rwlittle
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2001
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Hi all,
Sorry for not writing and posting sooner. The last weekend of Pigtober, a few buddies and I decided to try Hoss Hog Bow Hunting Adventure out of Maxwell. The first thing that drew me to this place is that it is only 1 hour and 15 minutes north of Sacramento. First let me say that Mike and Tony run a first class operation. These guys love bowhunting and one of their “sayings” is "this is a place designed for bowhunters, by bowhunters". ..and man, is that the truth. There is about 1000 acres on the ranch and there are HUGE Russian piggies there. There are about 7 tree stands set up throughout the ranch, modest bunkhouse, 2 bbq’s, tables, chairs, porta-potty, etc. Not as nice as Choppers place, but this place is not bad as our group was only their 8th hunting party ever at the ranch. They claim they are still working the kinks out, but I think everything there was damn near perfect.
I have been lucky in my few past hog hunting trips by drilling a few with my Mathews MQ1 compound, but decided to try my “new” 1971 Fred Bear 45# recurve (a la EBAY). I have been practicing with the haybails in the back yard. And felt semi-confident…but brought along my Mathews just in case I had last minute 2nd thoughts.
The first night I missed a 275 pound sow (based on the poundage of my bow, it is probably a good thing that I did) directly underneath my treestand. That night quite a few smaller piggies were all over the place before and after big-bertha waltzed by. No worries, as that night we all gathered back at the camp fire dining on marinated venison back-strap, Cajun sausage, cold brewskies and exchanging that days hunting adventures.
The next morning we got up, downed some coffee and headed out to the stands. The bad thing was…. The moon was HUGE. It was sooo bright I could have read a Sunday paper from cover to cover in my treestand, yet I still had nearly 2 hours to go until sunrise. Big mistake, I can not believe I did not check the lunar tables before booking the hunt. Oh well. That morning was bad for everybody, except for one of the hunters who shot a young sow way too low in the front right leg, and it got away. Should be fine with that non-fatal wound. As for everyone else, nothing came out. Back to camp. Refuel with sandwiches and rehydrate with whatever was handy. That night one of our hunters shot a nice sow, he thought it was a good shot, but we never found it. I did not see anything too big, but a few little 40 - 60#’s here and there. Back to camp. Eat venison brats (very tasty), beer, and venison backstrap. Exchange more of the days hunting adventures and plan for the next and final attempt.
Sunday Morning. We all got up headed to our stands. And since none of us saw any huge piggies, and nothing was harvested, we decided damn near anything is now fair game (no pun intended). I saw about a 60# little boar, I figured ..what the hell. Took a shot at him, missed high. Found some of the other guys and was b-sing, when we spotted about 3 medium pigs. I decided to try to drive them to the other guys. While I was pushing them through a dry creek bed something caught my eye to the left. It was a bedded sow. She was sitting there hoping I would just pass by her; very strange for a pig to do that. I walked towards her to see if I could get a shot, as she was in the thick stuff. Then she sprang up and presented me with a shot, I drew back and let it go. Direct hit, but a wee bit too high to be a heart shot. She took off and ran only about 35 yards, with the arrow still in her, then stopped and stood there. I was able to actually sneak up on her again and decided to launch another as she was still standing (wanted to minimize any suffering). She expired about 20 seconds after the second shot.
As it turns out, this pig was the one that suffered the leg shot from Saturday morning. Go figure. She is not big, maybe about 70#, but it is my first traditional kill, and my freezer has fresh pork and we are having carnitas this Friday night.
I think I am going to upgrade my poundage of my next recurve, because if it took 2 arrows to knock a small sow over from my 45# bow, ..well, you understand. All in all, Hoss Hog Hunting rocks!! I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a great bow hunt.
Sorry for not writing and posting sooner. The last weekend of Pigtober, a few buddies and I decided to try Hoss Hog Bow Hunting Adventure out of Maxwell. The first thing that drew me to this place is that it is only 1 hour and 15 minutes north of Sacramento. First let me say that Mike and Tony run a first class operation. These guys love bowhunting and one of their “sayings” is "this is a place designed for bowhunters, by bowhunters". ..and man, is that the truth. There is about 1000 acres on the ranch and there are HUGE Russian piggies there. There are about 7 tree stands set up throughout the ranch, modest bunkhouse, 2 bbq’s, tables, chairs, porta-potty, etc. Not as nice as Choppers place, but this place is not bad as our group was only their 8th hunting party ever at the ranch. They claim they are still working the kinks out, but I think everything there was damn near perfect.
I have been lucky in my few past hog hunting trips by drilling a few with my Mathews MQ1 compound, but decided to try my “new” 1971 Fred Bear 45# recurve (a la EBAY). I have been practicing with the haybails in the back yard. And felt semi-confident…but brought along my Mathews just in case I had last minute 2nd thoughts.
The first night I missed a 275 pound sow (based on the poundage of my bow, it is probably a good thing that I did) directly underneath my treestand. That night quite a few smaller piggies were all over the place before and after big-bertha waltzed by. No worries, as that night we all gathered back at the camp fire dining on marinated venison back-strap, Cajun sausage, cold brewskies and exchanging that days hunting adventures.
The next morning we got up, downed some coffee and headed out to the stands. The bad thing was…. The moon was HUGE. It was sooo bright I could have read a Sunday paper from cover to cover in my treestand, yet I still had nearly 2 hours to go until sunrise. Big mistake, I can not believe I did not check the lunar tables before booking the hunt. Oh well. That morning was bad for everybody, except for one of the hunters who shot a young sow way too low in the front right leg, and it got away. Should be fine with that non-fatal wound. As for everyone else, nothing came out. Back to camp. Refuel with sandwiches and rehydrate with whatever was handy. That night one of our hunters shot a nice sow, he thought it was a good shot, but we never found it. I did not see anything too big, but a few little 40 - 60#’s here and there. Back to camp. Eat venison brats (very tasty), beer, and venison backstrap. Exchange more of the days hunting adventures and plan for the next and final attempt.
Sunday Morning. We all got up headed to our stands. And since none of us saw any huge piggies, and nothing was harvested, we decided damn near anything is now fair game (no pun intended). I saw about a 60# little boar, I figured ..what the hell. Took a shot at him, missed high. Found some of the other guys and was b-sing, when we spotted about 3 medium pigs. I decided to try to drive them to the other guys. While I was pushing them through a dry creek bed something caught my eye to the left. It was a bedded sow. She was sitting there hoping I would just pass by her; very strange for a pig to do that. I walked towards her to see if I could get a shot, as she was in the thick stuff. Then she sprang up and presented me with a shot, I drew back and let it go. Direct hit, but a wee bit too high to be a heart shot. She took off and ran only about 35 yards, with the arrow still in her, then stopped and stood there. I was able to actually sneak up on her again and decided to launch another as she was still standing (wanted to minimize any suffering). She expired about 20 seconds after the second shot.
As it turns out, this pig was the one that suffered the leg shot from Saturday morning. Go figure. She is not big, maybe about 70#, but it is my first traditional kill, and my freezer has fresh pork and we are having carnitas this Friday night.
I think I am going to upgrade my poundage of my next recurve, because if it took 2 arrows to knock a small sow over from my 45# bow, ..well, you understand. All in all, Hoss Hog Hunting rocks!! I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a great bow hunt.
