Texas or Bust II: Bushwackin' em and Stackin' em!

[tmccall]

Good picture Mike!  I am pretty proud of my work but I failed to take ANY pictures of the trailer or your truck.  I did take lots of pictures of your work though:

 

Did I mention that I'm proud of my bow?

[tmccall]

That afternoon before we worked on the truck and trailer we went out and found some new stand sites from which to ambush piggies.  We set up a new blind for Jason and Mike and established new stand sites for me and Dad.  Each place looked promising.

We quickly finished the truck and started on the trailer.  While Jason and I worked Mike and Dad squared away dinner.  We had ribeye steaks, corn and a medley of vegetables all prepared on the grill.  I stepped out and shot a few more arrows before we headed out, once again I was dead on!

This is fair warning to Mickey and Curtis and anyone else paying attention, get ready, the Hog-Zilla story is coming up!

[Littlefeather]

Cool decals on the trailer. Makes a guy want to buy another bow. Great bow pictures as well! So, wheres all the pig pics? CK

[tmccall]

I know this thread isn't about our new bows, but Dad and I are really excited and I just can't help myself.  Here's one more pic:

 

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[tmccall]

Pig pics coming up at the end.  Story telling first.

The evening hunt was eventful for me!  Before we headed out that evening Mike took the time to give us a belated explanation about Africanized Bees (killer bees).  The instructions were simple... Leave them alone!  Don't swat at them, don't anger them and especially don't kill them.  If you do any of the above you will tic them off and they will emit an odor that attracts other bees and the other bees will be angry when they arrive.  This will not be a good thing.  Basically the message was, if you swat them you will be swarmed by them.

That night I made an important scientific discovery...  Texas now has Africanized Misquitos!  I was only in the stand a while when I made the mistake of swatting one of them.  When I did I was instantly swarmed for the rest of the night by killer misquitos.

[wingnut]

Hogzilla! Hogzilla! Hogzilla! Hogzilla!

Come on tell the story anyway.

My evening was a total bust.  I went to my best spot and didn't even hear a pig.  I had red deer and goats but no hogs.  Mosquitos were good til my Thermacell ran out of juice with 30 minutes to go.  Then the feed was on.  Not corn and hogs but my blood and them bloodsucking pests.

Mike

[bayoulongbowman]

I keep looking back at this thread, these bows are awesome looking ...great story!  

[tmccall]

Gerald dropped me off at my stand that evening and everything looked and felt promising.  I crawled up into my stand and felt really good about the location, the cover, and my ability to shoot.  This would be the night! And so I settled in and waited...

And waited...

And waited some more.  Once through that long misquito infested afternoon I thought I heard pigs but they never materialized and so I waited...

And waited...

And waited until almost dark.  As dusk began to settle in I finally heard that unmistakable sound of grunting and crunching.  PIGS!  I prepared my self for the shot.  Several times during that long afternoon I had picked a particular spot in the trail and drawn my bow to anchor envisioning the arrow sailing to it's mark.  Now, with the pigs still around a bend and well out of sight I drew once more and told myself, "You can make this shot!"

It seemed like it took forever, but finally, as the light was waning a group of about 6 pigs came around the bend.  I was immediately struck by the fact that they were very skittish.  Coming forward 10 steps and running back 5 steps.  Slowly but steadily advancing towards my shooting lane.  My heart was in my throat.  I tried several deep breaths to calm myself and prepare for the inevitable shot opportunity that was quickly approaching.

At this point two things were bothering me.  First these pigs were staying in such a tight wad that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to single one out for a shot and secondly darkness was quickly approaching.  This had to go down pretty quick.

Finally as they approached my shooting lane one of them distinguished itself from the rest as it jumped forward to grab a piece of corn.  The very piece that I had sighted on several times earlier in the day.  It all came together in that instant.  My bow string came back, I hit anchor, and everything felt just perfect as my strings released the arrow.  At that point it was dark enough that my arrow disappeared into the darkness about half way to the pig...

I gotta run and get a soda!

[tmccall]

I heard the arrow smack home and I saw the pigs scatter, all going the same direction.  After they cleared the area, I could see my arrow laying in the road!  I felt good about the hit.

[tmccall]

After a moment I heard a ruckus in the bushes on the other side of the road.  A pig was squealing, and grunting and going at it something awful.  This went on for some time then died down.  After a bit I heard one more grunt then nothing.  

I was PUMPED!  I felt very good about the shot, I expected to go down there and find blood spray from a heart shot.  So I waited as long as I could, then I headed down to inspect my arrow.  When I got there I found blood smeared down the length of my arrow shaft, but surprisingly no blood on the ground.

I began to check the edge of the trail looking with my flashlight for blood sign where the pigs entered the brush but I couldn't seem to pick up anything.  I was confident that I had heard the pig die, it had to be laying within 50 yards of the arrow...  

Then along came Jason.

