If you’re a die hard bowhunter like I am, you already know what a let down it can be to see deer season come to a close. To help deal with the boredom and help pass the time until Spring Turkey Season opens, I often try to work in a little off season bowhunting for feral hogs.

Feral hogs can be a great way to keep your shooting and hunting skills honed while waiting for another season to roll around. With their keen sense of smell, hogs can be very challenging to hunt. Every precaution to eliminate or minimize your human scent should be used just as diligently as if you were hunting whitetailed deer. 

Wildlife Research Center makes an entire line of scent elimination products that works very well for fooling the nose of a wary old hog.

I decided to meet some friends at the ranch this past weekend to get a few work items out of the way and use the spare time to give chase to a few of the many hogs we have on the ranch. After tending to a few chores my friends and I cleaned up and headed to the woods for little afternoon hog hunting.

I wanted to video the hunt and Michael Ferguson, age 10, quickly volunteered to be my camera man for the afternoon since he had injured his hand at school and wasn’t able to shoot his bow. Now don’t think for even a second that because he is only 10 years old that Michael couldn’t manage the camera duties. Michael has been working with the camera for a couple of years and he could teach most of us some tricks of the trade.

Michael and I got suited up in our Max-1 camo and made our way to an old ranch road near the river where we had seen a lot of hog sign earlier in the day. We popped up the Double Bull blind and cleared a shooting lane and crawled inside. Michael set the camera in position while I readied my bow and we leaned back to wait.

We’d been there about an hour when we heard quite a ruckus coming from the brush off to our right and almost immediately, about a dozen little pigs broke from the brush and started down the road in our direction.

It all happened pretty quickly, but by the time Michael turned on the camera and got focused, the pigs were walking into my shooting lane. I wasted no time in coming to full draw and settling the top pin of my Trophy Ridge Matrix sight on the shoulder of one of the little pigs.

Michael zoomed in tight on the intended target and I touched off the release. The Wac’em tipped Carbon Express Maxima arrow zipped through the pig and stuck deep into the dirt behind him. The rest of the pack scattered like a covey of quail as we sat quietly listening for the pig I shot to fall. In a matter of maybe 15 seconds we heard him fall and knew the shot had been right on the mark.

The blood trailing job was mostly for practice since we pretty much knew where the pig was laying, but we followed the short trail right to the small pig.

He sure wasn’t very big, but that didn’t make the hunt any less enjoyable or exciting and the little ones are generally a lot better eating anyway. Michael and I had a great time and while I got to keep my hunting and shooting skills tuned up, Michael got some good practice with the camera.

Thanks for the good work Michael. It was fun and I’m sure we’ll do it again.

John Shelley

Pro Staff

Bowhunting North America, LLC

This hunt was made possible in part by our sponsors:  

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The Gean-Edwards Company, Rynoskin, Trophy Ridge, 

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Limbsaver,  Huntin' Hoist, Wac'em Broadheads,, Beard Buster, The Beckham Group, Sure Grip Gun & Bow Racks,

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