Mike was up first and I saw a young spotty boar walk down into the channel ahead of us into what looked like an ideal camp. I signalled Mike to come over my way and guided him to where I thought he could take a few more steps and shoot the young boar from immediately above on the high bank. Well it didn't quite work out like that, Mike was only maybe 3 metres from the bank concentrating to see the boar before it saw him and it appeared on the top of the bank under a big horizontal branch 4 metres to Mikes left. The pig was as shocked to see Mike as was I to see it. Mike was rock solid and just turned to the pig, came to full draw and hit right on the spot from quartering on. Mike thought the pig was going to run all the way back to the east coast but I assured Mike his shot was good and the boar expired about 40 m away. To begin with Mike was going to use the new 42#@28" D/R bow I made last week but when I told him he would be restricted to small game only he found the strength to start using my 47#@28" stick bow.
- MikeApr13.JPG (186.2 KiB) Viewed 4845 times
). Next we spotted 3 pigs camping under a small log pile up in the bend of the creek. Mike and I retired and called Jesse across to have his shot. The wind changed and when Jesse peered over the edge of the channel the pigs were seen trotting off in the distance. Next we spotted a fair lump of a boar under another log pile and we set up so Mike and I could get a shot in if it spooked away from Jesse at any less than full throttle. Jess successfully crossed a fair stretch of open country to be bout 7 m from the pig when it got wary. It didn't do any more than lift it head and turn it in Jesse's general direction, but it kept an eye open for him. Jesse stood like stone for about 15 minutes and by then the pig had spotted Mike's movement in the opposite direction and turned its head that way. I was hiding behind a large tree straight ahead of the pig about 5 m away gesturing to Jesse to take the shot. What I couldn't see was that two branches crossed over right over the kill zone and so he had no shot. I urged Jesse on and eventually the pig busted him and took off (later we discussed a method to communicate that no shot is available so one of the others may take the shot). As it got later we came across a small mob of pigs under a tree on the bank of the channel pushing each other around or just standing and watching. Jesse went down into the channel and got into about 8 m downwind of the mob. He popped up just enough to locate the biggest boar then stood up and drew on the boar as he was doing so. The closer small pigs saw Jesse first and ran for the hills. Unfortunately a small boar got between Jesse and the big boar as he released. The shot was not all bad as it went in just in the front of the back leg from about 7 o'clock towards the opposite shoulder, and I thought it would have to have done some mortal damage. Jesse was quite distraught to have caused a non-fatal injury so I set about showing him how to track the animal and finish it off. About 300m and 10 minutes away Jesse dispatched the small boar with a second arrow but was still not feeling the best about it. It took a bit of doing to convince him it was just bad luck but he had done a good job. I was proud that he stuck to the chase and finished the job. Jesse was using his 57#@28" DR bow we made together. He draws it to about 30" now.
- JessApr13.JPG (166.08 KiB) Viewed 4845 times
As I said, my favourite hunting trip to date. I hope to have many more with my sons in the future.
- 3Amigos.JPG (144.45 KiB) Viewed 4845 times
Cheers........ Rod
,would love to take my boy hunting,i asked him a couple of years ago if he wanted to go ,but he said if it bleeds red blood he doesn't want to kill it ,so i left it at that 
)
. Cant let this happen again so I am already planning another trip when both of the lads are not studying over the mid-year break 