About three weeks ago, I went out to my back pasture to take a look at the fence line as I haven’t looked it over since we sold the last of the horses, about five years ago, and found the front part looked like some one had plowed it and the cross-fence was down.
The
last acre or so is
un-cleared, but fenced and cross-fenced. My daughter used to call the
un-cleared section the “way back”.
When we
were transferred to
the
I
continued on through gate
into the “way back” Now thanking that some one had opened the last
gate,
or that the back fence was down, on the old trail. The phantom
cultivator
had been hard at work in here also. I now need to see how
much work
I’m in for.
So I
went deeper into
the palmettos. And around a bend in the Trail, came face to face with a
big
boar, I guess about 300-400 lb. His back was six inches higher then my
waist.
Lucky for me the wind was in my face and I saw him before he saw me. So
I
backed up, keeping an eye on him and moving very slowly. He seemed to
be more
interested in rooting then in me. I
don't think that he even scented me or heard me. The wind was
gusting
from him to me; East to west as a front was moving through. I was
thinking that
I have a lot of scrub oak and other handy climbing trees if the need
be. On the
walk back to the house, I got to thinking, "I’m going to get that big
ugly
old boar with my long bow”.
That was
on Sunday evening
and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to go out until the next
weekend.
I’ll
have to stop here
to let you know a little of my hunting back ground. I grew up in the
I didn’t
find out until
later in life Grandpa taught us to shoot a bow wrong. The way we would
shoot
was with the bow almost horizontal, this way the horse was not in the
way. My
grandpa made all the bows for us.
Back to the pig hunt.
We at
the
Doing and
said " you
need corn--won’t see him less you put corn out".
He went on
working for a
minute or two and then asked, “What are you going to shoot the hog
with?”.
I answered
"with
my long bow you know I’m a damn good shot with that long bow. He stopped working and
looked up at me for a moment and
said " Shiiieeit” don’t you know that them big boars have a
shield
of gristle and old scars sometimes an inch thick around there chest and
side”.
I honestly
replied; “No,
really?”
Gene
continued on with
"I had a hog get after me after hitting him with a 45-70. Had to go up a tree. Won’t
happen with a 06". Then he turned and
went back to work .
I had talked to Gene on Monday, that evening I called my friend Chris and set up the hunt. Chris is one of the many members of Brevard Archers who have helped me learn to shoot the bow correctly after coming back to archery three years ago.
The
hunt plan:
My wife
was leaving on
Wednesday morning to visit her sister in
On
Wednesday coming back
from the airport I stopped at the feed store and picked up some corn
before
going to work. At lunchtime I went home and spread out the corn on the
ground
where I thought a good place for a blind on the ground would be. I was
going to
do the same thing at lunchtime on Thursday but when I arrived home the
corn
hadn’t been touched. I spent another 10 min spreading a corn
trail
further down went back to work. After work I stopped at Wal-Mart went
to the
sporting goods section just to check it out. Low and behold all of the
hunting
stuff was on the close out shelf; so I snagged two camouflage head nets
and
some war paint for five bucks. Arriving home I jumped on the tractor
with the
mower attached and cut a 48 inch swath to the first gate allowing it to
open,
then through the waist high pasture and on to the “way back” with a 50
pound
bag of corn on the mower deck. I knew I would now be able to take my
2-wheel
drive work truck to the blind site (as long as it did not rain).
The
site where I had
dumped the corn was full of pig tracks, lots tiny little ones, some
about 1½”
long, and some about 2” long, and one set the size of my palm of my
hand and
all of the corn gone; so I put some more out. Things were looking good!
Jumping
back on the tractor I realized it had gotten dark but there was still
lots of
light; darn a full moon. Now, I knew why the corn was only gone in the
morning.
The pigs were feeding all night long.
Going back to the house I made the trail wider. While putting the finishing touches in the new cedar arrows, the weather Channel stated a strong storm front was due in Friday, so maybe the pigs would not be feeding at night now.
