Brock Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Well, I am leaving at 5am to drive to Georgia and do some canoeing and hunting in the Altamaha WMA for wild boar. Meeting up with 10 other guys that also hunt with longbows, selfbows or recurves....wooden arrows and hand sharpened broadheads like myself. I have about a 6 mile solo paddle with about 150lbs of gear, water and food to move to camp along an offshoot of the main river...then we have about 25,000 acres of land filled to capacity with hogs according to the wildlife officer from Georgia DNR....feeding on mast, food plots and rice planted in the waterfowl enclosures and on the islands along a 10 miles stretch. Will be back Sunday night so wish me luck and hope I get a nice hog or two...... My boat....my bow.....my arrows......taking some apple pie for dessert Saturday night. Here is the area around my home for next 5 days...no water, no electricity, no cell phones, no toilet...closest road is 4-5 miles to the gate and another 3 miles to paved road beyond gate. Life is good!!!!! LOL http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=mwf004bw http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=w8j38kgg http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=qdpt03b4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blu Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 That sounds like a perfect few days off IMHO. Enjoy! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted February 14, 2013 Author Share Posted February 14, 2013 thanks...some people think this is daunting or scary or dangerous...i look at it as relaxing and a way to shed the stress of work...stalking on wild boars and trying to get within 15 yards of one to slide a sharp broadhead on a douglas fir shaft between its ribs and nothing but a wooden bow in my hand and a knife on my belt. I love this shit!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianTrue Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Sounds great, your canoe looks like a very well built vessel. Have a great time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoom Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 That must be like Heaven to you, Brock 'O Make sure the pig is dead before you start on the pie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maninbox Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Yes, I do hear the banjos now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lschultz Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Getting back to the basics of hunting. I like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Kill that cracker looking guy after he rapes you.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tostein Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Kill all the hogs you can. They are even showing up in northern South Dakota. One was shot last fall in a corn field about 12 miles from where I live just across the state line in SD. We don't need those ravaging pigs up here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stu Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Well, I am leaving at 5am to drive to Georgia and do some canoeing and hunting in the Altamaha WMA for wild boar. Meeting up with 10 other guys that also hunt with longbows, selfbows or recurves....wooden arrows and hand sharpened broadheads like myself. I have about a 6 mile solo paddle with about 150lbs of gear, water and food to move to camp along an offshoot of the main river...then we have about 25,000 acres of land filled to capacity with hogs according to the wildlife officer from Georgia DNR....feeding on mast, food plots and rice planted in the waterfowl enclosures and on the islands along a 10 miles stretch. Will be back Sunday night so wish me luck and hope I get a nice hog or two...... My boat....my bow.....my arrows......taking some apple pie for dessert Saturday night. Here is the area around my home for next 5 days...no water, no electricity, no cell phones, no toilet...closest road is 4-5 miles to the gate and another 3 miles to paved road beyond gate. Life is good!!!!! LOL http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=mwf004bw http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=w8j38kgg http://mapshare.delorme.com/Consumer/V.aspx?p=qdpt03b4 Hmmmm... 150 lbs of gear..... and you..... in one canoe.... yeah right..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badndn Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whadayawant Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 good on ya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blu Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 thanks...some people think this is daunting or scary or dangerous...i look at it as relaxing and a way to shed the stress of work...stalking on wild boars and trying to get within 15 yards of one to slide a sharp broadhead on a douglas fir shaft between its ribs and nothing but a wooden bow in my hand and a knife on my belt. I love this shit!!!! I would so jump on chance to go hunting again, and I think bow hunting so hardcore. Scary, not at all. No risk, no reward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airpirate Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Have a care with some of them hogs, if they sit on your face you can't hear the stereo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lschultz Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 Hmmmm... 150 lbs of gear..... and you..... in one canoe.... yeah right..... Hmmmmmmmmmmm are you saying he is known to exhilarate some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indian T Posted February 16, 2013 Share Posted February 16, 2013 Sounds like a great time. I did an overnight kayak trip last Summer on the Wisconsin River. Same as you (without the hunting part), pack all your gear, no conveniences...just you and what you brought. 