BDB
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I will warn you up front this one is a novel. For some reason I felt like writing it out.
Mike, as always it was a pleasure to hunt with you and thanks again for the invite to an amazing ranch.
Short version : Hogs seen, shot taken, animal hit, no recovery. Heart break on a monster.
Long version
Yesterday was a hell of a crappy day at work for me but a surprise e-mail from Speckmisser late in the afternoon brightened my day. He informed me that MikenSoCo was looking to put together a last minute afternoon hog hunt for today. Blowing off all work responsibilities I accepted the invite.
I met Mike at 1:30 and we transferred my gear into his truck and we headed for the ranch. I hadn’t been hunting with Mike in a couple of years so it was good to catch up. We arrived and parked and geared up for the hunt. I had forgotten my radios and hoped Mike had 2. Then I get asked “did you bring radios, I fogot mine?” Well little did we know at that time how useful they would have come in later.
By 2pm we were off hunting a ridge line, Mike down low, me up high and were to meet at the top in 45 minutes. About half way up the old winding road I spot a little 60 pound pig down hill to my left. About 5 seconds later he winded me and was off in Mike’s direction. He took a turn away from Mike and never crossed paths with him unfortunately. Good start I thought, and it’s only 2:15. As I neared the top I hear noise coming up the hill, I knocked an arrow and got ready. Out of no where this yearling deer flies past me like it’s butt was in flames. I figured Mike wouldn’t be far behind and was right, about 1 minute later he crested the hill.
We hunted back down where I saw the pig and saw nothing so we decided to work a new area together for a while and then split up for the remainder of the afternoon. We still hunted up an overgrown road and peered into all the draws and small meadows on the way. Noise again. We look and see two bucks heading for deep cover. A very tall narrow forky and a huge buck, wide and tall but too much vegetation to count points in a hurry. We continue on and crest out to where another old road runs along the top of a very long meadow with lots of draws and pockets of trees. Speck, you’ll know this place but might not recognize it without a Lion walking through it! We walk along and Mike decides to sit under a tree and watch while I walk another 15 minutes down the path and then return. Mike says he usually sees pigs here and some pretty big ones so I have an arrow knocked and am on high alert.
About 300 yards or so past Mike I see a pig down in the bottom of a meadow about 80 yards from me and about 100 feet lower. The wind is dead at my back and the pig is to my left. A quick check with the binos and my heart is racing. He is HUGE with cutters I can plainly see. I continue along the road to get down wind of him and find a better approach. I find the perfect spot, down wind with a hill in between me and the pig. I start down and find a nice drainage that is sunk down a bit so I can approach for a while without being seen. It is pretty steep and it’s pretty soggy and muddy from the storms so I slowly pick my way down the draw and check for the pig every so often. He’s still there eating away oblivious to my presence. I’m at 60 yards and closing, shaking like leaf and the adrenaline is flowing. I slowly work down the hill sometimes in a tripod stance using my hand for support so as not to slide and blow the approach. At 30 I check and he is still there facing me eating up a storm. I finally get a chance to give him a good look over. This is the biggest pig I have personally ever seen. Jet black with grey in the muzzle and the shoulders. He is going to make an awesome mount I think. Teeth that I can see without binos and a huge body, I’m not good with weight but I’d say 250 (Mike saw him too and can chime in if I am off). There is one last thing between me and open air to the pig and it’s a big rock. I crouch and get behind the rock. Here I am at 25 yards wind in my face and the pig has his face in the ground and just standing there.
My mind flashes back to the two deer I missed this year due to range estimation and rushed shots. I force myself to calm down and stay behind the rock until I am ready to shoot. Felt like 10 minutes but it was probably only 2 but I was ready. I look and he is facing towards me still in the same spot. The wait begins and finally he feeds and turns broadside so I slowly draw and come up over the rock. As I settle the pin he turns to quartering away. Even better I think, I don’t want to hit that plate. He’s feeding and I settle my pin on him and squeeze. Just as I squeeze he turns back feeding broadside. The arrow hits exactly where I aimed and it’s a clean pass through in the lower third of the chest. But, when he turned broadside the arrow passed through a little far back. Perfect place I thought for the quartering shot but not so with the same entry spot on a broadside shot. I still think it’s good though and am waiting for him to stagger and drop after a bit. He trots 30 yards or so and then stops. I launch a second arrow trying to anchor him but miss just to the right on a facing dead away shot. He stands around for 10 seconds or so and then walks off on a trail heading in Mike’s direction looking none the worse for wear.
