Texas pig adventure first! Hope on board! (Updated pg.4)

I'll be waiting Charley!

Bisch

[elknutz]

I'm not going anywhere.  Good hunt.

[Duker]

[habujohn]

thanks for the posts, felt like were on the hunt with you.  You're weather sure was not as nice as we had it in early March in west Texas. Looks more like the middle of October in Michigan.

[Joeabowhunter]

       

[sheephunter]

Sorry about not keeping up last night, yesterday was busy. Will get back after it this afternoon when I get off work.

[maineac]

Great story so far!  I'll be checking back.  

[sheephunter]

Tuesday dawned bright and clear, with a change to the weather coming. The high temps for the day would be closer to 50 than 15 like they had been. The wind had also switched and was coming out of the south now. Time for a different approach to the area along the canyon that we had been hunting in the mornings. Now we would be hunting a new area on the north end and work our way south to where J.D. had shot his pig. While I did not take a picture of the canyon (which I chastise myself for) it can be deep and rugged for sure.

Our initial drop into the canyon revealed less sign than on top and the cover was TOO thick to hunt, we would have been crawling blind thru it. We arrived back up to the rim of the canyon and began to follow the edge, staying about 20-50 yards from the edge, sometimes dropping into to cross a promising looking draw. We had gone approximately a half mile when we ran into pigs. A sounder probably 15 strong was feeding and milling on the flat near the edge of the canyon. I spotted the first skirting around a tree and signaled for J.D. to stop, but he had seen movement from some of the other pigs farther up the flat. While J.D. was watching a large black boar pursue a sow and try to "woo" her in the way only a hog can, I was focused on the two smaller pigs in front of me. The junipers were thick and the edge of the draw is off to my right, the pigs on a  trail directly in front of me on the edge of the drop off. At 40 yards away, it is too far for a shot. So I creep forward but walking into the sunlight I felt very exposed and wondered how long it would last before they spotted me. I will tell you, it was just under 30 yards. One sees me, woofs and the skin out. They moved off onto the next finger ridge across the draw and head west into the canyon. We pursed but never caught back up. Back to the edge of the flat and to head south......

[sheephunter]

We got back up on our "line" and continued south. A couple hundred yards later, five more hogs come trotting thru from right to left (off the flat, heading towards the canyon, see a theme?) and at a trot. I thought they may have been spooked but they only went another 30 yards and stopped and started feeding.

 J.D. again was off to my left as we moved forward. Still being in thick junipers, I was catching glimpses of them moving ahead. I moved up to one tree and saw a pig that was feeding start to move my way. I felt confident as I had my face mask up and had a tree at my back that would break up my outline. Arrow already on the string, I put a little tension on the string and started to calm my breathing and remember my shot sequence. The pig finally made it to about 8 yards and started to turn broadside to clear the tree in front of me. I was already drawn this time as he was about to clear the tree when he picked me off and spooked. Luckily, I think he just didn't know what he saw instead of figuring me out as he only ran around the tree and materialized  out the other side. I drew again, anchored, settled and released/pulled thru the shot......only to watch my arrow fly just over the back of the pig. That did it, they boogered out now. Sigh...

Of course my arrow smacked right into a juniper/cedar, which if you have no experience with, are tough as diamonds! Since I didn't have anything to pull the BH out with, my cedar shaft pulled out and the STOS is still in that tree as I write this. Oh well, you lose a few every now and then.

I want to publicly thank my friend J.D. for working to keep my spirits up  over the course of this hunt. I would get in a dejected, sour mood congruent behavior pattern, but like any great friend, J.D. would lift my spirits and remind me that God had Blessed us just to be out there and healthy! Thank you my friend!

We moved down farther and saw a telephone pole that was a scratching pole and had some high mud marks on it (will show you later). We finally made it down to the end where J.D. had taken the hog the previous morning. We turned around and started back to the truck. Unfortunately, the wind was at our backs now so we figured we would just head back the way we came, figuring any hogs that had been around, we had already moved off. Wrong! As we worked our way down a clear cut/old road (?), the same five pigs that I had gotten a shot at ran across in front of us. Guess they had not gone as far as we had thought! This time with a snout full of human, the motored hard for the canyon. We continued back to the truck while looking for arrow heads. Unfortunately, we collected as many of those as we had pigs!  Oh, but what a exciting morning!

 

I wanted to show this picture of us to show how a more open, big pattern like the Predator or Cabelas Outfitter lighter colored patterns work better out west than a lot of the dark, hardwoods patterns for back east do. ASAT is another favorite of mine. While maybe not the best example here, just something to study and ponder if you have never been out west or are planning to. Notice the amount of light colored grass and brush versus the amount of dark limbs. Lots of light grays, browns and yellow.

 

 

 

These are some of the nests we found, they were incredible!!

[slim_grim]

[bwana]

[Gatekeeper]

Great read!

[sheephunter]

J.D. had to go back and take care of his pig since it was heating up so I decided to hunt a little to the north before lunch and walked to the river. While I didn't see any game except for some quail finally, I did see some neat country!

 

Found this chair on the overlook. Talk about convenient!

 


That afternoon, we found ourselves back up on road 1. Others around camp had been hit or miss on pig sightings and Jay said that if we were seeing pigs we should continue to stay with them. We posted up on the other end of the road to match the wind. I will say this, pigs sightings were fewer for sure. The sow with piglets arrived and I tried to move and get into place for a shot but she moved down the road faster than I could get in front of her before she moved off. The calico showed up but seemed to predict my every move, no shot opportunities ended up presenting themselves. In short, it was somewhat unmemorable unfortunately to say. Me and J.D. did have a good talk I remember about God, family and life! The next day was different and much more memorable!

