smitty661
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Hey guys, thought i would share my archery A zone hunt with you.
Left work last Thursday with my coworker/hunting partner to hunt an area i have been scouting this year. We arrived at the trail head around 630 pm. Hiked in a couple miles and set up camp for the night. Woke up early and headed in the rest of the way. This hike was much easier when it was nice and cool in the spring and not 100 F. Spotted a handful of does on the way in. Started walking the area and glassing late friday morning. spotted this guy from about 400 yards away.
The bad part was that he had already spotted me! we played the staring game for about 10-15 minutes. He only turned enough for me to see ha had real nice deep forks but i couldn't see if he had a 3rd point on either side. Well i knew where he was bedded and i knew where his water source was so i was pretty excited and thought my chances were looking good at this point. That evening we staked out his water hole for a few hours. He came in just after last shooting light. I heard him coming and if the light was there i could have smoked him at 15 yards. He came in hot, i mean he was on a pretty good trot to get to the water. He passed me and i couldnt make out his antlers (my buddy told me he could make out his rack in the moonlight). once he got just downwind of me he stopped, snorted and was gone in a heartbeat. So at this point he knew i was there, knew what i smelled like, and probably knew i was after him. We woke up the next morning and headed back towards his water source. We waited for a few hours then we heard his heavy hooved trot headed our way from a different direction then it stopped and we heard him snort a couple times and he was gone. The clever bastard circled around and approached from uphill and down wind. We were using liberal amounts of scent control but with the long hike and high temps im pretty sure we smelled like a rotting corpse to him. From there we decided to ease out of his water hole and circle around back to his bed. We sat near his bed for the rest of the morning. He never came to his bed but you could see it was well used and changed positions as the shade moved throughout the day. While walking back to our base camp we were strategizing what our next move was going to be. We walked over a small knoll and had 5 or 6 good sized hogs feeding and probably a half dozen piglets. they were 40 yards away. i just harvested a pig last month so i told my buddy to go ahead and take a shot. He calmly mentioned that if he killed a pig it meant our trip was over and we would have to spend the day hiking back to the truck. I figured we may not get another chance at the buck this trip so i told him to take his shot. I whispered yardage to him as we slowly and calmly assessed the situation. He said "which one" i immediately said the largest one but quickly realized the biggest pig was a sow and still wet. I informed him "nope, shes still wet take the black boar in the rear" My buddy drew back and closed the gap to 30 yards stood up and... they all turned to look. Im pretty confident these pigs had not had many confrontations with humans, if any. They played the staring game while mike was at full draw for the better part of a minute. Then they returned to what they were doing as if to say "hmm, ive never seen one of those before. oh well". When he turned broad side mike sent a 100 grain through his lungs and out the other side. With very little reaction the boar turned around looking for what may have caused his pain then they calmly started walking off. While this was going on me and mike were having our own dispute of whether or not he hit him. I personally thought he missed and was calling for a follow up shot while mike insisted he shot him. As they continued to walk the boar continued to fall back farther and farther. after about 120 yards he finally stopped and laid down. We approached from different angles and somehow our back woods sign language was confused because i thought he told me that the pig was dead and was down for good. I started walking up and got about 10 yards away to see his eyes were open and he was breathing fast and heavy. He saw me and started to growl a bit. I backed off but he stood back up mike put another arrow in him for good measure. We quartered him out and started the 5 hour trek back to the truck in the 100F heat.
Left work last Thursday with my coworker/hunting partner to hunt an area i have been scouting this year. We arrived at the trail head around 630 pm. Hiked in a couple miles and set up camp for the night. Woke up early and headed in the rest of the way. This hike was much easier when it was nice and cool in the spring and not 100 F. Spotted a handful of does on the way in. Started walking the area and glassing late friday morning. spotted this guy from about 400 yards away.
The bad part was that he had already spotted me! we played the staring game for about 10-15 minutes. He only turned enough for me to see ha had real nice deep forks but i couldn't see if he had a 3rd point on either side. Well i knew where he was bedded and i knew where his water source was so i was pretty excited and thought my chances were looking good at this point. That evening we staked out his water hole for a few hours. He came in just after last shooting light. I heard him coming and if the light was there i could have smoked him at 15 yards. He came in hot, i mean he was on a pretty good trot to get to the water. He passed me and i couldnt make out his antlers (my buddy told me he could make out his rack in the moonlight). once he got just downwind of me he stopped, snorted and was gone in a heartbeat. So at this point he knew i was there, knew what i smelled like, and probably knew i was after him. We woke up the next morning and headed back towards his water source. We waited for a few hours then we heard his heavy hooved trot headed our way from a different direction then it stopped and we heard him snort a couple times and he was gone. The clever bastard circled around and approached from uphill and down wind. We were using liberal amounts of scent control but with the long hike and high temps im pretty sure we smelled like a rotting corpse to him. From there we decided to ease out of his water hole and circle around back to his bed. We sat near his bed for the rest of the morning. He never came to his bed but you could see it was well used and changed positions as the shade moved throughout the day. While walking back to our base camp we were strategizing what our next move was going to be. We walked over a small knoll and had 5 or 6 good sized hogs feeding and probably a half dozen piglets. they were 40 yards away. i just harvested a pig last month so i told my buddy to go ahead and take a shot. He calmly mentioned that if he killed a pig it meant our trip was over and we would have to spend the day hiking back to the truck. I figured we may not get another chance at the buck this trip so i told him to take his shot. I whispered yardage to him as we slowly and calmly assessed the situation. He said "which one" i immediately said the largest one but quickly realized the biggest pig was a sow and still wet. I informed him "nope, shes still wet take the black boar in the rear" My buddy drew back and closed the gap to 30 yards stood up and... they all turned to look. Im pretty confident these pigs had not had many confrontations with humans, if any. They played the staring game while mike was at full draw for the better part of a minute. Then they returned to what they were doing as if to say "hmm, ive never seen one of those before. oh well". When he turned broad side mike sent a 100 grain through his lungs and out the other side. With very little reaction the boar turned around looking for what may have caused his pain then they calmly started walking off. While this was going on me and mike were having our own dispute of whether or not he hit him. I personally thought he missed and was calling for a follow up shot while mike insisted he shot him. As they continued to walk the boar continued to fall back farther and farther. after about 120 yards he finally stopped and laid down. We approached from different angles and somehow our back woods sign language was confused because i thought he told me that the pig was dead and was down for good. I started walking up and got about 10 yards away to see his eyes were open and he was breathing fast and heavy. He saw me and started to growl a bit. I backed off but he stood back up mike put another arrow in him for good measure. We quartered him out and started the 5 hour trek back to the truck in the 100F heat.