I sit down and try to calm down at this point. I'm shaking and my heart is racing. I am pretty sure I have a large dead pig and am stoked on how perfect the entire setup was. Just the way I play it my head at night trying to fall asleep.
I mark the hit spot and then head out into the meadow to flag Mike to come over. Remember the no walkie part??? Well, I am waiving at Mike and he is waving back. He’s making motions like a linebacker and squats down on all fours then starts pointing to the area down hill from him. I know he has seen a big pig and I assume it’s mine. I can’t convey to him though that I shot one. Through enough gestures we both converge on the area he saw the pig from different directions. At this point I am 400 yards from where I hit him and am more and more worried it was stomach and not liver or lungs as I knew I was a little back. I finally catch up to Mike and relay the whole story.
We searched the whole area. From the hit spot for the 80 yards I could watch him there was never one drop of blood I found. Mike and I searched high and low, working together 20 yards apart all through the area he saw the pig enter. We never found a speck of blood and light was now failing. We decided to call off the search since without track or blood all we could do was walk in circles which we had done.
I was and am extremely conflicted on this one. I am confident we did all we could to recover the pig. I am happy with the way it unfolded before the shot. I took my time, picked my shot and hit where I aimed. It was the best spot and stalk I have ever done and it was a monster hog. Then there is the other side of things with a lost hog that is more than likely gut shot and either now dead or soon to be. God only knows how much ground he covered, I have seen them cover quite a lot in worse condition than that. It’s a sick feeling but that’s the way it goes sometimes I guess. It’s the first critter I have lost in a long time (I sure wish I had Dolly along for this one).
Oh we also saw two more deer and another hog on the way out for a total of 5 deer and 3 pigs in 2.5 hours of hunting. Not a bad day of skipping work!!
Anyway it was a long read, if you made it this far hopefully you enjoyed the tale.
Mike, as always it was a pleasure to hunt with you and thanks again for the invite to an amazing ranch.
Short version : Hogs seen, shot taken, animal hit, no recovery. Heart break on a monster.
Long version
Yesterday was a hell of a crappy day at work for me but a surprise e-mail from Speckmisser late in the afternoon brightened my day. He informed me that MikenSoCo was looking to put together a last minute afternoon hog hunt for today. Blowing off all work responsibilities I accepted the invite.
I met Mike at 1:30 and we transferred my gear into his truck and we headed for the ranch. I hadn’t been hunting with Mike in a couple of years so it was good to catch up. We arrived and parked and geared up for the hunt. I had forgotten my radios and hoped Mike had 2. Then I get asked “did you bring radios, I fogot mine?” Well little did we know at that time how useful they would have come in later.
By 2pm we were off hunting a ridge line, Mike down low, me up high and were to meet at the top in 45 minutes. About half way up the old winding road I spot a little 60 pound pig down hill to my left. About 5 seconds later he winded me and was off in Mike’s direction. He took a turn away from Mike and never crossed paths with him unfortunately. Good start I thought, and it’s only 2:15. As I neared the top I hear noise coming up the hill, I knocked an arrow and got ready. Out of no where this yearling deer flies past me like it’s butt was in flames. I figured Mike wouldn’t be far behind and was right, about 1 minute later he crested the hill.
We hunted back down where I saw the pig and saw nothing so we decided to work a new area together for a while and then split up for the remainder of the afternoon. We still hunted up an overgrown road and peered into all the draws and small meadows on the way. Noise again. We look and see two bucks heading for deep cover. A very tall narrow forky and a huge buck, wide and tall but too much vegetation to count points in a hurry. We continue on and crest out to where another old road runs along the top of a very long meadow with lots of draws and pockets of trees. Speck, you’ll know this place but might not recognize it without a Lion walking through it! We walk along and Mike decides to sit under a tree and watch while I walk another 15 minutes down the path and then return. Mike says he usually sees pigs here and some pretty big ones so I have an arrow knocked and am on high alert.
