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August 13 was a rainy day but because pigs are often out walking around in the rain, I figured I would give it a try. My friends had just ran dogs thrue the same area the day before with plenty of action but no solid grabs. I was worried they had scared the pigs out of the area but as it turned out, they were still there. I emediately found fresh tracks in the dirt. Any old foot prints were washed away. I took the path down from my friend's property, across the stream and up the wall of the valley to the dried up ditch line. It was at the end of the ditch where it met the hau bush and bamboo where I ran into the pig. I was climbing the muddy steep side of the ditch, going up the wall when I looked up just in time to see a pig coming out of the bushes 20 yards away. It turned and walked right towards me. Kicking my foot into the side of the hill to keep me from slipping as I nocked an arrow. I was pretty close to the top of the hill already; it went flat at about waist height but the side I was standing on was still real steep and muddy too. It was an awkward position. The boar walked right towards me and passed behind a lantana bush giving me the chance to draw my bow back but instead of coming out, he stopped and started bouncing up and down on a small tree to scratch himself. I undrew my bow and waited posed ready to draw until he finally continued his walk. I drew back again and as he came into a somewhat clearer shooting lane, I whisled to get him to stop. He was now 20 feet away and had an angry "What the F was that" look on his face. I aimed and let one fly hitting really low and behind the armpit. I saw a spirt of blood so I knew I had a good hit and the pig ran off in the other direction without seeing me. Good thing too because he was acting like he would have charged.
I didn't know how big he was at the time. I though he might be 100 pounds or more and saw the big tusks but didn't expenct him to be as big as he was.
For the next hour I kept hunting before taking up the trail as it was getting dark. The rain had partially washed away the blood trail but after crawling thru tunnels with my flashlight I found him not 35 yards away. Hit him right in the heart.
I went back and got Oli to help and we dragged it out to a truck.
The tusks measured a little over 2 1/2 inch long and were of good thickness. It is still the best pig I have got with my bow second best overall. |
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