New Year’s Day Pig 2010 was both good and bad from a hunting aspect for me. On the good side of the coin, I had a new longbow and some prototype arrows I was going to be using. I also had a blind and feeder setup that I felt for sure would at least give me a shot at a whitetail doe. On the bad side of the coin, nothing turned out as I had expected. My setup for deer didn’t pan out like I had thought and then when I did get a shot I blew it so badly I don’t even want to tell the story. Little did I know that things were going to changing a little more in my favor. Towards the end of October 2010 I was asked if I wanted to do a little hog control in Alvin, TX. It was in the city limits so they needed a bowhunter to at least try and run the pigs out. I went over and took a look at the area and found there was a drainage ditch with a wooded area behind the subdivision having the hog problem. The land with the ditch and wooded area was city owned so after talking with them and the local police department, I went and setup a small feeder and tripod stand. It didn’t take long for pigs to find the corn, but finding out when they were coming to the corn was a different story. I know I could have put up a camera, but it would have likely disappeared. I had the feeder set to go off a 4:00AM and the first few times I hunted I sat in the stand from 3:00AM till 7:00AM and saw nothing. It was by luck that I found out when they were hitting the feeder one evening when I went over to fill the feeder. I was running a little late and it was almost dark when I got there. As I was carting the corn to the feeder I saw some movement and there they were, the “Three Little Pigs”. They also saw me and made a run back into the safety of the bush, but now I knew when to hunt. The first chance I had to hunt during the evening was the second Saturday in December. I had changed the feeder time to 5:30PM so I climbed into the tripod around 5:00 that evening. The feeder went off on time and at about 5:45 there were two little piglets moving towards the feeder. These little guys looked to be 25-30 pounds so I expected some bigger pigs to come soon, but they never showed. Anyone that has ever seen pigs will know that these little guys never stand still very long, and these two were no exception. They would grab a bite of corn and move and grab a bite of corn and move. I was all but getting dizzy watching them move about. Around 6:30 I decided that I’d try and take a shot at one of them, they weren’t big but were a good size to cook whole. Well I tried to draw on one or the other of them at least 4 or 5 times before one stood long enough for me to take a shot. The bad thing is the little guy moved just as I released. I heard the arrow make contact but couldn’t see the hit in the low light. After giving the pig 30 minutes I went to see if I could find some blood. After looking for a couple of minutes I located a good blood trail and started tracking. The bad news is that due to this pigs small size he could go places there was no way I could follow. The first two times he did this I was able to find the trail again, but the third time wasn’t the charm. At midnight I finally gave up without finding the pig or my arrow. I really hate losing an animal, even if it was a pig so I had the mental aspect to deal with after this loss. It took me two weeks before I went back to hunt and I was unsure of myself even then. I did take the time to beef up the prototype arrow shafts and set them up to carry some really heavy weight heads. I wanted to make sure I got the proper penetration if I got another chance. That chance came two days before Christmas and it was almost a repeat of the first evening. The pigs showed up like clockwork, but this time it was bigger pigs. The moon was full and even though they were a little later than the first evening I could see them pretty good in the moonlight as they made their way to the feeder. These pigs were much bigger than the first two, in the 70 to 90 pound ranges so I was getting a little excited. That excitement all changed when I realized the lights on the feeder weren’t coming on. So I watched these pigs eat and eat until all the corn was gone, but I never felt comfortable enough to take a shot. My luck had to change was all I could think of at the time. New Years Day arrived and with the hopes of better luck in my hunting. It was also the first chance I had to go try my luck once more. Not taking any chances for a repeat of my last hunt, I left early and not only filled the feeder with corn but put a freshly recharged battery in my lights. When I get back to my truck I did notice that I had forgotten to bring my cooler. Well it wasn’t too bad, it was cool that evening and was calling to get pretty cold that night. If I was lucky to get a pig, it wouldn’t hurt it any to ride the 30 minute drive home. I gathered my bow and backpack and headed back to get in the tripod. It was around 5:15 when I had settled in for the evening hunt and hoped the pigs would show up a little earlier than the last time. The feeder went off right on time at 5:30 and at 5:45 to my delight came two pigs. These appeared to be some of the same ones that had come in the last time I was there. They looked to be in the 80 pound neighborhood and I was hoping for one to give a good shot fast. I didn’t get what I wanted as they started eating corn. Neither of them would give me a shot, even when they would move into a good position before I could come to full draw they would move again. After what happened the last time I shot and lost that pig kept coming up from the back of my mind. There was no way I was going to take a shot unless I was 110% confident this time. The pigs had been eating for about 20 minutes and it had gotten pretty dark, but this time the lights were working. I had tried to draw twice, but both times the pig moved in a bad direction before I could take a shot. This soon changed as the blonde hog circled around and headed towards the corn in a quartered away direction. It stopped once then took another step. The pig was at 12 yards at this point and as it took this next step I started me draw. I was at full draw when it put its foot down and I released. The impact of the arrow making contact sounded good, really good and the pig started to run but fell then got up and move off. The other pig followed and there was a lot of running sounds for a few seconds then it got really quiet. I few seconds later I could hear what sounded like a lone pig slowly walking away. I sat in my tripod for a very long 30 minutes and listened, but heard nothing at all. I was pretty sure the pig hadn’t gone too far, but as bad as I wanted to go look, I made myself stay in the tripod. When the 30 minutes were up, I slowly and quietly climbed down from the tripod. Walking over to where the pig had been standing when I shot I saw blood on the ground. 10 feet from this point lay my arrow and it was completely covered in blood from broadhead to nock. It was in line with my shot and not the route the pig had taken so I knew then it had been a through and through shot. There was plenty of blood on the ground, far more then the trail I had a few weeks back and I started to feel really good. I felt even better when I had only followed the trail for 20 yards and there was my pig. So 2011 had really started a far cry better than 2010 had ended. Was this a trophy hog? Well maybe not, but I can say it has been really good eating.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 00:24:30 +0000