About 300 yards or so past Mike I see a pig down in the bottom of a meadow about 80 yards from me and about 100 feet lower. The wind is dead at my back and the pig is to my left. A quick check with the binos and my heart is racing. He is HUGE with cutters I can plainly see. I continue along the road to get down wind of him and find a better approach. I find the perfect spot, down wind with a hill in between me and the pig. I start down and find a nice drainage that is sunk down a bit so I can approach for a while without being seen. It is pretty steep and it’s pretty soggy and muddy from the storms so I slowly pick my way down the draw and check for the pig every so often. He’s still there eating away oblivious to my presence. I’m at 60 yards and closing, shaking like leaf and the adrenaline is flowing. I slowly work down the hill sometimes in a tripod stance using my hand for support so as not to slide and blow the approach. At 30 I check and he is still there facing me eating up a storm. I finally get a chance to give him a good look over. This is the biggest pig I have personally ever seen. Jet black with grey in the muzzle and the shoulders. He is going to make an awesome mount I think. Teeth that I can see without binos and a huge body, I’m not good with weight but I’d say 250 (Mike saw him too and can chime in if I am off). There is one last thing between me and open air to the pig and it’s a big rock. I crouch and get behind the rock. Here I am at 25 yards wind in my face and the pig has his face in the ground and just standing there.
My mind flashes back to the two deer I missed this year due to range estimation and rushed shots. I force myself to calm down and stay behind the rock until I am ready to shoot. Felt like 10 minutes but it was probably only 2 but I was ready. I look and he is facing towards me still in the same spot. The wait begins and finally he feeds and turns broadside so I slowly draw and come up over the rock. As I settle the pin he turns to quartering away. Even better I think, I don’t want to hit that plate. He’s feeding and I settle my pin on him and squeeze. Just as I squeeze he turns back feeding broadside. The arrow hits exactly where I aimed and it’s a clean pass through in the lower third of the chest. But, when he turned broadside the arrow passed through a little far back. Perfect place I thought for the quartering shot but not so with the same entry spot on a broadside shot. I still think it’s good though and am waiting for him to stagger and drop after a bit. He trots 30 yards or so and then stops. I launch a second arrow trying to anchor him but miss just to the right on a facing dead away shot. He stands around for 10 seconds or so and then walks off on a trail heading in Mike’s direction looking none the worse for wear.
I sit down and try to calm down at this point. I'm shaking and my heart is racing. I am pretty sure I have a large dead pig and am stoked on how perfect the entire setup was. Just the way I play it my head at night trying to fall asleep.
I mark the hit spot and then head out into the meadow to flag Mike to come over. Remember the no walkie part??? Well, I am waiving at Mike and he is waving back. He’s making motions like a linebacker and squats down on all fours then starts pointing to the area down hill from him. I know he has seen a big pig and I assume it’s mine. I can’t convey to him though that I shot one. Through enough gestures we both converge on the area he saw the pig from different directions. At this point I am 400 yards from where I hit him and am more and more worried it was stomach and not liver or lungs as I knew I was a little back. I finally catch up to Mike and relay the whole story.
We searched the whole area. From the hit spot for the 80 yards I could watch him there was never one drop of blood I found. Mike and I searched high and low, working together 20 yards apart all through the area he saw the pig enter. We never found a speck of blood and light was now failing. We decided to call off the search since without track or blood all we could do was walk in circles which we had done.
I was and am extremely conflicted on this one. I am confident we did all we could to recover the pig. I am happy with the way it unfolded before the shot. I took my time, picked my shot and hit where I aimed. It was the best spot and stalk I have ever done and it was a monster hog. Then there is the other side of things with a lost hog that is more than likely gut shot and either now dead or soon to be. God only knows how much ground he covered, I have seen them cover quite a lot in worse condition than that. It’s a sick feeling but that’s the way it goes sometimes I guess. It’s the first critter I have lost in a long time (I sure wish I had Dolly along for this one).
Oh we also saw two more deer and another hog on the way out for a total of 5 deer and 3 pigs in 2.5 hours of hunting. Not a bad day of skipping work!!
Anyway it was a long read, if you made it this far hopefully you enjoyed the tale.
