Hunting with "Faith"

[pdk25]

Well, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to hunt with "Faith", the LH Lewis Hollow Archery takedown longbow that is being used for the St. Jude's auction.  She is 62" long and 48# @ 28".  I draw her around 52-53#.  I went down to a 5000 acre bowhunting only ranch that is outside of Laredo for what was essentially a 2 1/2 day hunt.  Upon arrival I was informed that the hogs were essentially nocturnal from hunting pressure.  For the first 1/2 day of the hunt, the javies were shut down because of the cold weather, so that left hunting at night under a feeder for hogs.  I wasn't prepared for this, and I froze my butt off until 9pm without seeing anything.

[pdk25]

The next morning I woke up, and there was a pretty nice deer in the field behind the house.  There were deer everywhere, and this one ran off a smaller buck to chase a doe.

 

   

   


Here is what some of the terrain looked like.

   

   

[pdk25]

Here is a little doe that I snuck to within 15 yards of.

 

[pdk25]

So it's friday afternoon, and I haven't seen any javies or hogs.  The land off of the roads looks too thick to stalk quietly, given the mild wind.  I am basically walking the roads and looking down crossroads for javies and biding my time until the evening hunt.  I hear some noise off to my left in the prickly pears, which materialized into an armadillo.  I hate the things.  They tear up my place in Oklahoma, making it treacherous for the horses, tear up the trees that I planted and cause erosion problems.  Nuff said.  He scurried off into the brush and thought that I couldn't see him.  I snuck around so I was facing to top of his head and planted one between the eyes.  This is my biggest regret of the hunt.  I should have considered that he wasn't doing much damage in his natural element, especially compared to what the hogs are doing.

   

[pdk25]

Still no javi action, but at 4:30pm I saw a group about a half mile down the road.  I take off at a jog and close the gap to around 75 yards and slow up to pick cactus spikes out of my feet. I start moving forward and they angle into the brush coming my way.  I quickly close to 20 yards from where they went in, with the wind in my face.  I must have gotten skylined, because a small sow saw me and scooted off into the cover.  I decided to wait them out, and a few minutes later a 35 pounds sow came out and quartered away at 22 yards.  I took her behind the shoulder.  My arrow blew through her and hit rocks around 20 yards away and shot into the brush.  Never did find the arrow.  The javi stood and bristled up, then ran two leaps to the left and dropped like a stone.

     

     

[pdk25]

I quickly went back to the ranch, dressed out the javi, and got back out for the evening hunt.  I had set up a nice ground blind and the wind was right.  I didn't have enough clothes, but I had every layer that I had packed with me plus I  had 7 hot pockets distributed on me.  I was half asleep when I hear something at the feeder around 9:45pm.  I worked out a cramp, gently pulled my noisy down vest off of me that I was using as a blanket, and went for a look.  There was a nice sounder at the feeder, and I picked out a neat black and white sow and drilled her.  I heard a crack and she dropped down in the front end.  The whole group took off, and I couldn't tell where mine went into the brush.  I thought to give here a half hour or so and then check for blood, but around 20 minutes later 2 huge hogs came into the feeder.  The smaller one would have gone over 300 pounds and was broadside but the lighting wasn't very good.  I was only around 12 yards away and took the shot.  I couldn't imagine that I would miss at the range, but the hog didn't act right.  I heard the gentle thud and then both hogs took off into the brush like they were spooked and grunted angrily for a few minutes before moving off.

[Kenneth]

   I'm liking this!

[pdk25]

I went up to the feeder and couldn't find any blood or either arrow, so I decided to give it a little more time and go back to camp to get a better light.  I also got my sidearm in case I would be in heavy cover with a wounded hog.  One of the guys in the group said he would go out with me at 11 pm, after he picked up another hunter.  I waited for him to get back but it was around 12:30 went he got back to camp and looked like he was tired enough to drop.  A nice guy named John Zalesky from Montana went with me instead and he found first blood.  A little later we found half of my arrow with the trad tusker broadhead, so I knew it was the first hog that I shot.  Maybe 50 yards later John calls my name with a dissapointed voice.  I said "What?".  He says, "Coyotes got it".  He took some pics, and I am waiting for him to email them to me.  I couldn't find the other arrow, or any blood.  I was dissapointed and decided to come back the next morning to look again.

Here is what was left of the first hog in the morning.  It looked to be around 150 pounds when it had been less eaten up. The shot placement looked good on those pics to.  The offside shoulder had been broken.

 

[Dirtybird]

Great pics and story Pat.  Congrats on the javie you did get, what a cool critter.

[Winterhawk1960]

[Dirtybird]

Great pics and story Pat.  Congrats on the javie you did get, what a cool critter.

[pdk25]

I found the other arrow the next morning with only blood on 4-5 inches of the arrow and not a stitch of blood on the ground.  I must have hit the shoulder.  I'm sure that hog is still running around.  

The next day I came on a group of javies and had a 10 yard shot on a similar sized javi, but I saw a 50+ pound boar at 40 yards that I wanted, but they all melted into cover before I could get a shot.  The rest of the hunt was uneventful for me.  Out of the entire group besides me, one guy missed a small hog the first night, one guy shot a 100 pound hog the last night of the hunt, and there were a few blown stalks and missed shots at javies.  No hogs were seen during daylight hours.  It was a tough hunt, but Faith did her job.  It's a really nice bow that someone will be proud to own after the auction.  Truly one if the prettiest riser wood combos that I have seen. The limb veneers aren't too shabby either.

[pdk25]

If I had to do it over again, I'd have watched over a pond during the heat of the day on saturday.  By saturday evening there was alot of fresh sign there.  I also found that I could have followed some hog trails in the thick stuff when the wind gave me a little more cover later in the hunt.  Oh well. Live and learn.  Now excuse me while I pick some more prickly pear spikes out of me.

[Molson]

Outstanding Pat!!  

[stabow]

Good doings Pat.....stabow

[steadman]

[LHA]

Very nice thanks for sharing.
Chris

[southpawshooter]

Great story Pat!

[Guru]

Congrats bud      

Nice to see Miss Faith put to good use!  

[wapiti792]

Way to go