Little piggy

[GCook]

Was late dropping my friend and pastor off at his blind and by the time I got to mine this little fella was foraging near my stand.

I've shot over this guy twice in the last six weeks. Then two weeks ago I shot low on his running mate. Clipped his brisket and broke his offside leg. Guess he was coyote bait because they weren't together this morning.

I snuck in as close as I dared and knelt near a small tree. I started drawing as he cleared some tall grass and he caught me. But he started to relax and looked down so I drew, anchored and let fly.

He did turn to go at the bow thump but the arrow caught him square in the shoulder.

He never got out of the clearing. 22 yard shot with my Martin Mamba and a 30 yard recovery.

Little sucker cost me another broken arrow though.

Moses wanted in on the pics too.  He doesn't seem to mind me killing his cousins. 

[arrow30]

congratts!  ..is moses your buddy or just livestock?

[rastaman]

Way to go sir!  And who the heck is Moses?  Is he your live decoy?  He is very healthy looking!
i see his ear tag so i know he is safe!

[kennym]

Awesome!!  Looks chilly!!

[GCook]

congratts!  ..is moses your buddy or just livestock?

😄  Yeah is our buddy.  He was in the home pasture/yard when we rolled back in from a hunt.  Umbilical cord still attached and staggering.  He took a ride home in the truck bed.  100 degrees in early August and didn't figure he'd make the trip.  He did and I used a medicine dropper to feed him and nursed him back to health.   After a couple of months I brought him back to the ranch and put up a pen.  He lived in that for a couple of months, cut him and tagged him.  Turned him loose in the 12 acres we have fenced with goat wire around the houses. 
He let's me pet him, follows me around.  He like dog kibbles but I have a corn feeder to throw for him when I'm not here.  In the spring and summer he beats grass. 
Maybe someday he will hit the pit but we have plenty roaming our place so no hurry.

[GCook]

He's been fun.

[Wudstix]

NEAT!!!
 

[Bisch]

Congrats Gary!!!

Bisch

[archeryprof]

Thanks for sharing the story about Moses.I had a very similar experience with a baby pig that came to be known as Daisy.It was not uncommon for young pigs to be orphaned at the ranch we hunted.When I caught her and brought her home she could not have been more than a couple of weeks old.I had a yellow lab and they became buddies and even slept together in her dog house on the porch.At 6 weeks old I had her trained to sit on command and was as tame as any dog you would ever see and very smart.Daisy couldn't understand why the dog was allowed in the house but she wasn't.She would bang her nose against the glass door and raise a ruckus wanting to come in until I got the fly swatter after her.She grew from beer can size to 70 pounds in 3 months when I gave her away. Daisy ended up as a sort of a mascot greeter pig on a ranch not too far from me.She generally stayed right around ranch house porch but had free rein of the ranch there.I went to visit her when she was 9 months old and was still as tame as ever but weighed a solid 170 plus pounds.

[GCook]

Funny turn of events.  The pig I shot was the pig I shot two weeks ago.  I pulled the broken Beaman Centershot 340 with Carbon Express head on it out of him.  It had gone through the shoulder but I guess he had jumped and the broadhead was just out of the skin on the upper neck in front of the offside shoulder.  Have no clue how it didn't kill him. 
Today's arrow was a Black Eagle Vintage 400 with a 100 grain head and 50 grain insert weight.  Hit just in front of shoulder and angled in through both lungs. 
In the pics you can see the wound holes from the first arrow.  It was weird because when I walked up on it I saw that head sticking out and thought I had used a different arrow.  Heck I didn't even have any with those heads in the quiver.

[string bean]

Very nice!!  Hogs seem to be my nemesis for the last year.

[Wudstix]

Hogs are tough.  We had a javelina shot at LTR2 that was shot at LTR1 and somehow lived.  Pulled the arrowhead out and got it back to the hunter.
 

[STICKBENDER98]

Cool story, used to buy feeder pigs and raise them when I was on the farm with my Dad and Brother, always seemed to have a couple that became pets before being sold.  Dad had one that he fed oreo cookies every night when we'd go clean pens.


Jason

[varmint101]

Nice! Moses looks STOUT!

[GCook]

Well once you cut them they tend to focus on eating.

[Terry Green]

Not sure how I missed this one 1st time around. 

[GCook]

Seems you've had a lot to wade through lately.  That kind of thing can take away from other things.

[Kirkll]

Years ago we raised a feeder pig and the dad burn thing was a lot of fun when it was little. I could see how people can easily get attached to them as pets.

Great personality when that pig was young, but as it got bigger, it got cantankerous and I was ready to butcher it before it was full grown.

I came up with an idea that summer as the temps started getting bad. I rigged up a shower head in the corner of the pig pen. When 8 got home from work, I’d turn the shower on that was fed by 150’ of garden hose. The water in the hose was warm from sitting in the sun all day, and that pig loved that shower until the water turned cold. Then he’d squeal and run around the pen and throw himself into the mud hole all that water created…. It was really funny to watch…..

But….. you know the old expression “ don’t stir da chit”…. Well let’s just say I’d never do that again. The stink was unbearable…. Pigs are pretty clean animals for the most part if kept in a pen and kept up properly. But don’t give ‘em a mud hole in a small pen.          That was bad…real bad….   Kirk

[GCook]

Yeah Moses roams 12 acres.  He can be cantankerous but he really just avoids most people.
He runs up to me when I first arrive and wants to be petted.   Then he demands dog kibbles.  He can be rather noisy and insistent when he wants to be fed.
He may end up on the pit someday.  But if so I'm sure he'll be plenty big and I'll have him professionally processed hams, bacon and ribs and . . .
Or he'll die of old age and we'll bury him with the tractor. 😄

[Basinboy]

Congratulations Gary!