(http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd52/pliberato/paullukeandpig.jpg)
While turkey hunting last weekend I had a "interesting" experience. So that you know, I have killed many wild pigs over my bowhunting career and have never considered them "dangerous game". They are one of my favorite hunts but I thought that putting them in the dangerous game section of Tradgang was kinda silly. Anyway, on my turkey hunt I happened to run into a pretty big boar, he literally walked up on me. He approached the trail I was set up on for my turkey hunt and was quartering toward me and moving at a steady pace. He was about to bust me so I took the shot hitting him about mid body with the arrow passing through the ham. My hunting buddy Michael (who was turkey calling for me) happend to have his dog with him and he went to get him in the truck to help track the animal. We got on the trial and it only took Luke the lab about 50 yards to find the pig holed up in some thick bushes. The pig was in a standoff with Luke and I went around to get behind the bush and get another shot into the big boar. Suddenly, the wild pig came busting out of the brush at me at a full run with hate in his eyes. I did the first thing I thought to do....run like hell. The pig chased me, and Luke chased the pig. After about 25 yards, Luke caught the pig before he got to me and chomped down on him stopping the train and getting the pig to turn on him and stop chasing me. Micheal called Luke off and I managed to get another arrow into the boar dropping him fairly quickly.
This boar turned out to have some of the biggest choppers I have seen and I was very fortunate not to have been seriously hurt. I'll be a little more careful in the future and I sure want to thank my new best friend Luke the lab!
Wow, talk about fast and furious! First thought is grab an arrow and play Bullfighter!
Pablo,
Congrats on the first kill(s) of '08. Maybe this won't be a slow stinkin'year like last year and you, me and Wade will go back to whakin'em every time we go hunting like the good ole days.Im hoping you fixed our mojo along with yours. I'll let you know after my turkey hunt this weekend. And quit being such a wuss about one little charging piggy. If I'd been there I would have pulled my K-bar and gone hand-to-well..tusk with him and dispatched him like a man. Thats what you get for giong hunting without me.
Bonner
Wow, pretty exciting turkey hunt aye'? Well done Luke, he deserves an atta boy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow....sounds like you had quite the experience! :D I have a huge respect for pigs! I think they can be a lot more dangerous than people make out!
That's a real nice pig tho! ;) :thumbsup:
Cool hunt.
You just have to love a lab.
I hope you bought that dog a nice steak!
I know a guy that was charged by a 375 lb boar while deer hunting, 30 06 to the head made him stop pretty quick, made keep an eye out while bowhunting
Wow that will wake you up in the morning! Thanks for sharing!
Better than cup of coffee for sure.. :) :wavey:
Congratulations :thumbsup:
I am glad your okay and I bet Luke loved every second of it.
I read a hunting story years ago, a father and son team hunting pigs. After their first go around with a wounded hog they made a pact to never shoot another one unless there be a climbable tree within 10 yds. Even a mesquite might be climbable in your situation, uh. Congrats on the big hog. Glad you didn't get hurt. My dog would probably be leading the "train".
Great story!! Labs are good friends to have!! I love going to the woods with mine!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I used to hear livin in MT "If you ain't never been bucked offa horse, ya ain't rode much!"
Wonder if pig hunting might have it's own mantra of "If'n ya ain't been charged by a wild hog, ya ain't lived right..." ?
Sounded pretty intense there for a few minutes... :) Can ya imagine what it must be like in Africa goiin in the bush for a wounded lion or buff? :eek: :scared: Crikey!
One got Ken Moody last year. I have only had 3 hogs run at me out of the tons I have shot BUT those 3 really got my attention.....Thanks for the story
Thanks for the nice comments. This really was a eye opening experience. Bonner, anyone but you and I might not take the "K-Bar" comment seriously but I guess that's what they teach you Marines in boot camp. Snag, I NEVER even considered anything but RUN! On a positive note, Michael said it was the fastest he'd ever seen someone over 40 move and I never dropped my bow! And yes, Luke is on my Christmas list from now on. After the second shot and the pig tipped over, Luke jumped on the pig and pretty much "tenderized him".
Good dawg! Yeah, I'm my flight instincts would have kicked in too. Probably would have left a trail behind too, if you know what I mean!
That is real good stuff Pablo.........! Maybe that Marine can arrow a Turkey this weekend and the Monkey will be gone for awhile. Real good pic too....
call em' mans best friend for a reason!
-cory
I've only hunted hogs twice (in TX) but experiences on both trips taught me not to underestimate them. As far as I saw, hogs truly are dangerous game, particularly if you are bowhunting on foot...
Some species of pigs are much more 'attack prone' than others, but all can and will, sometimes, attack. Both bushpigs and the true Eurpoean boars tend to attack far more frequently that any of the others species I've hunted.
