After hunting "Skylight" in the morning, and even though I didn't see anything, I knew it was where I wanted to be the first afternoon. The mud and sign by the feeder was unquestionable...
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We had made plans to hunt till a couple hours into the night. We all had some sort of "hoglight" on our bows. Mine was a time tested little headlamp conversion that I'd already used successfully in Texas on 3 hogs over the last couple years.
All was extremely quiet till I heard the tell-tale sound of footsteps coming in from behind me.
I slowly turned to look over my left shoulder and was immediately busted....by a big gobbler!!!
After he wandered off it was quiet again till just before it was too dark to make out forms.
At about 6:45 I again heard the unmistakable shuffling sound of a hog coming thru crunchy leaves and palmettos!
The sound got closer, and it was getting dark by the second. I finally could just barely make out the jet black hog against the lighter leaf litter.
All alone, it stopped a couple times before committing to comming all the way in....but soon it was at the feeder.
I tried as best I could to have the hog in shooting position before I hit it with the light. You just never know how they'll react to the light.
Checking with binos in the almost non existing light, I thought it was broadside....I pressed the switch on my little reddish pink light and lowered it down on the hog...
It wasn't broadside, but it didn't hardly react to the light. I kept it on the hog for about 10 seconds while it moved, but it always kept itself 1/4 toward me...I turned it off and waited...
I turned it back on, but again it wasn't in a shooting position, but again it didn't react in a negetive way....so I kept it on the hog as it fed around....this time for about 30 seconds. It even looked up at me at one point, I could see its eyes reflecting back at me.
I shut it off again because it seemed to be getting nervous. I thought it was going to leave, but instead it actually came closer to the stand over to my right. then I heard it turn around and start to walk away from my back to the right side of the feeder...I hit the light again...
When I hit it with the light this time it was hard quartering away as it walked. I drew and tried to pick a spot as best I could and released...
At release the bow reacted funny in my hands, causing the light to jerk away from the hog. I only got a quick impression of where the arrow went, and it looked to be too far back and low. But I only saw a quick flash in the light.
At the shot I heard what sounded like the arrow almost silently hitting mud. The hog, without making a sound just ran a little ways behind the feeder and stopped!
Thats when I felt a wierd sensation on the inside of my right thigh....my bottom limb had somehow grazed my leg! I'd missed!!!!
I heard the pig start moving again, and I though for a minute it was coming back...but then I heard it shuffle off getting quieter as it went...Dang it!!!
I sat for another 1.5 hrs in the dark beating myself up for missing(even though I know it's not easy shooting in the dark) and and listening to a bunch of deer feeding around me.
Finally at about 8:45 I got down to go get my arrow and meet Doug who was hunting the "racetrack"...
I get down, and with the help of my Wensel main Beam light, I walk over to where my arrow was sticking in the ground....guess what....no arrow sticking in the ground!
I searched for 10 minutes, just knowing it was there somewhere, but I couldn't come up with it. I even looked for blood for about 20yds in the direction the hog went....nothing....
There was no doubt in my mind I'd missed with my impression of where my arrow was headed in the split second I saw it in the light, I know I'd grazed my leg, and the hog never made a sound at the shot.....I just figured the arrow had somehow slipped under something and I couldn't find it in the dark....so I was off to meet Doug....I'd look for my arrow in the morning after the hunt.....
Topic: Best Friends, HOGS, and the story of 3s...some vid's added pg.19 (Read 18332 times)
