Wild
Hogs & Javelina at Rancho del Zorro
The
Digital Log Of A Bowhunt - by Robert Hoague
| Day
1 | Day 2 | Day
3 | Day 4 | Day
5 |
Day 1
We began the hunt in the
early morning hours, driving the ranch roads and senderos to look for wild
hogs. Several groups of wild hogs as well as javelina were out. So were
deer, particularly some of the ranch's big Whitetail bucks with splendid
racks, eleven big boys in all. The bucks got us a little off track for
awhile but we eventually got down to the business of setting up for wild
hogs.
We set up a Double Bull blind
in the crook of an "L" shaped ranch road that we saw hogs on.
Then we set up a second
Double Bull 500 yards down the road, in some brush 15 yards from the road,
overlooking a small opening with several game trails. This was where my
hunt would begin.
We returned to the ranch
and had a business meeting (really) and discussed the possibility of having
the first ever Bowhunting.net Get Together & Wild Boar, Javelina Bowhunt.
The afternoon hunt...
Half an hour after getting
inside my blind a group of javelina worked their way through an opening
in the brush 60 yards from me. They were the first of six different groups.
But none of them came close enough to my position.
The sun fell below the horizon
and daylight started to fade. I heard the sound of hooves walking in the
road, coming in my direction. It was a lone boar javelina. I looked to
see if I could still see my pins. The fiber optic glow was gone but I could
still see them. The boar was now past my first shooting window and almost
to the second. I drew and aimed through the blind's window. My shot was
... high. The javelina trotted into the brush across from me.
Rats!
A large black boar hog walked
out in the road, 100 yards away from Chad's blind. It turned in the opposite
direction and slowly walked further away. At 6:00 he heard hogs coming
down the road toward the curve.
Chad picked them out through
the brush and turned my digital camera on. The first wild hog came into
view in the blind's shooting window and Chad took it's picture.
He took a couple more pictures
of the hog and 3 others in the group. They were moving right along and
Chad had to get with the program if he was going to get a shot. He
set the camera down and quietly, but quickly, picked up his bow. The hogs
turned the corner and now had their rear ends toward him.
They turned.
In the right direction, the
broadside one.
Chad knew what to do, he
pulled his bow into the stops and aimed behind the shoulder. Crack, the
arrow entered the ribs just right and the hog raced into the brush.
This was Chad's first ever
opportunity to take a big game animal with a bow. But Chad is an experienced
hunter and guide and he knew his shot would put the hog down in seconds.
He waited ten minutes and walked to where the hog had disappeared in the
brush. He found his arrow and a super blood trail.
The hog was 50 yards further.
Chad radioed Angie, his wife, to come and get him. Then they drove to pick
me up. We returned to recover the wild hog and I took some pictures of
Chad and the hog.
Chad Edwards with his
first bow harvest, a Rancho del Zorro wild hog.
The first day of the hunt
is over. We ate one of Angie's swell dinners, talked for awhile and then
got some shut eye.
Tomorrow we go at it again.
To
Day 2
For information
about Rancho del Zorro's whitetail, wild hog and javelina bow and rifle
hunts:
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