Callaghan Ranch Hunt Recap

[TexaswBOWhunter]

Looks like a great time, Thanks for sharing.... A big group of us used to hunt a ranch not too far from the ranch your hunting and seeing all the pic's sure makes me miss hunting hogs and javi's down there.....

[Br'er_Henry]

Awesome I love Callahan!

[rjtkdplus]

Congrats on all the critters!

[jreyna920]

what does a javelina hunt run out there? i can find anything on the website, and im wanting one bad


thanks
John

[Stupid]

Sweet!

[badger16]

what does a javelina hunt run out there? i can find anything on the website, and im wanting one bad


thanks
John

Get ahold of Jeff or Juan and they can fill you in on the hunts. There's different prices depending on if you will be camping or staying in the rooms they have available, or if you want just javies or hogs also.

Jeff Fischer, Wildlife Manager Juan Suarez, Asst. Wildlife Manager

Mobile: (361) 548-7466

Ranch: (956) 417-4608

Email: jeff@callaghanranchltd.net


Mobile: (956) 285-6114

Ranch: (956) 417-4614

Email: juan@callaghanranchltd.net

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The next few nights we battled more swirling winds and hog that wouldn't tolerate our filthy human scent, so I'll just fast forward to Friday the last day of the hunt.

I spent some of the day pulling pods and gathering gear. I also went and set up a small ground hide for the evenings hunt. I had a strong south east wind that would blow straight into my face. As long as the hogs didn't come in down wind I would be all right. Wich I had a good shot of them following this creek system to my spot. The creek ran out of water right in front of my blind and thats where I had a hole I had been bating with hog wild and corn all week. I was using the hog wild as a cover scent more than an attractant. It was getting hammered by a group of sows and young judging by there tracks. I was hoping to get a few of their heads down the hole and give me an oppertunity to draw and shoot, maybe even getting multiple shots. One thing that was odd was Thursday night I had a lone boar visit the bait for the first time.



Tracks in the creek leading to the bait hole.



Bait hole, hard to tell by the pic but it is about two feet deep. This pic was taken after my hunt was over that night.



The wind stayed in the right direction for us all day. finally we were catching a break from the hog gods! Back at camp I tried to take a nap but it was next to impossible as I'll I could think about was that it would be our last night in Texas. I headed out about 1.5 hrs before dark and parked the quad down wind of a good javie spot. I was texting my son when I looked up to see a lone javie feeding away from me. I replaced my phone with my bow and the stalk was on! Didn't take long for me to get into range, all I needed now was for him to turn for the shot. As if on cue he turned broadside as I was drawing. I settled my sight on his shoulder and released, but this time my arrow flew right under him and bounced harmlessly down the rocky sendaro. He bolted and my chance at javie number two was gone, or was it. I looked down the road to see another group coming out of the bush. I hauled butt down there and as I was running out of time and needed to get to my hog blind. I ended up within 8 or 9 yards of the group but there were too many eyes and this time my javie hunt was over for this trip.

I made it to my hog blind just in time to find it without using a light. I sat down and nocked an arrow and and waited for the squeals. Hadn't been there long when three coon showed up and started eating the free corn I had dumped for the pigs. I waved my arm one time and the movement was enough to drive them away. My next visitor was a buck that had dropped his head gear. He came right down the creek as had the coon, just as I was hoping the hogs would. The buck stopped about 3 yards from the opening of the blind and stared at me. Wind was my best freind and he couldn't make me out. he fed for a few minutes before I spooked him away also. A short time later I can hear something moving down the creek. there was brush breaking and I figured it was a cow. Next thing I know, there's a large black hog standing right where the deer had stopped. He looked into the blind for a few minutes and then turned for the corn hole. He fed for awhile but never offering a shot. Then he turned towards me and starts walking right at me. I just knew he had seen me. He stared hard at me for what seemed like forever. Once again he decided there was no danger and went back to feeding. Within seconds he had his head partially down the hole. Before I knew what happened my arrow was buried tight behind the shoulder of a very large and very fast running hog! He was moving out but didn't make it far and I heard him crash. I had just killed my biggest hog ever! I knocked another arrow and was waiting for more hogs but I couldn't stand it, I had to see him and decided my 2010 was complete.

