5th Annual Beouf WMA Hog Hunt ---> What a hunt!

[Chumster]

And let me give a big shout out and thanks to all the great cooks on this hunt. I met old friends as well as making new ones. What better rewards do we have than that!!
I didn't bring home the bacon but I brought the memories and that is priceless.

Thanks!!!

[Crittergetter]

Saturday evening John and I went back to where Kenny and I had gotten into the hogs on Thursday. But we failed to find the hogs agin. We did however get caught in a rain storm! We both had our rain gear so it wasn’t a big deal.
That night we had Darren’s world famous chili!! Awesome as always!!

Sunday morning we made a plan to all park at different areas and we would each walk a loop to the next persons vehicle and all meet up at the upper parking area. My stretch of woods was about 1.75 miles as the crow flies but I swear I walked a good 3.5 miles following the waters edge.
No hogs were seen but I did bump 3 deer. I was impossible to get very close because the wind had calmed down and the leaves were drying out.
That evening I paired back up with John and we worked the area him and Darren had been that morning and got some action. I however must be a bad luck charm because we didn’t see anything at all.

[Crittergetter]

More scenery!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Crittergetter]

We met up with Darren at dark as he was trying to do a push and push hogs our direction. We then proceeded to pick up my truck and meet up with Daniel.
Little did I know how things were to progress from  there!
We had quite an adventure that night. I’ll let Daniel tell that story but here is a teaser pic!

[Hackbow]

Every time I start to write something I feel overwhelmed at trying to fit it all in and capture the essence of what this hunt and these men mean to me. So I gave up trying and will share just a few thoughts and pictures.

First of all, Marty is still missed - a lot. Those of us blessed to have known and been able to hunt with him experienced one great human being. Second, we had to manage without Todd this year due to doctor's orders. We had a blast without you brother, but it wasn't the same. No one even bothered to bring Oreo's and milk - they wouldn't have tasted right. Lastly, the new guys this year were awesome to meet, hunt and share camp with. Great hunting stories, great life stories and tremendous laughs were abundant. I didn't take nearly enough pictures and we never got one of the entire group, doggone it!

Hopefully, John will recount most of our hunting tales. He's better at it than I am and he was the star of most of our encounters. I share just a bit. My first opportunity came after John's first miss when I tried to get around the brute he sent running. I had a sounder of 14 - 3 small-med sows and 11 little ones - walk straight at me. They hung up a little ways out and the biggest sow rooted out a bed and plopped down for a siesta. I couldn't move any closer with 13 other sets of eyes moving about. She was broadside and eventually turned her head to look in the opposite direction. I let one fly and came up 6-8" short. They did not stick around.

The most fun came when John and I were stalking two good sized sows feeding that had no clue we existed. I'll let him dress up that story.

The last evening I walked right up to two spotted sows and 5 or 6 little ones from about 80-85 yds out. I was waiting for a broadside view when the wind shifted. You know what happened next.

Finally, right before dark of the last evening I caught a medium sized boar cruising solo from a long way off. I tried to move sideways to intercept his path, but he was moving too fast. I grunted at him and he stopped and started coming toward me. He had just stepped inside my range but facing me. Then the wind played yet another cruel joke on me.

All in all, I think I managed to see 80-90 different pigs and had multiple opportunities to stalk and/or shoot. It was a hoot! Daniel, thank you again for putting this together!

[Lowrider]

Guys hurry up with the story telling. I am getting anxious to hear it all.

[Hackbow]

A few sight-seeing benefits while slowly slipping through the timber.

[Hackbow]

The beavers like it here.

There were acorns everywhere - the pigs weren't going hungry.

Found evidence of the elusive Swamp Kudu.

[Hackbow]

John's camo in grayscale.

Jacob with his morning, pre-hunt, stretching routine.

[Hackbow]

Pic of John where he missed brute of a boar and the rooting it was doing prior to being shot at.

A totally non-staged photo of John after the reality of missing something that large set in. I call this one Twist & Shout.

[Hackbow]

John flew in from Indy to Dallas and we had a great week together. We hadn't thought about it before, but this hunt and time spent together was a celebration of 20 years of friendship and brotherhood. We have traveled and hunted a lot together, shared camps, stayed in each other's homes, shared family life, prayed together and for one another. So glad he could make this hunt and I can't wait to see what the next 20 years bring.

