After multiple attempts to align our schedules, my hunting buddy Scott and I finally were headed down to a small tract of lease land in Southeastern NC. I met Scott through the NCBA.
We arrived early afternoon on a hot day during the first week of August 2007.
Once on the property, we met up with Scott’s business partner Mack. We quickly checked on several feeders and the signs were looking good for feral hogs in this area.
My stand location was about 20 yards from a corn feeder, just on the inside edge of a nice coastal swamp. A walking trail snaked along the edge of the swamp out to the access road. On the opposite side of the walking trail was an immense briar thicket field where the bottomland monster hogs called home. I was hunting several hundred yards off of the access road at the second feeder in. It was hot in the stand and my mosquito netting was much appreciated.
After an hour or so of waiting, the corn feeder started throwing out the afternoon meal to the benefit of the impatient local wildlife. The first visitors were squirrels. Within a half an hour some larger locals made their presence known. A large black object scurried through at around 100 yards behind me.
The first to come warily out of the thicket was a medium-sized reddish brown boar. He was directly across from my location and then started down the walking path away from me. While closely watching for all signs of an ambush, the boar slowly started towards the draw of a free meal. I carefully drew an arrow back on my 2007 Ross Cardiac. I watched the boar as it walked in directly facing me, leaving me with no viable shot. To his misfortune, he turned just slightly leaving me a small window for a shot. Knowing that the boar was just about to come over the trail I walked in on, and most likely leaving in a hurry, I took the shot. The broadhead hit the animal hard, leaving the crimson arrow lying in the sand behind where the boar was standing. After a brief but fierce retaliation from the boar, he eventually laid in silence just inside the thicket. Filled with excitement, I waited for another 30 minutes, before climbing down from my tree.
It was getting dark and I was anxious to leave the hog woods to retrieve some reinforcements. However, my first task at hand was to run off a sow and her pitch-black piglets. This was more difficult that one would think, but they did eventually leave. I left my stand and started walking back to the access road where Mack and Scott were waiting. During my walk, I kept a watchful eye for large black objects in the shadows, especially when I approached the last feeder before the access road.
Once at the access road, I excitedly told my tale to anxious ears. We all pile onto Scotts golf cart and headed back to find my prize. Upon inspection of my ambush location, we were all in agreement that my quarry couldn’t be far away.
A brief walk through the brick wall thicket produces my first harvest of a big game animal with a bow and arrow. We took the boar back to the campsite, took some nice photos, weighed it, and I field dressed the animal quickly. The weight of my reddish brown boar was 83 pounds. I had the skull measured and entered it into the NCBA records for that year. The measurement of the skull was 15", giving me 11th place in the NCBA standings for 2007. On top of all of that, I netted a nice amount of pork for the freezer!
Prior to this hunt I had some bad bow hunting experiences leaving my confidence badly shaken. I purchased my bow, new at the beginning of the year and had tuned and practiced to close to perfection, at least in a target situation. After breaking through my lack of confidence, I felt like bow hunting is finally opening up for me, and this was a turning point for great experiences to come.
We arrived early afternoon on a hot day during the first week of August 2007.
Once on the property, we met up with Scott’s business partner Mack. We quickly checked on several feeders and the signs were looking good for feral hogs in this area.
My stand location was about 20 yards from a corn feeder, just on the inside edge of a nice coastal swamp. A walking trail snaked along the edge of the swamp out to the access road. On the opposite side of the walking trail was an immense briar thicket field where the bottomland monster hogs called home. I was hunting several hundred yards off of the access road at the second feeder in. It was hot in the stand and my mosquito netting was much appreciated.
After an hour or so of waiting, the corn feeder started throwing out the afternoon meal to the benefit of the impatient local wildlife. The first visitors were squirrels. Within a half an hour some larger locals made their presence known. A large black object scurried through at around 100 yards behind me.
The first to come warily out of the thicket was a medium-sized reddish brown boar. He was directly across from my location and then started down the walking path away from me. While closely watching for all signs of an ambush, the boar slowly started towards the draw of a free meal. I carefully drew an arrow back on my 2007 Ross Cardiac. I watched the boar as it walked in directly facing me, leaving me with no viable shot. To his misfortune, he turned just slightly leaving me a small window for a shot. Knowing that the boar was just about to come over the trail I walked in on, and most likely leaving in a hurry, I took the shot. The broadhead hit the animal hard, leaving the crimson arrow lying in the sand behind where the boar was standing. After a brief but fierce retaliation from the boar, he eventually laid in silence just inside the thicket. Filled with excitement, I waited for another 30 minutes, before climbing down from my tree.
It was getting dark and I was anxious to leave the hog woods to retrieve some reinforcements. However, my first task at hand was to run off a sow and her pitch-black piglets. This was more difficult that one would think, but they did eventually leave. I left my stand and started walking back to the access road where Mack and Scott were waiting. During my walk, I kept a watchful eye for large black objects in the shadows, especially when I approached the last feeder before the access road.
Once at the access road, I excitedly told my tale to anxious ears. We all pile onto Scotts golf cart and headed back to find my prize. Upon inspection of my ambush location, we were all in agreement that my quarry couldn’t be far away.
A brief walk through the brick wall thicket produces my first harvest of a big game animal with a bow and arrow. We took the boar back to the campsite, took some nice photos, weighed it, and I field dressed the animal quickly. The weight of my reddish brown boar was 83 pounds. I had the skull measured and entered it into the NCBA records for that year. The measurement of the skull was 15", giving me 11th place in the NCBA standings for 2007. On top of all of that, I netted a nice amount of pork for the freezer!
Prior to this hunt I had some bad bow hunting experiences leaving my confidence badly shaken. I purchased my bow, new at the beginning of the year and had tuned and practiced to close to perfection, at least in a target situation. After breaking through my lack of confidence, I felt like bow hunting is finally opening up for me, and this was a turning point for great experiences to come.
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