St. Jude's Hunt with Tippit

[Bvas]

 
Sounds like a great time, but I’m sure there’s more to come.

[smokin joe]

Tuesday evening I went back to the garden ground blind. I added a little more brush to the blind. The set up was just off of the food plot, near a corn feeder. There was a natural opening so that i could step into the opening and take one step to my left and sit down on my chair. That way I could get set up very quietly.

I brought a Kill Light for that evening's hunt. The light has magnets built in so that it can stick to the bottom of a corn feeder. But this feeder was made of plastic. I looked around for a tear to tie the light to, but decided to use the magnets and stick it to one of the legs of the feeder. I positioned the light so that it would not light me up and expose the movement of drawing my bow. I thought this would work out OK.

Hogs came out at the fr end of the food plot, about 125 yards away at about 4:15. There were 4 adults and 3 juveniles. Like the group we saw earlier in the day, the hogs were just grazing like cows.

At 5:05 PM the feeder went off and the hogs didn't even seem to hear it. They just kept grazing.
The feeder went off again at 5:25 with the same result. The hogs didn't seem to care.

[smokin joe]

So...the little herd of hogs slowly worked its way down the field toward me -- grazing the entire way. About half way down the field, maybe 50 yards from me, they stopped. They stood and stared at the feeder for a minute or so and the veered off of the food plot into the woods at the same location that the boar the previous night had done.

They were following the same pattern. I could hear, and then see them circling around behind me to get downwind of the feeder. When they got down wind of me they turned and walked away. No panic, no running -- just a turn and walking away.

A little while later they reappeared at the far end of the field where they had first entered the field earlier. Again they started grazing in my direction, and I wondered if they would get into range before dark. I looked over at the feeder and I could see a little green glow, so I knew the light was working.

They worked toward me slowly, and then they stopped fully alert. They stared at the feeder again, and this time they started woofing and making aggressive noises. After doing that for a few minutes, they moved a little closer, and then repeated the aggressive woofing. This behavior repeated itself over and over until it was almost completely dark. Then I saw them exit the field at the same spot they had used before.

A half hour later it was pitch dark. I heard them woofing and making noise in the field again, but it seemed farther away. The noise got closer. then it stopped and everything got quiet and stayed quiet. Had they used that same exit from the field for a third time?

[Terry Green]

 

[Trenton G.]

This is great! Sounds like a really good time!

I've seen a couple of guys on here mention that they don't shoot pregnant sows. Since hogs are such an invasive species, wouldn't it make sense to shoot a pregnant sow and prevent her from increasing the population more? Not trying to insult or anything, just genuinely curious. 

[tippit]

Trenton G.

As to your question on shooting pregnant or nursing sows...

The Paradise lease is an old traditional bowhunting lease.  Besides deer and turkey, the hog population is one of the great reasons to be a member.  I know hogs can/are a problem to farmers but we enjoy seeing them on the property.  On top of that I personally have a problem shooting any game that I believe to be near term pregnant or nursing.  Finally that Big Hog that was under the feeder, I wouldn't have shot even if it was a boar.  I no longer shoot big "Picture" hogs.  I don't like the taste of the meat from a big old boar.  I now only shoot 50 to 150# hogs for the table.  I guess it is like fishing...you start trying to catch as many as possible, then the biggest, and now that I'm 73 years old I enjoy watching game and occasionally harvesting something for the table...tippit

[Trenton G.]

Thanks for the explanation. I kind of figured it was something along those lines. 

[smokin joe]

After spending Wednesday morning watching hogs in an open field where I could not stalk them, I left that location and went to check out another food plot. Bingo. There were two "grillers" working up the edge of a food plot eating the fresh spring growth. I drove a bit past the food plot on the dirt road and then pulled over and parked, got my bow, and went after them.

I got near the edge of the field and looked through the trees. There they were on the other side of the field. I backed out and circles around to their side of the field.

They were the pig size I call "grillers" -- you know, the 50 pounders that are the perfect eating size for grilling. I could almost taste the barbecued pork.

I headed up the side of the field. they were straight ahead and slightly blocked by the brush. The wind was coming from my left. A pretty good set up.

I had them at about 30 yards and unaware of me. Then I felt the breeze on the back of my neck. Oh no, not now.

I froze. They froze. Their heads and noses went up in the air and they vanished into the brush.

Dang.

[Pine]

Wow, what an opportunity. 

[smokin joe]

Yes, a perfect opportunity. But the wind shift took my scent to them.

[smokin joe]

The last afternoon and evening of hunting, Wednesday, turned out to be an experience I will never forget.

[Pine]

AND 
Details. 

[Sockrsblur]

 

[Terry Green]

Trenton.... I was a member of the paradise for 6 years before my life changed.. I was on other leases as well...

