I could not believe it; I had finally killed my first boar with my bow. I stood there looking at the pig with adrenaline still making my hands shake. I thought to myself how much work had gone into this moment. It has been about 2 years since I had bought my Hoyt compound bow. I have had bows before, but I didn’t have the knowledge I needed to build my skills. I had always made bows as a kid when I was bored and tried to master accuracy with no success, so I had put my energy into hunting with a rifle and dogs along with my friends.

I grew up in Southern Queensland and hunting for pigs, goats and kangaroos was a way for my family to make money. When the prices fell and it was no longer viable and my family stopped hunting, but my passion for the outdoors and adventure never stopped. I hunted pigs mostly with dogs alongside my friends all through my school years, there wasn’t much exposure to other forms of hunting. When I was 18 I found myself in a hunting store in Tamworth NSW and saw mounted deer and archery equipment on all of the walls, I could feel the wanting for adventure and I purchased the best bow I could afford.

This bow was not a long-term bow by any means, I wouldn’t recommend it to newcomers now that I have some experience with other bows. I arrived back in QLD with the desire to master archery, but it wasn’t that easy. I couldn’t find any bow hunting magazines or videos or even any online forums that were in easy-to-understand language, so I tried my best to become accurate. I would try to hit an empty bottle at 15 metres with aluminium arrows It was becoming a nightmare so after a few months the bow went into the shed. Fast forward to 2018 and I bought my current bow a Hoyt Powermax, I didn’t lash out and buy top of the range because I still wasn’t sure I would be able to master the bow.

Fortunately, this is the age of information and after many YouTube videos I had my bow hitting the foam target and after a couple of weeks of shooting 30 plus arrows everyday I was fairly accurate. I was so excited to get better and get out hunting! I received some invaluable advice from a local Pro who tweaked my bow and my form, and still shooting a lot of arrows everyday I was improving out of sight in knowledge and accuracy, I wanted to be as accurate as possible before heading out for a hunt to make sure I wasn’t going to wound any animals.

Accuracy and consistency is so important in bowhunting, the kill zones are small and the room for error is narrow, killing an animal as quickly and efficiently as possible is what all hunters should strive for. After a couple of months of practise I went to explore a local hunting reserve and I learned another important lesson, getting 20m away from public land pigs was extremely difficult. I have been hunting pigs pretty much my whole life and have never had to be so close without the pig noticing. With a rifle I could shoot an animal on the run if they winded me, but not with a bow. This became a real battle and I knew this was going to be a long term project.

With the wet season approaching I was spending more time on the swamp because it was waterfowl season, I decided to leave the shotgun at home and I would take the bow with me on these steamy Northern Territory mornings in the hope of seeing a boar with the sunrise. I would often sneak into a swamp and hear pigs but as the sun climbed and light would shine, the pigs would hurry back to the safety of the thick jungle. These animals were highly educated as the pressure upon them was daily, this drove me to learn more about stalking and pre-planning before a hunt. I was getting frustrated as I would spend my weekends learning the habits of a certain mob of pigs to try and catch them in daylight and see they were changing their habits almost constantly.

This year I had more close encounters than usual and I was getting that fire inside me again. The dry season was too busy with work to get out hunting but as the wet season approached around October I had time to hunt. I gathered the courage to walk the jungle alone and was rewarded with many close calls on big boars but I was always busted by the wary animals, but this was all about to come to an end.

I finished work early and decided to walk through a section of jungle I have been hunting often as the Buffalo presence was lower and therefore a bit safer, with the jungles so thick accidently bumping into Buffalo is pretty common and can be very dangerous with such thick vegetation. I parked my ute and began to gather my things. As I was filling my water bottle I heard the tell tale squeal of adult pigs squabbling, it was quiet but very distinct. I knew this was going to be my best chance at finally putting it all together. I walked as quietly as I could through the thick bush towards the sound I had heard, I found a game pad to follow making it a little quieter. There were fresh pig tracks along this pad so I kept my eyes and ears open. Finally, I could hear quiet grunting as the pigs went about ripping up the ground and feeding. The wind was still so I could move to the direction they were feeding and get in front and wait. I backed out to keep quiet and walked to where I thought they were heading. I don’t have a range finder so I looked for some trees that might help me gauge distance. I had a bit of a plan but as usual the pigs had a different idea, they were feeding straight past me on the opposite side and were too close for me to move.

I picked the biggest boar out of the small mob and kept an eye on him as he bullied the smaller pigs around. He kept in the thick leaves but was heading to a clearing directly in front of me. I gauged it to be about 15m. I drew my bow back early like I had been practising, I’ve been caught by many pigs before when drawing back.

After what felt like minutes holding my bow in position and he finally came into clear view. I tried to calm myself as the pig was so close, I could smell him, I lined my sight up to just behind the shoulder to give the best chance at a vital shot and I let fly. A squeal from the boar let me know I was on target and the eruption of the mob around me was chaotic. I took a minute to understand what happened then went to look for the boar as I couldn’t hear anymore activity. I picked up my arrow, it had dark red blood along the entire length but not as much as I had expected; such a close shot it went through the boar at such a quick pace. I followed the direction I saw him run and about 25m into the scrub I found him dead.

It’s a crazy run of emotions after hunting animals for so long and in such close quarters like in bowhunting, its nothing like I’ve done before. I spent most of my teens hunting pigs in close quarters along riverbanks with small calibres but there is no room for error while using a bow; this meticulousness is what makes it a discipline people either live and breathe or hate. Learning the ins and outs of bowhunting pigs drives me to want to experience more animals and places such as deer in the South or Tahr and Chamois in New Zealand or even Elk in the US. The adventures are endless and the closeness to these places gained only by walking the bush and understanding the animals is hard to find in many other outdoor activities and I would recommend bow hunting to anyone.

Olivia

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