[sheephunter]

That next morning, the final day, we were all up and out early trying to fit in as much hunting as we could. Again, me and J.D. started out on the north end and worked to the south. We were between the areas where we had contacts with pigs the day before when we finally made contact with another sounder. J.D. was off to my left about 20 yards. Imagine there is an "L" formation with the trees right now, i am at one end and J.D. at the other, only the corner is off to my left along with J.D. and he is slightly back. In the corner of the L is a small sow with piglets. She is feeding slowly towards J.D. and when she comes out of the junipers and brush, she will be broadside. Unfortunately J.D. cannot shoot as she is walking towards him head on. Finally she clears and turns quartering away but catches me as I draw and spooks. Next thing we know, Hogs are moving all around us! We had been right in the middle of a sounder and didn't even know it! They only moved off about 40 yards on the other side of the L.

J.D. skirted thru a hole in the trees and I swung around behind him and off to his left. The group at this point is now directly in front of me but on the other side of a juniper, with the group stringing out behind them from that. I can only see piglets in the brush in front of me. J.D. on the other hand looks like a dog on point, and for good reason! There is a large blonde boar with visible tusks at 25 yards broadside! Only one problem, a limb is right in the way! So here we are waiting them out and just letting the scene play out. Unfortunately, the big hog is not moving,just standing there grunting. To make matters worse, a hog walks out into the open in front of J.D., stands broadside at 15 yards, completely oblivious, and sits down like a dog! Later I asked J.D. why he didn't just shoot that one but he had his eyes set on the big guy. I decided to try and move over to J.D.'s position since I couldn't see anything. That was what undid us though. The pigs caught the movement and motored out of there. We talked it over for a few minutes while things calmed down, thinking maybe they had not gone too far.

We started forward after a drink of water and a candy bar, splitting up to about 50 yards at this time. I got near a clump of trees and started to hear some grunting/woofing. I signaled for J.D. to come over but when he arrived and we moved forward the hogs had moved. I caught a glimpse of a big red and a big black pig moving west. We tried to catch up but to no avail. We did come across some cool stuff though!

   

A hog rubbing post, that top mark looks plenty high up to me! Wish I could have seen the big guy that made that one!

A good set of tough boots is a must down here, I suggest full grain leather, to keep the cactus and stickers at bay. The snake gaiters I had on (while not worried about snakes due to the temps) worked great for keeping stickers out of my lower legs and from tearing up my pants. I got a nice set from Big R that are made in Oklahoma, the good old US of A which made me happy. Something to ponder. Better than buying a pair of the boots in my mind.

   

   

About those stickers.....

   

I think the hogs like this rubbing bush, just call it a hunch!

   

   

Another mammoth nest.

   

And another rub.

We headed back to camp and prepare for our final hunt. Though still not bloody, I felt confident about the evening and my chances.  

[Over&Under]

TTT

[Gatekeeper]

[nineworlds9]

Great story so far.  I can empathize with the cold conditions. My TX hunt back in January was miserably cold but still lots of fun.  We hunted mostly at night out of ground/pit blinds, its interesting to read about your day stalking efforts.

[sheephunter]

Sorry about the delay, life can get busy with work and kids.

Previously in the day, we had been out shooting some arrows. Here is Carl, one of the other hunters, running a few arrows thru Hope.

   

So, the final evening of the hunt, I elected to hunt a water hole near road 1 that had been getting hit just before dark. J.D. dropped me off about 150 yards from the water hole so my scent would be well away from any pigs coming in. J.D. then headed back up to road 1. I sat down in a Juniper to get out of the wind and enjoy some sun. The temperature had cooled back off into the 30's but wasn't too bad. I was positioned on a 4 way to where I could see the road and banks above the water hole. Surrounding the pond were some high banks and junipers. I felt that Hope was going to bring me luck that evening.

   

(Above)This is looking towards the pond from my position. The pond is in a depression in the center/right part of the picture. I was in the juniper that you can see the shadow of in the left part of the picture.

   

And behind me. (above)

For the first couple hours before dark, the wind kept the wildlife movement to a minimum. Not hardly even the birds were out. Just as the sun was about to go down, I caught movement by the pond......

[sheephunter]

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(hence the movement). The does had me pegged, even though I thought I was concealed well. They moved off to the road and began to feed on some corn there.

 As I watched the two does watch me, I heard some pig sequels from the pond, time to move! I grabbed my bow and was off! 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.. He did not answer for about ten minutes. Hopefully he got into some action himself! Finally, I did reach him and he said he had a shot but the hit was marginal and there was very little blood. Unfortunately, that hog was never recovered.  From what I had heard, hogs don't bleed much. With the blood i was seeing around my hog, I figured she would be dead by the time J.D. picked me up. Waiting for J.D. was a long half hour as the coyotes started to ramp up nearby.
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.

I know these pictures following are not the greatest so bear with me.

   

Impact sight.

   

Where I was above on the bank.

   
   

Her final resting place below in the high light.

   

The arrow that finally did it below.

   

And a cleaned up version.

   
   

I can't tell you how much this pig and the circumstances surrounding it mean to me!

[sheephunter]

Back at the ranch, everyone was excited to hear I had finally gotten a pig! To have a house full of good company and a great location for a great hunt, I could not ask for more. Jay said that he was happy to say that this was the first time he has ever had a group of hunters come down and never turned the ranch house TV on once during our entire stay. The next morning, we packed up, said our goodbyes, exchanged info and headed back home. Can't wait to get back down there again and get some more of this hog meat and spend some more time in this red desert clay! It is great!  Hope everyone liked the read and sorry about dragging this out but my life has been full to say the least lately.  Thanks for listening to my ramblings!