[DanielB89]

I don't know about y'all, but i'm enjoying reading the stories, even though I was there!!

Friday morning, Rick and I were hunting together.  Swirling winds and skittish swine made for incredibly tough conditions.  Not tough to see them, but very tough to get stick bow close.  After seeing hogs a few times, we finally had some decent stalking elements; wet leaves, good wind, and a few pigs.   

I told Rick to skirt them to the right and I was going to try to make it to them on the left.  As luck would have it, I made it into position and had a sow come into about 20 yards broadside.  I drawn, anchor, hold, and release.  Arrow flies true, perfect line, just a little higher than I wanted.  When the pig turns, I can see about 10" of arrow hanging out the other side.  I stand still and try to take a bearing of the way the hog ran off.  You should have heard the hog running through the woods with the arrow beating on everything.  With arrow hanging out both sides and the number of small trees the pig was running through, I knew at any moment I was going to hear the hog snap the shaft.. waiting... waiting... nope.  Never heard a break.  Rick and I searched for any sign of blood and absolutely nothing.  we couldn't find a thing.  After a little while of searching, we took off after another sounder we heard in the distance. 

Nothing ever panned out with them, but I did manage to grunt up a couple more hogs.  We finally get to a point to where were ready to head back and decided to walk through an area we hadn't been through yet while walking back to vehicle.  On the way back, Rick and I were walking through stuff that kept us ducking and nearly crawling through.  All of the sudden I spot a soccer ball out in the middle of the woods, so I figured i'd get it so we could shoot it in camp, we missed the bring a target memo too, haha. 

As I make my way to the soccer ball I spot my arrow(yes, the one that I put in a pig multiple hours and miles ago) just laying on the ground; covered in blood and broadhead still intact.   A quick check of the gps shows that I was just over 1/4 mile from where I had shot the pig.  I was thankful for my arrow back, but I couldn't help but get over the fact that the arrow was not broken, nor was it damaged at all.  The thicket the hog ran through to get to that point was something I had to weave through.  INCREDIBLE!!

[DanielB89]

That pretty much concludes my friday morning hunt, although that's no where near all that happened. 

When Rick and I headed out for the evening hunt it got interrupted by something I had never seen.. I am not sure if that detail of the hunt will be shared or not, but I laughed way too hard about it. 

 

[John Scifres]

So hog hunting in the swamps of Louisiana is fun.  Very hard with a stickbow at the end of several bow and gun hunting seasons...but fun.  This is all spot-and-stalk and stillhunting.  There are no patterns, no trails, no feeders.  The pigs are very alert and jumpy.  There is food everywhere. A 25 yard shot at an awake hog with a stickbow is a tough thing to make work.  I took 2 pretty good, 25 yard shots at big dam boars and they beat my arrows by yards. But I love a challenge.

Day 1 of the hunt really turned into Darren and I lollygagging on the way in heavy rain.  We found no hope in setting up camp in the dark, in the rain; so we planned on finding a nearby hotel.  Ummm, the closest one we could find was an hour away.  So we got to camp and lucked out with a couple beds in the bunkhouse.  Praise the Lord

Morning 1 had Darren and I stalking through a beautiful area.  Not a few hundred yards from the truck we find a really promising deer area that was drier than the surrounding areas.  As we stalked into the wind, a doe bounded away.  Nearby crunching revealed several other deer.  They were confused and Darren and I tried to bump them to each other.  But they never did give us any realistic shots.

As we worked our way further into the swamps, the area got more piggy.  Somewhere along the way, Darren and I were separated by about 50 yards when, all of a sudden, 3 large boars appear 30 yards away and working to me.  A quick whistle alerts Darren and I let the biggest lead the way into a window.  By the time I got set and let fly at 25ish yards, the pig noticed something.  By the time the arrow got to where it needed to be, he was 5 yards away   Running like a stuck pig that just plain wasn't stuck!.  All three boars bulled through the swamps.

Darren and I made a plan for him to loop around and maybe get a shot or push them back my way.  After a few hundred yards Darren and I met back up and he told the story of the sow and the sounder he got a shot at.

