Bow Season '08- Opening Day

My next trip was on opening weekend at the hunting lease I am a part of. Billy and I left on Friday afternoon and got there that evening. We walked down to a pond a little way from camp to see if there were any hogs there. We have a lot of hogs on our property and try to thin them out every chance we get. There weren't any there but there was a lot of fresh sign. We built a fire and sat around talking and driniking a little and ate some fried chicken. We went to bed early in anticipation of our morning hunt.

We got up the next morning, got ready and left out. I went and set up at the pond and waited on daylight. Billy went on down the trail to a stand close to one of the food plots. About 9 am I had to come back to camp. I had left something (toilet paper )there that I needed badly at the moment. After that, I went and tried another stand.

On the way to the other stand, there were alot of squirrels out and barking at me. I wished I had something besides my bow at that moment. I got to the stand and climbed up and settled down. This stand is in a great spot. There is a creek bed in front of me. A ridge on the other side and a ridge to my left. It's a nice natural funnel. There was a fresh scrape and a fresh rub in the area so I was hopeful. After about an hour, I heard something behind me and to my left. It sounded like a grunt and then I heard it again and leaves rustling. I tried to turn slowly to look and got turned in just enough time to see a couple of hogs drop off of the trail and into a little ravine between the ridges. I didn't have a shot because it was too far and they went behind a little rise and were gone. I sat there for a little while longer and came down and went back to camp for lunch.

After I ate, I did a little squirrel hunting with my .22. I had better luck doing that. I came back to the truck and started packing everything up. I had a few hunters from other leases come down and talk and they had about the same luck I had. I waited on Billy to come back. When he did, he had not had any luck either. We finished packing and came home. It was another great camping trip with a good friend that I enjoyed. I just wish we had some meat to bring home. Oh well, better luck next time.