22 miles of river, sleep where you want. It was great! Would love to add the hunting aspect next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 Well I survived and returned home last night after 4 days in the middle of nowhere......here are the Cliff notes: - Awoke at 5am to load food and final items in vehicle...double check canoe straps....GPS...Compass....Maps...etc. - Got to boat landing around 8:30am...it is barely large enough for one boat trailer and has a place to eat right next to it..literally. I was greeted by two dead gar fish someone left on the ramp in mud. NICE. - Loaded canoe....pushed off around 9:30am with a brisk 58* day.....5-8mph headwind but tide was rising. Slowly but still rising...so there was a bright spot. - 6.58 miles later and 3.5 hours of constant paddling I got there.....forgot how much even a slight headwind can mess with your speed and tracking especially when solo paddling a long boat like mine. Gave me opportunity to work on my paddle strokes to learn how to keep her moving in fairly straight line...hahahaha. 4-5 different rivers, creeks and cuts....and I arrive at camp. - setup camp...remainder of guys show up in their two motorboats...so now there are 8 of us in camp on a high bluff without anyone around. Beautiful.....guy that set it up shot a hog 100yds from camp already. - I went out that afternoon hunting....walked for 6 hours through swamp. I was raised in Lowcountry tidal marshes, swamps and wetlands.....and never got lost a day in my life. I got to admit I got turned around in that swamp like a rookie. Someone told me that they went in there 10 years ago and tried to get away with only check compass every few minutes.....and learned they had to watch it constantly. What a fucking understatement. I think because every step sinks up to your shin or knee...water to your thigh...hogs and snakes and gators all around....that you have to watch your steps more than usual and easy to lose track of direction if overcast and not familiar. Well started using my compass like I was trained and was able to make short work...did not see a hog at all in swamp. - on way out about 500 yds from camp..in thicket I am all wrapped up in honeysuckle vines, palmettos, scrub oak, wild roses, etc....one snares my foot and my already exhausted legs (remember the hours in swamp and mud wearing hip waders..felt like I ran stairs for 2 hours)....and down I go. Bow in front of me...GPS in the dirt. Look up and there are 3 little football size pigs 10 yards in front of me just looking. - I rise up and they just run in circles and start playing and eating... ":where is your whore of a mother?" I think to myself...and then a 150lb sow black as night steps out of palmettos 10 yards away popping her teeth. She sees me but does not know what I am...takes deep breath to smell...I got wind in my favor. I try to draw my bow but damn vines and palmettos are too thick. WTF? I got momma cass almost in spitting distance and cant draw the damn bow it is so thick....so I side step and draw at same time and she is gone before I clear the brush. Damnit. - Next day....go after the black bitch again...find her tracks and bedding area....follow her on a sandy ridge that goes through middle of swamp. satellite images I downloaded to my GPS show two narrow choke points so I head that way. I hear her or one of her evil sisters/brothers trying to figure out what I am and where I am....cant smell me but knows something is wrong...going one way and then I cut it off and it goes the other....just out of site in brush. Runs by a guy hunting down the bluff on edge of swamp....sounds like it was same black sow and piggies. She won again. - Next day I head to an island by canoe with another guy....we paddle and land on the islands that are in the hundreds of acres each...5 of them....divided by canals dug long ago. Find sign...find turds size of large marshmallows...but no pigs...but all that rain last week saturated the ground so much it is hard to walk without sinking...especially when you have the lbs per square inch I possess. Fuck you Stu! LOL So a nice day of hunting but no pigs to shoot...but a squirrel is shot so there is fresh meat in the pot. LOL - Last day go to another island full of hogs....no trees...but grass and reeds 10 feet high they live in. Some areas are waist high...rest are 8-10 feet high and size of your finger in diameter except for about 20 acres of burnt area from arson on one end and another 40 acres on the other. Island is 3 miles long and 1 mile wide. We start a push...one guy breaking the grass in the tradition of Peter Capsticks DEATH IN THE LONG GRASS except we are after massive hogs not lions. The other guys saw a couple that were well over 200lbs the day before plus a huge black and white sow...running with a giant brown sow. So we are methodically working them out.... Two of us set up blocking positions after sprinting a few hundred yards..only stopping before we passed out from exhaustion as both of us are almost 50....hahaha...but young guy had hardest work in the grass. I hear a squeal and think he shot...he pops out of grass after 40 minutes...he did not shoot but did not hear it either. So I send him back in and I cut corner on other side and go into the grass...and find bedding area covered in piss and shit...and find a place to stand. Soon he says, "I got a pig coming your way...she is hit" Seconds later large reeds are popping like tree branches as the dark brown bitch parts the grass with her massive