punkture
11-26-2006, 20:18
guns: TC hawken and renegades
when: fri, sat, sun
weather: cold mornings (25-30) and hot evenings (70-80)
it all started thursday morning, bright and early. we headed 3 hours north to the relatives' houses for thanksgiving lunch/dinner/etc. eat, eat, eat, boubon, eat, eat, boubon...you guys know the drill. the father-in-law and i had separate 'meat is murder' campaigns in mind so we were ready to head homeward early.
about 2:30am, my buddy and i were on the road to go hunting. a 2.5hr drive (shaved down to 1.5hr by my houdini of a driver) later, we were ready to unpack at camp and suit up for the woods. i was 30' up a willow before daylight and all of the sudden - KABOOOOOOOM - 400 yards down the willow strip. i got situated, the skyline started to come alive, again - KABOOOOOOOM. same shooter. another shot. squeelin' hog, another shot. 30 minutes passed and i started thinking that i wasn't going to see anything with the other guys down the willow strip slaughtering everything before it got to me. 7:30 rolled around. 29 degrees. no wind. 2 pigs stepped out. KABOOOOOOM. the smoke cleared and i saw both bolt out. one stopped about 50 yards and fell. the other left out. i marked the spot where the one i shot fell. my buddy and i met up around 11am. i stayed in my stand and he walked out to where i saw it last. it jumped up and ran about 15 yards and fell. the grass was 6+ ft tall. he held his position. i climbed down and our plan was to surround the pig. when i made my way over to him, the hog ran another 15 yards and stopped. he was hurt pretty badly so we decided to pull off and let him die. my buddy shot right at daylight that same day. his first shot was into a herd of hogs. he was no more than 30 yards from them with his double barrel muzzleloader. 5 min later when he shot, he dropped the boar in his tracks. after we finished looking for my hog, we went back to look for the first one he shot, but to no avail.
the picture is of his first hog.
we went back after dinner friday evening but couldn't find any sign of my hog.
friday evening i hunted the same spot i hunted during bow season last year. i missed a doe running at 150 yards - it happens - especially with a muzzleloader. oops. saturday morning i climbed the same tree. my buddy saw a 6pt but passed it up since if you kill a deer during the morning, you cant hunt the evening - federal refuge rules, bleh. saturday evening, he didn't see anything, but at 6:07pm on the dot, i heard something coming. i waited until it was under my tree and shined my light. i caught a glimpse of a hog, at least as big as the one i shot friday morning - about 150lb or so. no shot.
sunday morning we slept in. saturday was a poker night with the duck hunters down the road...
around 10am today though we had a hog drive. i climbed about 40' or so up a willow in the same willow strip that i saw the hogs on friday. an absolutely breathtaking morning, but no meat.
in the end, a long story. no climax. pork roast in the crockpot. better luck next weekend.
all weekend from our group:
2 hogs
2 unfound hogs
1 doe
1 3pt
1 6pt
one of the duck hunters killed a 250lb boar (WOW!)
when: fri, sat, sun
weather: cold mornings (25-30) and hot evenings (70-80)
it all started thursday morning, bright and early. we headed 3 hours north to the relatives' houses for thanksgiving lunch/dinner/etc. eat, eat, eat, boubon, eat, eat, boubon...you guys know the drill. the father-in-law and i had separate 'meat is murder' campaigns in mind so we were ready to head homeward early.
about 2:30am, my buddy and i were on the road to go hunting. a 2.5hr drive (shaved down to 1.5hr by my houdini of a driver) later, we were ready to unpack at camp and suit up for the woods. i was 30' up a willow before daylight and all of the sudden - KABOOOOOOOM - 400 yards down the willow strip. i got situated, the skyline started to come alive, again - KABOOOOOOOM. same shooter. another shot. squeelin' hog, another shot. 30 minutes passed and i started thinking that i wasn't going to see anything with the other guys down the willow strip slaughtering everything before it got to me. 7:30 rolled around. 29 degrees. no wind. 2 pigs stepped out. KABOOOOOOM. the smoke cleared and i saw both bolt out. one stopped about 50 yards and fell. the other left out. i marked the spot where the one i shot fell. my buddy and i met up around 11am. i stayed in my stand and he walked out to where i saw it last. it jumped up and ran about 15 yards and fell. the grass was 6+ ft tall. he held his position. i climbed down and our plan was to surround the pig. when i made my way over to him, the hog ran another 15 yards and stopped. he was hurt pretty badly so we decided to pull off and let him die. my buddy shot right at daylight that same day. his first shot was into a herd of hogs. he was no more than 30 yards from them with his double barrel muzzleloader. 5 min later when he shot, he dropped the boar in his tracks. after we finished looking for my hog, we went back to look for the first one he shot, but to no avail.
the picture is of his first hog.
we went back after dinner friday evening but couldn't find any sign of my hog.
friday evening i hunted the same spot i hunted during bow season last year. i missed a doe running at 150 yards - it happens - especially with a muzzleloader. oops. saturday morning i climbed the same tree. my buddy saw a 6pt but passed it up since if you kill a deer during the morning, you cant hunt the evening - federal refuge rules, bleh. saturday evening, he didn't see anything, but at 6:07pm on the dot, i heard something coming. i waited until it was under my tree and shined my light. i caught a glimpse of a hog, at least as big as the one i shot friday morning - about 150lb or so. no shot.
sunday morning we slept in. saturday was a poker night with the duck hunters down the road...
around 10am today though we had a hog drive. i climbed about 40' or so up a willow in the same willow strip that i saw the hogs on friday. an absolutely breathtaking morning, but no meat.
in the end, a long story. no climax. pork roast in the crockpot. better luck next weekend.
all weekend from our group:
2 hogs
2 unfound hogs
1 doe
1 3pt
1 6pt
one of the duck hunters killed a 250lb boar (WOW!)