Out of the untold numbers of pigs of verious species I've shot, I've been 'routed out' a few times, but never personally had a truly close call. However, one fellow I was hunting with was ripped from mid-calf to mid-thigh by a big European-cross boar, as well as suffering numerous smaller wounds. As soon as the arrow hit, the boar came for him; cornering him. The fellow had a Ruger Blackhawk .357 with him, and emptied it into the boar, with the muzzle literally touching the boar. Six rounds of 158 grain jacketed semi-wadcutters (all into the thorax, but with none exiting) slowed the boar down, but it still stayed at him for a few more seconds before staggering away. It went several yards away before finally going down.
It took a while to get the fellow to the hospital, and he lost a fair amount of blood. I'm not sure that he could have gotten out of the woods by himself. I can't remember the number of stiches required to close the wound, but it was a couple of hundred, and his knee was perminently damaged.
Though the vast majority of hogs will never show any agression, don't under rate their POTENTIAL to turn nasty on you, doing real damage.
Ed
TGMM Family of the Bow
Hogs can get real nasty real fast. Glad your ok and it sure was lucky having the dog along. Be the most exciting day of turkey hunting for you for a while I hope.
Great story and good shooting!!
I think I would have had an "O, sh*T moment"
Thanks for sharing - a really great story. Especially for someone like me who wants to try pig hunting some day.
Great story Paul. Glad it turned out in your favor.
Wow - that sounds like a rush! Glad you are safe.
Good story. Bet that was an adventure.
Heh heh heh,,,,good shootin' pardner. I proclaim you honorary HOGTAMER!
Professor,
Too bad you didn't have Trusty with you. She would have done the ole' boar in on round 1. Good story though; didn't think of you as one to back away from a real man's fight however.
Grasshopper.
LOL, go get 'em tiger !! Or was it the other way around, grin..
WOW!!! Good story and glad you made out with just an awsome story and no stitches, and a dead pig of course.
Grasshopper...you are very young and will learn as you gain life experience. Confucius say that it is sometimes better to run and fight another day than to stand and fight and get you butt kicked by a ticked off wild pig.
Good shootin and glad everyone is ok!
I think I'd buy Luke a steak!
Nice pig and a great dog. I was almost caught by a boar several years ago and was fortunate enough to have a dog step in and distract the boar enough for me to put in a killing shot. Its scarry but what a rush. Congrats and thanks for sharing.
Hey Ucle Paul! Nice pig ha ha ha sound like you almost got owned. we need to get a hog hunt!!!! what you should do is take out it's longest tusk and pierce your nose through that skin between the nostrils with it you would like a hauss.... and a freak but any ways nice story.
Wild animals are unpredictable; but let's not get carried away.............every year more hunters are injured by deer than hogs.
I have never hunted hogs; but once long ago I was bird hunting near a game farm; and '100% russian boar' piglets started running through the corn ahead of me. I was thinking about the legality of a barbequed escaped pig; when the sow stepped out.
I am sure glad I didn't shoot one of the piglets.....!!!! She was huge !!
I do want to try hog hunting someday... I like the stories :)
great story!
yip iv had a few close calls and nearly had a touch up from a few pigs.
we had our best hunting dog (pointer) get killed by a warthog that was trying to eat Nigel (Leopard) very sad day
great story my dad had a pig charge him once but he got out of the way and dispatched him after that great story
After being really close to hundreds of hogs, I would dare say that most "charges" are just a matter of someone standing in the path they have chosen for escape. Another high charge factor is the smell of a K-9. I've been charged once in 25 years and he stopped short before he got to me.
The circumstances there were 3 other boars challenging him for breeding rights. I just got in too close and hunkered down, resembled another rival.
I've killed two boar in self defense. Onew at less that a yard away. The Wensel Woodsman tipped arrow went in between the spine and the shoulderblade, through the heart and out through the breastbone. He went from a charge/escape from the dogs full out run to a dead stop (pun intended.) He slid into my legs.
When I was backpacking I came in between a sow and her piglets. Needless to say its the only time I was ever chased up a tree. Luckily my pack had a big buckle and I was able to dump it fast.
Biggie: are you saying I should lose weight before going hunting hogs - or gain weight so I look more threatening ?? :confused: :bigsmyl:
They winded me in my DB Matrix 360 this past week in Menard, TX. Two BIG ones. Saw nothing else while bowhunting.....behind me about 20 yards and to the left, caught them out of my peripheral vision standing there sniffing. I nocked an arrow and they were GONE.
Brian....naw...just shoot the sow!
Too Short once told me his dad had his leg broken by a Russian boar. It hit him at full bore (no pun intended) then bore down (couldn't help the pun either) with its choppers. Paul's dad was alot taller than junior. I shutter to think where the boar would have grabbed the dwarf.....
Woulda got TFS right in the juglar, LOL