About a month or so back, I took my good buddy, Kyle, out to try to kill his first hog. He was getting married the following weekend and as a "best man to groom" gift, I set up a hunt with Black Tine Outfitters for the two of us to kill a hog, me with my bow and him with his World War II era Remington 1903 30-06.
As we approached the stand, we spooked one hog, the guide seemed a little rattled having had a close call two weeks before, but we pressed on. We set up in the stand and waited, about an hour into the hunt we kept seeing hogs run along the fence line, but none presented us with a shot. When we had three come in, they all were about 115lb. so we decided to wait it out for a bigger one, shortly after a smaller one weighing about 90lb. came through so we just filmed them. The guide then showed up and told us that we were going to try to spot and stalk on them.
While we were setting up a game plan, I saw a hog crossing in the swamp, Kyle set up against a cypress tree and fired, the hog dropped instantly. Being Kyle's first kill I began to ask him all about how he was feeling, remembering the feeling I had when I killed my first hog. It was pretty comical, Kyle is six foot four inches and weighs close to 212lb. To watch him shake like a leaf and try to talk after that adrenaline dump is a memory I won't soon forget. Unfortunately for us, everything happened so quickly that we weren't able to get it on camera, but redemption was around the corner.
We set up that evening in a different spot, now it was my turn. I had Kyle on the camera while I was operating my GoPro and preparing myself to take a shot. Way off in the distance, I spotted two hogs, one large black and white sow, and a red boar. I told myself and Kyle the entire time, I was going to take the black and white one. Once the hogs came in, plans changed, I knew I wanted teeth, but being that we had meat already in the cooler, the sow didn't interest me, however, I began to see the ivory glint coming off the snout of the boar and I knew that would be my target. I told Kyle that I was going to take the red hog, it had presented a near perfect quartering away shot and I was starting to feel the adrenaline kick into overdrive.... I released the arrow, SMACK! As the hog ran off I was able to see the majority of my arrow sticking out of the side I hit him on, and the little green light on the knock didn't lie, I hit shoulder. After searching for blood we determined it was not a fatal shot, and even more so, I lost my arrow. We had seen the hog later in the night, walking with a slight limp and my arrow in his side, then he was gone.
When you make a bad shot, you instantly become sick, I know I wanted to puke and even in the video you can see the look of worry on my face when I watched the hog run off. I don't know what caused me to rush my shot, worry about the approaching adrenaline dump, the fact I was filming and everything seemed to work out, the pressure from wanting to perform well for Dead Ringer and Florida Camo, the possibilities on "why" are endless, but the lessons learned from that hunt are some that won't be forgotten. After reviewing the footage over and over again, I realized I had missed my mark by an inch. If I had allowed the hog to take another step, and taken my time on the shot, maybe this would be a different story and I'd still have a full quiver. What's important though is you owe it to yourself and to the animal to practice, in all manners and different ways, continuously, practice.
If you'd like to watch the hunt for yourself, you can do so here.
