Texas or Bust!!!! Pig hunt in progress...

[tmccall]

Speaking of dinner...  Mike makes a mean Jambalya!!!!  I'm getting some dinner then we'll see a few pics and commence some story telling...

[Flatbowdad]

Come on guy's, I gotta here a little more of this story. Flatbowdad

[the Ferret]

#$^%$*&@ only waited 2 days..should have known better..be back tomorrow..well no I won't..going on vacation..be back next Friday.

[B.O.D.]

C'mon guys...Grown men don't need milk, now beer..mmmmm...beer..mmmmmm....( done in my best Homer voice    )    
BD

[wingnut]

Where is Tony?

Well heck with him, They rolled into camp at about 11:00 am after driving all night from Arkansas.  They all looked like they were drug through a knothole . . backwards.  But we unloaded there gear and got to the target range to check out the bows and arrows.  Tony's buddy Mike is new to Trad and expressed that he was having trouble shooting consistantly.  We took a look at the setup and figured out that the guy at the archery shop didn't have the right arrows so he sold him the wrong ones he had.  I hate that!!

Lucky for Mike, I had put together some tapered maple arrows for the hunt that turned out to be perfect for his curve.  They shot good, grouped great and were point on for him at 15yds.  Could not have worked out better.  We took a few minutes and put my backup WW on them and got the setup working perfect.

Tony and his dad (Tony too) shot well with the Windtalkers and the arrows James Young had built for them.  

We talked a bit and shot a bit and waited patiently for 5:00 to roll around and to head out to the field for piggy time.

Mike

[robtattoo]

Oh.....come.....on........   :D  

More story, less milky!  

[tmccall]

I've learned two at least two things by this point in the story...  

First:  Texas is a BIG state!  It is one more looooong haul from Northeast Arkansas to South Texas.

Secondly:  The first thing you do when you get to camp is start flinging arrows and developing your list of excuses why you missed!  Wingnut taught me that one...  You start right away compiling the list of reasons why you missed, cause your only allowed to use each excuse once!  These excuses can get quite creative as well, things like left over aftershock from last years Tsunami moved the intended target at the last moment!

[robtattoo]

Sorry! couldn't help meself!

[Van/TX]

Gonna go watch a deer ham thaw and maybe cut the lawn.  Hope I don't miss anything    ....Van

[wingnut]

We gear up and Jason and I make the blind/stand assignments.  First out of the truck will be Tony Sr.  at the Double Bull we placed on the upper loop.  We had 20 small hogs check us out when we were putting it up on Monday so we figured Tony would have action and get some shots.

Second out of the truck is Jason; the wind was wrong for our first choice so he hit a short ladderstand at an intersection.  This place was just tore up with tracks and rooting.

Then Mike in a ground blind that we had built a earlier in the day across from one I had built a couple years back.  Now we had them for either wind condition.  

Tony was next in another ground blind that Gerald recommended.  And I hit a big mesquite tree and made a hydiehole for my stool and my big butt.

Well the game was on for real and we waited for the pigs to start moving.

It was hot, 90+ and not much happened for a couple of hours at my spot.  Gerald had taken a pig here the week before and said that about 20 head were feeding in the field across the road from it so I waited and waited.  Finally I hear the pigs coming.  Typical grunting and squealing and crunch the corn.  The enter the field of view and I see five feeder size hogs (40# or so) making there way towards me.  Dang my heart starts to race again and sweat build up.  Gotta concentrate and slow down I tell my self.  There they are, a couple more steps and I start to draw.  It is a tunnel shot and about 15 yds. . .perfect.  I hit anchor as a nice reddish brown boar hits the openning.  Pick a spot and release.   . . . . .. Nice arrow flight as my WW tipped POC sails over his back and bounces accross the field.

Why am I shooting high.  My practice sessions are laying them in?  I'm getting frustrated but stay put, knowing it won't be long before the big pigs head out for a night of foraging.  Maybe I'll get another chance.

Mike

[tmccall]

Sorry guys,  I never intended to drag this out so long...  but it takes a little to get over that killer drive!  I've got a few photos uploaded and ready to go now and more on the way...

I've got an appointment to keep at nine but I promise I'll be back around noon and we will get this story told!  

First of all this was the first site that greeted us in Texas:

 

First thought: Wow, everything is bigger in Texas!!!   :D

[tmccall]

Mike Bingham is a good friend of mine and a hunting partner.  He just started trad this year and he expressed great doubts in his own shooting ability on the way there but we hadn't been there for an hour before Wingnut had him shooting lights out!  He was smoking them and the pigs would soon learn to stay out of his way...

 

I'm hoping Mike gets himself a Tradgang handle and contributes to this story along the way.

[tmccall]

Of course it was great to have my Dad along as well:

   

We spent that first afternoon shooting our bows, making up excuses, and brushing in a blind:

   

This was the blind where Mike B would take his first shot at a critter with trad equipment:

 

That gets us ready for the evening hunt where Wingnut wasted one of his excuses on that red boar he was just talking about.

[T-Mac]

Don't want to take away from the milking session, but wanted to say that the hunt was great. The time I spent with some great people will always be a special memory for me. The friendships cultivated will last forever and the hopefully will be renewed often. Already plans are being formulated for future events with these friends. The food was great, the fellowship greater still. We had it all the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but in the end there were no losers only winners. Thanks Mike and Jason for helping us experience or first hog hunt with vigor and great success. Now on with the milking.

[Van/TX]

Dang this is gettin' good.  Might have to wait on the yard chores.  Didn't I tell ya it would be noon?          :p

[9 Mile Archer]

Holey pork rinds batman,  just as the saw descends on our caped crusaders we get the next week story.  Come on you guys are killing me.    

[robtattoo]

I wish I lived in the US. Looking out my workshop window, pi$$ing down again....ho hum.

[tmccall]

Ok...  I had great intentions of having everything told by now, but life has gotten in the way.  Here goes my version of events:

Tuesday afternoon I left home at around 5:30 to swing by my Dad's and pick him up.  We loaded our gear into my wife's already crowded Jeep Liberty and began to wonder if we would be able to fit everything in once we met Mike in Trumann, Arkansas and loaded his gear and the groceries we intended to buy.  

We were probably quite a sight as we loaded and unloaded the Jeep on the Walmart parking lot trying to get all of the gear arranged and still leave places to seat 3 men on the grueling drive ahead.

The drive was TOUGH!  Texas is a biiiiiig state.  but finally we made it to Pearsall Texas.  What a place!  Everything there either bites, stings, scratches or pokes.  We saw 5 hogs from the gate to the bunkhouse and that, combined with the stories that Mike had already told us, had us stoked!

[tmccall]

The first thing we did was meet and greet, all of us met Mike, Jason and Gerald.  Then we grabbed the bows and arrows and got down to the business of shooting together and really getting acquainted Trad Style!

It quickly became apparent that the long drive hadn't knocked our sights off.   :D   Mike and Mike began to work together, our Arkansas Mike was having some trouble with consistency in his shooting and Wingnut quickly zeroed in on a few problem areas in his setup, mainly heavily over-spined arrows.

Wingnut put together 6 arrows for Mike and within a few brief moments Mike was shooting as good as anybody.  We planned and plotted and mainly waited for the evening hunt.  Wingnut assured us that there would be arrows in the air and he was certainly right.  Everyone would get a shot that night!!!

[tmccall]

The hanging tree with 5 Dryad bows hanging on it!  Any one of these bows would make a man proud!

 

Mike and Jason do great work!!!  And these Dryad bows did their job when it finally came down to pig whacking time!