Crossbow Piglet Hunt

So we're still here in Texas with my good pal Terry Tate ranch near Sulphur Springs. So what we're going to be hunting tonight is a little piglet. I'm sorry guys, yeah we're going to shoot a little piglet for the pot. But we've got something pretty kool to shoot it with. Now this is the Excalibur Matrix 380. Now you should of seen us already building this bad boy. If you haven't click on this link hereish right now. But this is their top of the range recurve crossbow. As you can see it is just recurve limbs. There's no compound or cams on it as you'd find on other crossbows. It makes it very smooth and reasonably quiet, although the strings still have a bit of a twang. Now we have used this over the chronograph and it's firing at about 350 feet per second. Not 380 but I'm sure with some adjustment to the limbs here you'll probably be able to get all that power out. Either way with a two hundred and sixty pound pull its still punching a mean punch. Now this pack altoghether , this kit their ultra light kit and it retails for about one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars, and it includes four bolts and also this scope here. The tact zone scope. Now on here there are graduated markings depending on the speed that the bow is firing. And if you zero it for twenty yards, the scope then has the graduated markings for thirty, forty, fifty and sixty yards. Now we tried it out a little bit earlier on, fired a few arrows. We know that when its on twenty as long as that setting is correct, we've had it grouping pretty well. Beyond that I'm not going to be taking any shots so we haven't checked that just yet. So first things first, we're going to get in the truck, head over tow here Terry knows there's some younger pigs and hopefully we're going to bring back some bacon. But before we get there, we've got to change these field points which we've been using for our targets. With these Rocket broad heads meat seekers. Now these are an inch and a half cut and I've used these in South Africa on pigs. I've used them also over with my friends at Wonderheart hunting in Hungary. So we know when they head home they certainly make a mess. So we've got three of these and as usual my Zeiss Victory 20 X 45 range finding binos and a bucket load of RealTree camo. Rock and Roll! So Terry what have you got planned in store for us this afternoon then? What I have is a little theatre set up by a tank. And we took the sow and the boar out several weeks ago and there's still a bunch of piglet running around here and kind of hanging together at this theatre. So I think they'll be in here if you sat and wait on them for a little while. Well we can do that, isn't that cheating a little bit? It is cheating. We're allowed to do that though. You have to cheat with hogs. But you use this area, you kind of harvest a lot of your game from here. We harvest a lot of game right here. Because your not a big beef eater are you? No not at all, we hardly eat any beef we eat wild hog and axis. Axis deer. Okay well I don't think there's any Axis , there's no Axis deer around here? No we have no Axis here just pigs. Just the pigs. Okay so what we're going to do then is jump in that tree stand and then wait. Wait for them to come by. I know Daniels not going to like that too much, he doesn't like waiting for stuff, he likes chasing. But its about time for the feeder to go off. Okay, rock and roll lets go! Well as it happens that didn't take too long. Terry knew that the pigs were in here, it's a pretty large area. But he's taken the sow out and the boar not long ago and the piglets were weaned and he knew they were in here. This is somewhere where he comes quite regularly to take off pigs for the kitchen. Terry and his wife pretty much only eat Axis deer and hogs, so this is a nice little honey hole for them. Plenty of water, feeder down at the bottom there so it was kind of unfair really. We knew the pigs were going to come along by at some point normally a little bit later on then now but there's no real hunting pressure here just Terry so they seem pretty relaxed. Great shot, fifteen yards maybe a little higher than the lungs. But this Matrix 380 Crossbow rocks. It's so much easier to address the target than using a bow. Obviously I would say I'm pretty much be able to shoot as accurately with a bow but there is just something about lifting rifle style, with the crossbow to your shoulder. Just putting the scope just behind the legs and then gently squeezing the trigger. It's quieter than I thought actually it's probably a little harsher than the release on my bow. You know the bow has a much quieter sort of twang, this is pretty metallic twang when it goes off. I think that's because firstly, because its recurve and secondly because of the speed that its throwing out that bolt. But once again pigs on the ground and in some ways it feels a bit of an anticlimax because it was so incredibly efficient, reasonably quick and we've got what we came for. So lets go and get our pig and hopefully we'll be able to cook it for dinner tonight. Okay so here we have our little pig. You can see its squirming next to the bolt.The bolt went straight through and out the other side. Now probably hit a little high in the shoulder. I was aiming kind of down and to be honest with you these pigs aren't particularly big. So as you can see straight through the top of the shoulder here, straight through and out. The bottom on this side here, so top of the shoulder through and out. Probably just clipped the top of the heart but my goodness that's a pretty impressive exit wound. Those trophy ridge meatseekers as soon as they connect they really do the business. But anyway nice little weaned suckling pig. Little striper. And that my friend is going on the barbeque for dinner.