Lighter weight trad bows and BIG hogs - your experiences?

[jerp]

Sunday morning I had a big lone boar come into the feeder. We've seen him a lot on the cameras, and I was able to watch him for a long time. I'm guessing he would go 250lbs. He never gave me a shot - managed to feed for 15 minutes without ever being broadside or quartering away for more than a second or two. It's the only time since switching to trad that I wondered if my equipment was up to the task. I've shot a boar that size before with a compound and got enough penetration to kill it, but on this day I was armed with a 50lb longbow. My 2blade broadheads are razor sharp, and I would have taken the shot if presented, but have you ever killed a boar that big with a similar set-up?

[BowBuddy]

I think Bisch Kills pigs with a similar set up

[jreyna920]

Oh yea that would get him.... Those big hogs are tough but a well placed shot you get far enough in him to do the deed

[Draco]

One year I broke my bow and the only other bow I had was a 47# Robertson Stykbow. It was 17# lighter than the bow I usually hunted with. I killed 3 deer and a large hog with it. I did not get a shoot through on 2 of the deer but half the arrow was hanging out the far side of the hog. So you never know for sure. Maybe I just didn't hit a rib going in or coming out of the hog and did with the deer. I did use a string tracker on all of them so had no problem finding any of them. I do know with, the heavier bow, I had pass throughs on every thing I shot over about 7 years. More poundage is always better if you can handle it.

[Bowtech Lefty]

That's a good question..... I would imagine waiting for a quartering away shot would increase your penetration or at least avoid the shield.

[trad"Doc"53]

I killed a hog at Bugscuffle one year with a Horne recurve that was pulling about 48#s at my draw length, he went 275 on the scales. I also killed another one at a daylease in Kingsland with a BW recurve pulling the same weight, that hog was estimated at 240/250 by the owner of the ranch.My friends that volunteered to drag him to the truck for me guessed him to be 600/800#s by the time they had drug him the 2miles over 2 ridges. The only reason they were so nice was because I had a port in the right side of my chest for medication to be pumped into.This hog only went about 20yds. after the shot.

[Bisch]

You can do it John! My biggest was about 225# earlier this year with my 50# Blueridge. I have also killed several in the 175-200# range.

The key to killing, and recovering, the big pigs is to hit them in the right place. If you hit a bit high and catch the shield, you more than likely are not finding that pig, even if you got enough penetration to kill him! You have to hit the big ones low in the crease or on the knuckle to get a reliable blood trail. I would also reccomend the string tracker as an aid in tracking.

Bisch

[CEpperson]

I killed a good boar around 230ish with my 51# longbow. I was using a magnus 2 blade, shot was not perfect and I hit him high in the shoulder. I watched him go down 65 yrds away. Good luck getting a crack at him

Clay

[BowBuddy]

I'm hunting with a 43# BW PSR

[Trick]

My primary hunting bow is 51#, but at my draw length I'm pulling around 48#. Until I switched to the smaller Zwickey Eskimos I was not getting good penetration on the larger hogs(medium hogs for that matter) even with what I felt was good shot placement. I was only getting one lung, and a hog can go along way on one lung. Sense switching my success rate has gone up to a point that if I hit them in the right spot I'm getting my hands on them.

Matt

[jreyna920]

In 08 I killed a 450+ with a 43# recurve and sniffer, I shot him in the middle of the night, if I'd had known how big he was I would had been pretty worried, but I didn't and I stuck it through a 2" shield and into his heart he went 30 yards

[jerp]

In 08 I killed a 450+ with a 43# recurve and sniffer, I shot him in the middle of the night, if I'd had known how big he was I would had been pretty worried, but I didn't and I stuck it through a 2" shield and into his heart he went 30 yards

Wow - now that's good shot placement!

[jreyna920]

I should add that he was at about 5 yards and I was on a six ft ladder stand, but it got it done, the arrow just reached his heart. Like I said it was so dark it took me 15 mins just to figure out which way he was facing, it was 30* and pouring rain. It made it worth it when I walked up to him the next day I was at a loss of words. I had never shot anything that big... Hell that's still the biggest animal I've ever killed. About a week later we a white and black one show up on camera that topped him by probably 150#'s but I never got on him.... They don't get that big making mistakes... I never saw the one I shot on camera.

[Trick]

For reference this boar was 226lb, so John's hog was twice that size. So if he can get it done on a hog that size with 43#, 50 should be no problem.

[Featherflinger]

This one was 225 and my bow is about 49# at my draw length. He went 30 yards and crashed.