Friday
was a day
off for me. The plan was Chris and I would build two blinds when he got
off
work Friday morning. We were hoping to
get the pigs over the weekend. We arrived at the proposed blind
site
about
We
built two blinds one
on the south side and one on the north side of the trail about ten
yards apart
looking east and head high. Put a chair in each of the blinds and
spread out
about twenty pounds of corn 20 yards away. We figured we were ready for
the
test hunt at
We spent the rest of the day installing the four bladed Muzzy broad heads on the new arrows, spinning them and test shooting each with practice blades, at twenty and fifteen yards. When all of the arrows were flying correctly we were hoping that we were going to get pigs that evening.
We were
drenched with
about 1 inch of rain in about a half hour. It stopped raining and my
feet were
in 6 inches of water. The wind had swung around from the SE and was now
from
South, I am still thinking that’s a good thing.
Its now
about
Next
morning we headed
out to the blind as soon as we could see our feet. When we got close to
the
blind we knocked our arrows, and quietly, made our way up the trail.
About 10
feet from the blind, I suddenly realized that something
was outlined on
the trail ahead of us about twenty yards away. It was large! I took a
side step
so Chris could see it, neither of us drew back as it was still to
dark to
be sure of making a shot. That huge hog luckily just looked at us,
turned
broadside and went into palmettos to the south of us and disappeared.
Both of
us stated at least three times said “that the hogs back was six inches
higher
then my waist” we decided to go to blinds and set still thinking that
big boy
just might be back to finish his breakfast. Into the blinds we went,
sitting
there until mid morning, of course, getting rained on in the meantime.
While
setting there I realized that I have been thinking like an engineer
getting
things done but not like a hunter, with my thoughts broken by the hint
of
noises just to the south of Chris. I thought that I had gotten whiff of
pig
scent as the wind was coming from the south past Chris. By
Sure enough, there were palm size prints heading to the palmettos on the south side of the trail going to a small trace in the palmettos. Taking my time and looking carefully all the while I went about ten yards and came to a major game trail about a yard wide and going behind palmettos within 10 feet of Chris’s blind. That hog had gone up and down the trail all morning watching Chris. The south side of his blind was open because we thought the pigs would be coming down the old trail from the east We didn’t have the faintest idea that this other trail was there.
We closed
both blinds south
side, making sure we each had an escape tree in the blind, and went
back the
house. With plans to give one more try for Sunday morning since Chris’
workweek
started again on Sunday night. That night I opened up the gun safe
brought out
my old Ruger blackhawk .357 and the max hand-loads that I used
when bear
hunting.
Sunday
morning we went back
to the blinds. And once again all the corn was gone. We spread another
bucket
of corn out, waited until
On Monday I ran into Gene again at work, he ask “git a pig” and I of course said no he replied “that figgers.” I then told him the events of the weekend. He stopped working and looked at me for a few moments, then went back to work without saying any thing. He continued working for a few moments and stops again saying "you got a tree stand?" I replied no. (I have never hunted with a tree stand but have done a lot of hunting. Further more do not know of any one on the West Coast that has.) Gene replies, "Dumb".
I had gone
to work at
Getting
out was a 5ft
3in by 5ft 3in wide person (all muscle) with a base ball cap on, I knew
in a
flash that it GENE. I yelled wait let me open the gate, so the dogs
won’t eat
you. Gene yelled back “the dogs won’t bother me none” opened the gate,
and
drove in. The dogs thought that he was a long lost friend. I had never
seen
them act like that with a stranger. I ask him how he knew where I
lived. He
said he had a friend down the road and had often seen me shooting at
night as
he drove by. Why did you stop tonight?
Gene
replied “to keep you
from getting your rear end bitten off” (or something close to that) “I
have some
tree stands and a corn feeder; I’ll show you how to put them up”
Going
to the nearest
pine tree he strapped on a six-foot section of a “home made climbing
stick” and
from there mounted the tree stand on the pine. Gene said, “get up there
and try
shooting your bow.” The round now was only 30 yards away and was lucky
to
keep the arrows in the target. The whole time Gene didn’t say a thing.
I was
sure he thought that I was hopeless. I climbed down to retrieve my
arrows from
the round, turned around to
where the
tree stand was
mounted and Gene was removing the tree-stand.
