| Wild
Hog Bowhunts and on the spot pictures -- by Robert Hoague
2006
Bowhunts For Wild Hogs
August 15
Found 'Em
I found wild hog tracks
on the 2-track woods road between the windmill and the Hammer Hole. All
the trails come from the extremely thick woods woods that are South of
the road. In past years most of the sign came from the North. But things
look promising.
Tomorrow I will go straight
to one of the 3 tripods in the Hammer Hole area.
August 16
Gettin' Lucky
From The Get Go
At 5:30 I gathered up my
hog hunting stuff and then took a shower. At 6:30 I parked 100 yards from
the windmill. It was 98 degrees on my pickup thermometer. I have something
new (to me) to use on the hog hunts. Elimitrax. I've heard a lot about
them from some good deer hunters who said they kill your scent trail on
the way to your stand. They are sort of like a set of chaps with a boot
sole. I pulled each one on and fastened it to my camo belt.
It is hot today and I have
to say that I wondered if they would burn me up. Also, to go a little cooler
I wore my tennis shoes instead of my hunting boots. Actually, that would
really put the Elimitrax to the test because tennis shoes definitely carry
more scent than rubber boots.
The sun was well above the
trees and I had a little extra time ... and a plan on how to use it.
Besides my bow and camera
I carried a camera tripod and a CamTrakker to the Hammer Hole. I set the
CamTrakker up so it was looking down the road. Hogs have been rooting in
the woods in this area.
Then I set the camera tripod
up in the woods road and took a time delay picture of the CamTrakker as
well as me standing under a hunting tripod. The seat of the tripod is where
the pink ribbon is hanging. You can see one of the tripod legs and I am
to the left of that leg. As you can see the trees are very thick here but
they are not very tall, which is why I use tripod stands here.
Here is a zoomed in picture.
You can see all 3 of the tripod legs. I am wearing my own camouflage design
Sticks N' Limbs and have the Elimitrax on..
So that is the set up. I
climbed the tripod stand, pulled up my bow and hung it on a cut off limb.
Since I was in a picture taking mode I took a pic of it. I can see down
the road for 25 yards and there are 4 major hog trails in that short distance.
Another item I am going
to try out on the August and September wild hog hunts is the No-Peep from
Timberline Archery. It replaces a peep sight and I have it on my BowTech
Tribute. It was kinda tricky to take a picture of it up on the tripod but
I think you get the gist of things from the pic. You can see the No-Peep
on the riser of the Tribute, it has a black circle in the middle. You align
the black circle in the middle of a bright green fiber optic circle (you
can see it but in the picture it doesn't look as bright as it really is).
You hold the black dot in the green circle and move your sight pin to your
target. That's all there is to it. It took me less than 5 minutes to get
it sighted in and shooting good groups.
Eventually the sun dropped
below the tree tops and I felt the temperature ease off a little. Daylight
soon began to fade a little.
Grunts!
Wild hog grunts, faint ones
... probably 200 yards away. I turned my camera on. The light was too low
for a decent picture and I got ready for a what I hopped would be a BowTech
moment.
Right down the middle of
the road I saw group of hogs coming my way. They were right in my tennis
shoe, Elimitrax covered tracks. And they never missed a lick.
In the lead, a fat black
hog, stopped on the opposite side of a clump of saplings in front of my
tripod. I leaned to the right to position myself so I could shoot through
a slim opening in the leaves.
I've never shot anything
from a tree with the No-Peep and I hoped for the best as I drew and put
the black dot in the center of the green circle. That done, I shifted my
attention to my top pin. The hog was broadside but turned quartering away.
The angle could not have been better.
The arrow popped through
the hogs vitals and it bolted into the thick stuff.
Crash!
It went down right away and
I heard branches break. The other hogs ran into the woods.
In ten minutes I got down.
My arrow was on the ground. End to end, covered with blood.
The hog was in the thickest
stuff imaginable, only ten yards from where I shot it.
The Hammer Hole comes
through again. First hunt. First wild hog. Like Fred Bear once said, "Success
is often just being in the right place at the right time."
EQUIPMENT COMMENTS:
-
Wild hogs have great noses and
Elimitrax
foiled their noses on this hunt. They walked down the middle of the woods
road, right in my footsteps. They never picked up my scent and didn't hesitate
a second. Frankly, I expected the Elimitrax to be hot to wear on this hot
summer afternoon. But they were ok, it wasn't a problem.
-
This hog was stout and the Tribute
(from BowTech Archery)
still put the arrow all the way through it. Plus this is the smoothest
drawing and shooting bow I've ever shot .. and it is very fast. Set at
62 pounds and so extra smooth to draw that you can (quietly) draw sitting
down and at 31 1/2 inch axle to axle it is very a maneuverable bow. The
innovative BowTech Binary Cam System is the heart of this bows great bowhunting
performance.
-
Adding the No-Peep from
Timberline
Archery to my bow was no problem and it proved itself today. I
have to say that as I drew back my bow I was not 100% confident about using
it. But the shot could not have been better. No doubts now, I'm gonna enjoy
using this exciting new No-Peep.
-
The Razor Tip from Grim
Reaper Broadheads smacked completely through this fat, stocky,
very thick wild hog and it was all over in two seconds. The arrow cut into
the ribs on the left side and exited just in front of the right front leg.
It went right through the heart. Every Grim Reaper broadhead I've shot
flies exactly like my field points and this one is no exception.
-
I used two half inch Rope
Ratchets to pull this hog into the bed of my pickup. I cinched
it around the neck and just in front of the back legs and fastened the
other ends to hooks in the pickup bed. Then I jockied each ratchet until
I had the hog on the tailgate.
-
The Spot-Hogg"
Real Deal" bowsight has bight pins, and that is a must when you
hunt in a blind that is dark inside. This Real Deal was extremely easy
to sight in. It uses turn knobs for up and down and for left and right.
The Razor Tip broadheads
were on Gold Tip 400 arrows with
the short Bohning Blazer vanes. I also used Jim
Fletcher Archery's string loop release, the Flathead. And the arrow
rest was a Whisper Biscuit from Carolina Archery Products.
|
Find
it here.