[wingnut]

Jason isn't here so I'll relay the story as he told it later in camp.  

As darkness fell only a couple of pigs had crossed in front of his blind none presenting a shot so he started the 500 yd walk towards Tony as they had planned earlier.  As he approached the stand he could see Tony in the road and boy was he excited.  Tony closed the gap between them and started telling the story at 78 speed.  Jason said Tony told him about the shot and that the hog was average size about 60-80 pounds.  After the shot he was sure it had traveled 50yds into the brush and had squeeled and grunted for 15 minutes at least.

As Gerald picked us up on the other end of the ranch and cut across the middle to Tony's stand we hoped that he had got a shot and connected.  As we approached it was obvious that he had.

The story spilled out once again and the tracking dog was released to pick up the trail.  Gerald asked about the shot and the entry into the thick cover.  He started looking for blood only as a guy that sees bloodtrails every week can.  Soon he had the trail and walked 10 yds and said "here it is"  He grabbed it by the leg and managed to drag it up to the road by himself as we moved to try and help.  There was a lot of celebration and laughter.  We helpped load it on the truck and head for camp.

Mike for Jason

[tmccall]

Man was I pumped!  What a shot.  I nailed that pig...  Only problem was just a little ground shrinkage.  Somebody let  all of the air out of Hogzilla.

 

No complaints here though!  That joker is gonna be good on the BBQ!

[tmccall]

I coulda swore that little dude was a GIANT when I loosed the arrow.  I'm blaming the shrinkage on the fast approaching darkness, excitement, and any thing else I can come up with...  LOL

[tmccall]

I'm thinking new Avatar with that little dude, seeing as how he's my second trad kill and all.

[wingnut]

Dang that was a fun time in camp giving Tony the business about his monster hog and the inflated story.  We need to wipe the milk from it's lips before we took the pictures but it was a heck of a shot though.

On to the next morning, we put Tony Sr in our new blind location after he'd seen pigs the night before from a stand and no shots.  I sat the stand he'd hunted that night and Tony and Jason headed back to the same stands.  We were hopeful the pigs would move before we had to pack and go home.  My mornign starte promising with a large pig grumbling at me from behind as soon as I got in my stand.  I tried grunting at him like Curtis but he held his ground and soon moved off.   A few minutes later I could hear a group of pigs moving in the brush to my left but when they got to the road, they turned the other way and that was it for me for the next 3 hours.  

After the sun got high in the sky, I decide to walk out to the other end of the ranch and start pulling stands and blinds to make it easier to pick up later.  I got the first one done and was walking along towards an intersection when a group of 10 or so pigs rounded the corner the other way.  A large sow as in the lead with two more large pigs behind.  At least 4 more in the 50-60# class and a few weiners.  I tried to get on a good sized boar but they broke back to the right before I could shoot.  I got to the corner and could hear them in the brush 50 yds ahead.  I got "hog small" and the stalk was on.  I caught glimpses of the them moving in feeding in the knee high wildflowers and kept trees and brush between them and me as I closed the distance.  They began to head towards the road as I got the distace to about 15 yds.  I hunkerd next to a mesquite hoping for a shot.

One of the large pigs poked it's head out of the brush and stepped one more time.  I could see the vitals and looked low on the shoulder as I hit full draw.  When I felt the broad head touch my finger the arrow was off and so was the pig.  The arrow caught it high and back.  As it turned away I saw the now familar spray of crimson in the sunlight.  I knew the woodsman had once again severed the artery under the spine and this would be as short trail.  I went to the first blood and marked it with an arrow.  I then headed for camp to share the story and to share the trail with my hunting partners.

After finding Jason and Tony coming into camp we headed out to pick up Tony Sr.  Then off to the trail.  It was just as I thought and as we turned the dogs loose it was about a minute before we heard the telltale barking of a dead pig.

She hadn't gone 50 yds and was a nice 150# sow.

We took a few pics and grabbed a leg.  This one was a bit tougher to drag then Tonys.

Mike

[tmccall]

That moment was the highlight of my trip!  I was very pleased to, once again, bloody my new Dryad bow with a South TX pig.  We retired to the bunkhouse for Strawberry Shortcake, everyone but Mike who has slight issues with Strawberries.  We still have one more outing and there is more pig blood yet to be shed.

TEASER AHEAD!  

Here's the lucky arrow:

   

How about a couple of misc. pics:

 

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[tmccall]

Oops,  Mike and I cross posted...  that's his arrow, which goes with the story he just told!

[wingnut]

I think the pig posted before with me was actually the sow and not the boar but it don't matter.  Here are a couple of shots we took and I know Tony has a few of his own to share.

Here are the small game hunters with there prizes

 

I can't hit anything that small and was having enough trouble with the big ones

 

Mike

[tmccall]

OK Hog pics...  

First off the whole bunch of em...

 

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[tmccall]

And the group shot:

   

What a happy bunch of hunters!  We had a great time...