| Hunt Introduction This hunt takes place in the Pineywoods of Deep East Texas with Cedar Springs Hog Hunting, owned by David Clifton. Cedar Springs Hog Hunting is located a few miles north of Wells, Texas, in Cherokee County. The hunting area has perfect habitat for wild hogs - it's a mixture of Sweet Gum and Pine thickets, with several creeks, a Pin Oak flat and several big East Texas ridges with huge White Oak trees. And, it's loaded with hogs. The amount of sign I saw on this place was unbelievable, mostly in the form of tracks, trails, wallows, and rubs. Most of the property is very thick, and the most common method of hunting is with the use of corn as bait to draw the hogs out of the thick stuff to get a shot. Friday P.M. David recommended a particular baited area for me to hunt, as he said that he had seen a number of hogs at that area recently and they really seemed to be coming there with regularity. I took his recommendation and decided to hunt that stand. It was about a 12-foot high ladder stand 20 yards from a feeder and surrounded by thickets, with a few big trees also. The deep trough in the ground underneath the feeder made it clear that hogs had been visiting here.  My hunting spot for the evening I got to the stand about 7 p.m., got my gear all situated and settled in to wait for "prime time", which with hogs is usually just a few minutes before dark.  There was abundant hog sign all over the place! About an hour before dark I heard a slight noise to my left and looked to see a boar in the 200 lb. range just stepping into the clearing. That's as far as he went, though. For some reason, he wasn't comfortable with the scene and quickly went back into the brush without giving me a shot. About 20 minutes later four shoats came in to eat. Two were in the 40-50 lb. range, and two were just little suckers - about 10 lbs. I was wanting something bigger than these pigs, so I just watched them eat, and snapped a few pictures.  These hogs came in early  With about 2 minutes of "good" shooting light left, hogs started making an appearance all over the place. Two good boars came out to my left, some appeared from the thicket down the road and ran to the feeder, and some came from the thicket directly across the ranch road. In a matter of a minute, there were over a dozen hogs in front of me, with at least half of them being big enough for me to consider them "shooters". The only problem is that most of them started off feeding on the other side of the feeder from me. With shooting light being almost gone, I felt like they were too far for me to make a "sure" shot. I could only really see their silhouettes and would have had a difficult time "picking a spot". I didn't panic, though, I just went to my Plan B. In Texas it is perfectly legal to hunt wild hogs after dark, either by moonlight or by artificial light. When I'm bowhunting for wild hogs, I always carry a 2nd bow stabilizer in my pack, with a flashlight secured to the top of the stabilizer. There was almost no moonlight this night, so I reached into my pack to get my stabilizer/light. While the hogs were feeding closer, I quietly switched my stabilizers. I waited as they came closer until finally a big hog gave me a good shot angle at about 17 yards. I turned on my light and drew my bow. The light illuminated the area I needed to shoot at, and there was just enough light in the sky still to have my sight pin glowing ever so slightly. I quickly took aim and placed the pin low on the chest and tight to the back of the shoulder, and made my release. I couldn't see the arrow impact, but I did hear it, and the hog ran off looking pretty sick before it entered the brush. I got down to look for my arrow. It wasn't at the shot location, but I found it on the ground about 10 yards away, covered in good, bubbly lung blood. That was a good sign. 15 feet later, right where the hog entered the brush, there was the start of a great blood trail. I had no problem following the trail, as blood was coming out both sides of the hog on just about every bush, limb and clump of grass the hog passed. I was feeling pretty confident at this point.  The blood trail was easy to follow!  I had only followed the trail about 20 yards into the brush when there lay my dead hog in front of me, and it was a pretty good one. It was a big sow - probably about 225-250 lbs. There was blood everywhere. I was shooting a 4-blade 125 gr. Phantom broadhead, and it really did the job well. The hog was slightly quartering away and the shot entered about 4 inches behind her right shoulder and came out low in her chest on the exit side after breaking the leg. It went through ribs on both sides, both lungs and cut off the top of the heart, and the head was no worse for wear. I'll definitely be using the Phantom more in the future.  My big sow - she'll be some good eating!   The Phantom did a good job on my hog Saturday A.M.  This morning I hunted at another baited area David said the hogs had been frequenting. It was clear from the number of tracks in the dirt that he was right. I sat for about an hour after daylight and unfortunately didn't see any hogs. Perhaps they were only coming to that feeder in the evenings. It is not unusual to see little or no hog activity in the mornings. Just out of curiosity, I got down from the feeder and did a little still-hunting toward another feeder about 1/4 mile away. As I was getting close to it I came around a bend in the road and there stood almost a dozen hogs in the road eating on something. They didn't see me, so I eased myself off to the side, nocked an arrow and got ready to take a shot, as they were headed my way. Unfortunately at that point the wind started swirling and blew toward them. If hogs smell you, they do not wait around - they are GONE. That's exactly what happened with this group. I heard a grunt or two and then they all vanished into the thicket. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. I went ahead on the feeder and checked the area. There was no corn on the ground from this morning, which meant the hogs had already hit this area and cleaned it up. Next time I'll try this stand in the a.m. and see what my luck has to offer.  my spot for the Saturday morning hunt  I rounded a bend in this road and found myself only 20 yards from a big group of hogs - notice the hog tracks all over the road Hunt Conclusion This was a really fun hunt and I will definitely be back to hunt here again. Cedar Springs is only about 60 miles from where I live, so I plan to hunt here as much as I can throughout the year. It's obvious to me there are an awful lot of hogs on this place. If you're interested in a good hunt for wild hogs, I would highly recommend Cedar Springs Hog Hunting.
Joshua Flournoy owns and manages the Livehunts.com web site. Joshua resides in east Texas with his wife and four children. |
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