Hello all. This one was a long time in the making for me. I don't post here much, but I've been a traditional bow hunter since I started hunting 6 years ago when I was 13. Over the last few years, I've learned enough to get me a few close opportunities which I ended up blowing. Finally, in June of this year I managed to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together on a small hog (he looks a lot smaller in the picture than he really was I just wear big boots) on a piece of property I got permission to hunt from a neighbor. After zeroing in on their typical travel corridor I managed to set up an ambush point and returned a few days later with my longbow. Right around sundown a group of 6 or 8 hogs came out and I picked the biggest one to shoot. Let me rephrase that. I picked the biggest one that I felt like was close enough to wack in the behind with my limb tip. I was shaking so bad I that I knew I wouldn't be able to execute a clean shot given my past experiences. So I literally closed my eyes and started doing some square breathing, knowing that I had the wind in my favor and plenty of more opportunities if they moved off. When I opened my eyes and saw the pig was still there I knew he would die that night. I focused on a spot about two inches high of the knuckle, drew to anchor, and released. Whack! Of course my bottom limb tip would hit the one spot of my small brush blind that I hadn't checked for limb clearance. I shrank as I watch the arrow impact about 6 inches forward of my aiming point. I immediately backed out once the pigs had cleared and I had marked first blood. I returned an hour later with an extra pair of jeans and a denim jacket, knowing I would be on my hands and knees crawling through pig tunnels in the blackberry brambles for the foreseeable future. To my surprise, the blood was amazing. If it weren't necessary to be on my hands and knees or even belly crawling to make it through the brambles I could've followed the blood trail standing up. Despite the great blood, the harshness of the tracking environment led to a roughly 4 hour long blood trailing effort. Eventually though I came to a small clearing, where I looked up and saw a small black hoof. I breathed a sigh of relief. I recovered the pig, drove to my buddies house to skin and quarter it and managed to get back to my house with enough time for a full 4 hours of sleep before work the next morning. I'd like to thank everyone here for all of the wisdom shared over the years, and while I do not post often I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge through reading through almost every page on this website.
Bow: Old mountain mesa 64" longbow, roughly 62 at 32
Arrows: 700 grain el cheapo carbons from bass pro cut at 32.5 inches with a 200 grain stainless steel insert.
Broadhead: Magnus stinger buzz cut 4 blade sharpened and honed with a stay sharp guide.
My next challenge is to build a hickory flat bow and some cane arrows to hunt some hogs with as soon as I can get my hands on a stave and some time while I'm in my first semester here at UF.

Job well done! I admire your candor in telling the whole story, warts and all. It's a journey you're on and you laid down a milestone. Not everybody would have went to the lengths you did to recover the game after a botched shot like that. You did what it took because you have what it takes.

Fine harvest....Congrats!!!!

Congratulations!   Hope it's the first of many.
Good luck, shoot straight and God bless,
Rodd

Nice   

Congratulations!!  Now re read your story and think about all the lessons that can be learned for your future hunts.  From not trimming all things that your bow may come in contact with to what you learned from the tracking and recovery. File them away in your head. I guarantee they will come in handy again.

Congratulations that is a fine critter.

Six years is a long time, I'm impressed with your tenacity.

You Done Good.....Really Good!

Well done!! >>>----------->

Congrats! 

Congratulations on your first.  Hope you will be sharing many more such stories.

 

Congrats and here's hoping its the first of many.

Nice job!

Well done. Your hooked.

Outstanding! The first of many to come I'm sure.


Great retelling of the story. Congratulations on a fine hog!

There's nothing like the first one.  Congratulations on a great trophy!

Good job staying with it until the recovery! Perfect eating sized pig. Sometimes I pass on the bigger ones and try for that size.

Congratulations sir!  Hogs can be tuff critters!  Way to stay with it!

Way to go!!!

Awesome dude. Keep it up