Day 4Wake up was 05:00 I got to bed at 01:30 that morning but I awake eager to tell my stories of the adventures in the dark. Ben was the first face I saw and I proceed to tell him “Man you have got to go out and do a night hunt that ***t is a gas!” He probably only heard blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…. I was so pumped up and was rambling words out a mile a minute. I’m sure the things I was telling him sound unbelievable. You can get away with so much…eating, standing up, stretching, turning the light on and off, stalking pigs…there seems to be no limit to what a person can get away with. Just don’t get up wind of them. “Ahuh…ahuh…yeah… I’ll have to try that tonight.” Ben replies (these may not have been his exact words I am using a little artistic freedom here to tell a story) Poor Ben only wanted to get some coffee and have a chance to wake up and I am assaulting him with my over the top eagerness. I continue with “Yeah, yeah I am definitely going back out again tonight because that is where the action is the pigs have gone nocturnal and they don’t care that you are 15 yards from them! I stalked one, I shot at one and I had six other come in…its crazy man!” They jump around a little bit when I initially turn the light on them and after that they could careless!” A short time later Kevin stumbles out of the tent. “So you saw pigs last night?” he says. Oh man! And then I proceed to attack him with my stories.
After some coffee and a quick bite to eat we are on the road to our hunting grounds. I still hunted the east side on the Macon pasture about middle ways from its north and south ends that morning. The area that I got into was dominated by mesquite tress and calf high grass. This area had very few prickly pears growing which is a good thing when trying to still hunt an area. The reason for that is hidden under the grass, in areas with prickly pear, are dead dried prickly pear plants and when they are stepped on they sound like a bunch of potato chips crunching under foot. When in an area with a lot of prickly pears we found the best way to move through the area was on game trails. Without any game trails it was a crap shoot when it came to moving quietly.
I choose this area because the night before, while standing on an oil tank battery catwalk, I heard pig squeals coming from this area. The wind was coming from the southwest at around 10 or 15 MPH and I moved east and southeast. The morning was already warming up and all indications were pointing to another hot day.
I still hunted for a couple hours without seeing any wildlife moving. At one point a coyote added his barks and howls to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees. He wasn’t far away but I never caught his movement. I eventually came across a spot that just appealed to me. There was a mesquite tree that angled just right to make a good backrest. I removed my pack and sweater sat in the grass and relaxed with by back against the tree and glassed my surroundings. I set against the tree soaking up the morning sun for about 30 minutes and then slung the pack back on and continued my hunt.
Around 10:30 I crossed a two track road, not a gravel road more like a mowed path with tire tracks in it, into another part of the Macon Pasture and started cross hunting the wind. A short time later I hear a grunt and up from the opposite side of a tall prickly pear patch springs a very large black hog! I was about 30 yards on the upwind side of its bed. Its bed lay under the canopy of several mesquite trees and the prickly pear patch was on its upwind side. The cactus patch was tall enough that I could not see it lying in the bed.
This hog was BIG! I would guess its back to be around 32” tall. This is close to being a riding hog. Ben saw a hog the day before that fit this hog’s description just east of where I was hunting and he tried to put a stalk on the hog but was unable to close the distance on it. He will have to fill you in on that hunt I wasn’t there.
I watched this big beast, through my binoculars, run about 70 yards to the northeast and then it slowed to a walk. I got myself back onto the two track road and ran north trying to get ahead of this hog. I stopped twice to glass the hog’s location and verify that I wasn’t spooking it. Everything looked good. It had turned to the north and was still walking. I ran another 50 yards north, which put the hog out of my sight, and then turned 90 degrees and jogged to the east trying to be aware of where I stepped so as not to make any loud noises. I jogged to the east about 120 yards. I wanted to get downwind of the hog and get a little further east of it incase it had turned east from the last time I saw it.
The terrain is fairly flat lots and lots of mesquite trees, calf high dry grass, knee / thigh high dried brush and a few prickly pears. As long as I avoided the dried brush and watch for dried prickly pears I could move through the environment fairly quietly. I initially stayed low and glassed the area where I expected the hog to be. Nothing… I begin slowly and cautiously moving south while frequently glassing the area. Still nothing… I think to myself “The hog should be in this general area by now at the pace it was moving when I last saw it.” I glassed to the northwest, west, southwest and south…and see no sign of the hog. I change my direction and move east watching for movement in the distance and still find no sign of movement. I hunted that hog for 40 minutes and walked away from the area baffled. How in the hell did I loose a 300#+ black hog in a light tan colored environment? Another lesson learned never take your eyes off the pig skin. I should have got down wind but kept him in my sights.
That was all the action for the morning and the wait was on for the evening and night hunt.
Evening and Night HuntThe day was another hot day. I didn’t hear what the temperature was but I guess it was in the low to mid 90’s. I hunted along side Ben at the Fish Camp Pond for this evening. I reassured him that once the pigs start coming in you won’t be sleepy.
We started hunting around 6:00. The sun was still up so we parked ourselves along the weedy edge of the pond on the west side. When we walked in we scared two deer from the east side of the pond and ducks took off from the ponds surface. During the magic hour of dusk the two deer that ran away when we arrived had returned. The smaller of the two never did settle down but the larger deer eventually came into the corn to feed. Ben and I set silently watching the two go about their desire to forage on the free meal before them while at the same time suppressing the warnings from their sixth sense and fighting off their desire to flee. Also while sitting there the little shore bird the screwed up my first hunt the night before had returned. I looked at Ben and whispered “we have to make sure that little SOB is gone before we start our night hunt.”