Here's a view from inside my hide and a view from outside.



If you look to the right you can see my seat. Those palmettos make great back ground for a blind!



Here's what every bow hunter likes to see after a shot. These pics are a bit graphic but it shows how fast and effecient a bow kill should be. This hog was expired within seconds of the shot.



Gotta love them big ole bad snuffer heads.



This guy was spraying blood everywheres and mowing down everything in his path.



Black Boar Down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





The fun was just starting as I got a message from Jeff that he had three hogs down himself!

More on that shortly, I need to take a break from typing.

[wlo11]

That's a great recap of an awesome hunt. nice way to finish too

[takoma]

great recap and pics !! wow !! that black boar was toast !! btw-- what exactly is a warbles in a rabbit ? some kinda maggot ? parasite I assume ?

[badger16]

End of the night

great recap and pics !! wow !! that black boar was toast !! btw-- what exactly is a warbles in a rabbit ? some kinda maggot ? parasite I assume ?

They are the larvae of botflys and look mighty nasty when you see them potruding out of a carcus.

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After getting Jeff's messages I fired up the quad and met him at camp. He never received the ones I sent him, my phone service and the mobile radios weren't working. He was as surprised as I was that a big boar had hit that set up and came in with his gaurd down. We figure he must have been the hog that left the track on Thursday night. I'm betting he ran off the other group of pigs once he found this free meal. Didn't matter, all I cared about was getting him, and Jeffs hogs back to camp. Since I had allready found mine and was closest to camp, we decided to get him first. Finding him again was no problem, but getting him on the rack was turning into a bigger task than we expected. We backed my quad up to him and everytime we had him almost rolled on, the quad would roll forward. My old machine has no brakes, and I still have an electrical problem so my battery died on Thursday morning. I have a cover I have to take off and put back on to pull start and it's a real pain in the butt. So once we had mine started we didn't want to shut it down and couldn't put it in gear to keep from rolling. On about the seventh attempt we used Jeff's quad as a break in front of mine and finally got him loaded. Hard to see but this guy has real good cutters. I need to remember to take better pics of things like that.



Back to camp with him and time for Jeff's pigs!

I wish I had better memory of how each of Jeff's shots went, but I don't. It's alot easier to remember your own experiences than anothers. I'm not going to type a bunch on this and post false info. Maybe someday he can come over and fill in the blanks.

Instead I'll just post the pics and they can speak for themselves.
One thing I'll add is he dead eye with that recurve and I'm glad I'm not a pig!

First of three sows, this was a twin to another 80 pounder. We didn't get pics of the other one in the bush.



This gal went 150#



Then there was three!!!!!





LDP'S





Skinning.



Them big boars have wings!



This pretty much sums up our hunt other than a few random things I'll post later on.

Thank you all for following along on my much needed vacation.

Dale

[Night Threat]

Way to give a lesson in night hunting.Those big ones dont come easy.Are you the one that used to hunt with Buck M. years ago. Anyway fine job.

[badger16]

Way to give a lesson in night hunting.Those big ones dont come easy.Are you the one that used to hunt with Buck M. years ago. Anyway fine job.

Thanks brother!

I've hunted with a Buck M. years back, so yea that's me. Do me and you know each other?

[Night Threat]

No,I dont think we've ever met.I talked to Buck yesterday and we're going to get together and try and get his boy a big hog for the contests.Great write-up.

[badger16]

Tell him Ohio says hi!

How old is his boy now?

Good luck with the hog hunting!

[Night Threat]

I think little buck is about 12 or so. I'll tell him you said hi.If your back down texas way let me know,I have some pretty good hog hunting.

[badger16]

Do you know if him and Ken Lee are still buddies?