Coolest hunt ever! Blackbeard Island

[Jeff D. Holchin]

[awbowman]

This was incredibly cool and certainly one of the coolest hunts ever shared!

Many thanks for bringing us along.

Reminds me our marsh hunts we did when I was younger.
               

[bofish-IL]

This was a great read Thanks

[Paul Cousineau]

Amazing photos! thank you for sharing.

thanks, for sharing your adventure with us. pretty  cool looking place.

[razorsharptokill]

Wow! That WAS a cool hunt!

[jt85]

Thank you all for sharing I've really enjoyed reading about your hunt.

[DennyK]

That was just beautiful, thank you all for sharing.

[stocker56]

Great read and fantastic pictures.        What a great way to spend time together.

[Terry Green]

Many thanks for sharing...would have loved to heard Matt chime in.  He's always good for some intellectual input one way or another.

[Terry Green]

Oh....and yes....those types of environments are really mystic for sure...hare to believe the diversity GA has.....and one heck of a lot of hunting opportunities for a lot of different animals.

Were there a lot of hogs seen on this trip?...or has the government put the hurt on them?

[KentuckyTJ]

Terry, the game folks told us at the meeting that they had thinned them down to a count of 50 hogs. Not sure how they would know that as the place is literally a jungle on most the island but many of us never saw a pig and I only saw a few tracks that were from 10 pound piglets.

[The Night Stalker]

Terry, I really wanted to shoot a hog this trip, but the federal warden in charge of erraticating the hogs has really got them on edge.  Hogs adapt so well in my opinion that the rest are going to be hard to kill due to the pressure on them. They estimated that their was  50 hogs left on the island.

Matt, is very interesting to talk to and he kept us entertained. I laughed uncontrollably at times. I like his political views. But then again, I am not politically correct myself. Matt definitely has a gift for gab. I would go on this trip again just to listen to the guys around camp. A bunch of great info can be had. Talking about western hunting, photography, old times, bow building; we had it all covered on this trip.

[The Night Stalker]

Another thing, if you have never met Rob from TN or talked to him on the phone, you would be surprised to know that he has a strong English accent and slang. He was great to have in camp and talk about his experiences. There was many traditional archers present and I was really not expecting that. Most of them at least had visited the forum. Most of them recognized Rob from his tattoos and piercings.  Some guys recognized Bill and got to pick his brain about bow building.

[Leland]

Thanks for sharing the great stories and pics!
Leland

[RC]

Great hunt . thanks for telling. Ya`ll were not far from my neck of the woods. I went by Shellmans bluff today. Its nasty here and been raining for 3 days. RC

[JohnV]

People often ask, "Why should I join PBS?  What do I get from it?"  A chance to join other experienced, die-hard bowhunters on hunts like this is a major bonus that comes with your membership.  We are looking forward to hosting two pig hunts in February in Texas for PBS members.  We have other hunts and shoots planned in 2015 for our members in most regions of the country.

[Bill Kissner]

First I would like to say I have never shared a camp with better people than the Blackbeard bunch. Joe, Bill and Tracy Dunn are old friends that I have known for quite some time. I had also met Rob Peel a few years ago at Comptons. Tom, Jeff, Tim, Rob Burnham, and Matt Shuster who is a legend, were all new acquaintances.

I went hoping to kill some hogs as they are about my favorite thing to hunt,..... well except maybe next to elk. It was disappointing to say the least that they had been baiting and killing hogs in the weeks before we got there. I saw a few tracks but no hogs.

Here are a few pics of our camp and a few of the fauna on the island.

 

Our cook tent supplied by Bill and Tracy.

 

My Seek Outside 6 man.

 

The shower house which stayed pretty busy with 155 hunters.

 

 

One to show the jungle that is somewhat impenetrable.

 

A salt flat I hunted the last evening.

 

 

I want to thank Matt for giving us the opportunity to see such a wonderful place. Anyone that has never been to Blackbeard Island is missing a great adventure. The large live oaks with all the hanging spanish moss make a beautiful place to pitch a tent.

I feel fortunate to be a PBS member because of all the hunting friends I've made and just being welcome to go on these hunts is very special.

[Pat B]

I had the privilege of hunting Blackbeard twice back in the 1980s. It has to be one of my most favorite places to hunt(they called it a harvest). Back then there were no hogs and the ranger told us if there were squirrels on the island the deer would suffer because of the shortage of available food. Also back then I saw the largest water moccasin I've ever seen. It was laying up under a bush and looked like a truck tire laying there. I saw it from about 30 yards away. We were told not to kill anything but deer and their goal was to reduce the deer herd by 50%.  Looks like you guys had a great hunt. Thanks for letting us come along.

[Liquid Amber]

I hunted Blackbeard the first hunt of 1985 and don't remember seeing another traditional bow.  I hunted the South end with an old Baker Climber and walked the beach back every evening with another of our group.  We had a severe storm one night that flattened most of the free standing tents.  Some of the veterans brought home-made climbing blocks attached with rough rope to access some of the live oaks.  They pulled a wagon with a tractor to pick up the deer and if you killed one you could ride the wagon back with it.

Some great photos and stories.