My good friend Tom Porter sent me an email a couple of weeks ago with the pictures of an unusually small camper trailer he was thinking about buying. The title of the email he sent me was "the clown camper". The camper is called a scamp and while it might not be a luxury fifth wheel, it has the potential to be a cool, bare bones rig for hunting trips. I'll let Tom tell the story about the trailer.
My only input on the potential purchase was to suggest that I drive down with him to Dallas. I told him we should find some hog hunting while down there. Tom was in from the word go which is cool!
Tom is going on Bear Quest in a couple more weeks and I am in the heart of T-ball season with my boys so we both didn't have a lot of time available. Memorial Day weekend looked like our best option. Definitely a crazy last minute trip but that's how Tom and I roll!
I started making some calls and looking on the internet for a place we could hunt. I wanted to go back down to see my friend Curtis Keller, but that would be another 12 hours round trip so we decided to look for something close to Dallas. Tom had hunted near Albany, TX during the Pig Gig this last year, but they never got back with him so we ended up going to a ranch south of Tyler, TX. I found the outfitter on Craig's list of all places. I think Tom was disappointed because he knew Albany and this was pretty much a crap shot.
What attracted me to the place was his web site which included some discussion about Bob Lee bows and a picture of the outfitter with some recurves in the background. I called him up and the Texas voice on the other line sounded excited and plenty friendly. He told us to come on down and quote "We'll wear those ole stickbows out" in a classic Texas twang. Stretch a String outfitters and James Foster was true to his word. We had a lot of fun on a last minute, spur of the moment, hog hunt. Hopefully Tom will jump in here with some pictures of his hog and trailer.
Here is a little teaser of Tom's hog. He put a great shot on his pig and the lungs told the story.
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Nice! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I smell BBQ! :campfire: :clapper:
The ranch was a really neat piece of property with lots of springs and lakes along with a cool mix of oaks other hardwoods. Despite the 95 degree heat the ranch seemed shaded and cool for the most part.
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There was plenty of hog sign when we got to looking around.
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Like I said the ranch is loaded with springs which were neat. James took us around for a tour and showed us some of the cool parts of the ranch which is 3000 acres.
Here is Tom cooling of in one of the mineral springs that looked like a little mini volcano. The spring has a ton of iron deposits in the water so that is the orange stuff you see on the rocks.
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James Foster was a funny dude that I really enjoyed. He was our cook, tour guide, and archery coach for the weekend.
He was an old tournament shooter back in the day and had some helpful suggestions for our shooting that he provided only after we started asking him some questions.
This video is of James telling a joke over breakfast. He seems have a story about everything, plus a joke or funny line to go with it.
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Clothing might not be James strong suit as he went shirtless most of the trip. He has a big scar on his abdomen that came from an infection after surgery. He said he started lancing it himself with a broadhead after the doctor told him he would have to drive 40 miles every couple of days to have the infection drained.
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Here he is with Tom relaxing in the chat room which is a converted garage. Perfect for hog camp!
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When we first drove in James met us at the county road to guide us back to the hunting camp. As we drove by the original homestead house he stopped and got out. He proceded to tell us this is where we would be staying during our trip in his typical joking fashon. Our hunting camp was several miles down the road and in much better repair.
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Their was a family cemetary on the ranch and I took a look to see the dates which were pretty old. The history of places is always interesting.
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Tom should be along soon and I'm sure he will have some more neat pictures to share. I'll hand it off to him for a while and be back with some pictures of a hog I shot.
More in the morning or Wednesay night if the T-ball game isn't over too late!
My father and I hunted with Mr. Foster at his old ranch a few years back, and can attest to his hospatality and sense humor, he made the entire trip a real hoot!
Looking forward to this thread as we are thinking of heading back down to see James next year.
If you don't mind Chris, drop me a PM as I have a few questions about James' new place.
Looks like ya'll had a great time on a last minute hunt, which sometimes turn out to be the best ones. Congrats your sucess!!!