shoulders on a steady but deliberate walk. I start to draw and pick a spot on her chest and neck in case she charges as she is only 15 yards away and coming right at me....at last minute she realizes what I am and cuts to my right and hauls ass and I swing my recurve and launch my douglas fir arrow with its hand sharpened steel broadhead at her.....and whether she was faster than I thought or a big reed deflected my arrow.....the shot was back and went through her ham and then heard a crack...so think I went through her pelvis on opposite side. Then I see another arrow from other side all the way through her lungs. She circles me and lays up in the thickest bunch of reeds a mere 10 yards away snapping her cutters and then she is quiet...as she waits in ambush. -He follows his blood trail to me...then we merge and follow blood to where she went into the 10 foot reeds to hole up. We wait 40 minutes and start following her...she lunges out of her bed...it is covered in blood but she has a burst of energy as she charges in the tall grass...no shot...just too thick as the other guy pulls his knife she squirts past and goes deeper towards river. The wind is about 40mph now and it is 50*....sleeting every now and then and the boat that dropped us off wants to come now as weather is worsening...we ask for an hour to let her sit. After hour we pick up trail and she is bleeding like a "stuck pig" then heart break...we find where she laid down on edge of bank of river to hide...and must of died and slid into the water...but the outgoing tide and 40-50,mph winds carried her away.....too cold for gators. The boat picks us up on a perilous coastline with 2-3 foot swells as we throw our gear, backpacks and such onboard and then lunge for the outreached hand having to time the swells just right. We run the coast down to point but no pig...so she either sunk, was eaten by a shark or got blown around the point and into the bay. Damnit.....we turn around and spend the next hour fighting the wind, the waves and the blowing sleet and freezing rain for a ride to camp. No pig... she is dead...just not recovered. His arrow still in her...my arrow broken off just behind the broadhead and covered in blood to remind us on the ride to camp. - change into dry clothes...build a fire to warm as we wait out the storm for the next hour.....then big meal....some drinks...story telling of the days event and disappointment....and getting ready to paddle out the next morning on my mind. - 27*F Saturday night...20mph gusts.....sunny when I got up Sunday but everything covered in ice. Packed up....cooked up some eggs and the squirrel from other day.....ate an apple...and said goodbye as I wanted to ride the outgoing tide as much as possible before it turned to slack tide or worse...rising tide as I headed down river. Wind was blustery and would gust 30+MPH and tide going out was quite a bit faster than the trip up paddling alone. - had a few sandbars I had to drag canoe and 150lbs of gear across....had some sweepers I had to avoid as wind and tide tried to push me sideways up against fallen trees and logs.....lots of underwater obstructions to watch at low tide that were not noticed on way up on rising tide. Spent a very stressful 2 mile ride through the cut focused on the water surface...looking for ripples or swells that would belie underwater obstacles such as trees, rocks, stumps. Finally made it back to landing......my two Gar were still rotting on landing...even crabs wont eat the damn things. Unload canoe and put into vehicle.....dump water out of canoe and then load on top of SUV.....change into some traveling pants, clean shirt, topsiders.....and hit the road home. Great hunt.....cant wait to go back. Huge amount of hogs there....as we saw as a group nearly 100 but getting a shot was difficult in that grass...I saw10 myself....only got one shot as all others were in too thick. When you can see black fur and see individual hairs but nothing larger than an inch or two before it is broken up by those damn tall reeds...can hear it snapping its teeth, rooting in ground and fighting....but cant draw your bow. We are going to try new tactics next time....this was a learning experience...but cant wait for the next trip to Georgia to try and kill some hogs. Here are some pics I took: Paddling up river through the cut at rising tide....looking down off bluff where I sat my camp....water was up so high I had to unload in hip boots only to go out 10 feet at low tide and leave boat high and dry. Area across river.... My tent...my bow and arrows.....hollowed cypress log that was chest high on me and hollow all the way down about 20 feet...another live tree with my bow and arrows against for size comparison...the bow is 64"...arrows are 31 inches....arrow after ride home in freezing rain..most of blood washed off in rain but a little pink still on it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomber Rydr Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 sounds a lot like SERE school..