Hope and Faith Sarrels of 2014

[sheephunter]

Left Colorado last night and drove to Amarillo, got a couple hours of sleep and going to head towards the ranch with Hope in company. Lord bring us hogs!

Good luck, Charley!

Bisch

[Mamba]

Good luck charley have fun

[recurve_shooter]

I picked up Ms. Faith in the "warhead" this morning.  (Good description of the packaging sheephunter)  She actually arrived Monday, but I wasn't home then and wasn't able to get by the PO yesterday.

I'll break her out and start shooting this afternoon, then check out a couple of areas with good hog sign to see if I can arrange a meeting between Ms. Faith and Ms. Piggy!

I'm confused???? I thought sheephunter had Hope?

Either way, good luck with her recurve_shooter!

Bisch

[sheephunter]

Hope came thru!Will try and get some pics loaded tomorrow!

Originally posted by sheephunter:
Hope came thru!Will try and get some pics loaded tomorrow!

I "Hope" there is a bit more of a story to go along with the pics!

Bisch

[recurve_shooter]

Originally posted by Bisch:
[QB] I'm confused???? I thought sheephunter had Hope?

He does, I was just referring to his description from an earlier post about the package looking like it might contain an atomic warhead   :D

[sheephunter]

There is a lot more to come but today was a little on the hectic side to say the least. Will try like heck in this weekend (work tomorrow) to get the story and pics up.

[bullcalf]

Charley and I scooted out from Colorado Springs at the bright and early time of about 9pm on the 28th and with heavy eyelids and anxious hearts, grabbed a few hours of much needed rest before continuing on to our destination.  We'd each packed four bows (including Hope) and associated accoutrements, ice chests, targets, plenty of drinking water and enough food to last in case we had to stay until, say...spring.

We were both new to the wild hog hunting scenario so it took us a full day and a half to really get a decent feel for the best way to get within bow range of these extremely skittish little boogers.  They were a challenge for sure!

Since we both like the spot-n-stalk over sit and wait (sitting still isn't our strong suit) we took our host's advice and did out best.  Working the wind was definitely a must and extra dicey in the cedar and mesquite tangles that enveloped this area.

Early morning would find us slowly working the bedding and nesting areas, and found this to be very productive.  We got into hogs each morning without fail, but getting closer than about 50 yards without being busted was tricky.  I sure won't take their eyesight for granted again.  They can pick up on the slightest movement especially in close.

On day two of our hunt we'd headed back into a grass flat bordered by a two track on one side and a staging area on the other overlooking a canyon leading to the Brazos.  We'd found hogs there day one but didn't have a good plan.  This morning, we did.  Slowly still-hunting into the area we spotted movement upwind about 80 yards through the tangle.  At about 40 yards, we split up and each went around a large juniper and cedar break between us and at least two adult hogs.  As luck would have it, they apparently saw Charley's movement through the trees and from their beds got up to look his direction.  That gave me the diversion I needed to make my way to a pocket about 12 yards from their bed, up under a very large cedar.  As they stood and started to move away from Charley, I was able to slip my 620 grain arrow tipped with a Simmons head into the first pig from a hard quartering away shot.  The arrow hit a little back from what I'd hoped, but the angle put it just a little back of the last rib, stopped by the shoulder on the far side.  The sow instantly disappeared into the brush.

[bullcalf]

As I moved up to the point of the hit to mark the spot, a few small piglets squirted out of a large "mouse nest" about the size of a picnic table.  They too disappeared into the brush.  This little comic entertainment was followed immediately by some of the nastiest growling I'd ever heard in the bow woods.  Their momma, a large black sow, was the only one who didn't run far.  She stood her ground and let us know in now uncertain terms that she did not wish us to venture any further.  We took the clue as Charley exclaimed "I....think we'd better back out and give her some time."  
So we did just that, but not before we heard the sounds of a clearly struggling hog.  I was sure it was a fatal hit, but had a few moments later that made me nervous.

After about 45 minutes, we came back to the spot and started our recovery search.  My pig did not bleed a drop!  The downward angle of the shot and the fact that the arrow was stopped by the offhand shoulder made for a tough search.  You couldn't really follow track because the area looked like a chicken yard!  We kind of took a grid-search approach and after about 20 minutes were rewarded with the sight of my pig laying in some cactus under another cedar.  It was a beautiful sight!

My Black Canyon 58# take-down longbow launched the arrow wonderfully.  I couldn't believe the penetration.  It traversed almost the entire length of the hog with only a few inches of shaft left still sticking out.

