Any bowhunters out there??

[RobJ]

Afternoon Rob,
Very nice !!! Im not a bow hunter but those two are beauties! I can also appreciate how hard it is to get close enough to knock down something that big !

Thanks Scott but in all honesty these aren't really that big. The pig maybe 120#, about the size of the young deer. But 2 kills with a bow in east Texas (known for thick cover and much smaller herds than the Texas hill country) in 3 week is respectable. Around here most will shoot a spike with a bow given a chance. With a bow nothing is for certain. At 22 yards 1 tap on the stand with the bow and the deer looks up andis gone. Even a spike (so much for the easy kill). Then when you have 3-4 come out and all of a sudden inside the red zone you have 8 eyes, 8 ears and 4 noses that are some of the most sensitive on the planet. In heavily hunted places deer are known to look up in the trees. Of course this is un natural because deer have nothing to fear in the trees but us.

Couple more shots, one the 16' ladder stand i made than I hunt from. the other a look from the stand. The feeder is about 20 yards away, the little buck was taken right beside it. Above and to the right of the feeder is a round piece of wood, that's my 30 yard mark.

 

[scesnick]

RobJ

I would love to try my hand at hunting wild pigs. Not many of those running around up here. Exactly how do you hunt them? ( treestand or ground) I never even watched anyone on t.v. hunt them with a bow, just rifles. I'm sure it has been on, I just have'nt caught it yet..

I do know they can be mean little suckers though, Ever had one chase ya?

 

[Sigarms]

I would love to try my hand at hunting wild pigs. Not many of those running around up here.

I take it you've never hung out at any of the bars in Masontown

 

[scesnick]

Sig,

No they are wild HOGS !! big difference.. lol..

 

[wushaw]

RobJ

I would love to try my hand at hunting wild pigs. Not many of those running around up here. Exactly how do you hunt them? ( treestand or ground) I never even watched anyone on t.v. hunt them with a bow, just rifles. I'm sure it has been on, I just have'nt caught it yet..

I do know they can be mean little suckers though, Ever had one chase ya?

Pig hunting is alot of fun especially at night stalking them on foot, they are noisy and easy to locate on a full moon.

 

[Captinjack]

scesnick

Welcome brother!

I hunt on my property near Morgantown, WV and like you have killed so many deer with the bow that I have lost count. Actually, I've never kept track except for the year.

Scents are for sure a sometimes thing. But, I can tell you that Tink's has resulted in the biggest buck I've bow shot. He was judged at 7 1/2 yrs old and came in about 1430 hrs downwind of my scent station. He stopped about 75 yds away, lifted his head to scent, doubled back and ran right into the scent station where I killed him.

Had the same thing happen at magic hour as a buck made a scrape about 25 yds away, but unseen as it was unbelievably thick. He headed out to the field and I didn't even pick up my bow until I saw him stop, look my way, lip curl and turn around and came downhill, turned right, and came right into my tree where I killed him. As soon as he did the lip curl, I knew what was going to happen and immediately picked up my bow. Without the Tinks, he would have just continued out to the field and even though very close, it was too thick to shoot past 5 yds.

Other times, they pay no attention whatsoever to it. I've had it work great about 6 time and I'll take that. Since you are an experience bowhunter, you surely know that nothing is always this or that.

Regarding my scent, I play the wind as it is the most important factor in getting within bow range of a deer. Coyotes are even tougher than deer are in that regards. Thermals, eddy currents and back drafts always present problems that we often fail to recognize as we can't "see" where our scent goes. The bottom line is we just have to do the best we can and try to remain downwind. Say......how many times have deer shown up behind your stand where you never expected them to come from? That's a retorical question as we know it happens too often.

I have always tried to hide from from my hunting dogs during training to keep them closer and to check on me for directions and have a lot of experience on what their capabilities are and you CAN NOT fool them! I suggest getting into your most scent free condition as possible and try it with you own dog and see how lquickly it takes even a house dog to find you.

We aren't hunting in the boreal forests of Canada where the deer have never smelled a human. Where we hunt, they know the sounds of tractors, barking dogs, gun shots, traffic etc. and are not especially disturbed by smelling people. It just makes me crack up at the lengths some people will go to, to remove what can't be done. It psyches them completely out if one thing is wrong with their regiment and ruins their hunt. I believe obsessive compulsive is the term used to explain how some folks can take an enjoyable sport that is sooooo much fun and turn it into a "life and death" competitive activity that might cause them to compromise their ethics.