Good stuff! :thumbsup:
:wavey: :thumbsup:
Can't wait to read more :campfire: :coffee:
:campfire: :clapper: :clapper: :coffee:
Thank you for your part of the story.
Now with fingers doing drum rolls on the desk while waiting and waiting on Tom..lol
God bless,Mudd
Good stuff.....way to go on the hog, Tom. Good way to tune up for those BEARS! :thumbsup:
I sent Tom an e-mail Monday evening to see how you guys did on your trip. I had a feeling he must be writing a story since he didn't answer me. I want to hear more, come on Tom spit it out! Congrats on a good hunt and safe trip. Ben
My obsession with this little clown camper came last spring when I was at a local 3D shoot. As I was standing in line waiting to pay the entry fee something caught my eye. Across an open field parked against a distant tree line set a little white egg shaped camper. "Cool" I said out loud and quickly proceeded to find the owner. It turned out the owner is a fellow Trad Gang member, Tommy Boy. With his permission I gained access to the inside to see what amenities the little camper offered. For its 13' length (that's from hitch to bumper) its interior seemed quite roomy. There was a table that made into a bed, a sink, heater, stove, refrigerator, cabinets, closet and a bench that doubled as another bed. It looked like the perfect hunting camper. I'd been bitten by "the bug" the Scamp bug and off and on from that day forward I kept thinking about getting one of those little campers.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, looking around on **** I found one of the little campers listed. A 1978, 13' Scamp. It looked a little rough but hey its 32 years old. And from there the journey began.
Here are some pictures of the Scamp.
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After contacting the owner and agreeing on a price I called my buddy Chris Kinslow and told him that I was headed to Dallas to pick up a camper and that got his wheels spinning about doing a hunt in Texas. From there the two of us began making phone calls and sending emails out looking for a place to hunt. The species of choice...PIGS!
On Friday night at 4:00 we were on the road headed south, but we still weren't sure where we were going to hunt. As we were traveling down the road we were still trying to secure a place to hunt. For our hunt we had it narrowed down to three possible locations. One place was a ranch that I hunted earlier this year. The second was some Army Corp of Engineer land around Lavon Lake and the third place was a private ranch that was just starting up a hunting operation.
By 02:30 Saturday morning we had made it to or destination of Wylie, Texas but we were no closer to finding a place to hunt. Within the 08:00 hour on Saturday we were sitting in the Scamp talking with the owner and looking the camper over. Within the 09:00 hour we were on the road with the Scamp in tow, but we still didn't have place to hunt.
Transfer of Ownership
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My preferred place to hunt (at the time) didn't pan out. Communication with the rancher went cold so we scratch that one off our list. Our second option, Lavon Lake, really didn't appeal to either of us even though it was very close to where we were at the time. Lavon Lake's downside was the pigs were pressured a lot and the lake's camp grounds were filled. So that left us with the ranch with the start up hunting operation. It was a crap shoot, but we thought we would give it a try.
Stretch A String on the Tarrant Ranch is where we were headed and what a great choice we made! http://www.stretchastring.com/ From the beginning we were made to feel at home. Our host James Foster was a riot to be around. Full of stories, off the wall comments and crazy sayings Chris and I were hooked from the beginning.
We arrived somewhere around 11:00 or 12:00 o'clock Saturday at the Tarrant Ranch.
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Tom you're getting Charlie-itus the way you streeeeeeech these stories out. Come on we're waiting! Ben
Man I love that camper...the hog pic wasn't bad either. Now get on with the story! :readit:
Tom,
I have a '78 Scamp too! I am getting it ready right now for a Colorado trip this fall. They are neat. I added a 12 gallon water tank to mine and a 3 burner stove.
Good luck "scamping".
Wayne
Nice hog, thanks for sharing, good stuff! :thumbsup:
Tom, Some of us don't have a job and depend on some good pics. and reading when we come in for lunch.Chris, if he is going to be so tight lipped how about giving us more info and hero pictures, after all you started this.LOL Ben
Tom!
