Bill Olson, editor of Texas Outdoor Journal called and asked if I wanted to go on a Texas hog hunt with him of course the answer was yes.
The plan was to fly into Austin and he’d pick me up a we’d take off for the Reveille Ranch near Burnet. There we met up with Murray and Clint Choate, owners of Slow Glow. Right off I liked them.
They were some gung-ho hog hunters. The plan was to grab a bite and then head to the ranch and get situated. Those plans were soon thrown out the window and Clint started drawing up a night hog hunt. Forget the group hugs and getting comfortable the first evening.
Murray is an inventor and to help his hog hunting addiction be more successful he invented an LED motion activated system. Here’s how it works. It is pointed towards a feeding area. When hogs come in it starts slowly illuminating over a two-minute period.
If it fired up right away the hogs would spook so it lights up slowly so they don’t even know it is getting lighter.
It sounded unique. Now to go test it out. They were sure excited to show it to us. At the first stalk Clint was to shoot one with his bow. Great, maybe I could get multiple articles on hog hunting with the Benjamin Pioneer airbow, Mossberg Patriot Revere rifle, archery and pistol hunting. That’d make it a productive albeit busy hunt.
We drove down a pasture road and soon unloaded to begin our stalk. As we came over a rise you could see the eerie green glow of the Slow Glow at full power. Great, that meant we had hogs on the spot (or it could just be coons, deer or cows).
As we got closer you could hear hogs grunting, squealing and rooting around. Clint nocked an arrow and his dad ran the camera. I didn’t have very high hopes of getting close enough for a shot since there was four of us. We lined up behind each other and stalked in behind the light.
There was a good group of hogs fading in and out of the light and at least one good sized boar. When a little pig would get too close the boar would root them with his snout and send them flying. They’d squeal and hustle off only to be back in a few seconds sneaking in for another bite of corn.
At 11 paces we stopped. The boar was in back of a couple of sows. After what seemed like an eternity a lane opened and Clint threaded in an arrow. We could see the illuminated nock zip in and strike home.
At the sound of the bow hogs shot off every which way. We picked up the arrow. Something was wrong! There was no blood. Upon closer inspection we could see that the expandable broadhead had been driven back into the shaft. The arrow had hit the shoulder plate and bounced off.
I made up my mind then that I favored Wasp broadheads for the Airbow. It appeared to me that a 2-inch wide expandable broadhead is just too likely to hit a bone and deflect or slow/stop.
The next night, eight-time NHRA Champion (drag racer) Tony Schumacher showed up to hunt with us. We had a great time taking him while Bill and Murray took his girlfriend Summer Penland with them on a pistol hog hunt.
Tony had been going to use his AR but we talked him into using my airbow.
Tony shot it a few times in camp and got comfortable with it. His girlfriend then shot it freehand and got a Robin Hood. Everyone was impressed with the Pioneer airbow.
Saturday we’ll see how the hunts went.
Tom Claycomb is an outdoor enthusiast and writes a monthly column for the Humboldt Sun.
