Bowhunt At Texas-S Bowhunting Ranch
Arrival & Ricky's Hunt | Rick's Bad Attitude Boar | Day 2: Blaine's Hunt | Robert's Hunt

Rick & The Bad Attitude Boar - Who's Hunting Who?
Rick Philippi and I moved slowly through the woods. It was now late afternoon and definitely time for wild hogs to be out. We spotted a big boar near a small group of smaller hogs. Rick kept a big tree between him and the boar and stalked closer (boar is to the right of the largest tree).

When he was in bow range Rick drew. 

One of the other hogs saw the movement and woofed and the smaller hogs ran. The boar didn't see us, but he didn't get twice as big as all the others by being dumb, and as soon as the alerted hog woofed, the big boar lumbered away in the opposite direction.

Soon we located another group. Below you see a few of them on the side of a small hill. We waited until they topped the hill and followed the hogs into the timber.

Lately rainy weather has been the norm at Texas-S so walking was quiet on the wet ground. We made good time catching up to the wild hogs. Below, Rick is out ahead of me and using the trees to hide himself, hoping to get within range without being seen. 

Rick worked his way closer.

He saw a large hog and stalked closer to it. Rick checked it with his range finder when he feelt he was in range. I saw him draw and shoot and heard the shot hit hard.

The entire bunch of hogs ran to the edge of the pond to my left. 

Splash! Hogs jumped in the water and, depending on their size, either ran or swam to the far side.

I saw a huge hog in my camera view finder and get its picture. Notice the difference in the size of this big boy below and the hogs above.

Rick waved me over, he shot the biggest boar and had a good blood trail. We are supposed to radio in to Merle when a hog is shot so we ded. Blaine and Ricky heard it too and rushed over to help us blood trail.

The trail was easy to follow and quickly led us into a thick, muddy area. Suddenly Rick's hog jumped up from a mud hole, looked at us, and ran away.

Still following a good blood trail, we located the boar laying down ahead of us. We debated if it was dead or not, and then moved up to 40 yards from it. 
The debate ended when the hog stood up.
It took 2 or 3 slow steps in our direction ... and charged us. 

I yelled loudly at the boar and ran toward it, this has worked for me before and those hogs had either turned away or stopped. This boar kept coming! 
When there was 10 yards and a few skinny trees between us I jumped and got a grip on two of the trees and swung my feet and legs up out of the way. The boar thundered by me and went for Ricky and Blaine. 
Rick yelled for Ricky and Blaine to climb a tree. They did, and just in time, because the boar ran to exactly where they had been standing.
Immediately, Rick and I approached the boar. Once again it postured aggressively and started toward us. Rick drew and shot for the only shot he had and hit the hog in the forehead. It turned and ran.

We followed and in short order the hog stopped in a mud bog. Then it went down and was still. 
Merle drove up on the 4-wheeler and and we releated our episode. Merle had two comments; it was going to be tough to get the heavy boar out of the mud and water, and he wanted Rick to shoot it again just in case.

Definitely a good suggestion, when Rick shot again and the boar jumped to its feet. Water splashed high as it bounded a few yards to to the edge of the bog, where it dropped. This time for good. 

We pulled the hog a few yards and took pictures.

Rick Philippi and his bad attitude wild boar, June 2004.

We loaded the boar on the 4-wheeler and returned to camp. After dealing with the hog we drove into Clarksville to eat pizza. Tomorrow Blaine and I get our turn at bat.