I have been dogging in on public land for pigs for I don't
know HOW LONG now and with all the MILES,
stories and unluck that I have had recently with the bacon mobiles I was
feeling a little down. So when my boss
asked me if I wanted to run to his cabin that had some pigs running around it I
jumped at the chance. We motored up
there Monday afternoon and we were going to get out Tuesday morning early. Well as most things go that did not happen,
but for a good reason.
Monday upon arrival I geared up and hit the
trail looking for Bear, Deer, and or Pigs.
I found bear (tracks), Deer (does), Pig (track) and a crap load of
turkey. Cool thing about it was that I
was able get in so close to the deer and turkeys. I had a whole mess of does and turkeys within
30 yards it was pretty awesome, except that it was not turkey season and you
can't shoot does in this area. But as
the night closed in I decided to call it good enough and head into the
cabin. [Commence sleeping and general
tom-foolery as most grown men do when alone.]
Tuesday 5am
came way to early, but that is the way it is when your having fun. My plan was to check one of the ponds and
then run the fire trails checking the clearings as I walked to the lower
property where pigs go from the open fields to the safety of the gnarliest
scrub oak known to man. I got around to
the lower section and sat up, of all places, under a tree stand. Stand had not been tended to in
a while and was a little over grown. But that dirt never bothered me anyway.
After realizing this
hunt was going to end like all the rest, I just ranged around to see where
things were at. On my last click I hit a
log at 40 yards and not 10 seconds later, from the same direction of the log, I
heard a noise. And not just any noise,
pigs! Like a tornado coming out of no
where the pigs stormed up the ravine like locus on the Egyptians. The first pig that walked through the
shooting window was a nice 150lbs pig. That is good enough for me. As she
walked behind a tree, I drew. She walked onto the exact spot I ranged I let my
arrow fly. The Easton St. Axis 340 w/
blazers tipped with my MX-4 Muzzy met together with her in a mixture of
squealing and blood loss. She mowed
through the undergrowth that is a tangled as a Tom Clancy novel and I heard her
pile up and thrash around. I took a
breath, waited a few minutes and then started to track her down.
Arrow was bloody and did not smell, nice.
Blood at the impact spot, great.
Bloody trail that I could land a 747 on, priceless
I took is slow and quite, which is really easy with the Crooked
Horn's Safari Sneakers. No joke you can reduce your noise by 80% when walking in the
nasty oak riddles under growth. I know I work for them, blah, blah, blah, paid spokes hole but I am not joking they are the most important things I own. No more taking off your boots and hiking in socks. So as I
followed the Red-Oak-Leaf-Road, I would step, sit and move. Step, sit and move. Shower rinse and
repeat. After about 50 yards of that I
came up on my first pig with a bow. It
seemed like an eternity to get it done, but I was pretty amazing to say the
least. I took a few photos, pulled her
hind end out of the under growth and then boned miss piggy out.
All said and done, I shot her at 7:20 am and had her on ice and was leaving at 11:30am .
Not too bad, if you count all the filming we had to do and the dirty
work of cutting it up. When its all said
and done it was a great hunt and a phenomenal way to finally end the pork drought in my freezer.
There you have it & Cheers
Tony
The Bearded Boar
