WAITING TO FLY- FINAL Update-Day 4-conclusion w/ pics

[paulaboutform]

It's finally my travel day for my much awaited hog hunt. I've been up since 4:00 am and my head is throbbing from lack of sleep. Yesterday was spent packing and repacking, weighing luggage and so on. I ended up taking my bow and all the gack out of my Plano AR case and using my Bowmax Double bow case and filling it snug with some of my cold weather wear. (It'll be hitting -28 C while I'm there). I'm now waiting to board my plane and God willing I'll be sitting in the blind sometime around noonish. My buddy mentioned to me in passing he had someone hunting his place the day before yesterday so I'm hoping they weren't in 'MY' blind. Those porkers are certainly not stupid. Anyway, I'm just excited to get out there and pretty soon y'all won't have to keep hearing about this. Best wishes to all and I'll check in with updates first chance I get.
Peace.

[Easy Money]

My trigger finger is twitching just reading this im headed to texas for a hog hunt the end of February and im taking my 380 ill be interested to hear how you made out and what setup worked for you good luck

[bubba]

Good luck to ya.. Hope you get a good one.. And that your blind isn't loaded with candy wrappers and junk..............

[Normous]

I don't think that I have hunted anyway near -28 C
Better you than me, Paul

[Kegbelly]

I don't think that I have hunted anyway near -28 C
Better you than me, Paul

Paul's hunting porksickles
Good luck man, wish I was there too!
edit... hmmm, -28C? nah...

[paulaboutform]

End of day 1 and I'm wiped. Got to my buddy's, organized my gear and put my M380 together. Had a quick lunch and insisted on at least a practice shot to make sure everything was good before heading out...thankfully it was bang on. We jumped in the Argo and headed to the blind. I go to set up my trigger stix bipod and W.T.H., it's not working!??? Aargh! I lent ig tto my cousin and apparently he abused tthe heck out of it and now here I am. I'm thoroughly ticked off and will never lend any of my pristinely kept gear again. Okay, freehand it is.
Turns out my friend has three big tuskers and he doesn't want them shot and he's only seen two around for the last month or so that he's been out. No problem, we probably won't see them anyway, they tend to be more skiddish. WRONG! We saw some little ones and a young boar, about three years old, and thought better to let them grow some more. Then out comes Boss Hog! Dang this guy's HUGE! Definitely pushing 375-400lbs with easily 4" cutters. Great to see but alas it's closed season for him. We sat patiently and watched and waited over the neatest bait pile I've seen. My buddy got about a third of a 40 gallon drum of scraps from the butcher that he put in a smooth sided barrel and covered it with water and let it freeze solid. He then dumped the giant scrapcycle into the bobcat and placed it at the blind. Brilliant! Back to the story.
...waiting patiently and with about forty minutes of light left a nice sow comes out to join the festivities. She's about 23yards out and I line up on her waiting for the broadside or slight quartering away shot. Man, do these things ever stop moving around! Finally there it is, she turns broadside and pauses...WHACK!!! My 18" luminoked Zombie with 92gr brass insert, 2"blazers, and 100gr Toxic Broadhead(125gr would work better) zipped through her mid body tight behind the front leg. She made the death run and got about 40-45 yards before piling up. She left a good blood trail but honestly not like I saw last year on the other hogs. Still, only went about 40ish yards. Two of the blades opened up slightly but I can't say if it was going through the hog or burying into the ground. A quick easy track and recovery job and we were on our way to the skinning pole. The more I use my Fenix HP25 Headlamp the more I love it. We got her dressed out and called it a day. The sow weighed in at 190lbs even (live weight).
Tomorrow morning we'll hit the whitetail blind for a couple hours then go wait for more hogs. An excellent start for sure....and it does beat working. All the best.
Paul

[Kegbelly]

Congrats on the sow Paul! That will be some fine eating for sure!! You're right, they don't stand still long at all.

A note on the trigger stick... I've read where folks had trouble with them working correctly in cold weather... the cold makes the rubber thing inside hard and it won't expand to lock into place. I think -28 C qualifies as cold Try it indoors and see if it works.

[paulaboutform]

Congrats on the sow Paul! That will be some fine eating for sure!! You're right, they don't stand still long at all.