 When you pay that much for a lease, And you can  Hunt hogs year round.... Then you want to be able to hunt hogs.

Make sense?.... 

[smokin joe]

My plan for the last afternoon and evening was to have two ground blinds set up for a west wind.

I had investigated the trail that the hogs used to exit the field at the halfway point and it was a well-used trail. I decided to get out there early and set up a ground blind 10 yards down wind off of that trail. I also set up a place to sit at the edge of the field so I could see when the hogs left the far end to work their way toward their exit.

The plan was to sit at the edge and wait for the hogs to enter the field. Then once they started working their way down I would sneak into the exit trail ground blind and ambush them. If they didn't show up before the feeder went off I would sneak down to the original ground blind and wait for them to visit the area around the feeder.

I watched the field from the edge.............and watched........and then the feeder went off. I creeped down to the ground blind near the feeder.

[smokin joe]

I got comfortable in the ground blind. It was about 12 yards from the feeder and pretty well brushed in. I had a shooting lane that covered about three quarters of the area under and to the south of the feeder. There, working to the right, I had a bunch of brush and Spanish moss covering me up and then another shooting window looking directly west. Then I had a bunch of branches that I could see through, but not shoot through, from there to to the north looking at the far end of the field.

A pregnant doe came out and started browsing right in front of me. Her head snapped up and I followed her gaze to the far end of the field and saw 8 hogs at about 150 yards away. There were 2 sows, 2 boars and 4 piglets.

[Tom Phillips]

What a treat hunt with Tippit and then the cooks tour of him heatin & beatin a knife !!!!!!!

[smokin joe]

The hogs are grazing again, still more than 100 yards away, but I am prepared to wait them out. I have the kill light stuck to one of the legs of the feeder and a bow light on my Bear TD -- I am ready no matter how long it takes them to work their way down the field.

The doe was pretty calm. Every once in a while she looked up at the hogs, but she seemed comfortable with the fact that they were still pretty far away.

Then the hogs started making a ruckus. I figured they were bellowing at the doe, trying to get her to leave before they get any closer. So, I decide to help things along by slowly moving one of the pieces of brush in the front of my ground blind to make a little noise. The doe noticed it but didn't spook. She slowly turned and walked away toward the dirt road. Perfect.

It took the hogs another 20 minutes or so to close the 100 yards down to 50 yards then 30 yards in another 5 minutes. Then from over my left shoulder I heard the bellow of what sounded like a monster boar. The hogs in the field turned tail and ran off. I think the Boss Hog of the area just told them to get out of his field.

[smokin joe]

Another 20 minutes of silence and stillness went by. Then I heard hogs snorting out in the field and saw some dark shadow shapes scurrying around in the dark beyond the area that was lit by the kill light.

I saw two pretty good boars at the head of the group and I figured that they must be the leaders -- boy was I wrong.

Then he emerged. He was enormous.

He was twice the size of the other hogs. He was gray, or maybe covered in mud -- it was hard to tell in the  glow from the kill light. He was built like a tank. He was slab-sided with a huge head and a long snout. His shoulder-pad slabs stood out from his body by a couple of inches.

He let out a blood curdling bellow and charged at the feeder. Then he slammed on the brakes, backed up again and charged again. He did that over and over again like he was trying to get the feeder to fight with him. The other boars were bluff charging too, but they were nothing compared to The Tank.

Another blood-curdling roar and the whole lot of them ran full speed into the brush directly across the field from me.

What just happened? The hogs were suspicious of the kill light. Usually a kill light gets stuck to the bottom of the feeder barrel with its magnets. But since this feeder is plastic I had it stuck to one of the legs. Instead of just seeing the glow, the hogs saw the face of the light and they did not like that.

[smokin joe]

I had a bunch of thoughts racing through my mind. Sneak out and remove the light? Call it a night and go back to camp? Wait and see what the hogs do, and maybe learn something about their behavior? I chose the latter.

A few minutes later I heard the hogs in the field again. They started working their way down the field again the same way they did before.

The bellowing and the bluff charges started happening again, and I could see how Tank's bluff charges would intimidate every animal within ear shot. Heck, he was starting to scare the devil out of me. I looked down at my bow. How foolish of me to think I could take on a swamp monster like this with a pointy stick.

The bluff charges got closer. The other boars were helping out with their version of charging the kill light. Juvenal hogs were scarring around in all directions. It was pandemonium and chaos. What a mess.

My brain is screaming "Just relax and stay still." both to me and to the hogs.

Now they are in range, less than ten yards away and all of the boars, led by Tank, are in a rage. They were moving like crazy.

My draw hand is on the string.......