Before things got too dark Ben and I moved into position. I sat in the same spot as the night before and Ben 25 yards to my north. We came into the area that morning to set a place up for him to sit and hoped that the wind would be in our favor. Ben set in front of a couple of large limestone rocks with wood stacked on top of them. From my vantage point his form disappeared. His hunting spot put him 15 or 20 yards northwest of corn that has been scattered in the area for several days. The wind was perfect we had a light northeast breeze. The temperature was also very pleasant.
The sun went down and the waiting game began. First order of business was to line the headlamp up on my head. I positioned the light, draw my bow and check the cast of the light beam. This took about three tries before I was satisfied with the alignment.
Around 8:40 or sometime around then a dark form works its way in from the northeast. Here comes a pig! The pig crosses right by Ben about 15 or 20 yards away. I think he said he heard in coming in or saw in coming in. I’m not sure he will have to describe that story from his perspective. Anyway, one of us, I’m not sure which one, lit the pig up and the pig scampered back into the darkness. He came back in a couple more times and Ben put his light on him but I think he was having problems with the alignment. Regardless no shot was taken and the pig left the area.
Later, around 9:05 another pig came into the area. This pig came in from the east if I remember correctly and it stopped about 30 yards out. We let it get comfortable in the area and then lit it up. The pig danced around a little so I shut the light off. A few seconds later I lit it up again and this time it stood still continuing to eat standing broadside to me. This was a black 80 to a 100 pound pig. I kept the light pointed directly at the pig while sitting on my three legged stool. My confidence level was high, I shoot at this distance and further all the time with my buddy Chris Kinslow, I picked a spot behind the pigs front leg, aim, draw the string with my split fingered grip, anchor to the corner of my mouth and relaxed my string hand… My string hand remained next to my face (I use a dead release) and my bow arm remained solid. It all felt good! Thump goes my 56” 55# Centaur longbow. The bow rocks and the top limb crossed in front of the headlamp beam which temporarily hides the arrow’s flight from my sight. I quickly realign the light beam onto the pig and heard thud. I hit it and the hit to me looks good! The arrow hit behind the front leg maybe a little high but it looks solidly placed in the vitals. The pig was silent after the hit and it took two steps forward and then three steps backwards. When it took the three steps backwards a voice in my head said “dead pig!” The 31.5”, 650 grain (total weight) Carbon Express, Heritage 250, white crested and white fletched arrow, fitted with a STOS two blade broadhead was buried solidly in the pig.
By this time I have my handheld 120 lumens flashlight pointed right on the pig and every move he made was clear. The pig started forward again and turned left (north) and ran hard for about 40 yards, stumbled, and turned right (east) this time, carrying the arrow with it. The pig ran 50 or 60 more yards up a hill and at the top on the hill it paused and stumbled again. The pig then went over the hill and we heard it crash through the brush. I was on cloud nine. The time was 9:10.
I walk over to Ben with a big smile on my face. First thing I hear from Ben is “That was a long $%*@&^# shot!” “Yeah I know but it felt good I hit him soild” I reply. We quietly discuss the shot placement Ben thought it might be back a bit too far but I felt it was a good hit.
We agree to return to our posts and give the pig some time before taking up the trail. About 45 minutes late a sounder of six pigs comes in from the north. Their approach was slow and they followed the same north south line that the pig I shot had run out on. We could see and hear the sounder although we never lit them up. They would not commit to the area. They remained in the general area where the pig I shot was standing. They were quiet except for the air they were blowing out their noses. They eventually slipped out of the area as quietly as they had come in. Later analysis reveled that the pigs were sniffing the blood that lay on the ground at the hit sight.
This is approximately where the arrow hitThe Blood Trail10:40 Ben and I agree that we should start tracking the shot pig. The evening temperature was warm and we didn’t want the meat to spoil. It had been an hour and a half since the shot. We start at the top of the hill where we last saw the pig and began the search for blood and mark that spot and all significant waypoints along the trail.
The terrain we are tracking through is a mix of calf high dried grass, prickly pears and mesquite trees but mostly we are tracking through dried grass. The grass proves to be the hardest to track through but Ben turns out to be an experienced and an excellent tracker. He can spot a pin head blood droplet from 10 feet away. The blood is light but I am confident that we are going to find a pig. 25 or 30 yards from where we last saw the pig on the hill top Ben found the arrow. When I see the arrow my confidences increases even more.
The arrow has had the tip end broken off. There is 3.25” of the arrow shaft missing along with a 3.5” STOS broadhead. The shaft of the arrow is also heavily coated with blood 8” up. The rest of the arrow is also covered in blood and all three of the fletch have been laid flat with blood. This told us that the arrow had been pushed all the way through the pig. Totaling up the length of the broadhead, the length of the broken shaft and the length of the heavily blood coated end of the bloody arrow there was a grand total of 14.75” of penetration. Mt initial thought at the hit site was 8” or 10” of penetration. The other 5” to 7” most have occurred as the pig was bumping into things as it ran. The arrow did not feel greasy or tacky and the arrow didn’t have the rancid smell of gut or intestine. On the same note we were not seeing bubbles in the blood. The blood we were seeing was bright red.
The search for blood continued and the progress at times was slow and then we would get big leaps forward where there was a lot of blood. The pig very rarely stayed on a trail. When it did we moved along quite quickly and then the pig would move off trail and our progress was slowed substantially. At one point going up a hill there was blood on both sides on the trail. At other times we were lucky to find a couple of drops. We tracked the pig for two hours that night and decided to pick up the trail in the morning.
Topic: Wensel Bros pig gig (Read 7425 times)