He looked
around and stated
“different ain’t it?” “get your step ladder and shoot off the next to
the top
rung until you can hit what your shooting at”.
“Where do
you want them?”.
I am sure he thought I was hopeless. I
thanked him I and told him I would take the stands out back later since
it was
very wet back.
I now
know what the
southern term of "mudding" means (with a 4-wheel truck chevy of
course) . We set up the tree stands and the feeder so I could make
about a 20
yd shot to the
feeder. He set up the feeder so that it would dump at about
"To
get 'em
trained”
We trimmed
around the tree
stand for the best shot with a bow. Got every thing pickup and loaded
onto
Gene’s truck. After getting in Gene asked, " You want to use my
compound
its got sights” I said "no my 50 lb long bow Will do the job." Gene said "dumb".
Gene also
advised
me to leave the pigs alone until Friday night." “ get out
there
about
When we got back to the house I started to get the hose out to hose the mud off the truck. Gene stopped me saying that I would ruin the paint. “The mud keeps the sun off it you know”.
I did as
Gene suggested
that night after he left; I shot off the ladder until I could keep all
eight of
the arrows on the five spot at twenty yards (well most of them any way).
Friday
evening off I went
off to the tree stand with the long bow, 5 wood arrows with muzzy four blade broad
heads and a 357
on hip. Up the tree I went with:
1. Long
bow (69 in)
2. 2
bottles of water
3. 8x
power glasses I might
have to look under the brush
4. Back
bow quiver with
broad heads
5. cell
phone
6. Lots of
gum
7. one
very large flash light.
The tree
stand was designed
to provide just enough room for your feet and a place to sit that flips
up when
standing. The first thing I found out was that there was not any
place to
set any thing down. I undid one of the steps tied to the tree so I
could now
hang every thing on it. After I
completed getting every thing put somewhere including hanging up the
bow and
quiver. I got this funny feeling that I should be looking down at the
feeder.
(I’m twenty feet up). Sure enough, standing by the feeder as a large
sow and
eight 40-50 lb little ones. All of them looking up, trying to figure
out what
kind of a nut stands in a tree stand facing the tree. I got to my bow,
pulled
out an arrow turned around, looked down--and nothing--. I waited until
dark, grabbed
the flash light and looked around, gathered every thing up, lowered it
all to
the ground and went back to the house making lots of noise all while. I
called
Gene told him that I saw the sow and the small ones.
He wanted to know if I got one?
No, I said too small.
Then he let me
know them the 40-70 lb. are the best eaten; “Don’t pass them up.”
Saturday
night comes, but
could not make it out to the stand until
The wind
was from the east I was going into it being very quiet go up to the
tree
stand. I went up one step and (I’m
behind some brush and palmettos west of the feeder) all hell breaks
loose. Pigs
running to my left, one small sow with six puppy size piglets, with two
medium
size boars running away from the feeder, and the big sow with the eight
40
lbers after them. Here I am with my bow on my back, and can’t do a
thing while
hanging on to the strap on climbing pegs.
I
climbed up to the
stand. Hung up my water and quiver sat down knocked my arrow (now
there is
about 1½ hours left before it is too dark to see) and I’m
thinking that I
really blew it tonight, that’s the last I will see of any pigs. So I’ll
just
sit here for about a half an hour and go back to the house. About
then
all eight 40lb pigs come out of the palmettos by the feeder. I am
thinking I
will just watch until the big sow comes out. Time passes and she never
comes
out. I waited some more until I had just enough light left, I drew back
and let
the biggest one have it. Oops, got the one you see in the Picture. A
perfect hit! When the arrow went through
it also got the
pig behind it. Number one went about 20 yards and dropped, the one
behind
went about 100 yards into the palmettos and swamp. I was not able to
find it
until Sunday and left it. And was all ready bloated. Got
the pig to
Genes (he as a walk in freezer) and took the picture this morning just
before
we skinned him. I put the broken arrow in to show the path of the shot.
I'm still looking for the boar!
-van
L.R Van Cleave