The ranch we hunted was massive and Mel Riley and I spent a little time cruising the roads to find likely spots. The first pond we found had patch of green grass on the far side of the road that looked like prime hog real estate. I guess I let the sun get to me because I never went back to hunt it until the last evening.
When I went to set up at the pond I found an area on the corner of the pond with about a square 50 yds or so of semi open terrain. I had to set up on the far corner of open area due to wind. There was a patch of brush towards the center of the open space that looked like good cover to shoot from. I used my trimmers to cut a space into it and I also made sure I cut a clear path from where I would be sitting to the brush so I could creep in without making any noise. Finally I threw some corn on the far side of the brush within shooting range.
I waited at the edge of the big open space in one of the most comfortable ground blinds I had ever been in. Sitting on my Niff T seat with the shortest bar installed, I sat about 2" off the ground leaning back on the limber limbs of small tree with me feet propped up on similiar limbs in front of me, almost like laying in a hammock, and actually napped a bit.
Around 6:15 I heard some noise and within seconds two hogs, about 30 lb each, came out of the brush about 20 yards to my left heading to the pond. Interesting. 20 seconds later came a 50 to 60 pound red hog, followed a few seconds later by a similiar sized brindle colored hog. About a minute later a 90 to 100 lb black boar came trotting through the same opening. Showtime!
I eased up and scanned the area but couldn't see anything. I started to pull out my 10x25's but decided to just get to my cleared out brush hole before the wind swirled. I duck walked and crawled to my brush pile some 20 yards away. The sweet sound of piggies crunching corn let me know I was in business! I nocked an arrow, eased up ever so slowly and there before me where 5 hogs and the black boar was standing broadside at 10 yards. I felt my heart in my ears goin BOOM, BOOM, BOOM...the way it always does when I start drawing on a completely unsuspecting animal. I released and watched as my ww tipped arrow streaked and then froze in mid flight with not much more than the feathers yet to penetrate the boars shoulder, midway up the body directly above his front leg! He took off like a scalded dog, bouncing off the first tree he came to. I watched him closely as he made a long curved run toward the pond then circling back to the brush and finally disappearing. I made a mental note of his path and eased out to go back to the pickup.
When I got to the truck I was suprised to see Ken Thomas already back, sitting on the ice chest in the back of the pickup, and half a dozen Javies only five yards from the back of the truck. Turns out he already had a Javie down and I wasn't interested in shooting one with a hog to trail so we let them walk. We both told each other our stories, drank a couple "Topo Chico's", and had a good laugh while we waited on Krister (funny how Krister get's into everyone's hunting stories!).
That evening after dinner Curtis and some others went into town to meet the 2nd group of hunters so I went back to track the hog with Curtis' dad Gary. We found the spot where the hog hit that first tree and my whole arrow was there, in three pieces strung out over 10 yards or so. What wasn't there was much blood. Gary was able to follow tracks sometimes, then we would find a speck of blood and on and on for a couple hours. We gave up at one point, but I crawled through another hole in the brush and found new hope that just added another 45 minutes of wear and tear on our knees before having to call calf rope. damnit.
Spent all my time the next morning before having to leave and still didn't find another drop of blood. It's really hard to take loosing an animal after everything fell into place so well on this hunt, but sometimes thats the way it ends up. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gary again for the time he spent helping me trail the animal...it was a great opportunity for me to spend some quality time with a quality individual, learning a few more trailing tricks from a real pro.
Topic: TEXAS SWEAT 06 ...Tales of the Hunts...Clips start pg 8 (Read 30708 times)
