Or maybe I should have titled this, don't be afraid to hunt with your pretty bows, lol.
Anyway, I decided that this was going to be the weekend that I would try to get something done with the Primal Tech longbow that Randy Madden built for me. It is Stabilized walnut burl riser with a stabilized black palm flare, and spalted mango veneers and kudu riser and tip overlays. 64", and somewhere in the low to mid 50# range at my draw, which is around 30" with this bow.
I apologize in advance for being a little wordy on this post.
I haven't had a full day off of work in over 5 and half months, and I keep my sanity by chasing hogs on friday and saturday nights, because I don't have to get to work early on the weekends. Over the years, the hogs on place have been pressured pretty hard, and they are pretty cagey. I have most of my success by waiting until the hogs are already feeding, and then stalking up on them. Sometimes I can wait a few hundred yards away, and other times I have a camera that sends pics to my phone and lets me know that they are there.
The wind was atypically out of the north on Friday, so I knew that when I was alerted at dusk of hogs at a feeder, it meant that I had to use a different approach than normal. It meant heading out through the north pasture, past the pig field, hopping the fence and fighting the spiderwebs and brush through a woodlot, crossing a creek, climbing the bank and following an overgrown brush hog trail to come out on an overgrown trail to the south of the hogs. When I got onto that lane, I could see that the feeder light was very dim because the angle that it is set to shine is designed for an approach from the northwest rather than the south. I would need to get very close to make it work.
Unfortunately, as I tried to close the gap there were some obstacles. Namely flying pigs! These hogs were scrapping something fierce around the feeder, and a large boar was literally hurling smaller hogs out of the way in may direction. They would land maybe 10 yards from me, scramble into the brush to my right(east), and come back onto the lane 4 yards in front of me. This happened repeatedly, and the tossed hogs weren't lit up so I couldn't shoot them and the other hogs were moving around and not fully in the light either. I knew that I had to get this done quickly, but just couldn't close the gap. I felt the wind stir on the back of my neck and knew it was now or never. The large boar was broadside on the other side of the light, but I had no idea how far. I drew, released, watched hogs scatter, but knew that I had missed low.
Pics of the hog tosser
I took a few steps back and then to the west on another trail to keep the wind from causing me more trouble, and hoped that they would come back, but I knew that wasn't likely. After around 45 minutes, I figured that this spot was done for the night, so I decided to see if any hogs were in the alfalfa field, around a half mile or so to the east.
I carried a thermal scope on a lanyard to check out the field, and had just arrived on the SW border of the field when I heard a grunt around 30 yards to my right, so I backed out to the south and took another trail that circled where I though the hog was, and came toward the south edge of the field more toward the East. When I put the scope up I saw a sow on the edge of the field. Game on. I planned on closing the gap, drawing, then using the bow mounted light with a pressure switch just prior to releasing. By the time I got to the edge of the field, this hog and another one had moved more to the North and were feeding. If the wind stayed steady I should be okay, but by the time I got within 30 yards of them, the wind swirled, and they scooted to the NW border of the field on their way out. I turned to go home, but I hadn't got more than 10 yards past the field when I heard more grunting to the north of the field. I put the scope up, and 16 large hogs had entered where the others were leaving. I circled to get the wind the most in my favor that I could, but after a few minutes a swirling wind busted me, and that was that.
The hogs returned to the plum thicket in the early morning to finish up the corn, but I had to go to work, but I was hopeful that they would return Saturday night, so I did my best to get out of work a little after 5 pm to give it another go. This time, the wind was dead calm, and later becoming slightly out of the east, so I hung a little stand in a tree just to the west and hoped for the best. I snuck in there just before dusk, and felt like I was going to melt from the humidity, but I was determined to get an opportunity for redemption with this bow.
At sometime between 11 and midnight, a large boar came in from the SE, sucking in as much wind as he could, but to no avail. He couldn't smell me, and took to eating corn, but far out of the feeder light. He spooked a few times, as the lone boars tend to do. Probably didn't like the sound of a mosquito or something. He came back in to feed, but after a few such episoded, he just didn't come back. No shot opportunities, but I knew that there were more hogs out there, and I was in it for the long haul if necessary.
Around 1 am, I heard squealing around 80-100 yards away to the NE, in a strip to the north of the plum thicket. Normally, the hogs travel from there, through some brush, to come in to the feeder. Not this time. They must have been wary from the previous nights events, and I heard them around 30 minutes later a little further away in a drainage to the east.
I was getting tired, and the feeder light was dimming, but I figured that I was here for an all-nighter if need be, and would use my bow light if the feeder light died. I don't really like this option, because they usually spook shortly after the light is turned on. As it turns out, I didn't need the light, because at around 2 am I heard the sounder approaching from the east, and the fed there way toward me. Unfortunately, the larger boars and sows were staying out of the light, and the others were lined up facing me as they fed. The wind had turned a little squirly, and I didn't want a repeat of the previous day, so took the first hog that turned broadside. I took aim and released, and for a moment I could see the lit nock take here just a little high, and the line from my Chad Orde string tracker started going out, and after a short while stopped. I felt pretty good about it, but waited around 30-45 minutes to get down and check. I followed the line, and found the back 10 inches of my arrow broken off after maybe 10 yards. I followed good blood, and the string for around 30-40 yards into some thick, nasty thorny stuff, but then the line was broken, I had a big splotch of blood on a small tree, but not much to be seen on the sandy soil. I shined the light around, looking for a black body, bud decided to back out since it was already 3 am or so, and not terribly hot anymore.
I came back just after dawn with my Malinois and Kelpie, and they tracked the hog another 40-50 yards in a relatively straight line, with a little hook on the end to the spot where the sow died. I dragged her onto the lane for a pic with the dogs. It took the dogs around 4 or 5 minutes to find her. It would have taken me hours, most likely. Anyway, glad to have the Primal Tech broken in.
Topic: Breaking in a Primal Tech the right way (Read 2991 times)
