got set up..... I wasn't there 5 minutes when I heard pigs coming..... I knelt down as they rounded the corner heading my way.... I felt stickers in my knee but couldn't move with pigs in front of me so I toughed it out.... Damn those Texas stickers hurt..... The pigs got to within 10 yards of me and another group of pigs rounded the corner coming from the opposite direction and both groups scattered....I stood up to get off the stickers and found out I had been kneeling on a fire ant hill..... I tried to brush them off but only succeeded in tearing my pants ..... I took off my boots and pants and got them off my leg and out of my pants when I hear group two coming back...... I slip on my boots, no time to put my pants on, and slip into the brush on the opposite side of the road.... look at the ground for ants and throw my pants down to kneel on ..... I had to chuckle to myself..... I had come to Texas to hunt pigs and here I was in the first night "Bare" hunting......I have to go to work.... I'll pick this up when I get back.... Terry

[herb haines]

marvin th is is all Charlies fault ---- herb

[trashwood]

LMAO - now that is taking primitive bowhunting to the extreme.  gonna buy Terry a loin cloth for Christmas.  

rusty -i'd still have my 17" snake boots on- Craine

[wingnut]

Well while we wait for Terry to wake from his beauty sleep (man does he need it) we will forward the Tape to Sunday morning.  We hit the feed run before dawn and drop James in Terrys spot and jason in the one I was in the night before.  We knew Jason was in for action when the 30 pig brigade was standing in the road as we drove up.  They took off and we dropped him off.

Gerald took Terry and me to the far end of the ranch and fed the road from there to the camp house.  Our plan was to still hunt the road back into the wind and see what happened.  We hadn't gone far when the brush moved 60 yds ahead and a mob of pigs jumped out and headed our way.  We dove behind a mesquite tree and scrambled to get arrows nocked.  The pigs caught our movement and as quick as they ahd appeared they were gone.  I really want Terry to get a shot this morning.  His self made flint head is on the string and that would be about as good as it gets.

Anyway we are back sneeking along the edge of the goat trail they call a farm road.   Another couple hundred yards and Terry said " did ya see that?"  I said "what?"  A huge pig on the edge of the road ahead.  He heads up the edge as I circle into the brush.  The pig starts to grunt not too friendly like and I hear crashing and snorting.  This stuff is a rosebush looking snarl about waist high with small trails through.  Ever the optimist, I figure I just shoot down the trail.  The pig grints again and I grunt back.  Now the woods light up with grunts.  Dang how many pigs are in here and do they eat fat boys?  I start grunting softly and here comes some through the brush.  Grunt, Grunt, Grunt well you get the picture.  Finally I see the brush moving 10 ft to my left and the grunts keep coming.  I can's see a thing and have a small trail in front that will bring the pigs under 5 ft.  I ready for a quick shot and the pigs step into the trail.  OHHHHHHHHHHH Dang.  They are maybe 8" long and about the size of a rat.  Very cute little guys.  They walk right up to me and look with there itty bitty eyes.  You could see they thought I was one ugly pig.  They turned back and head to momma who by know was getting real worked up.

I made and exit stage straight back at double time and we headed back up the road again.

More coffee

Mike

[Littlefeather]

You should have tried blowing a varmit call about the time the little greasers got center trail. I believe you could have put MaMa pig inside of three feet of you. Fun, Fun!!!! CK

[wingnut]

CK,

Gerald doesn't want us to shoot the wet sows so I'd rather not have momma at 3 ft without the bow to help.      

Anyway we were working along the road and the sun was up and heating up fast.  I thought the pigs were probably already down for the day when we rounded a corner and Terry whispered "PIGS".

He was pointing to a clearing 50 yds off of the road and sure enough there were four feeding on the wildflower blossoms.  Terry headed around a big mesquite to get in front of them and I took the rear guard.  One turned and start feeding in my direction just as we got into position.  here it comes eating blossoms without a care in the world.  Not real big about 25#s but it is going to taste great.  Two more steps and it will clear the brush.  Dang it turned back and is feeding away.  No here it comes again. Slowly feeding, the wind is perfect and it doesn't have a clue.  Two more steps, Ok , one more, there ya go.  I hit draw and focus on the divit behind the elbow.  The arrow releases at 12 yds and fly true to the spot.  The pig squeels and spins to head for the thick brush.  I knew this one was over quick so I walked out to where my arrow lay.  Covered with bubbles and red gold.

We tried to pick up the trail but there just wasn't any blood.  So back we go to get Gator.

Gator has another one minute work day and we have our pig.  Now for the pics.

Mike

[wingnut]

Here is Connie with her pig

 
Terry with his first selfbow harvest.

 
Me with my Two the Biggest and smallest

 

A group shot

 

And pigs all in a row

 

The final tally was four pigs weighing in at 110# for Connie, 65# for Terry and 175# , 25# for mine.

We butchered and iced and headed for home.

I booked another adventure with Mesquite Bowhunters yesterday for nex February.

Mike

[Shaun]

Thanks for the story and pics.