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianTrue Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Lucky you, there is nothing better then natural beauty and peace and quiet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Mark Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Sounds like you had a great time. My little brother would have eaten that shit up with a spoon. He was a huge bowhunter. He moved to Alaska just so he could hunt and fish all the time. He only worked to pay for his outdoors habit. I miss him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndianTrue Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Yep grew up in Alaska, school started September 1st which was also the first day of duck hunting season so almost always missed the first day of school then couldn't wait for the bus to stop so I could run up to the house to change clothes and head across the road to the beach. Damn life was good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stu Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Well I survived and returned home last night after 4 days in the middle of nowhere......here are the Cliff notes: - Awoke at 5am to load food and final items in vehicle...double check canoe straps....GPS...Compass....Maps...etc. - Got to boat landing around 8:30am...it is barely large enough for one boat trailer and has a place to eat right next to it..literally. I was greeted by two dead gar fish someone left on the ramp in mud. NICE. - Loaded canoe....pushed off around 9:30am with a brisk 58* day.....5-8mph headwind but tide was rising. Slowly but still rising...so there was a bright spot. - 6.58 miles later and 3.5 hours of constant paddling I got there.....forgot how much even a slight headwind can mess with your speed and tracking especially when solo paddling a long boat like mine. Gave me opportunity to work on my paddle strokes to learn how to keep her moving in fairly straight line...hahahaha. 4-5 different rivers, creeks and cuts....and I arrive at camp. - setup camp...remainder of guys show up in their two motorboats...so now there are 8 of us in camp on a high bluff without anyone around. Beautiful.....guy that set it up shot a hog 100yds from camp already. - I went out that afternoon hunting....walked for 6 hours through swamp. I was raised in Lowcountry tidal marshes, swamps and wetlands.....and never got lost a day in my life. I got to admit I got turned around in that swamp like a rookie. Someone told me that they went in there 10 years ago and tried to get away with only check compass every few minutes.....and learned they had to watch it constantly. What a fucking understatement. I think because every step sinks up to your shin or knee...water to your thigh...hogs and snakes and gators all around....that you have to watch your steps more than usual and easy to lose track of direction if overcast and not familiar. Well started using my compass like I was trained and was able to make short work...did not see a hog at all in swamp. - on way out about 500 yds from camp..in thicket I am all wrapped up in honeysuckle vines, palmettos, scrub oak, wild roses, etc....one snares my foot and my already exhausted legs (remember the hours in swamp and mud wearing hip waders..felt like I ran stairs for 2 hours)....and down I go. Bow in front of me...GPS in the dirt. Look up and there are 3 little football size pigs 10 yards in front of me just looking. - I rise up and they just run in circles and start playing and eating... ":where is your whore of a mother?" I think to myself...and then a 150lb sow black as night steps out of palmettos 10 yards away popping her teeth. She sees me but does not know what I am...takes deep breath to smell...I got wind in my favor. I try to draw my bow but damn vines and palmettos are too thick. WTF? I got momma cass almost in spitting distance and cant draw the damn bow it is so thick....so I side step and draw at same time and she is gone before I clear the brush. Damnit. - Next day....go after the black bitch again...find her tracks and bedding area....follow her on a sandy ridge that goes through middle of swamp. satellite images I downloaded to my GPS show two narrow choke points so I head that way. I hear her or one of her evil sisters/brothers trying to figure out what I am and where I am....cant smell me but knows something is wrong...going one way and then I cut it off and it goes the other....just out of site in brush. Runs by a guy hunting down the bluff on edge of swamp....sounds like it was same black sow and piggies. She won again. - Next day I head to an island by canoe with another guy....we paddle and land on the islands that are in the hundreds of acres each...5 of them....divided by canals dug long ago. Find sign...find turds size of large marshmallows...but no pigs...but all that rain last week saturated the ground so much it is hard to walk without sinking...especially when you have the lbs per square inch I possess. Fuck you Stu! LOL So a nice day of hunting but no pigs to shoot...but a squirrel is shot so there is fresh meat in the pot. LOL - Last day go to another island full of hogs....no trees...but grass and reeds 10 feet high they live in. Some areas are waist high...rest are 8-10 feet high and size of your finger in diameter except for about 20 acres of burnt area from arson on one end and another 40 acres on the other. Island is 3 miles long and 1 mile wide. We start a push...one guy breaking the grass in the tradition of Peter Capsticks DEATH IN THE LONG GRASS except we are after massive hogs not lions. The other guys saw a couple that were well over 200lbs the day before plus a huge black and white sow...running with a giant brown sow. So we are methodically working them out.... Two of us set up blocking positions after sprinting a few hundred yards..only stopping before we passed out from exhaustion as both of us are almost 50....hahaha...but young guy had hardest work in the grass. I hear a squeal and think he shot...he pops out of grass after 40 minutes...he did not shoot but did not hear it either. So I send him back in and I cut corner on other side and go into the grass...and find bedding area covered in piss and shit...and find a place to stand. Soon he says, "I got a pig coming your way...she is hit" Seconds later large reeds are popping like tree branches as the dark brown bitch parts the