The One That Got Away
By
Carl Wilson, Field Editor
Bow hunting
for hogs - exciting, action packed, rewarding, and at times,
very frustrating!
Those
were just some of the emotions that my editor (Tyge Floyd) and
I experienced while hog hunting at the Diamond "C" Bow
Ranch in Caddo, Texas. Caddo is located approximately 70
miles west of Fort Worth. The Diamond "C" Ranch
is owned and operated by Steve & Tina Cooper and is a bow
hunting only ranch. Diamond "C" specializes in
wild hogs (lot's of 'em!), record medal exotic sheep and game,
white-tail deer, and turkeys.
When we
arrived late (as usual) on Saturday night, there were three
other hunters in camp. Thankfully, all still awake!
Introductions were made all around and the "spitt'in and
story-tell'in" began. Two of the hunters were a
father and son team - Bryan and James. James had already
harvested a nice sized 75 pound hog earlier Saturday morning.
Bryan was still looking for his first hog and his first ever bow
kill.
After
an hour or two of swapping hunting stories and readying our
gear, we headed to our sleeping quarters. The cabin sleeps
six and there is also a trailer for those who need a little more
privacy such a husband and wife team. We actually had time
for a couple of hours of "nap time" before
our 05:00 wake up time.
The
Diamond "C" hunting guide is Ken Green and he knows his
stuff. Since we had arrived too late to see our stand
during the daylight hours, Ken guided us out at 05:45. Ken
also toted a 5 gallon bucket of his own special elixir of hog
bait. I'm not sure what this concoction is made of, but it
had a smell that sure knocked the edge off an early morning
appetite!
As Ken
lead the way to our stand, we heard the distinct grunts and
squeals of our intended prey. It makes for an exciting
walk in the dark with hogs all around! Our stand was a
two-seat platform tower nestled among scrub oaks and
mesquite trees. We were sitting 12 feet off the
ground and approximately 18 yards from a feeder. Ken laid
down an aromatic buffet of his hog attractant, wished us luck,
and then headed back to camp.
We were
both dressed in Scentlok suits and camouflaged from head to toe.
The stand we were in is known as the "Video Stand".
Our goal was for my editor to take pictures and for me to
harvest a hog. It seemed like a good plan.
There
was a light breeze blowing from our left to our right.
With the feeder directly in front of us, the wind would not be a
problem. We got settled in, waited for daylight, and tried not
to fall asleep and snore. The feeder went off at 07:12 and
we didn't have long to wait. Within minutes, the first
group of hogs appeared 35 yards to our right. They were
making a beeline to the feeder. First the little ones,
then the bigger ones. By the time they all reached the
feeder, there were 18 hungry snouts crunching on corn. The
ranged in size from small piglets, to an 80 pound sow.
Being the sportsman that we are, we weren't going to harvest a
nursing sow or any small ones. We were looking for a boar
or a non-nursing sow in the 75 to 150 pound range.
After a
few minutes, the mama sow grunted and everybody scattered.
Out of the thick underbrush came a most harvestable pair of
hogs. Both were well over a hundred pounds, but they
looked different from the others. Being a knowledgeable
fella, my editor informed me in an excited whisper that these
two were a pair of European hogs. The owner did not want
them harvested as he was trying to get them to make a bunch of
little ones. This seemed to make good sense, but
it was disappointing at the same time. On the bright side,
we had already seen 20 hogs and it wasn't even 07:45 yet!
The European pair
finally ate their fill and wandered away. We relaxed
a bit and in a few minutes I heard the sound of hooves from our
left side. This time, instead of hogs, it was a herd of
goats. Not just any old goats though! This was a
herd of silver and gold medal rams! Barbados, Corsican,
and the largest horned Black Hawaiian that either of us had ever
seen!
I was
sorely tempted to try and harvest that Black Hawaiian, but my
wallet kept me in check. You can only imagine how loud my
wallet was screaming while the ram was standing broadside at 16
yards and was totally unaware of our presence!!! Even
though the exotic game is very reasonably priced at the Diamond
"C" Ranch, a record book gold medal ram is sadly a
little out of my price range at this time. Tyge snapped
pictures with his 35mm camera and the herd crashed off through
the brush. We then decided to call it a morning and headed
back to camp to see how the others had faired.
It was
the last day to hunt for Bryan and James and they didn't
get a shot that morning. Bryan decided to go on a still
hunt with Ken as his guide. The rest of us ate some
breakfast, got lazy, and decided that a mid-morning power nap
would do us a world of good. Just about the time we
were dozing off, Ken and Bryan got back to camp all excited and
said that Bryan had got a good shot on a hog. It had been
about 30 minutes and they wanted to know if we wanted to help
track it. Well, sleepy or not, who can pass up an
opportunity like that? We jumped out of bed, pulled on our
hunting boots, and headed out.
We got
to the spot where Bryan had shot the hog and we found blood
immediately. We began tracking and the mortally wounded
hog had headed into the thick stuff. The mesquite trees and
cactus made for, at times, painful tracking, but the blood trail
was mostly easy to follow. Bryan had made a good solid
shot and within 150 yards and 25 minutes, we found his first bow
hunting trophy - an 85 pound cream-colored sow! Congratulations
were passed all around and the trip back to camp with our prize
was made easier by Ken and his "gas powered mule". After
we arrived back at camp, Ken showed another of his many talents
by field dressing and skinning the hog in a very short time.