After taking a moment to thank the Creator for this wonderful wild bounty and some subsequent photos, we dragged her about 1/4 mile to a deer stand we could access by another small two track.  It was a great feeling to return to camp with some great pork to put in the freezer.

[sheephunter]

After bullcalf's hog, we had quite a few run ins with other pigs, failed opportunities, missed shots and a lot of fun. Brings me to the last day with Hope. I found Hope to be exceptionally beautiful, light in the hand, very fast and shot where I was looking. The stippling on the grip was new and interesting. The grip is very similar to my Black Canyon so the learning curve was very short. Hope is great in every which way, I was hoping she would make the difference in my luck with the pigs.
   Again, fast forward to the last day. The morning was interesting. Hope lead me and bullcalf (J.D.) right into the middle of a sounder of pigs about 10 adults and 20 piglets strong. How they did not wind us is beyond me. One smaller sow was feeding thru the middle of a juniper heading towards J.D. and would end up broadside to me at ten yards. I came to full draw as she came out and quartered away. She spotted the movement and took off but only went a short distance to the rest of the herd and resumed feeding. The visual acuity of hogs at our short bow ranges for movement is exceptional, though at a distance of over 50-100 yards becomes lacking.
    We moved up on the herd again, and I had no shot opportunities and J.D. was waiting for a shot on a large blonde boar. They finally busted when I tried to reposition and the jig was up. A couple of more glimpses of hogs for the rest of the morning was about it. The evening hunt would turn out to be my eleventh hour connection....

[sheephunter]

The evening came around and we where headed back to the north end of the property where we had been getting into hogs each evening. I would be hunting a pond that the hogs had recently been using just before dark. I spread some corn around and backed off while J.D. headed to another section about a mile away. For two hours sparrows, cardinals, and blue jays kept me company, but with the cold wind blowing they were not moving much. Finally, just before the sun went down, two does appeared above the pond. As I watched the two does watch me, I heard some pig sequels from the pond, time to move! I swung to the downwind bank of the pond and spotted eight adults hogs at the pond and a lot of piglets heading in to join in on the fun. The two biggest pigs were a black boar and a white/black calico sow happened to be closest to the south bank. I moved around to the south bank and came up over the top. Hope felt good in my hands and I felt confident with her there. The calico hog was the closest and as she turned quartering away, I drew, picked a spot and released. At the sound of the shot she lurched forward and the arrow smacked her in the left side femur. That broke her down and she was spinning in circles. I drew another arrow and shot as she was turning in front of me. The arrow took her length wise on her right side. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to me was that the second arrow did not enter the inside of the rib cage. She moved off to the left of me about forty yards but was unable to make it up the bank to the junipers. The other hogs had run off in the other direction by this time.
   From on top of the bank, I could see copious amounts of blood on the ground and every time she stood I saw blood pump profusely from the struck leg. With the large amounts of visible blood and the sow finally laying down and had put her head down, I figured it would only be a matter of time before she succumbed to the wounds. I backed off to call J.D.. From what I had heard, hogs don't bleed much and I figured she would be dead by the time J.D. picked me up.
    As darkness finally arrived and J.D. arrived to help with the hog, we found she still had some life left in her. A final arrow from Hope into the shoulder and she was down for good! My first hog and with Hope to boot! I am certain to my core that between the Blessings from our Lord and Savior and the mojo from Hope played a major part in the taking of my hog in the eleventh hour. Thanks to the Sarrel family for building a fantastic, beautiful bow and also to all involved on tradgang for letting me be a part of something much bigger than me. J.D. cleaned up the picture of the hog a bit as she had a lot of blood on her.

 

[Guru]

Awesome stuff!!! Congrats Charlie!!!!!!    

Cool story!

Congrats to both of y'all!

Bisch

[THEFOREVERMAN]

Did someone say what all the wood is?

[Mamba]

awesome Charley!  Great pics and story.

[archeryprof]

It was  a pleasure having you and JD down here at the ranch Charlie .I hope to see you guys back down here again next year. -- Jay

[recurve_shooter]

Originally posted by THEFOREVERMAN:
Did someone say what all the wood is?

Pau Ferro and Bocote.  You can see pictures of the build-along on the first 2-3 pages of this thread.

I'm practicing with Miss Faith now, and hope to get a hog with her by the end of the month.

[bullcalf]

Jay, we enjoyed that hunt more than we can express.  Really great accommodations and care.  Now that we kind of have a "lay of the land" and learned a lot about their daily habits, hopefully we can come back and stick a few more.  Thank you again for all you did for us.  You're operation is top-shelf, Pard.  JD