grass with her massive shoulders on a steady but deliberate walk. I start to draw and pick a spot on her chest and neck in case she charges as she is only 15 yards away and coming right at me....at last minute she realizes what I am and cuts to my right and hauls ass and I swing my recurve and launch my douglas fir arrow with its hand sharpened steel broadhead at her.....and whether she was faster than I thought or a big reed deflected my arrow.....the shot was back and went through her ham and then heard a crack...so think I went through her pelvis on opposite side. Then I see another arrow from other side all the way through her lungs. She circles me and lays up in the thickest bunch of reeds a mere 10 yards away snapping her cutters and then she is quiet...as she waits in ambush. -He follows his blood trail to me...then we merge and follow blood to where she went into the 10 foot reeds to hole up. We wait 40 minutes and start following her...she lunges out of her bed...it is covered in blood but she has a burst of energy as she charges in the tall grass...no shot...just too thick as the other guy pulls his knife she squirts past and goes deeper towards river. The wind is about 40mph now and it is 50*....sleeting every now and then and the boat that dropped us off wants to come now as weather is worsening...we ask for an hour to let her sit. After hour we pick up trail and she is bleeding like a "stuck pig" then heart break...we find where she laid down on edge of bank of river to hide...and must of died and slid into the water...but the outgoing tide and 40-50,mph winds carried her away.....too cold for gators. The boat picks us up on a perilous coastline with 2-3 foot swells as we throw our gear, backpacks and such onboard and then lunge for the outreached hand having to time the swells just right. We run the coast down to point but no pig...so she either sunk, was eaten by a shark or got blown around the point and into the bay. Damnit.....we turn around and spend the next hour fighting the wind, the waves and the blowing sleet and freezing rain for a ride to camp. No pig... she is dead...just not recovered. His arrow still in her...my arrow broken off just behind the broadhead and covered in blood to remind us on the ride to camp. - change into dry clothes...build a fire to warm as we wait out the storm for the next hour.....then big meal....some drinks...story telling of the days event and disappointment....and getting ready to paddle out the next morning on my mind. - 27*F Saturday night...20mph gusts.....sunny when I got up Sunday but everything covered in ice. Packed up....cooked up some eggs and the squirrel from other day.....ate an apple...and said goodbye as I wanted to ride the outgoing tide as much as possible before it turned to slack tide or worse...rising tide as I headed down river. Wind was blustery and would gust 30+MPH and tide going out was quite a bit faster than the trip up paddling alone. - had a few sandbars I had to drag canoe and 150lbs of gear across....had some sweepers I had to avoid as wind and tide tried to push me sideways up against fallen trees and logs.....lots of underwater obstructions to watch at low tide that were not noticed on way up on rising tide. Spent a very stressful 2 mile ride through the cut focused on the water surface...looking for ripples or swells that would belie underwater obstacles such as trees, rocks, stumps. Finally made it back to landing......my two Gar were still rotting on landing...even crabs wont eat the damn things. Unload canoe and put into vehicle.....dump water out of canoe and then load on top of SUV.....change into some traveling pants, clean shirt, topsiders.....and hit the road home. Great hunt.....cant wait to go back. Huge amount of hogs there....as we saw as a group nearly 100 but getting a shot was difficult in that grass...I saw10 myself....only got one shot as all others were in too thick. When you can see black fur and see individual hairs but nothing larger than an inch or two before it is broken up by those damn tall reeds...can hear it snapping its teeth, rooting in ground and fighting....but cant draw your bow. We are going to try new tactics next time....this was a learning experience...but cant wait for the next trip to Georgia to try and kill some hogs. Here are some pics I took: Paddling up river through the cut at rising tide....looking down off bluff where I sat my camp....water was up so high I had to unload in hip boots only to go out 10 feet at low tide and leave boat high and dry. Area across river.... My tent...my bow and arrows.....hollowed cypress log that was chest high on me and hollow all the way down about 20 feet...another live tree with my bow and arrows against for size comparison...the bow is 64"...arrows are 31 inches....arrow after ride home in freezing rain..most of blood washed off in rain but a little pink still on it. Glad ya had a good time... lard ass.... really wish you would a got a pig.... cuz I'd a liked to see the pics of you, the gear and a pig in that canoe..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brock Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 well the guys I was with took a couple of me paddling out the last day minus pig.....will post one later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maninbox Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 There's that banjo again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunters Friend Posted February 20, 2013 Share Posted February 20, 2013 Congrats on creating great memories, pig or no pig. Hunting refreshes the soul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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