BTW, i did score on a old cow mamma after the six of them milled around me for 20 minutes. Cracked her with a double lunger at 10 ft. Couldn't have been prouder. Those alpha does are tough under any conditions with a bow, and with all those eyes and noses with her, I felt pretty good about that. I was hunting on the ground and yes.......I even smoke and didn't even have camo on let alone scent free camo. It can be done.

Will be in camp for the entire 2 weeks of gun season next week. Best of luck to you and I hope you bag the big one.

 

[scesnick]

CaptinJack,

Well heck, you are in my neck of the woods. I live in Frostburg Md. Ever want to hunt in Md. let me know. I have 76 acres with a small apple orchard ( 30+- trees ) up on savage mountian surrounded by state forest. Very good hunting.
I never had your kind of luck with Tinks'. I have had it with Doctor O's however. Wasn't even up my tree yet ( 2 different times) and a buck came stomping in ... All I could do was hang there and look at my bow still on the ground !!!
I agree about the coyotes, they are like 4 legged turkeys !! very slick.

I work in Bruceton Mills Wv. at USP Hazelton (Federal Prison) so you are a local to me..

 

[RobJ]

RobJ

I would love to try my hand at hunting wild pigs. Not many of those running around up here. Exactly how do you hunt them? ( treestand or ground) I never even watched anyone on t.v. hunt them with a bow, just rifles. I'm sure it has been on, I just have'nt caught it yet..

I do know they can be mean little suckers though, Ever had one chase ya?

Well pig hunting is just like deer hunting. they eat the mostly the same thing. Actually pigs will cause the deer to move from an area, they can breed 3 times a year!! I belive they are more nocturnal than deer are. So catching them during daylight hours is sometimes the hardest part. But in Texas "Feral Hogs" as they are called have no closed season. You can hunt them year round, night or day. I've heard of bow hunters hunting them at night over a floursent light. The light doesn;t bother them but you can get a shot. Spotlighting over a field with a rifle is another way. Down you can run them with dogs (you can NOT run deer with dogs). They will usually lay down and can be caught live. Many trap them live and sell to a stock yard. Some are trapped and sold to game managed areas (high fences all around) and are hunted for sport...big money for the 300+ pounders. In the woods they say just don't get between a sow and her piglets. They'll come after you. Tough for a bow hunter because in Texas you can NOT carry a bow and a gun on a hunt. The pig in the picture is a yound boar, he has small tusks and they are VERY sharp. You can see how they can tear up the ground. They can make a hay field look like is was disked overnight while looking for grubs and stuff. I've killed about 6 pigs, onle 1 with a bow. I will say overall they are sort of dumb. A long time buddy tells the story at one lease that was overrun with them. The pigs would show up 15 minutes before the feeder went off. Just lay there and wait for the food.
Most landowners say shoot ALL pigs you see, let them lay or eat them (we like pigs better that deer at our house).

I might try and get some night hunting in later this year. I need another 200#er for the fridge.

 

[scesnick]

WOW ! A Free unlimited supply of bacon year round !!! Wish we had them up here.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Robert in NY,

I know you were not implying I was a trespasser. If i was to tell my hunting buddies where I have seen a big buck You can bet that they would be there the next day. It is just how we are.

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree about the scent elimination.

Do you use scent lure? do you think oh say, doe in estrus works?
My fellings toward this is that some work and some do not. Tinks is the biggest joke around. I have NEVER EVER had a buck even stop to smell it. They just walk by it.
"Still Steamin" , now that is a different story. I have had the most success with Doctor O's. It is about $20 for a 1oz. bottle but worth the money..

I use doe urine because I don't have to pay for it. It will work if the deer are in the area and are in the mood to check it out. Some people who buy our scent think that it should bring every buck in from 20 miles but any scent will only work if you have deer in your area and they have to be in the mood to check it out. I have had luck using doe urine (we sell estrus also but the buck will come in to check out plain doe urine the same as estrus urine every time) but you still have to have some skill and play the winds right to make it work.

There are a lot of brands of urine out there, Tinks is a joke as everyone knows. Around here there are quite a few farms that sell their own line of scent so the hunters have a good selection to choose from.