Congrats on the clown trailer! Put some 22" spinners on that bad boy and you can take it anywhere!
Let's see the hog pictures/story.
Jeremy
:campfire:
Glad to see the trip was a success both with the camper and the hogs. You going to bring it to snows?
QuoteOriginally posted by fnshtr:
Tom,
I have a '78 Scamp too! I am getting it ready right now for a Colorado trip this fall. They are neat. I added a 12 gallon water tank to mine and a 3 burner stove.
Good luck "scamping".
Wayne
Cool Shoot me some pictures of it please, inside and out. I want to do some modifications to mine and I would like to see the Scamps that other people own.
QuoteOriginally posted by rappstar:
Tom!
Congrats on the clown trailer! Put some 22" spinners on that bad boy and you can take it anywhere!
Let's see the hog pictures/story.
Jeremy
:biglaugh:
I told Chris that I need to put some hydraulic lifts on it so I can take off road.
QuoteOriginally posted by BMN:
Glad to see the trip was a success both with the camper and the hogs. You going to bring it to snows?
Yeah I would like to bring it to the Snow shoot for its maiden campout.
Before we set our bags down James was trying to feed us. What an interesting character James turned out to be...I miss him already. After a quick tour of the compound James took us into the Chat Room to give us a rundown of how his operation works, show us some pictures from his game cameras and tell us some of his crazy ass stories. "First off, sign these papers" James said. Then he went on to say "Basically the forms says if you get hurt don't call me call someone who cares." :scared: and off in the distance but no hog squealing or hog sightings. Around 01:30 we called it a night.
The next day we caught up on some much needed sleep
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and awoke to another of James' artery clogging meals. You can bet when James is cooking bacon grease or lard of some sort is going to finds its way into the meal at some point. Ben, his cooking is right up your alley.
Afterwards James thought he would help our meal settle by taking us for a break neck speed ride around the property. Look at how determined he is.
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Later, after I began reviewing my pictures I found out he spent most of the time driving with his eyes closed.
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As I wrote before, the property is absolutely beautiful. The pictures don't do the poperty justic.
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My first night out I was a ball of nerves sitting in a treestand let alone on the ground like Tom. I had a creek behind me and several times I had an animal of some sort step down into the water and my heart rate was soaring. The creek was slightly below me and I'm afraid a mild thermal effect might have brought my wind down that direction. I reluctantly crawled out of the stand at 1:30 am. This night hunting was a different beast all together. I liked it!
Cool story and pics!
:thumbsup:
Ha Ha! My wife told me I'm a bad influence on people! Congrats on becoming a Scamp owner - and from the looks of it, it's in much better shape than mine was when I took the plunge. You will really come to appreciate it when you drive into deer camp on a slushy Nov./Dec. evening and all you have to do to set up camp is take it off the hitch. Good Job on the hogs bro!
Also, are you taking the Scamp to Wakarusa this weekend? We could have a Scamp jamboree.
:laughing:
I want a Scamp now. :cool:
QuoteOriginally posted by TommyBoy:
Ha Ha! My wife told me I'm a bad influence on people! Congrats on becoming a Scamp owner - and from the looks of it, it's in much better shape than mine was when I took the plunge. You will really come to appreciate it when you drive into deer camp on a slushy Nov./Dec. evening and all you have to do to set up camp is take it off the hitch. Good Job on the hogs bro!
Also, are you taking the Scamp to Wakarusa this weekend? We could have a Scamp jamboree.
:laughing:
Thanks, Tom. I was hoping you would see this thread. It's good to know some other guys with this same kind of camper. I may have some questions when it comes to fixing some things.
I can't make the shoot this weekend. With the hog hunt last weekend and a bear hunt next weekend, I need to stay home and get some stuff done.
QuoteOriginally posted by Gatekeeper:
I need to stay home and get some stuff done. [/QB]
Like finishing this story!! Come on Tom, spill it.
Work calls. Will post more pics and story over lunch.
Here is something you don't see everyday and it's not a good sight if you're a cattle rancher. This is a giant bone pile. James told us that Mr. Tarrant doesn't throw anything away and this proves it.
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Around 7:00 Chris and I were making our way out to our hunting spots. My spot is called the dirt pile. There's a giant dirt pile about an 1/8th of a mile form where I hunted.
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For this hunt I was hunting from the ground again. I like the adrenaline rush that hunting from the ground at night gives me. Chris was hunting a few hundred yards to my southeast.
I cleared out two places near the feeder to hunt from. One place was nestled in a little pocket of cedar trees and would have put me 5 yards from the feeder. The place was a natural blind and it would have given me plenty of foreground cover and background cover. It was a perfect little sniper's nest, but I thought it was going to put me too close to the feeder. After the previous nights experience I figured I needed more distance from the feeder, besides all the trees in the little stand of trees had been rubbed smooth by hogs. I don't want to be that close to a hog.
The spot I decided on was 10 yards southeast of the feeder. The wind was coming from the south, southwest. I positioned myself in front of a tree and cut some cedars to create background cover. There was no foreground cover for this setup. Using a tip that James told us about, I scattered diesel soaked rags around the bait site. He said this would provide cover scent. He said he sometimes will walk around the whole bait site before settling in to hunt and spray the area down with diesel. According to James the hogs don't mind the smell or taste of diesel' but the deer and the raccoons don't like it so they stay away.
For the most part all was quiet except for the occasional coyote howl or owls call that broke the silence. So there I set watching the light fade until the details of the timber around me vanished. Like the previous night I positioned my head lamp to point where I aimed the bow and the wait began.
The 9:00 o'clock hour rolls by and the 10:00 hour begins to tick away. Occasional I would hear leaves rustle within the vicinity which would put me on alert and I would scan the area with my eyes to see if I could pick out a moving form....nothing only several false alarms.
Then around 10:15 as if hit by a jolt of electricity all of my senses were shocked to attention! From the northwest all hell had broken loose! No warnings nothing leading up to the noise just the sudden eruption of animals running through the timber. PIGS It sounded like there were a hundred of them coming and they were coming fast. The closer they got to the feeder the faster they ran and the faster they ran the more fighting they did and the fighting brought on the squealing. It was absolutely hair raising for me! The squealing made them sound like huge demons from hell coming to get me. In a matter of seconds they were there. It was absolute chaos. My mind was trying sort out how many pigs were there and where they were all at. I could hear and see some of them in front, but there were also pigs to my right and to my left. The only place there weren't any pigs was behind me.
Following James' advice I began to shine the light on the pigs gradually. He told us not to shine the light on them abruptly. So with my fingers over the light I gradually let the light peek through until the full beam of light was shining on the pigs. I could see six pigs at that moment but I could also hear other pigs that were hidden by brush. All the pigs looked to be about the same size in the 80 – 100 pound range.
Seven yards in front of me were three pigs two red pigs and on black pig. I was delighted to see the red pigs because that is the color pig I really wanted. To my left a problem was beginning to unfold. One of the pigs was beginning to get down wind of me and starting to growl. I cupped my hand over the light and then shined it in its direction. The pig to my left was standing facing me and growling. Everyone should experience that at least once in their life. I've heard pigs make this sound before and usually and alarm grunt follows the growl and pigs will scatter, so I knew my time was very limited.
I turned the light back to the three pigs seven yards away and started focusing on the red pigs waiting for a quartering away shot. The little buggareds were jostling around like ants. Three times I brought my bow back to full draw only to let down when the pig moved or one of the other pigs stepped in the way. And then it happened. Two of the pigs separated leaving one of the red pigs standing alone and I channeled all of my attention on him. With the gray pig to my left continuing to growl I did my best to shut it out and ready myself for a shot. The red pig hurriedly fed in front of me. Feeding this way and that way and then he finally turned giving me a quartering away angle. With that I focused my attention to a spot tight behind his shoulder, drew the 56" pronghorn to full draw, anchored and released the string sending the 31.5", 650 grain, woodsman tipped arrow flying towards the mark.
In a micro second mayhem erupted! The hit pig let out an ear piercing squeal and vanished into the dark and the rest of the pigs scattered in all directions. With the pig continuing to squeal I tried to tracked the hog's movement with my ears but that can get a little difficult when multiple pigs are squealing at the same time. When he vanished into the darkness he ran to my right behind the clump of cedars that I was going to use as a blind and then suddenly, to my surprise, a pig springs out of those same cedars hell bent for leather and head straight for me! In a flash the pig passed by me only six feet away. WOW EXCITING! The pig makes and arc and disappears in the dark. My mind is racing..."was that the pig I shot? It was red...but there wasn't an arrow sticking out of its side!" The pig that ran by me circled to the northwest and I hear it rustle in the leaves followed by a gurgle sound and then all was quiet again. "Yep" I think to myself "that must have been the pig."
Afterwards I set down to let the adrenaline rush wear off before my legs gave out. With shaky hands I text Chris to let him know that I shot and to tell him to watch for hogs that might be coming his way. Ten minutes later I took up the trail and sure enough the pig I shot almost ran me over.
The arrow entered a couple on inches behind the right shoulder and exited behind the left front leg. The shot took out one lung and cut the artery off the heart and he died 20 yards from where I sat. He weighed 90# and best of all I got my red pig!
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Way to go! Perfect eating size too! I had heard of Stretch a String and that James really knew how to shoot. Sounds like a great time.
Cool story and pics!
When I got Tom's text message I broke out in a great big smile. We have gone out of state for several hunts together but haven't had a lot of luck punching our tags. I was thrilled for him! I couldn't wait to get over and see his pig but it seemed too early to get out of the stand. After another couple of hours of uneventful sitting I headed his direction. Tom was all smiles when I got there and a lot of back slapping and high fives followed. After taking some pictures we headed for the camp and got him strung up on the skinning hoist.
When you wear a hat like Tom and you just killed a pig, you feel like Josey Wales! So you don't use one of those silly butt out tools!
You just grab your Damascus blade knife and start hacking!
I sure as heck wasn't going to get in his way!
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Even though it was 2:30 AM, I was feeling great as I sat down and had a soda while Tom finished up his hog. I hadn't filled my tag but I still had a lot of fun hunting at night and I was tickled that Tom connected. The longer I sat there I realized I wasn't even really tired.
James had told us that their were two peaks of activity for the hogs at night. Around 10:30 and then again near daybreak. Up until that point I hadn't even thought about heading back out. All of a sudden it was like "hey I don't have to quit now!"
I loaded back up my bow and jumped in the ATV and head back down to where I was the first night with every intention of hunting out of a stand. I left the ATV at the top of the hill and walked in from there. After I got in about 200 yards I heard a loud pig squeal with some grunting that was CLOSE! :scared:
I must admit my first reaction to being on the ground with a pig that was close and sounded pist wasn't brave!
My first thought was "Where in the hell is the closest tree I can skinny up before this beast kills me"!
After taking two steps towards the closest tree my fairly feeble reasoning skills at 3 AM posed a different thought. "Hey what about actually using your bow, you dummy"!
What followed was surreal. Hunting on the ground in the dark was like being a complete rookie again. You know, like how you felt when you killed your first deer. Your thoughts are minimal and like flashbulbs. Hog.... hog close... try to kill hog.
I got my light on one without much response but he was headed directly away from me. I turned to the sound of another group that was close and saw more eyes staring back at me.
Talk about a weird feeling. It's like looking at a little gremlin. A huge rush.
Their was two hogs in front of me at about 15 yards and one turned broadside. Never mind I had told myself not to take anything but a quartering away shot. My neuronal activity at this point was minimal. I wasn't thinking too well. Drunk on a cocktail of adrenaline, excitement, and exhaustion.
I drew back and took the shot which I knew right a way was too far back. Back on a broadside pig isn't a good shot. I stood their breathing hard as the pig went squealing away. After a few minutes I realized that the rest of the group was still milling around. The verbalizations were still happening, albeit a little bit less. Then I heard a weird sounding squeal/grunting that had a gasping quality to it. I've heard a pig die before and while it wasn't the death moan I had heard then it sure sounded like the pig was in trouble. I pinpointed the spot in my brain and laid out my safety strap on the ground with the end pointing in the direction where I heard the sound.
More later. Got to get back to work :)
Congrats Tom and great story telling!
Thanks Chris & Tom for sharing. Sounds like you had a great time!
:clapper:
I heard three different episodes of that same guttural sound that sure sounded like a pig that was suffocating. However, I don't consider myself an expert at hog verbalizations and with all the chatter that was going on I couldn't be sure. The fact that I didn't feel great about the shot location made me want to back off.
The trouble was that when I backed off, I continued to hear pigs and temptation got the better of me. While I already had a pig on the ground, I could shoot two during my weekend stay at Stretch a String. So I decided to follow the group of hogs that had now moved off to the south. In hopes of not spooking the first pig I had shot, I decided to circle around and head them off in an open meadow area that was not far. By the time I got around and crossed the creek the hogs were already there. At this point I wasn't being too careful with my light. It didn't seem to have any affect on the hogs. I saw the first of this group heading down an old dry creek bed. It was quartering away so hard at 20 yards I didn't want to risk a shot. The hogs were close but I needed to get even closer. In a move that would make the average deer bowhunter cringe, I dove down into the creek back as the pigs were now filtering up the hillside that connected to the creek. They were making so much noise they didn't even notice. I got my light up on an opening and saw black bodies moving. A shot was there for a second and then gone before I could draw. After a few more seconds another pig materialized in my opening and I took my time and told myself to get on that front leg and come right up into the shoulder. I got to full draw and held for a second and punched him hard. It looked a touch higher than I had hoped but I felt great about this shot compared to my first. It was in the boiler room. He squealed and circled up and to my left and ran back down into the creek bed from where I had originally encountered them. He looked like he was hit hard and I quickly went to where he had crossed the creek bed and saw blood on the ground.
Wow! After sitting in a stand for two nights with not so much as a pig sighting I had just taken two shots at pigs within an hour of leaving Tom.
I was a mess mentally. It was 4:30 AM at this point and the rush of adrenaline made patience seem impossible. I crossed the creek looking for more sign but within a minute realized it was fairly sparse. I made myself stop and after several minutes of standing in the dark I decided to get out of the area and move away from where the pig had exited the scene. I went back towards the location of my first shot opportunity and sat down. The moon light was lighting up the valley and I got a good visual from this angle of the general vicinity of where I thought I heard my first hog go down. I went back to where the shot had occurred and found neither my arrow nor any blood. Crap!
I probably should have just backed out of the location but it was still 75 degrees out and so I didn't want to wait too long before I looked for the pig. I took a heading off where I had shot to where I had heard the pig. I started into a marshy thicket that certainly fit the profile for where an injured pig would go into a bed down. It was a jungle and instantly I realized the challenge that was before me. Finding a wounded pig in this mess was going to be near impossible. I continued on along a trail that was no more wide than I was and forced me to duck under chest high branches. Suddenly my headlamp flashed ahead and I saw eyes. It was a pig that appeared to be lying down or at least standing still. It was up as soon as I noticed it and moved off but not real fast. I thought I heard it crash into something but that could have just been it moving through the thick honeysuckle and saplings. Bad sign...really bad. Now not only was the pig alive but I had bumped it. I went up to where it had been and absolutely no sign. I turned my light off for a few minutes and just stood there. Cursing myself for not taking more time with my shot. I was also cursing myself at this point for not taking my thermacell out of my pack that I left at the camp with Tom.
All seemed to be lost in the hot sticky jungle of underbrush. I was tired, weary, and disappointed in my performance....About then I turned my head light back on and looked to my left and not six feet from me was a stone dead pig with a big hole in its side!
I was dumbstruck! What...a dead pig????...I had just seen my pig I thought. And it had run off!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/ckinslow/DSCF3296.jpg)
Apparently that was just another hog in the area. The luck of stumbling onto my pig in this thicket was amazing. I looked around some and saw no real sign of blood on the ground so I'm not sure I would have been able to track it to this point if I hadn't found it by chance. To say I was relieved would be a major understatement. I was thrilled and kinda felt weak in the knees. I drug him out of the thicket and got lost a couple of times before finding my way out. By now it was after 5 AM and starting to show some signs of daybreak. I started to drag the pig up the trail towards the ATV and encountered more pigs. After pausing to listen to them I continued on my way. By the time I got to the ATV it was getting light. Straining as if bucking a square bale up onto a wagon I pitched the hog up into the bed of the ATV. I headed down the trail to where I shot my second hog and started looking for blood. Nothing much showed up so I decided to head back and get this guy cooled off.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/ckinslow/DSCF3302.jpg)
Talk about swings of emotion. First excitement for Tom, then the melancholy feeling of being done with a hunt, then the excitement of trying again despite the illogical time frame. Then the shear terror of encountering hogs on the ground for the first time. Next ,the high of getting a shot, the low of knowing it wasn't great, then the low of thinking I had jumped it, and finally the high of recovering the hog.
As I pulled in to the camp. James was up and standing in the front in nothing but his underwear smoking a cigarette.
:eek: :scared: :bigsmyl:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/ckinslow/DSCF3303.jpg)
Tom and I went back to look for my second pig but after two hours of looking and only 200 feet of sparse sign we found my arrow which didn't look great. Only about 8 inches of blood on the shaft and definitely no pass through. The pig had rolled in the dirt in a likely effort to plug the hole. We reluctantly gave up the search. I did go back to the area where I had found my first hog in the unlikely event that the hog I saw that ran off was actually the second hog I shot. Tom and I looked for a while but found nothing.
While I will never know for sure if the hog that I saw run off was my second pig, I received a call from James this Wednesday that said he saw some vultures fly up from that area. He went to investigate and sure enough he found my second hog. He was in that same basic area. While it was disappointing that I didn't recover him it was a serious jungle in there. I got lucky finding the first one and it was probably too much to ask to find two needles in the haystack. The funny part is I didn't hit the first one where I wanted to but I hit the second one really solid but the recovery was opposite.
Loving this story......Congratulations!
Stretch a String Outfitter, James Foster, and the trip for the Scamp turned out to be a wonderful hog hunting adventure. I made a new friend in James Foster and had a blast hunting at night.
As for you Mr Porter, I sure am glad you decided to get the Scamp! Trad Gang forged our friendship and it continues to grow stronger with every hunt. Here's to you buddy! I'm glad we could christening the Scamp with two dead hogs!
Great job guys, I sure wish I could have gone with you! Maybe next time, I've always enjoyed hunting with both of you before, but I've haven't had the luck of the Scamp! Ben
Great story guys. Congratulation
Great job Chris. Congrats.
Just awesome I tell ya, just plain awesome!!! Great story telling, grea pics, great friendships, great hunting!!
Way to go guys and thanks very much for sharing it with us!!!
Love my Scamp trailer....looks to be the same length as yours...I have had it for years. Makes a great early season deer and elk camp and you can't beat the total weight of 850 lbs.
Mine is a bit different however as the couch in the front has a back section that pivots up and becomes a top bunk bed with the origional section as in your picture, being the bottom bunk.. this also allows for a great storage area for my equiptment and still allows a bed for my hunting partner.
I would suggest when not in use, that you jack it up... to get the weight off of the "torsion suspension system", as it will last a lot longer.
Insulation, or lack there of, causes me to switch to the motorhome for late season as the furnace and generator sure are nice.
Gene :wavey:
Well-done!
Awesome guys! Two of TG best story tellers together again :notworthy: :notworthy:
Great story,I too am a loyal Scamp owner.I got it just for hunting an big trad. shoots.Any one interested in these small trailers will find a wealth of info on http://www.fiberglassrv.com/ They are hard to find and usually require a lot of work .Scamp is just one brand I found to be the lightest,there are a few 13' ones out there.I'll post some pics later.
Thanks for the compliments everyone.
Here is proof that persistence pays. It's not over until the fat pig squeals. Congratulations, Chris!
(http://images.imagelinky.com/1275659111.jpg) (http://images.imagelinky.com/1275659111.jpg)
Trad Gang has truly been a blessing for me. As a kid I always wanted a brother and if I couldn't have a brother I wanted a monkey. TG has brought me together with Chris and Ben and now I have both. :laughing:
This thread wouldn't be complete without another shirtless picture of James.
(http://images.imagelinky.com/1275659253.jpg) (http://images.imagelinky.com/1275659253.jpg)
Saying Goodbye
(http://images.imagelinky.com/1275659355.jpg) (http://images.imagelinky.com/1275659355.jpg)
Look at all the Scamp owners! Cool! I would like to do some modifications to my Scamp and I would love to see some pictures of other Scamps and the modifications that you have done. Whether you've done modifications or not please email or PM me some pictures I would appreciate it.
Well done Tom and Chris.Tom you gonna have a great 2010 late May and June with your travels.Hog and Bear what could be better.Kip
Tom, Why would you refer to Chris as a Monkey? LOL, Ben
Ben,
You would have liked James. He is your kinda guy except for the fact I never heard him fart.
Chris
Congrats guys! Chris it's a good thing that Ben wasn't there, with that kind of cooking, you wouldn't have seen a thing. I know that's why the elk disappeared over here. :biglaugh:
Just Great!!! Thanks for sharing, super stories and pics!! Jake and I had a great time with James too. Just a great person, he makes the trip so fun. Knows traditional archery, can shoot himself and wants you to get a hog. My son and I can't wait to go again!
Congrats you guys :bigsmyl:
Great story telling and picks. :thumbsup:
Tracy
Congrats great story and pics.
Great story, thanks for sharing :thumbsup:
Margly
What a great hunt. I wish I could tell stories like this.
I mean with actual dead animals and guys in their underwear and that kind of stuff. A certain serendipity surrounds your trailer, Tom, it seems. I think you will have a lot of good stories to tell in the future, with a little Scamp tucked into the background scenery.
Thanks for the tellings, botha yous two, I certainly enjoyed it!
Killdeer :thumbsup:
Great story Tom and Chris! Sorry I couldn't make it on this one, it sure sounds like it was a blast!
Andrew
^^^
I hunt this area all the time. Hogs galore. There's more each time you go back to hunt them!
Great story! Very well told :thumbsup:
Jerry
Great read.
Tom and Cris, congrats you two! Fine hogs and and awesome adventure!
Todd
wow, great story and pics - i LOVE hog huntin'! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I missed this one 1st time around....great story guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats!
Great stories and pictures guys. :thumbsup:
Congrats to both of you.
Dennis
I missed this one too. Great job guys!!!! I wish I'd have been a part of all that fun but like you said, I'm almost another days drive south across Texas. I'm sure glad you guys did so well. A big congrats!!!! CK
QuoteOriginally posted by Terry Green:
I missed this one 1st time around....great story guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats!
Me too. I loved it. Glad it came up again.
Wow, what a hunt. Thanks for sharing.
What a nice surprise. I just got back home. I wasn't expecting to see this on the 1st page. Thanks everyone! :wavey:
Great scores on both the Clown Trailer and your hog Tom! Looks like a super time was enjoyed by all!
This story is really getting me excited about my upcoming hog hunt in April 2011.
This one deserves another trip to the top!
Great story telling, congrats guys!!!
I also missed this story the first time around. Congrats to you guys on a fine hunt and a great story to share, I really enjoyed reading it all.
Tony