Most of the week 2 Pig Giggers should be home or at least close by now, so I start this out. Kevin Bahr, Mark Wang, Greg Darling and I arrived at the ranch on Sunday afternoon. We found our cabin and settled in with four other "giggers" from North Dakota: Craig, Irv, Jim and Kendall. We were all looking forward to a great week and in the end, we were not disappointed. Week 1's snow left its mark in the form of mud, but that didn't keep us from getting out. The ND crew was hunting the far end of the ranch and was into pigs early. It took us a couple of days to get on them, and Mark was the first in our group to score with a nice 125 lb dressed sow. This is the first kill for one of my Heavy Head wood arrows with an extra 70 grains up front. My camera didn't want to focus, but here's a pic:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/Fletcher610/Pig%20Gig%202010/P2170119.jpg)
I took this boar just before sunset on Friday, another 125 pounder dressed.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/Fletcher610/Pig%20Gig%202010/P2190128.jpg)
My bow was a Pronghorn TD, 58" and 54 lb at 26", with an Oliverstacy string. The arrow was a Feathered Shaft Sitka Spruce Heavy Head with 50 grains up front plus a 190 gr VPA Terminator. The shot was about 10 yards and quartering, entering near the last rib and stopping at the opposite front leg. The Terminator found this on its way thru:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v450/Fletcher610/Pig%20Gig%202010/P2190131-1.jpg)
He made it about 40 yards before falling over.
Greg and Kevin will be on here soon with their stories and they both took way more pics than me. I could go on about how great a hunt this was, but saying "I'm going back!" probably says it best!
Nice Piggies
I KNEW Rick would break the ice!!!
Congratulations Rick and Mark! Did your PBS bow make the trip?
:thumbsup:
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Dang it Surtees---always trying to outbid me! :D
Congrats! :clapper:
Yes Joe, the PBS bow was there, but the Pronghorn shot my prototype arrows perfectly, so it made first bow. Being 58" vs 64", the Pronghorn handled a little easier in the brush, too.
very nice. I must take this min to thank fletcher for hooking me up with this group at the mich trad bowhunter expo first one i had been to and he helped me with alot of the questions i had so i thank you freind
Rick,I look forward to hearing the stories. I am for sure envious. Congrats Flint
Glad you guys had a great time.Wish I could have hunted Week 2 also.
Can't wait for the stories!
Congrats Rick and Mark.
Very good start.
Very nice.
:thumbsup:
NICE!
+1 for the Illinois boys! I look forward to hearing about the fine points of your hunt. Congratulations, Rick! :thumbsup:
Daryl
Shortly after we arrived on Sunday, Gene and Barry stopped by and kind of lined us out on our hunting area, at least 2x4 miles. Monday morning, I had the guys drop me off on the east end and I headed down the fence line toward the river. I worked my way toward and parallel to the river for a while before looping back up the bluff and then back up top to make the pickup point. I saw several deer and some pig tracks, but not much rooting or bedding sign. We headed back for lunch and then drove to town to get road corn and groceries. In the afternoon we headed out to corn some areas and do some more scouting and still hunting. Mark kept singing about "The Yellow Roads of Texas".
To say I'm jealous is an understatement!! :thumbsup:
The PBS Council guys were O-fer on week 2. Hopefully Bo Slaughter can make a dent in the hawg population as he just arrived there for week 3. I had an absolute blast even though I never loosed an arrow. I was into pigs the last three days, even got right into their bedding area on three seperate occasions, within 5 yards and still no good shot opportunity, or at least none that I could close the deal on. Maybe next year! And before any viscious rumors get started, we did not get the Beast stuck in the river. (It was on a "bottomless" two track) Many thanks to Thomas Burns and Kevin Shea for coming to our rescue after dark and to Greg Darling for being the only one with tall rubber boots to hook the trucks together. Good times!
Well-done!
:campfire:
Very cool Rick.
Jack
Very cool well done :thumbsup:
Great News and congrats Rick ! I keep saying I'm gonna make it down there and something always comes up . Week 3 should also be a good time with Bo there , best of luck guys , Fred
On Wednesday morning, I was working along the top edge of a bluff, stopping every hundred yards or so to glass over the flat below. During a move, I heard a grunt and a 50 lb'er shot from a cut and headed off across the top ahead of me. I looked over the edge and could see two more black pigs about 30 yards away. I backed up and worked my way around hoping they would follow their buddy, but no such luck. I worked my way to the edge and found the rest of the bunch about ten yards below me, a nice sow, a few 50-70 pounders and a batch of footballs. We played cat and mouse along the bluff for about an hour, but they kept to the thick stuff and worked down the side until I couldn't get close anymore. I finally found the sow bedded along the bottom of the bluff and was planning a loop down and back when a real cowboy on a horse came by rounding up steers. We must have talked too loud as pretty soon my pigs were seen booking it across the bottom flat. By now it was about pickup time so I headed back to the road. Kevin had found a group that morning too, also in some thick stuff, but that is his story.
Rick- congratulations on the Texas pork. I smoked a whole shoulder for my son's college buddies Saturday and it was big hit. One of these days we'll share another camp. Grant
Way to go!! Congrats!! I need to go pork huntin!
:thumbsup:
We had seen some pigs out in the middle of a big field a few evenings and Mark was trying to figure out where they were coming in from. We corned a road along one edge of the field and it was getting hit. There was a non-working feeded back in the brush that still had corn in it and the pigs would bump the legs to shake out some corn. On Thursday evening I set myself up in some nearby brush and put out some soured and plain corn in good shooting range. Starting about 5 PM, I had a bunch of deer come thru, but no pigs. Chasing off deer isn't something I normally want to do, but I sure did wish these deer would go away. Dark came with no pigs and I headed to the road for my ride out.
