Saturday - April 7, Day 2
South Texas Hog & Turkey Bowhunt
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A.M. Hunt
Well, this morning we woke up again to heavy fog. The ground was soaking wet. Skies were 100% cloudy. We decided to sleep in and go out to the blind mid-morning. We sat in my blind from about 10:30 until 3:30, and did hear some gobbling after getting in our blind. Didn't hear as much talking as yesterday, but the fog finally burned off and the sun actually came out. Just as yesterday, though, they didn't seem at all responsive to my calls. About noon we heard what I thought were clucks, but may have been putts, about 50 yards behind us. I couldn't see anything, and nothing came into view. Not sure what happened there. About an hour later we did hear what were definitely clucks and I looked out the back window and sure enough saw a red head coming our direction. Instead of coming towards our blind, though, the tom was going parallel to our blind. It was a nice tom, probably a 9-10 inch beard. The closest he came was about 30 yards, much farther than I like to shoot at a turkey with a bow. I yelped softly a few times, but he wasn't excited about that, didn't gobble at all, just slowly walked away. That was frustrating. Even though I'm only 90 miles north of where I hunted last weekend and got 2 nice toms, these birds here seem to be in a totally different stage of gobbling, etc. Down there the ranch manager said they had been gobbling hard in February and March, and on the Trulove the hunting manager said they just started gobbling a bit 2 weeks ago. At 3:30 we talked to J.J. Reynolds and he told us of an almost dry water tank where he's been feeding corn that got wiped out the night before by hogs and maybe we should move our blind there for the evening hunt. So that's exactly what we did. It turned out to be the exact spot where I killed a hog on the ranch last year. Last year a group of pigs came in right before dark. I'm hoping they'll do that this evening as well. 
Our set-up for hogs this evening P.M. Hunt Our set-up for hogs this evening was overlooking a tank that had just a little bit of water in it, but the hogs were really wallowing in it big time. J.J. has also been feeding it every day with corn. As you can see in the photo above, I set up my blind under a big Live Oak tree and would have a shot (hopefully) at anywhere from 6 yards to 22 yards. We got set-up at 6:45 and determined to sit until at least midnight. It was only partly cloudy, and the moon was almost full, plus I had borrowed a site pin that glows in the dark (did it ever!). 
A look from inside our blind At about 8:15 2 hogs came in and started munching the corn, but they were facing towards the blind almost the whole time. They would turn slightly for a second but wouldn't hold a broadside or quartering position for long enough to get a well-aimed shot off. I still had about 10 minutes of good shooting light when they came in. I drew once and had to let down because they changed positions so quickly. Finally, after they had been there about 15 minutes the one I wanted turned broadside and gave me about a 20 yard shot. If I had been using my regular sight pin it would have been tough, but with that glowing pin I could see everything well. I drew and held about where I thought his heart should be, and took the shot. I couldn't see the shot placement because of the dark, but I was pretty sure I heard the solid thump of a hit, and then immediately we saw a spark. I surmised that my broadhead had come into slight contact with a rock after (hopefully) going through the pig. Both pigs split post-haste in different directions. This was the first big-game shot that my cousin Dallas had ever witnessed in person and at this point he was pretty excited and eager to get on the blood trail. We went to where he was standing when I shot and saw two very small spots of blood. Then Dallas spotted the arrow 15 yards the other side of where the hog was standing at the shot. The arrow was covered from nock to point in blood. It didn't smell, and there wasn't any kind of stomach or gut material on it, so that was good news. From where the hog was standing when he shot, there was about 15 yards of bare dirt before he got back to the grass, so in the absence of blood at the shot location, I started scanning with my flashlight the tall grass surrounding the tank. About 10-15 yards into the grass after looking around a few minutes, I found some small spots of blood. Dallas came over and together we followed the trail, which was a pretty good one and getting better the further it went until, finally we saw the pig, clearly dead. He had run about 65 yards after the shot. I was happy to find that I had made a double lung hit and he was bleeding out both sides. Following the blood trail was a great educational experience for my cousin. To celebrate the kill, we had some fresh pork loin for dinner that night. 
A great eating-size pig I had originally planned to stay another day and a half hunting here, but since the turkeys aren't really responding much right now, I decided to head on home and perhaps come back in 3 weeks or so and try it again. I know there are a ton of turkeys here because of hunting here in the past, they're just not cooperating right now. Well, that's the end of this Live Hunt, hope you enjoyed it! We hope to be doing a few more live turkey hunts in the next month or so. Until then!
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