We regrouped and stalked our way south hoping to catch up with them.  Less than 200 yards from the road, as we worked opposite sides of a blowdown, a pig comes round my side to check me out.  Alerting Darren, I hope to work around and nudge the pig to him. As I did, the other 20 or so boars, sows and piglets bust out.  A Hail Mary to one of the walking pigs clips a branch doing damage only to the flora.

Those pigs running through the water sounded like an outboarded motor taking off!  As I noted the piglets struggling in deeper water and a sow hanging back with them, I decided to run them down.  You can guess the result.

The afternoon hunt found us back in the same spot.  We cam across some awesome sign and knew we were close and then just before dark, Darren makes a great spot on a pig from 100 yards out feeding.  As we watch, we find 2 sows rooting and decide to make a stalk.  With no words exchanged we went into extreme predator mode and coordinated an attack.  He naturally went to the pig on the right, while I leaned more left.  As we snuck up on the preoccupied sows, I could hear splashing and cracking far to my left but couldn't pin it down.  We approached the go zone and then just 5 yards from taking a shot, a loud grunt to my left, a quick glance to see a large boar, and then mayhem once again as 7 or 8 unseen pigs blow out....taking our targets with the them.  A great stalk, same result.  No pig, but tons of fun.  Unfortunately, it was running away from us at last light.

All-in-all, a great day of hunting.

[DanielB89]

Alright, i'll get to the bloody picture from earlier. 

Here is the first stalk I had on a boar.  The leaves at this time were as crunchy as they could be, so I had to stay in the water the best I could! 

Part 1 of the stalk. 

[DanielB89]

Taking my time to get into location, I shot this short clip when I managed to get to my shot location.
Stalk 1: Part 2

[DanielB89]

I hate to admit it, but the successful stalk ended in an unsuccessful shot.  I tried to shoot below the spine and never saw the sapling the pig was laying on.  When the pig stood up and didn't have my arrow in it, I was a little shocked. 


When he turned to find out what just bit the stick below him, I did not move.  He was confused and slowly meandered off .  I waiting a few minutes before I moved and I assumed he would go a little ways and bed back down. 

I didn't make it 100 yards and saw another pig bedded down.  I wasn't sure if it was the previous hog or not, but I am not too picky. lol.  I began this stalk and didn't care to get any video as I really wanted to focus on a good shot and stalk.  As I was making my way up to this boar, I hear something to my right and stop to enjoy the show.

[DanielB89]

After those boars rooted around for a while they all bedded up.  When they bedded down, I had 4 pigs all within 50 yards.  Luckily, the wind was good.  I managed to sneak my way up to my original target; all the while trying to make sure all of the other hogs aren't staring at me.  It took close to 30 minutes to travel that 30 yards or so.  There were many times I used my longbow as a walking stick and would have to stretch as far as I could to get to the quietest step location.  When my foot would hit, I would land the heel first and hold that for as long as needed for another wind gust to come and then put my toe down, pausing, waiting, then continuing on when I had some form of cover noise. 

All my efforts ended with me standing 15 yards away from a clueless boar that was slightly quartering away and ready to receive an arrow.  I sit there for a minute to be sure I am as calm as can be.  I raise bow arm, draw, anchor, hold, and release!  The arrow flies true.  Perfect shot in my opinion.  When the boar stands up, I realize he was a lot larger than I thought and would guess his weight to be between 250-300 lbs.  I know I have never killed one with any weapon close to that size.  When he turned to face me, I notice the arrow only entered and didn't exit.  I stood still as he ran off beating the arrow on every sapling in it's way.  Again, I fully expected to hear an arrow snap, but it never happened.  I can't express how pleased and amazed I am at these arrows. 

[DanielB89]

After watching the hog run off, the others jumped out of their beds and followed.  I find blood 2-3 yards from where I shot the hog.  I was very pleased to see the bubbles so close the shot location.  I pick up the blood trail and track him all the way up to the edge of a slough, which was about 100 yards from the shot location.  A quick assessment tells me I wont be able to make it through the slough without something more than my rubber boots. 

I go back to camp and wait on the crew to see who is in for an adventure with me.  It was a long wait until dark; about 3 hours.  When they guys  show up we load up the canoe of Randy's and we’re off for an adventure! (Canoe picture below)

[DanielB89]

I am going to have to come back and insert the appropriate pictures in the thread later as they're not on my computer.