We checked the spot again after the Friday morning hunt and the pigs had definitely been there during the night, so we re-corned the spot and planned to return that afternoon. When I got back later, the wind was wrong for setting up in the brush as before, so I kinda hid in a mesquite bush, hoping for the best. Once in a while, I would sneak out and check the road. :saywhat:
Looking east, there were only cattle, but way down to the west I could see a few deer. Watching thru the binocs, I noticed something else on the road beyond the deer. I could just see their backs over the rise, but they were pigs.
I moved quickly in their direction as I figured them to be about a half mile away and the sun was really getting low. Stepping off the road and picking up a cow trail, I made good time thru the cactus and brush. The deer picked me up early and headed back into the brush, but the pigs were busy eating and didn't notice. Closing to about 50 yards was pretty quick and easy, but cover was becoming sparse. I slipped in to about 20 yards, but had to back up and was able to get myself set up next to some brush near the road. The pigs moved back and forth on the road, but were slowly heading my way. The cow gods must have been happy with me because a group of cattle moved onto the road and started pushing the hogs ahead. Several of the footballs and a couple 50 pounders got past me pretty quick before the boar stopped and turned a bit right in front of me. My bow was already up, I looked, drew and released. At the hit, he shot under the fence, ran out in the field a little ways, stopped, wobbled and fell over. It doesn't get much better. :archer:
Way to make it happen Rick! :clapper:
I was "lucky" enough to locate a pig beddding area on wednesday morning. As I was "exploring", I was slowly easing my way up a valley between two large hills. I had been on top of the hill to the west the previous day just so I could do some glassing, etc. and due to the extremely thick cover leading up to the top, thought it might be a good place for a pig to hide in the daytime.
As I was easing up the wide open valley, I heard a pig grunt so I froze, listening for more sounds, which weren't forthcoming. I was looking up the hill to the east toward where I thought the sound came from and spotted a black hog just as he disappeared behind a mesquite thicket. I made a beeline for that spot and before I got to it, I figured I'd better glass it real well first. Immediately I saw two large hog bodies laying in the shade under a mesquite bush. I started stalking in on them ever so slowly. Before I got close enough to tell which direction they were laying, I heard a couple of grunts and squeals. One of the thickest brushy spots had a sow and a whole row of shorties laying under it. I had to try to get between three or four of these thick brush patches and noticed more hogs coming and going behind the cover. I actually got too close to the pigs that were bedded and as I was in a small clearing, one came walking right at me, looked at me with that Mr. Magoo sort of look, and since I hadn't moved, just started to root, but facing head on. As it turned broadside I couldn't draw my longbow as I had some brush interfering with my upper limb. While "stuck" there, a couple of the little football sized pigs walked within mere feet of me, never noticing me standing there. As the sow got up and took her group away from me and up the hill, two large hogs were coming around the brush to my left. I tucked myself right up to the edge of the cover and one of the hogs stopped about 4 yards away and took a leak. I could hear it hitting the leaves, I was that close. He swapped ends and never gave me a shot. As he left, his buddy walked through the opening and as I started to draw he saw me and scrammed up the hill.
Sooooo close, yet so far...
I bet your heart was racing, Kevin. That's often the way of it, eh.
Any other 2nd weekers out there?
We're here Greg, but many of us don't have a lot to report as far as animal encounters. My group was is an area containing mainly old sign. It was obvious to me that the hogs had been pressured a lot the previous week - at least where my group of six were scouting, and we covered some ground. The few hogs we did encounter were on RED ALERT. I guess the high water and bad roads restricted access to new virgin turf the second week, which is why I took a chance and drove across the flooded Brazos mid-week to see if I could find some game. Unfortunately, the area where I landed was very open with virtually no drainages or brushy cover. Lots of cattle though. I understand that some groups were into hogs week 2, so maybe they'll chime in here with better reports. We had a good time despite the hunting conditions, which is always the case with us regardless of arrows launched. It' always an adventure! Sometimes you're into pigs and other times you're not. That's hunting:^)
In our group of 8 ( John Vargo, myself, Doug Clayton, Gary Rieck, Dave MacDonald, Steve and BJ Martin from Iowa and Bill Peterson from Minnesota 3 pigs were put to rest. Bill, Steve and Gary all shot oinkers on the last day. Two of those pigs were killed "mighty late" on the last day. Might have been a couple of misses in there, too, but I'm not talking. John and I had little opportunity, but everyone else had close encounters. Sharing the skinning room with Kevin, Rick, Greg and the Twins on that last night was a real hoot. Wish I had audio to post on line. Anyway, opportunities were starting to get much more frequent just as the hunt was running out. Bill and I probably saw 25-35 pigs the last day. LambsHead is full of coyotes and skunks, too. All in all, despite 15 degree nights, the trip was a gas. Some of my companions had gas, too, but not me.
Hey Gene, speaking of "gas", I wonder if this technique helps or hinders the brother's digestive track??? I took this the day we packed up. Think I should post it elsewhere on Tradgang?? It would be a shame to withhold the word on this new technology:^)
(http://brothersofthebow.com/CUZworkout.jpg)
(NOTE: Hit F5 on your keyboards to refresh the page if the pic fails to load)
Sorry I missed you on the hunt, Gary. I have to figure you took a bunch of photos, tho. Pick out a few good ones for us. :campfire: