T Bone
Well-known member
We're back!
The four of us left Reno at 530 Friday morning. We arrived in Hollister 1000. Chopper took us out to his remote ranch. It's beatiful up there, everything was green. He shows us around the ranch in the Jeep. We see three pigs right below us in a creek bottom, two sows and a monster boar, but they gave us no good shots.
For the evening hunt we split up. My Dad sits on a water hole and has two boars come in, he gets to full draw, waits for the right angle and they smell him and split.
I was up on a ridge and was hearing pigs all around me in the thick stuff but couldn't see them. I was running out of light, so I pull out the predator call and give a few bunny screams. I hear a pig "WOOF!" and then I saw bushes shaking coming right at me. I come to full draw and this big boar comes out just ten yards away and stops broadside. He was black, big, and blocky with tusks the size of my thumbs. Small problem, he is sillohetted against the sunset and I cannot find my pin against that black chest. No shot. Dad and I drive up to the lodge jacked. Jim and Don got into three hogs with one good boar, but no shot.
Saturday morning I'm into pigs immediately. A big sow comes out across this little ravine. I shot 35 yards and the arrow shaves her brisket. I just needed 2 inches up and she'd have been in the freezer. While I'm checking for sign, two boars walk right into me at five yards, but I wasn't ready. I meet up with dad again he was into pigs but no shot.
Chopper finds Dad and I and we climb into his Jeep. Its 10:00 in the morning, we think most of the pigs are done feeding for the day. We come around a corner and there are three big tom turkeys gobbling at us, we start gobbling back at them. "PIG!" Chopper says. Straight in front of us in this open pasture with one lone oak tree in the middle of it. Under the oak is a good boar feeding under it.
How do you stalk a pig in the middle of a 5 acre pasture? Run the blitz! We decided dad would run the blitz while I tried to cover the back door. I circled where I thought the pig might run and watched in disbelief as Dad scrambled the 400 open yards to within 30 yards of the boar.
He draws and THWACK! The hit looks perfect to me and I can see two feet of arrow hanging out the exit side. Unbelievably, that pig side hilled for 300 yards with good blood and then the blood stopped at the edge of a thick brush pile.
Chopper made a call and his cousin Mark came to the rescue with some catahoula pig dogs. These dogs make pig hunting look easy. With in seconds the boar was bayed and finished off.
That afternoon, a nasty big boar with 3' tusks peeked out of the brush at me and let the arrow fly. Mark still had the dogs around and they quickly found the boar, still very much alive and wanting to do some ass whuppin. That pig was running on high octane fuel, he refused to go down. With blood visibly spewing out both sides from a double lung shot he finally went down. We walked up to him and he stands up and wants another round...I stuck him again, and finally lights were out. We sat there looking at each other not believing what we just saw. The boar's tusk were razor sharp and they had cut up the dogs bad. Makes me glad I didn't crawl in there by myself!
Saturday evening, I was in the pig zone again. Pigs noises all around me, I knew if I stayed put I'd get a shot. I see two pigs walking right towards me on the same trail I'm on. I back up 5 yards and wait, I draw at 10 yards aim and release just as the pig jumps string.
How can a pig move out of the way of an arrow traveling 250 fps at the distance of 10 yards? I don't know but he did.
I found Dad and he had a good boar come in to the water hole and he missed at 30 yards.
That night at the lodge we watched all 40-something seconds of the Tyson fight.
Sunday morning Don and Jim went to the ridge where Dad and I were getting into all the pigs. Jim stalked within 25 yards of two boars and made a good shot. He's extremely color blind so he called us in for help. The blood trail went 80 yards and stopped....with a dead boar. We did some back slapping. We qickly got the pig drug down to a road. And went back hunting. But didn't find anymore pigs.
We packed up, loaded up the pigs and headed back to Reno.
Chopper runs a first class outfit for hunting pigs. I'd have to say that if a person knows a little about bowhunting, he could be guaranteed the opportunity to shoot a pig. Between the four of us, we brought home 3 big boars. I should have had two, my Dad should have had two.
I learned that pound for pound, wild pigs are the toughest thing around. With archery gear a double lung shot or heart shot is needed to do the job. The quartering away-liver & one lung shot doesn't work real well, they just keep going.
I'll be back for sure. Thanks Chopper!
I'll add pictures as I get them developed and scanned.
Sorry about the book. But thats how I tell hunting stories.
T Bone
The four of us left Reno at 530 Friday morning. We arrived in Hollister 1000. Chopper took us out to his remote ranch. It's beatiful up there, everything was green. He shows us around the ranch in the Jeep. We see three pigs right below us in a creek bottom, two sows and a monster boar, but they gave us no good shots.
For the evening hunt we split up. My Dad sits on a water hole and has two boars come in, he gets to full draw, waits for the right angle and they smell him and split.
I was up on a ridge and was hearing pigs all around me in the thick stuff but couldn't see them. I was running out of light, so I pull out the predator call and give a few bunny screams. I hear a pig "WOOF!" and then I saw bushes shaking coming right at me. I come to full draw and this big boar comes out just ten yards away and stops broadside. He was black, big, and blocky with tusks the size of my thumbs. Small problem, he is sillohetted against the sunset and I cannot find my pin against that black chest. No shot. Dad and I drive up to the lodge jacked. Jim and Don got into three hogs with one good boar, but no shot.
Saturday morning I'm into pigs immediately. A big sow comes out across this little ravine. I shot 35 yards and the arrow shaves her brisket. I just needed 2 inches up and she'd have been in the freezer. While I'm checking for sign, two boars walk right into me at five yards, but I wasn't ready. I meet up with dad again he was into pigs but no shot.
Chopper finds Dad and I and we climb into his Jeep. Its 10:00 in the morning, we think most of the pigs are done feeding for the day. We come around a corner and there are three big tom turkeys gobbling at us, we start gobbling back at them. "PIG!" Chopper says. Straight in front of us in this open pasture with one lone oak tree in the middle of it. Under the oak is a good boar feeding under it.
How do you stalk a pig in the middle of a 5 acre pasture? Run the blitz! We decided dad would run the blitz while I tried to cover the back door. I circled where I thought the pig might run and watched in disbelief as Dad scrambled the 400 open yards to within 30 yards of the boar.
He draws and THWACK! The hit looks perfect to me and I can see two feet of arrow hanging out the exit side. Unbelievably, that pig side hilled for 300 yards with good blood and then the blood stopped at the edge of a thick brush pile.
Chopper made a call and his cousin Mark came to the rescue with some catahoula pig dogs. These dogs make pig hunting look easy. With in seconds the boar was bayed and finished off.
That afternoon, a nasty big boar with 3' tusks peeked out of the brush at me and let the arrow fly. Mark still had the dogs around and they quickly found the boar, still very much alive and wanting to do some ass whuppin. That pig was running on high octane fuel, he refused to go down. With blood visibly spewing out both sides from a double lung shot he finally went down. We walked up to him and he stands up and wants another round...I stuck him again, and finally lights were out. We sat there looking at each other not believing what we just saw. The boar's tusk were razor sharp and they had cut up the dogs bad. Makes me glad I didn't crawl in there by myself!
Saturday evening, I was in the pig zone again. Pigs noises all around me, I knew if I stayed put I'd get a shot. I see two pigs walking right towards me on the same trail I'm on. I back up 5 yards and wait, I draw at 10 yards aim and release just as the pig jumps string.
How can a pig move out of the way of an arrow traveling 250 fps at the distance of 10 yards? I don't know but he did.
I found Dad and he had a good boar come in to the water hole and he missed at 30 yards.
That night at the lodge we watched all 40-something seconds of the Tyson fight.
Sunday morning Don and Jim went to the ridge where Dad and I were getting into all the pigs. Jim stalked within 25 yards of two boars and made a good shot. He's extremely color blind so he called us in for help. The blood trail went 80 yards and stopped....with a dead boar. We did some back slapping. We qickly got the pig drug down to a road. And went back hunting. But didn't find anymore pigs.
We packed up, loaded up the pigs and headed back to Reno.
Chopper runs a first class outfit for hunting pigs. I'd have to say that if a person knows a little about bowhunting, he could be guaranteed the opportunity to shoot a pig. Between the four of us, we brought home 3 big boars. I should have had two, my Dad should have had two.
I learned that pound for pound, wild pigs are the toughest thing around. With archery gear a double lung shot or heart shot is needed to do the job. The quartering away-liver & one lung shot doesn't work real well, they just keep going.
I'll be back for sure. Thanks Chopper!
I'll add pictures as I get them developed and scanned.
Sorry about the book. But thats how I tell hunting stories.
T Bone