A note on the trigger stick... I've read where folks had trouble with them working correctly in cold weather... the cold makes the rubber thing inside hard and it won't expand to lock into place. I think -28 C qualifies as cold Try it indoors and see if it works.

Thanks John. Yesterday was only -12. Today it's -28. I just stepped outside and boy is it fresh...and windy. The trigger stix is working now but not like it did. One leg is running a little late. Yesterday one leg wouldn't move and the other wouldn't lock. When I lent it to my cousin it was in as new condition and hadn't been exposed to rain. He had it for two weeks in northern B.C. in heavy rain and was using it as walking sticks and whatever. It felt gritty and looked old and used. Worn off paint, scratches, etc... It really bugged me but I won't let it ruin my hunt. I'll chalk it up to a lesson learned and besides, I'm fairly competent shooting freehand.....heading out shortly to start day number two.

[Kegbelly]

Yeah that kind of stinks on the trigger stick, they're not cheap. Hope you get it working again.
Anyhow good luck today, and stay warm! I'm metrically challenged and had to use a calculator , that's minus 18 F! Brrrr!

[IronNoggin]

Congrats on the first Walking Bacon Buddy!
Hoping to hear of some more Success in the next few...

Wandering over to the mainland in a couple days to take in the late season archery show. Mulies & whitetails both on the menu...

Best of Luck my Friend!

Cheers,
Nog

[ehntr]

Welcome to AB Even colder temps coming this weekend.

[paulaboutform]

Welcome to AB Even colder temps coming this weekend.

haha....I'm leaving Saturday late afternoon so I'll miss the -33. Just kidding. I'd love to stay longer. And thanks for the welcome, I'm just happy being out of the incessant rain we get on the west coast.

[paulaboutform]

Well day two was interesting. I was relishing the cold weather thinking it'd keep the hogs moving, what I didn't anticipate was the strong winds and snow that felt more like freezing rain. The results of this was a cancelled morning whitetail hunt and delayed blind time, ie. hog hunting time. My good friend looked out at the blowing winds and cold and immediately said there's no point going out in this because nothing will be moving. I agreed. I actually already knew that as I was up since about 4:00 am and was checking conditions outside hoping at least the wind would die down, it didn't. Well, that leaves one thing to do, a hearty German breakfast and pot of coffee later and we were making plans to head out around lunch time...ish. My buddy said the hogs would be huddled in groups trying to stay warm and out of the weather until they got a little hungry and ventured out in spite of the weather. Sounds good to me.
He had to go to town to do some things so I'd be on my own in the blind for a few hours. We had an early lunch and was reminded the season on the big tuskers was CLOSED! Hmmmm, you'd think we've been friends for years because he apparently was able to read my mind. Buddy drops me off at the blind and we bump three shooter hogs off the bait. Wouldn't you know it. At least they were moving. The bait pile was actually gone and i had about half a five gallon pail in the blind so I put it out. Settled in nicely, set up the camcorder on the tripod to hopefully do some filming, got the bow ready and loaded and began my watch. I know cold weather can be tough on batteries, but what I didn't think of is that in a very short time camcorders freeze and don't want to work. I'm glad I cought that. I was able to take it off the tripod and put it in my little hand 'muffs tube' with the pocket warmers so I could get it set up and running when the need arose. Well it was pretty warm as nothing was coming to the bait and the camcorder stayed toasty for several hours. Finally, around a quarter after three a we little piggy comes in looking for a snack. I do mean little but my buddy is looking for three little ones for himself. I get the camera ready, line up the shot, and SMACK! Pig takes off at a hard right and I can't keep track of him. The shot looked perfect but I didn't want to wait for fear of losing the blood trail with the falling snow. I gave it a couple minutes then went out to retrieve my arrow (I sure love Luminoks) and check blood. This frozen ground is reeking havoc on my toxic broadheads but the blood trail was ridiculous. Profuse non stop spraying blood on either side of a white path for the whole 30-35 yards he ran. Perfect. This little guy will be a great little 'spit' pig. About twenty minutes later my buddy showed up and we sat for another couple hours but nothing else today. Hopefully I can report some decent action tomorrow.

Paul

[RexKay]

Congrats!! Sounds fun!

[vixenmaster]

Double congrats onthe hogs n some good hunting on them