We'd been getting early morning pictures of this guy coming through for a couple weeks around 2am or 3am somewhat randomly. He started to become a little more regular but still really early in the morning until Thursday evening, he wandered through at just before 7pm. We took our ladder stand down from our other property Friday afternoon cause we hadn't seen anything there and moved it close this area. I didn't sit in it Friday night or Saturday morning. Saw no deer where I was hunting Friday evening and Saturday morning and thought I may as well sit here Saturday evening. About 6:45pm a doe and yearling came down off the ridge and moved through pretty close to the stand. They new I was there and kept about 50 yards distance from me but didn't really freak out. The doe looked back the direction she came from a couple times which peaked my interest. Finally they moved off in a little bit more of a hurry when I heard some leaves crunching on top of the ridge. I figured it wasn't another deer since they kinda spooked off and sure enough, here comes Porky with his nose to the ground. I got real excited since this was the first time I'd ever seen a hog in the wild with my own eyes. He made his way down the hill stopping for a few seconds here and there with his nose in the air and I was just hoping the wind stayed in my favor, and it did. He got to within about 18 yards and stopped again sniffing the air and a perfect broadside shot. Here's my chance. It was a little difficult to find the perfect spot since he's so fat but I picked what I thought was the best spot and let the arrow go. WHACK!!! right in the front shoulder. He let out a squeal and spun a doughnut like Dale Jr. doing a victory burn out!. The great part for me was he slowed down pretty quick and tried going back up the leaf and grass covered hill. Why, I have no idea but I watched for a second and realized he wasn't making much ground. I've got time to reload. I nocked another arrow and let it fly. Miss!. Dang it! He still wasn't getting anywhere so I nocked another one. WHACK! Much better shot this time and not a clean pass through but I could see the fletchings on one side and the BH on the other. He was still trying to motor up that hill! Well maybe one more will do it, I got 2 left, Whack! Another good shot and he started rolling down the hill about 40 yards away behind a tree, still kicking a little bit. I quickly sat my bow down, called my dad at the house, literally about 300 yards away and said, "Hurry up and get down here with the rifle. Porky's got 3 arrows in him and he's still trying to climb the hill. I got down out of the ladder stand as quickly as I could and got above him nocking my 5th and last arrow in my quiver. I drew back, had to adjust a little and slipped on some dry grass falling to my but while still at full draw. I stood back up while never letting down my draw and by the time I sighted him in again, he'd stopped moving. I let down and watched a few minutes while I waited for my dad and Porky never moved again! Thank goodness! To my dad's credit, despite being almost 71, really knows how to get on the horse. He got there in about 3 minutes still wearing his house shorts and slippers! You might think shooting 4 arrows and hitting him 3 times is excessive and I'll agree with you. I'm used to deer taking off like a bullet very quickly. I really never thought I'd having time to get a second shot on an animal, let alone 4. I don't know what compelled him to try and go back up the hill but seeing him struggling the way he was and not getting very far away, my main thought was to try and finish the job as quickly as possible and not let him suffer. Luckily it didn't last much longer. I recovered all 4 arrows although 2 were destroyed as you can see in the pic below. I've had a deer snap an arrow in 2 before but never anything in to 3 pieces! Crazy hunt and we've got a lot of pork in the freezer! We couldn't weigh him for 2 reasons. We weren't sure if the supports in the garage were strong enough to hold him and my dad had hernia surgery about 3 weeks ago and couldn't help me lift him. We guessed he's in the 230lb range. We're gonna boil the skull out and I'll post some pics of that when we finish.
Sounds like a very exciting hunt. I am glad your Dad was able to make it out there to share the memory with you (even in house slippers, lol, he must have been excited!). Congrats!
Thanks everyone. I didn't do any bacon, which my family was kinda bummed but I wasn't sure how to cure it and how to do it. We butchered him the next day and I wasn't really prepared to much other than the normal cuts of meat. With deer we hang them for a week so I have time to get seasonings and figure out what I want to do. If anyone has any good recipe's for bacon let me know. There's another one we've seen on our trail cam so he's on the hit list too if he wanders by again.
