Father & Son Hog

By Jerry Corder

Pro Staff

Bowhunting North America, LLC

James and I have been scouting this land near Athens, Texas, for a few months and recently came across an area we felt would be excellent for hog hunting. I went out about two weeks before this hunt and put up a couple of stands. This is the first time I've put up a hang on stand and it was interesting to say the least. I forgot an important part of my safety harness and pretty much had to just hang onto the ladder the entire time I was attaching the first stand. It only took me about and hour and a half to hang both stands and trim a good shooting lane. Before I left, I threw out some corn to see if we could get any obvious signs of hog movement.

Saturday I decided it had been long enough and I needed to go hunt this area. I loaded up all my gear, the new video camera, my 7 year old son Colton and my new Mathews Drenalin bow and headed out about 3 P.M. We were settled into the stand around 4:15 and waiting. A cold front had moved in the night before, the wind was blowing about 20 MPH and the temps were in the low 50's. Needless to say we were a little chilly. Colton held out longer than I had expected. He didn't start telling me he was cold and ready to go home until about 6:30 P.M. At around 6:45 I noticed he had his head down so I asked him what was wrong and he looked up at me with his big blue eyes and had a tear rolling down his cheek and said, "I'm cold and I want to go home". Well, I felt bad for him so I told him we would leave in 15 minutes and this seemed to make him feel better.

It wasn't 2 minutes after I told him that; I saw a small herd of hogs running our way. I started tapping Colton on the leg and pointing. Then I remembered I was suppose to be filming this hunt as well so I reached over and turned on the camera. I watched the hogs for several minutes and saw probably 10 piglets, 7-8 mid sized hogs (boars and sows) and 3 larger sows. After several minutes of trying to decide which one to take, I decided on a large sow. I drew back and let my arrow fly and made a good hit at 16 yards. The sow grunted a little and ran off.

After I shot the big sow, two older pigs and 6 piglets stayed another 5 minutes or so. I pulled out another arrow and thought I was going to get to take a shot at another hog. Finally the two pigs and all the piglets left and we were able to climb out of the stand and go look for our pig. The large sow was easy to find, she left an excellent blood trail and expired 25 yards from the place she was shot.

It was a successful hunt and I got some good pictures of the hog with Colton and me. As for Colton's first hog hunt from a tree stand, he loved it after all; and the feeling I got being able to share that time with him is something I will always remember. The look on his face was awesome. I could see the smile through his ScentLok, Realtree hood when those pigs came in. As for the video footage, it was my first self-filmed hunt and probably not the greatest, which means there will be plenty of room for improvement.

This hunt was made possible in part by our sponsors:

Mathews, Inc., The Gean-Edwards Company, DoskoSport, Lumenok, Tru Fire Corp.,
Limbsaver, Huntin' Hoist, Sure Grip Gun & Bow Racks, Advantage Max-1 Camoflauge, Nikon Sport Optics, Barnett Crossbows,

Muzzy Products Corp., Wildlife Research Center, Whitetail Pro Log, The Armory, Display It Hardwood Cases and Gator Trax Boats