The Diamond "C" ranch has a winch powered
cleaning/skinning rack, running water, and a refrigerator and
freezer to make life much easier for the processing and care of
your game.
Most
animals don't move much during the heat of the day, so we headed
into the town of Breckenridge for lunch and supplies. As
with most any small Texas town, the food was good and the people
were very friendly. After we returned to camp we again
pursued, then captured, our much needed nap.
We
headed out for our evening hunt with Ken again toting the 5
gallon bucket of hog fix'ins. As we approached our stand,
we spotted movement through the trees. Hogs were already
on the move around our intended hunting location. We spent
20 minutes spot stalking through the brush. Since it
was such a very warm day, we hadn't put on our Scentlok suits
yet. That was a mistake. As we got within 22 yards
of the two large hogs, the wind changed directions and we were
busted!
We
hurried to our stand and Ken again laid down the hog's spread.
Almost immediately, the wind died down completely and the bugs
took over air control! Suffice it to say, the next hour
was not the most fun. Fully camouflaged, not moving,
holding your bow with an arrow nocked in a semi-ready-to-fire
position, without seeing anything, but 2 road runners.
But, that was fixing to change. The
first group of hogs appeared to our left. There were 11 in
this group - sows and little ones again. They fed for
awhile and were replaced by the European pair. They ran
everybody off again and then they finally left for greener
pastures. Then, another group of hogs showed up.
There were 15 in this group - again sows and little ones.
We were seeing a lot of hogs, just not the right ones for us.
It
finally got dark, but we were prepared. We had brought
some night hunting lights made by Burnham Brothers Calls. They
are powered by 9v DC batteries and are made to fit on the body
of a standard rifle scope. They also fit quite nicely on a
bow stabilizer! It was a very cloudy night and the moon
was non-existent. You could barely see your hand in front
of your face. Fortunately,
hogs make a lot of noise walking as well as eating. We
could always hear them coming. As best as we could count,
under the orange glow cast by our lights, there were 23
hogs around us after dark. In a very short time, the hogs
were joined by two Fallow deer - a white one and a chocolate
colored one. The two Fallow deer were beautiful with their
tall graceful racks. We were really enjoying the wildlife
show when the hogs grunted and sort of scattered. We
turned off the light and waited a few minutes in the dark.
When we turned the light on again, a "shooter" hog had
arrived!
Weighing between 125 - 150 pounds with tusks, this boar was the
one we wanted. We turned off the light again to try and
not spook him and to ready my bow. I drew my bow and told
Tyge to turn on the light. The boar was under the feeder
and surrounded by smaller hogs. This was not the only bad
thing. I was having great difficulty in locating my
sight pins! With no moonlight from above, my fiber optic
pins were useless. I could see the hogs fairly well with
the varmint light, but not my sight pins. Plus, there were
too many hogs around the boss hog to risk a clean shot. I
let off my draw and we killed the light again.
We
decided to move the light around behind me to try and light up
my sight pins and the hogs. Again I drew my bow and Tyge
hit the light. I could now see my sight pins, but the hogs
were dark and indistinct. Tyge moved the light around over
my head some and finally the sight pins were glowing the hogs
were lighted fairly clearly! But, the boar was still
surrounded by little ones. I held my draw for quite some
time before the little ones moved enough to give me a clean
shot. I whispered to Tyge to hold the light steady and I
squeezed the trigger on my release. There was a thud and
all the hogs ran off.
Tyge
was excited, but I was very doubtful of the shot. With all
of my twisting and straining while trying to see my sight pins,
I had cantered my shooting arm into an improper position.
When I released the bow string, it had given my arm
quite a lick! We retrieved my arrow and the broadhead was
destroyed along with the arrow shaft. The arrow was
completely blood free and had driven harmlessly into the ground.
If I am going to miss, a clean miss is the best miss of all.
We headed back to camp where my well deserved
"ribbing" and other verbal abuse lay waiting.
The
next morning, we tried a spot and stalk hunt with Ken again
leading the way. He found us a group of about 15 hogs.
Four of which weighed in access of 125 pounds. But, as is
usual in staking prey with great noses, we were busted and could
only watch as the hogs made good their escape.
All in
all, we had a great time. We saw 77 live wild hogs, 2
harvested hogs, 2 beautiful fallow deer, a herd of trophy rams
with 1 gold medal record book Black Hawaiian ram. All in a
day and a half! Hog proof panels surround the entire
hunting area of the Diamond "C" Ranch so there are
virtually no predators to slow down the ever increasing hog
population. There are 6 well placed comfortable bow stands
with timed feeders.
The
hunting guide, Ken Green, did everything but hold down a
hog for us to shoot! He knows the ranch like the back of
his hand and will do everything in his power to insure you have
a successful hunt. The Diamond "C" Bow Ranch is truly the place
to go for a great chance at harvesting a hog or an exotic!
