Misti's Ram

Moon Phases

Shiloh ranch hog hunt.

I have been bowhunting now for about 8 months, and had yet to harvest an animal. We had gone on two hunting trips so far and I was blanked. It was starting to feel like maybe this bowhunting wasn't for me. My boyfriend came home from work one night and told me that he booked us a hunt at Shiloh Ranch Hunting Camps in Stonewall Oklahoma. He assured me of success.

We left about 11:00 on the night of May the 15th, and ran in to a severe thunderstorm almost all of the way through Oklahoma. You could barely see the front of the truck, so we pulled over and slept for a couple of hours. We woke up in Henryetta Oklahoma about 8 in the morning, and continued the drive to Stonewall. We arrived at the ranch to see a big Catalina goat about 50 yards from the lodge ( I am starting to get really excited right now ).

We met with Cheryl and signed the release papers. Now it was a waiting game until 4:30.

At 4:30 we headed to the stands. I sat a while and watched about 15 smaller pigs around me, but I new there would be bigger hogs than these this weekend. Once back at the camp we visited with Matt and Cheryl, and Matt told me he would pick me up at 9 the next morning to go and stalk some rams. I could hardly sleep thinking about the rams.

The next morning we slept in until 8:00. I woke up and took a shower, and Matt had already been out scouting for the rams, and he said he found a good group. We rode out on the 4 wheeler, and parked it in some brush and walked the rest of the way. We spotted the rams, a group of about 5, and the stalk was on. The rams were feeding right to us, so we got in some brush out of their way, hoping they would offer an ethical shot. After about 15 minutes I started to get the feeling that this was going to work. I was starting to get really nervous. They were in single file coming right where we wanted them to come. I decided I would take the first ram. I drew my bow before they got to us, and when the ram was in front of me broadside I touched the release and sent the arrow on its way. I thought I might have hit him high, but Matt said it looked real good. The ram ran about 60 yards and stopped. I had just harvested my first animal, one that I will never forget.

After the skinning and caping, I was in dire need of a nap. Cheryl said she would be back at 4:00 to take me to a stand to try to take a hog. When we got to the stand, the hogs had knocked the feeder over, and ate all of the 300 pounds of corn in the feeder. Cheryl said she thought they would be back this evening so we put out some corn and she was off to the lodge. What would happen in the next couple hours is something I will not soon forget. About an hour or so after she left the hogs started to filter in. One , two, three, twenty......... I was starting to get scared, as some I could have reached out of the blind and touched! I am no hog expert, but some of these things were huge. I decided I would try to take a big black hog at about 10 yards. Now I just had to wait for the others to move out of the way. After all was clear, I drew my bow and sent the arrow on its way. Only thing was is my upper bow limb hit the ground blind, and sent the arrow off its mark. I radioed for Cheryl to come and get me and upon finding the arrow we discovered that is was a clean miss.

We got back to the lodge and talked a while. We decided to re-book before we left, and said our good-byes.

I would have to say that this ranch is awesome, and the owners, Matt and Cheryl Napper, will be our friends forever. They really know how to run a business. I would like to publicly thank both of them for this hunt.

I would also like to thank my boyfriend Scott Baumbach, without him none of this would have ever been possible.

Thank you for reading my story,

Misti Schulte