Texas Sweat 2009 - photos & stories

[knife river]

Originally posted by tradtusker:
[QB]  

Doc, I remembered you as being a little taller...    

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Originally posted by Littlefeather:
Hey Jason, Did you recognize your lights. They work great!!!We'll be using them again tomorrow night. We need to talk soon. CK

How could I forget those things? I still have a scar on my hand and a blood trail on my basement floor.  :eek:  

Yeah, we need to make some plans. I'll try to give you a call soon.

[tradtusker]

Originally posted by knife river:
 

quote:Originally posted by tradtusker:
[QB]    

Doc, I remembered you as being a little taller...    

[BowHuntingFool]

This is great stuff! My favorite kinda threads! Looking forward to tomorrows postings!  

[tradtusker]

My quota of Javi's

 

[Kingwouldbe]

Sounds like a great time guys, love it, thanks

[extremebowfishing]

Great thread you guys, enjoyed it!

[Littlefeather]

 

Here's Larry getting fueled up on some grub. Lerry the lurker doesn't post much but he's a hell of a guy.

 


And here's our buddy Robert showing off his daily prize around the kitchen. I bethis wife doesn't allow javi's in her kitchen.    

Robert fell in with us last year when he won a trip to Texas Sweat. It was Roberts first group Trad hunt and he got hooked. He took his first trad hog last year and followed it up with his first trad javi this year. Wy to go Robert!     Nicely done!

 

More later. Gotta get hunters coffee'd and out hunting now. CK

[Guru]

Awesome, awesome awesome!!!!

Luv'n every word and pic fellas    

Looking forward to a lot more    

[hunt it]

Here is a picture of my favourite place on the ranch other than camp of course. A little digging and some landscaping got the old waterhole pit ready to go for this year.

The first night was slow until 5:45 when I heard a pig grunt from close by. A quick peek through the landscaping showed a big black hog coming to water. As he cruised the waters edge I readied for a shot and waited for the right time. He was drinking head on to me and gave no shot for some time. He then headed up the bank to leave, this gave me the perfect quartering away shot I was looking for. The 300Xtreme tipped Grizzly stick was on it's way. The 5yrd shot hit home but looked a little farther back than I preferred at first glance. As the hog departed I saw the arrow fletching hanging near back end. I thought i had hit him a little far back and decided to leave him until morning to search.

The next morning saw Shaun, Andy, Mel and I head out to search for two hogs. Andy had had a great evening the night prior and had bagged two havies that he retrieved and then hit a hog at last light as he was heading out. We went in search of Andy's hog first. Unfortunately we did not find that hog. In the process of searching both Shaun and Mel had shots on havies as well. It seemed they where everywhere. Shaun's havie was hit high and we figured he was just fine and off telling all his buddies about the Motley Crue at the water hole. Mel's havie was hit well and took refuge under some tin roofing near a coral. What followed was more like the havie fight at the Ok Coral. That havie charged and tried to eat Mel and had a few of us looking for trees to climb. A few silver dollars (Flames) later Mel had the havie in the bag. We then headed for my waterhole. Not 500yrds down the road a pack of havies were sighted and we all bailed out. After a mean footchase through the thorns I connected on a havie. It was a quartering away shot and the shaft was in to the nock, length wise from back to front. That havie took off on a mad death run and nearly ran Andy over. A Lot of searching  produced no havie. The long golden grass in the area made it almost impossible to find anything unless you stepped on it. Off to the waterhole we headed. After finding no blood trail and searching far and wide Andy tripped over my hog not 80yrds from the waterhole. Thanks Andy. Once we had him we could see that the shot was not all that far back and the forward angle had produced a 300xtreme hole through the hogs heart.

[Shaun]

Another shot of Robert's javie. It takes a good shot to put one of these stinkers down in sight. They are tough as old shoe leather and don't like to leave a blood trail.

 

[michiganbowguy]

so what was the final "kill" total for how many men?
i couldnt keep track!!!
how many days,how many guys,how much game?
not to mention the ones youve passed up!

wow.lots of hunting down there!
ill get with littlefeather for sure for a hunt!

jamie

[Irish]

Robert does smile - I saw him do it!!

[Jeff Strubberg]

Dave;

No helicopters around the waterhole this year?

[Gary Kellar]

Great pictures and stories guys!  You make us all feel as though we're there with you, and wish we could have been.  Every picture of Robert looks like he just sat in a prickly pear, what's up with that?

POP

[Shaun]

I had a good shot opportunity almost every day. Many of them were very close and only pilot error prevented me from bringing home the bacon on several occasions.

My best day afield was spent at windmill #12 where the pre hunt crew had constructed a lovely pit blind with "landscaping" just 5 yards south from the spill water hole. Allen hunted this spot a couple of mornings but no one had tried the afternoon shift. I kept the spot corned and waited for a north wind. The north wind finally arrived and I settled in about 2:00 PM with a good book.

   

At around 3:00 I turned a page and looked up. I had been counting on hearing the woof of javies or the jostling and oinking of hogs to break my reading spell. What I was not counting on was a coyote sneaking in for a drink. Right there across the pond was a nice dog yote and on the rise behind his lookout mate. I eased into position and was pleased to note that the coyote seemed unable to pick out my movement as the 1959 Bear Alsakan came back and a cedar shaft sped towards his quartering flank. He took off just as the arrow arrived and somehow he and the arrow appeared to share space but not time. For a while I just looked at the orange shaft with yellow four fletch sticking in the sand on the other bank. Oh well, back to my book.

After a bit I retrieved the arrow and touched up the razorhead tip with a file. About 5:00 I finished the book and looked up to see Mr Dog returning for another sip. His mate trotted along the ridge 80 yards away on alert as he came down the opposite bank again.

   

This time I pulled out the camera and snapped a few pics as he checked for danger and then leaned in for another drink.

   

As he turned to go, I took one more photo

   

and then raised the bow. This time I focused on the last rib and let fly with a clean release. He got in a half step only before the freshly filed broadhead met its mark. He took off in a streak with shaft showing on both sides and made it almost out of sight before I thought I saw him tumble. I waited a while and then headed towards the last spot I'd seen him. About 80 yards away a dark spot was visible ahead. (Center of photo)

   

[Doug Campbell]

         Lovin it Guys!!

[Shaun]

I eased up the binos and saw an ear attached to the dark form.

 

There is a thread on the History/Collecting forum about hunting with '59 Bears for the 50th anniversary of these bows. They are some of the best shooting and most collectible of this make and I was trying to honor the man and the memories with this bow. It all came together that afternoon and it felt good.

 

[bowhunterfrompast]

Congrats    to everyone. Love these hunting threads..bhfp

[Shaun]

My day was not over. I was to have a chance at the Texas trifecta as about 6:00 the woof of javelina brought the camera out. A nice group of stink pigs came hesitantly in from behind and down wind. They presented a slam dunk chance and everything went  perfectly to script

 

until the human error factor came to fore a few minutes later. &*(()#*(@*

Late afternoon into evening is a special time at a water hole during drought times. The birds kept me entertained and I knew Killy would want photos to allow her to dig out the "Birds of the West" version of Peterson's Guide.