I've taken this report from a longer thread I'm doing on the NZ forum, so the first sentance may not make sense, but heres last nights hunt.

You guys got me exited about this again, so tonight I wandered up the back, bow in hand and the only 4 arrows I had.
I wandered around checking likely areas for a bit before heading to my baits. About 400 meters out, I looked up to see 3 pigs emerge from the bush. The pulse rate went up imediatly, those wern't sows.
Ducking off the ridge, I started to try and get the wind on my side, I was 10 minutes too late and In a bad position, but my luck held and I got to the top side of them.
Those same two parries started their racket, and I'm always tempted to shoot them, but I feel that if I'm going to hunt with a bow, then its the challenge I'm after and I shouldn't be changing natural events too make it easier. Shore enough 2 of the boars bolted, but stopped 100 yards out, and as the parries flew away, settled down and slowly came back.
Once I was happy they were settled back in at the bait, I started stalking back in and working the little cover between me and them. Finally i was within 40 paces and the real hunt started, thats when I get that little laugh of excitement building in my guts.
My bow has been a bit erratic of late and although now within 30 yards, I wasn't comfortable and decided that twenty was my range.
With only a cople of punga as cover i moved forward and sideways keeping a close eye on the ground, then the pigs at each step.
Suprisingly I was now 10 paces out, and when The first but smallest boar presented a shot, I was quick to let an arrow go and satisfied to hear that slurping sound of a good pass through. The boar bolted but within 10 paces I could see his front legs were going and by twenty he was unsteady before wobbling and crashing back down the hill.
Another arrow knocked and damn but if the next boar didn't stop in almost the same spot as the last. Again I let fly, but was puzzled to see the arrow shaft bounce off his back, don't know why, its just one of the strange things my bow is doing. Both boars now bolt for the bush, but pull up 30 yards away when another boar breaks out of the bush. The boar thats just had a lucky escape dosn't halt for long however and heads back into cover. The other though, spots his dead mate and starts too investigate, walking round and round head up testing the air, looking all about, cautiously approaching his fallen freind. I drop low and start towards him while he's occupied, useing the roll of the ground as cover. at twenty paces I have nowher else to go so get into a kneel and wait. as the boar walks to the closest point in his circle I raise the bow, he see's it, but instead of departing, turns and walks straight at me cresting the rise 10 paces from me. Hes looking stright at me, head held high testing the wind, and my mind is screaming SHOOT HIM IN THE BRISKET!, but I'm not sure about my bow, and wait, finally he decides somethings not right, and turns to leave but theres already an arrow on its way, and when he powers off with that speed that only boars seem to possess I already know hes dead. He runs past his mate to stumble and fall a further 10 meters away.


The pampas in the photo is where the pigs were shot, and where they lie is roughly where they died.

The small depression I lay my bait in, this is the angle of my approach.

Great story and a couple of great boars, shanks!! Congratulations! That was a good read -- thanks for posting it and the photos. Keep 'em coming!

That's my kind of pig hunt!!! Ever figure out why the arrow bounced off? Hide caked with dried mud perhaps??

And , translation please: what's a "parrie"?

shankspony,

I always enjoy your pictures that include a bit of countryside. They remind me so much of some of my favorite areas back in Hawaii. Lush green grasslands, mixed cover, and I enjoyed spotting a tree fern.

Good work with the bow and getting in close to your comfort level. It sure paid off with a couple of nice boars. I've shot an awful lot of pigs up close with recurves and early compound bows. After hunting like that, everything with a handgun or longarm just seems easy.

Take care and keep after it!

Matt

Excellent story!

Hi guys, a"parrie" or Paradise duck is the New Zealand hunters nightmare, its a shelduck, or goose that looks like a duck, they sit in pairs on all the best hunting country and keep vigil. When they see danger they start honking and screaming and every animal worth hunting knows what that noise means. Plenty of hunters have gone out to shoot a deer or pig, and come home with a high power rifled parrie.

For some reason my bow throws the odd arrow wrong, usually high. The arrow bounced because the point didn't hit, the shaft did instead.

There are a lot of simularities between NZ and Hawaii regarding vegetation, Just a pity our temperature isn't closer.

Graet hunt! I'm glad that second hog have you a second chance. Two wild pigs with a bow during the same hunt... that's impressive.

I sure like the looks of your terrain too. Beautiful place!

Cheers Kenati, just read your own bowhunt this morning, and Have decided I have to try your recipe, so the loins are sitting in my fridge waiting for tomorrow.

Great story !! Very very good !!

Thanks for sharing, bowhunting must be very difficult, congratulations.

L

Sounds to me like your arrows are fishtailing vertically,which usually means your nock point is off,or you rest needs attention,or maybe your fletching.Are all your nocks indexed the same?

Hi JB, Yeah nocks are all aligned the same, Have adjusted nock point all over the show trying to sort it, but I think its possably terminal, in that, with the limbs screwed right down, it used to draw 84 pounds. Now the max I can get out of it is 73, and the speed has dropped away considerably.

Could you possibly have a string or cable that is gradually failing? Is your axle-to-axle length the same as when it was 84 lbs?

To be honest dustoffer, unlike rifle hunting, where I want to know all the technical details, bowhunting has been something where i like to just pick up my bow and go hunting, so don't laugh when I tell you I wouldn't have a clue what the axle to axle length was to start with.
What I really need to do is send it away to an expert to sort out.

quote:

Originally posted by shankspony:
To be honest dustoffer, unlike rifle hunting, where I want to know all the technical details, bowhunting has been something where i like to just pick up my bow and go hunting, so don't laugh when I tell you I wouldn't have a clue what the axle to axle length was to start with.
What I really need to do is send it away to an expert to sort out.

haha! Shankspony, I'm laughing, but only because I'm right there with ya. I went 10 years before I replaced my previous bow with my new one. And I did it the same way as the first time: Researched until I was content on buying what I thought was the best available at the time, then I stop worrying about all the gadgets bells and whistles that seem to change in mere days. Well, at least often enough that I don't bother keeping up with them like I do rifles and handguns.

I'm like you. I want it to shoot where I aim and when it doesn't I'll fool with it enough to make sure nothing is obviously bent or loose. After that, I'd rather give it to someone who is really "into it" a lot more than I am.

Archery is just a way for me to get in more hunting days and an even better way to improve one's tracking skills and game-losing abilities. Haha

I've never taken it very serious and likely never will. Lord knows there are a too many dyed-in-the-wool, hardcore, dead serious archers out there already anyway.