AND IT BEGINS...boar hunt*STORY UPDATE PG.3

[Normous]

Nice FrankenBoar Paul. I am very happy for you and Bernie!!!!

[ThunderXB]

Looks like I'm late to the party to wish you good luck, but just in time to say "Congrats" on a fine hog!!!

[wabi]

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[L. E. Carroll]

Congratulations Paul..... any idea of his weight ? regardless though, he's an Aweaome Trophy.

Gene

[vixenmaster]

Congrats to you on the porker

[Kegbelly]

Congrats Paul! That's what you call bringing home the bacon!

[paulaboutform]

Thanks y'all for all the well wishes and congrats. After all these years hunting hogs, through Alberta and even a few Texas hunts it still amazes me how highly intelligent these critters are. I've come this early in the season because I know how smart they are.
After arriving from the airport I quickly assembled my Frankenbow and organized my gear. Got changed and went out to check my zero. I was very surprised to be about 2' left. I verified that with three shots, adjusted my MOA and was in the middle of the bull. I gotta tell ya, I hate when things aren't perfect in a situation like this. My nature dictates perfection and I had to force myself to just accept my zero was now set. Anyway, we load some bait which consists of a garbage can of frozen solid meat and fat scraps and a bucket of grain to spread around.
Because these pigs have been unmolested we had hogs showing up within a couple hours. These were all younger hogs and piglets. I wanted a tusker and I knew I likely wouldn't even get a look at one if I didn't hold out for the big boy first. The big boys get that way for a reason. The tusker didn't show up until just before dark and I waited about fifteen minutes before the perfect shot presented itself. At about 25-26 yards he was very slightly quartering away and I zipped the Grizztrick just barely above his elbow cutting some leg meat on the entry and smashing the small bone on the exit. It was almost dark and I get awfully nervous going into the thick bush with some aggressive pigs around. I don't like it in the light either but dark is definitely worse. We come out of the blind and start looking for blood and can't find any. After about 40yards we start seeing some here and some there. Not much but dark red. About now I start feeling sick and questioning my shot. I've tracked down wounded hogs before and let's just say it's not my favorite thing. With Bernie up ahead of me he finds the pig expired in the thickest junk you can imagine. He made it about 75 yards. Dragging him out was gross but it all worked out. Once we got him to the meat pole and cleaned up a closer inspection showed a solid low heart hit. This Frankenboar (thanks for the great name Norm) was completely full of blood and clotts in the chest cavity.
Thanks for posting up some pics Don....and to any other friends I've sent pics to, please feel free to post them up. I'm not much of a computer guy. I'm done typing now. I'm actually sitting in the blind. I'll say I got a decent sow two days ago and nothing yesterday. I'll be back with the sow story soon. Cheers.

Paul

[IronNoggin]

Great Stuff Buddy!!
Congrats (again) on the FrankenBoar!

And of course, Best Of LUCK over the next few...

Cheers,
Nog

[tremps01]

Paul, congrat to you! I can't wait for the hole story my friend.

Marcel.

[janesy]

Nice hog! That's a great hunt

[mikej]

Looks tasty , congrats

[mikej]

What kind of bow is that ?

[paulaboutform]

DAY 2
Well, that's another one for the memory bank. I'm packed up and headed for the airport in the morning.
Gene, the boar is just under 300lbs. Probably 280-290lbs range.
The bow is affectionately known as the Frankenbow. It's the creation of a well known crossbow genius and I can't take credit for it. It's a Bowtech Stryker Offspring front end with LS limbs and a hot riser. It has custom rockers, cable linkage system, strings and cables. It's an Exomax rail that's been custom polished and anodized then machined to accept a compound crossbow. It's maximum 175lbs draw weight and spits 440gr arrows upwards of 390fps. I'm thankful to have a Spike Bow press in my shop that allows me to do any work or tuning although I've only had to adjust my timing once since August.
Back to the story. The day following the boar everything was pretty slow. The same young boar that was hanging around was back and that was about it all day. Bernie called him the perfect decoy which I thought was fitting. By late afternoon more young hogs and some piglets showed up. Probably around 6:00pm or just after. Another tusker, about the same size as mine showed up but he was off limits because Bernie has another buddy coming from out of town and wants to be fair. I'm good with that...although I would've been happy to poke him with a sharp stick. I was waiting for some sows to show up and some younger ones did but there were some bigger ones I thought might show and I still had a couple days of hunting left. Six sows did show up shortly past 6:30 and three of them were pretty good. Let me tell you, the sows are super skittish! One especially was super leary. She kept growling warnings and all the sows would take off, with some of the other pigs, then come back. I'd line up on one and the boar would chase her off the bait or they'd keep pacing around the bait. Finally, the sow that kept warning of danger couldn't resist the bait and watching the other hogs eating any longer. I waited for her to start eating and for the perfect angle. With these hogs it has to be a perfect shot or no shot....did I mention I hate tracking them down....especially in the dark! Anyway, at 7:20 she turned slightly quartering away with the near leg stepping forward and I let the 100gr grizztrick go.The arrow entered tight to the back of the near front leg and exited through the far shoulder blade. She ran straight away from the blind and didn't make it to the trees. She dropped about 45 yards from where she was hit. She was in the 230-250lbs range. I love recoveries like this, in sight, short distance and able to drive the quad right to her for the pack out. That's my day 2.
Day 3 was slow. Nothing showed up all day other than the decoy boar for about ten minutes and two little piglets that didn't even come in or stick around. No shots fired but the pigs started showing up just at dark but wouldn't come in until complete darkness set in. All on super high alert.

[paulaboutform]

Day 4. I didn't expect to actually see anything today but the decoy showed up for about a half hour then disappeared for a few hours. He came back at around 3:30 and then a couple piglets...then a few more piglets. Just before 4:00, much to my surprise, a big blonde sow showed up. She was on high alert and that's an understatement. I hid in the blind with all windows closed waiting for the right opportunity to open my shooting window. She fed out of sight and I took my chance to set up for the shot. At about 23 yards I tested the 100gr Spitfire. I thought the shot was perfect but I couldn't find my Luminok backed arrow. I called Bernie and he headed down to the blind with his quad.He couldn't find my arrow either and i couldn't believe a big sow could stop my arrow setup...even with a mechanical head. We tracked her about 120yards and found her piled up.what I thought was a perfect shot wasn't. I thought she was broadside when she was in fact quartering slightly away. The Spitfire did perform though, cutting through one lung and shredding the liver. She was about 250 - 260lbs. We actually went back for my arrow and found it with the glowing Luminok

Paul

[flightattendant100]

Congrats on a great hunt and a great read.