I had stayed up late Friday evening with my good buddy and recent brother-in-law Cody Moore to catch up on lost time. When Saturday morning rolled around I was a little tardy getting out of bed. As I strolled into the kitchen around 7am I noticed that my father-in-law was out on the front porch glassing some animals by the river and the surrounding feeders. He motioned to Cody and I and we joined him quickly on the porch. To my surprise there were two large black feral hogs coming into a feeder from the river below. I immediately turned to Cody and said "let's sneak down there and try to get a shot." Of course he agreed and we proceeded down the switchback and planned our attack. Stalking animals during a hunt is such a sweet experience, but, stalking large feral hogs is one of my favorite aspects of hunting at Escondido Ranch.

We knew we had a good chance at getting at least one of them because we had two things definitely in our favor. The first being that the hogs were hungry and were preoccupied with trying to get into the feeding area and second, the wind was blowing due south, straight into our faces. This allowed us to move quietly through the mesquite filled brush and approach the animals to within 40 yards. With every step my heart was pounding faster and faster. I knew this was going to be my first attempt at shooting an animal with my new bow and I wanted to make a good shot because if I missed I would never hear the end of it, especially from my rifle slinging, hunting buddy Gary. I took a couple of more big steps to get to within 30 yards of my target. I steadied my position, drew the bow to breakover position, zeroed in on my target and let it fly... The next sound I heard was the squealing of a hog that was paralyzed with the shot. I did it!! I successfully stalked and killed my first animal with my new weapon of choice. Congratulations followed from my good buddy Cody and all of our family members. What an adrenaline rush!!!! Whether you are a rifle hunter or bow hunter like myself, the folks at Escondido Ranch can accommodate all or your hunting needs. Thanks for reading and God bless.