You gotta get that Terry some green camo from spring hunting, his urban pattern clashes with the wildflowers. Nice hat Mike, they'll never see you with that on...

[Marvin M.]

Nice Guys.  Thanks for sharing.

[WaKeDa BT]

That last little piggy goes to skillett  

[cajunbowhntr]

Terry, ya gotta get a new signature line. HUNT NAKED!     And don't wingnut look like the guy from the fruit of the lomb commercial with that headgear  :D  Congrats on a fine hunt.Mike the finnish on that bow of yours looks nice.


CB

[herb haines]

thanks all was a great read . i found that when you are in the Texas brush county your pans are around your ankles at leas a few rtimes during the day just to pick cactus spines from your body LOL ---- herb

[AZStickman]

Well….. I’ve been bowhunting for 24 years…One year with a compound and the rest with trad gear. 4 or 5 years with a recurve and then a longbow, .It took me 3 years to get my first bow kill, a Roosevelt cow elk and a string of successes followed including more Elk, Blacktail deer, and Blackbear……I moved to AZ 14 years ago and immediately hit a slump….I have not put as tag on a critter until this pig hunt….. If you ever want to really know why you hunt and put your commitment to doing things the hard to the test, a slump like that will do it….. To further complicate things I fell in love with selfbows 10 years ago…. I fumbled around in the dark trying to build them for 7 years or so when a couple of Generous Texans took me under their wing and taught me a process developed by Dean Torges called Facet Tillering… I’ve been building good bows ever since and improving the quality of em in leaps and bounds…..

 Fast forward to the Texas Pig hunt….I hit the field with a 58” static recurved sinew backed Osage self bow pulling 60 something pounds….. I already described night one…. My baptism by fire… ants……. Night two found me sitting in a tripod stand over looking the junction of 2 roads….not long after I got on stand I heard pigs coming my way….. I got ready for action…. Within 5 minutes I could see them coming and there were some nice ones in the bunch in the 60 – 120# range……As they moved into the shooting lane I had to hold off on shooting 2 wet sows with lil ones and waited until a nice  pig entered my shooting lane, I thought it was a boar but it later turned out to be a dry sow,….. I started to draw and realized I hadn’t done my mental pre shot routine I had been working on and was about to “fling” an errant arrow…. I let down got  my head together did my routine….. Locked on a spot behind the pigs shoulder drew and released…..everything felt perfect but just as I released the pig spun around and snapped at another pig that had gotten a bit to close to it…… My shot hit back….. as my pig ran out I could see my arrow hanging on by the fletch on the far side and it looked like a gut shot…. My heart was in my throat and I had a sick feeling……… I waited 45 minutes or so and climbed down….. I marked the spot where I last saw the pig and there lay my arrow….. I picked it up and to my surprise is was covered in red blood… I smelled it and there was no evidence of a gut hit….. I felt better…… I figured I had a liver hit…..I waited a bit more and started walking out…… we got back to camp…. Went out and retrieved Connies Pig took it back to camp and went out after mine….. Our guide didn’t allow us to take our bows out for the recovery as he really valued his lil dog Gator…… I don’t blame him that is one amazing 6#’s of canine hunting dog…… He’s all business and loves what he does…. Now normally on a liver hit Elk I would have waited 5 hours or so before picking up the trail but we only had about 2 hours wait on this hit when we went out…..when Gator got to it it was still kicking and, as James described , it gave us one heck of a chase…. My self bow “Kill” was a bit tarnished when the guide put a couple of shots into my pig to finish it off…. But I still feel my 14 year drought has been broken and I know I did it all right and given different circumstances I could have recovered my pig without the aid of a gun……I’m looking forward to doing this again…. It was a blast…. Terry

[insttech1]

Awesome story all!

Thanks for the read!
Marc

[herb haines]

Terry know about dry spell went 37 years from 13 to 51 but now the drought is over YEA HA!! congrats ---- herb

[AZStickman]

Herb.... I was smilin big for ya when you broke the drought down in FL.....  Terry

[B n Az]

Excellent tale guys and girls!  Sounds like you all had a great time.

Terry this hole in the pants thing sounds like a tradition.  I don't think I have hunted with you yet when you didn't have a hole in your pants...usually on the thigh.  On the other hand, baptism by fire ants doesn't sound fun at all. But I bet it was worth a few comments around the fire in camp  

Glad you had a fun!

Bobby

[John Scifres]

Neat hunt thanks for sharing.

[AZStickman]

Yeah Bobby... Me and Barbwire fences seem to take our toll on hunting pants...   :D  I didn't tell the guys about setting up in my skivvies..... Not that I felt they would give me a hard time or nothing....  :rolleyes:  but with that crowd sometimes it's best not to take any chances.....    Terry

[the Ferret]

Congrats all around. Pigs almost never stand still...they are turning this way and that way picking up corn, chasing off competitors. It is tough to get a good shot on one.

Connie's pig is cool looking!

You know if the guy was worried about his dog, he could pick it up (it only weighs 6#..not like it's a pit bull or anything) and let a guy finish off an obviously mortally hit hog with his bow. Durn shame.

Glad the monkey is off the back Terry!