Friday
Evening
As we sat around the barn, admiring each other's hunting equipment, fate tempted me. While chatting idly with the fellows, a large rat made an appearance in the lumber pile behind Larry. I pointed the rodent out to the other guys and decided it was time to take action. With the steely resolve of a grizzled war veteran, I ordered Martin to move because "this might ricochet"! Michael was positioned perfectly on Steven's Woodsey Too treestand in the gate of the barn next to where his brother was skinning his hog. As luck would have it, Michael was testing out Steven's incredible new videotaping apparatus and had his camera positioned perfectly on the expensive tripod head. While I unscrewed a WASP Jak-Hammer mechanical from my Epsilon arrow, Michael readied his Sony Camcorder. I screwed in a lethal field tip and asked if Michael was ready. A few adjustments to the camera and the quick nod of his head told me to take the shot! Click on the picture below to view the shot!
In the blink of an eye, the rat was airborne performing acrobatics typically reserved for trapeze artists. The arrow passed through the rodent and embedded in a fence rail about six feet off the ground. A quick shuffling of lumber and tin to follow a brief blood trail revealed the trophy. In less than half a day of hunting, we had two kills hanging from the gambrel!
Most of the rest of the time between hunts on Friday was spent hanging stands. After a brief Weight Watchers meeting at the local Dairy Queen, we ventured back out to the farm to position a couple more stands. We hung Steven's Woodsey Too in a precarious position high atop a large mesquite. Devin, armed with a brand new ICE blind was eager to test out the customized glory holes positioned a couple of feet from the ground. We left these two stands alone for the evening, due to the ruckus surrounding the associated preparations.
Larry
and Casey
Given the excellent fortune that Martin experienced at the point, Larry and I headed there for the evening hunt. Trusting his entire hunting career to me, Larry took his spot in the swivel limb overlooking the feeder while I sat in the ground blind beside the tree. With my Sony Digital 8 camcorder pointed out the window towards the feeder, I was ready to capture any action that might unfold at our spot. When 5:00 rolled around, I heard the distinctive growl of a hog to the west. One glance towards Larry confirmed that I wasn't hearing things. At this point, we both donned our game faces. Unbeknownst to me, Larry had drawn his bow as soon as I had taken my eyes from him. This man was ready for action. I peered through the mesquites in front of me to see an army of pigs making their way to the feeder. Ten "five gallon bucket" sized hogs strolled into the feeder unaware of the danger lurking nearby. Following the pigs was a decent sized sow, who did her best to keep her brood alert. Feeling certain that one of the smaller pigs was about to meet it's maker, I made sure to keep the camera focused on the group. The sow strolled in and out and she kept watch over her offspring. As she strolled behind the feeder a second time, Larry released an arrow that struck the sow in the left side of it's rump. Click on the pic below for the video!
An exhaustive search by all seven members of the group hit a dead end at a wallow in the sand. We followed a blood trail that one could walk upright to see and never found the hog. "Assman" had blown his opportunity, while ensuring himself of a moniker that will endure through the ages!
Martin
and Michael
Martin
and Michael teamed up to hunt the ICE Blind that Larry and I had hunted that
morning. Martin saw a lone doe that would not come into the feeder.
From the same ladderstand he hunted Friday Morning, Devin reported:
"I saw nothing until right at dark, and then had 12 hogs come in to corn. Although it was past legal light for deer, with the bright moon, I thought I could make a shot on one of the hogs. They were eating the scattered corn about 15 yards to my left. I let the biggest black hog work its way broadside, and then drew my bow. I looked through the peep, then to the side of the peep, then through the peep, then to the side again. I looked one last time through the peep, "yep", my pin was aligned right behind the shoulder. Thwap! I hear a good smack, then a high-pitched squeal. A little too high pitched for the 100# hog I was aiming at. I got down and walked over to the spot of my shot. My 100# hog had lost about 95#’s. I had made a great shot on the piglet standing behind my intended target. Talk about ground shrinkage. I shot at the largest sow and ended up with the smallest piglet. I initially thought I had possibly hit the larger hog, and after the arrow had passed through her, had hit the little pig. I searched the area and found no blood. I still don’t know how I screwed that up. The only thing I can figure that I did was use my 30 or 40 yard pin instead of my 20."
Here is a rough picture of Devin with his prized hog:
Steven
Steven reported seeing nothing but deer in the distance across the pasture from his vantage point. Here is a picture of what he witnessed:
Rudey
From the same Woodsey Too stand, we get Rudey's report:
"Friday afternoon found me sweating my derriere off in the same Woodsey
II stand. I sat there for about an hour without seeing anything. Then I started hearing hogs again, this time behind me. I went ahead and turned around before the hogs came in so I wouldn't have to do it while they were so close to me. Sure enough, a group of about 6 small gray pigs came in to the same old feeder area and started rooting around about 10 yards from me. I turned on the camera and started panning to get them all in the viewfinder for the shot. As I got them in the frame, and got the video head locked into position, I guess they got tired of rooting around in a hole that didn't have any more corn in it.They turned and made their way right back the way they had come. No shots. "Oh well", I thought, "with this many pigs around, I'll have plenty of shots this weekend."
I returned to watching the brush in front of me for any sign of movement. About 30 minutes before dark, a doe moved out of the thick stuff right behind the feeder. She stood about 25 yards away, looking at the feeder, with just enough brush between me and her to prevent an ethical shot. I watched her, just knowing she would move out of the brush toward the corn that I had strowed (that's for Les!!) on the ground. But apparently she wasn't interested in the corn, as she slowly turned and wandered off into the brush. I spotted her a few minutes later about 150 yards away, just slowly heading in the opposite direction. Right at dark, with maybe 10-15 minutes of "shootin' light" left, I again caught movement, this time to my left. I spotted a lone doe moving along the fence line toward the feeder. As she moved behind some brush, I was able to remove my bow from the hook and ready for a shot. She continued moving toward the feeder, from my left to right, but still behind limbs and brush. Then she stopped about 10 yards from the feeder. Just like the doe before, she stood and watched the feeder for a few minutes before turning into the brush and wandering off. By this time it was getting too dark to shoot, so I gathered my equipment and made my way down the tree and back to the truck.
This particular feeder was moved to this location just the week prior. It was located back behind this stand (where the hogs have been coming) up until last weekend. Maybe, as Michael pointed out also, the deer were just a little leery of that "new" feeder out in the semi-open. Maybe I'll have better luck tomorrow. Right now, es tiempo para cerveza......."