A Target Rich Texas Hog Hunt With Boars All Day

We leave the spreadsheets and blacktail strategies at home and hit record from Boars All Day in Groveton, Texas after a full weekend of hog hunting with our Blacktail Coach crew plus Dan, and Mike from Nockaholics and the Everyday Archer podcast. The promise up front is simple: more stories than lessons. The reality is even fun hunts come with real decisions about ethics, shot choice, cost, and how much meat you can actually bring back when you are packing coolers like luggage.

You’ll hear how “target rich environment” still doesn’t mean “easy.” Hogs move fast, they don’t pose for the camera, and a tiny mistake can turn into a miss, a scramble, or a follow up. We swap the funniest moments, including the infamous piglet saga, the reality of paying by the pound, and why pacing yourself matters when hogs weigh way more than they look. We also give you a practical planning nugget for first timers: roughly a quarter of a hog’s live weight ends up as take home meat, which changes the math on what you shoot and what you can transport.

Then we go deep on one of the most relatable hunting storylines there is: missing, regrouping, and getting it done. Mike walks us through his aoudad bow hunt, DJ talks about filming and being the steady voice behind the shot, and we dig into why video review can help you learn from both hits and misses. We wrap with Mark’s patient one shot hog, plus a grounded talk about feral hogs in Texas as an invasive species and why responsible harvest and meat use matter.

If you enjoy hunting stories that feel like real camp talk, subscribe, share this with a hunting buddy, and leave us a review so more folks can find the show.

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Transcript

Live From The Texas Hog Hunt

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Black Tale Coach Podcast. So we typically here on the Black Tale Coach Podcast like to bring you specific information about the Pacific Northwest and from an educational standpoint so that we're helping to make you better hunters. This episode will have neither of those. We have joined forces with Nakaholics, the Everyday Archer, and their podcast. They brought a crew out and some of our pro staff from the Blacktail Coach to Groverton, Texas, to Boars All Day. And we've done a pig hunt here. So we are recording here live at the event. We've all finished up our pig hunts and our exotic hunts that we wanted to do. And we wanted to share some of those stories with you. Sit back. This is going to be probably a lot of laughs more than anything. I don't think there's a whole lot of education going on here, except for if you're interested in doing a hog hunt yourself. So I hope you enjoy all of this, and we will be getting back to our regular content, educational Pacific Northwest here in next week. Okay. First up, we have Alan and Dan Dippo of Nakaholics, the Everyday Archer podcast. So if you're not listening to that one,

Piglet Stories With Dan And Alan

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I definitely recommend that you listen to it. Great success stories from all around the country with different hunters, right, Dan? Yes. Yep. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:23

Just your everyday archer. And I'm Dan, the good-looking one.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

So we're starting off with Dan and Alan because I've dubbed them the Vietnam veterans of the hog hunt because they're baby killers. And so to start this story off, when I first got into stand to wait for these the beginning of the day for the hog hunt, I hear a couple of hogs just oinking away. Two little piglets come popping out that were two pounds roughly. They looked even tinier than that. It looked like they were about six inches long. And before we came out, Dave and I were joking because we you pay by the pound by how much these pigs are.

SPEAKER_06 2:02

Yes, and that's why we were shooting hamsters out there.

unknown 2:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

And so I thought we Dave and I were laughing, and we, well, let's just shoot a bunch of piglets. We'll get to shoot hogs and it'll be cheap. So they come walking out, and I start laughing and stuff. There were two of them that they do not exist anymore. One was harvested by Dan and one was harvested by Alan. Let's start. Alan got the first one, so let's get into this. Tell us the story of your epic hunt. My epic hunt. Trophy hunt, by the way. Trophy.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

I had no intention of shooting one until this new friend I met, Aaron, says, Oh, I'm just shooting, I'm shooting spit pigs. I'm shooting little piggies. Gonna be cheap. That's all I'm gonna shoot with my handgun. So I'm sitting in my stand and start hearing these little squeaks and pips around me, and there's these two little pigs running around. They're behind me, wrong field of fire. So I wait and wait, and pretty soon DJ says, Hey, there they are over there. And I've already whacked a couple pigs, and DJ may have shot as well, but we had a little shooting going on. So I took aim and go to shoot this pig and pull the trigger and click. Nothing. I may have forgot the safety. It gets worse. Wait for it. It's getting away. So then I flipped the safety off, and oh, click. There's nothing in the chamber because I was letting DJ shoot. So I rack around in, and by this time, the pig getting farther away. One shot, 83 yards, smoked a piggy. 83 yards.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Aim small, hit small. That is the definition of that. There you go. And after you had shot yours, there was a little kind of a brownish with spots. Yeah, that's the one I got. It was good. And a little black one. Yeah. Well, the little black one came back, and I knew his friend had met his timely end, untimely end, maybe. I don't know. One or the other. Timely end. And so he comes running in front of me. I did take a shot at him. Missed him by about an inch. And the bullet hitting the ground next to him knocked him over. The force of the bullet hitting the ground next to him. So little guys. So he disappears. That was day one.

SPEAKER_06 4:12

So day two, then Dan steps in and I'm definitely the opposite of Alan because I had all intentions of killing the little ones.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

But while Dan may be the good looking one, I still got the first piggy. He did. You did.

SPEAKER_06 4:27

And he got it at three yards. At 83. What were you shooting? Eight six blackout. Eight six blackout. That's a little bigger than my Matthews Lift X 33.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

You were our tree. Compensating. Yes. So let's hear, Dan, let's hear your story of piggy number two.

SPEAKER_06 4:43

Piggy number two. I was with Scott, my good buddy Scott, and we're walking down, and all of a sudden a little piggy comes out, and I looked down. I said, You want to shoot? And he goes, Heck no, I'm not shooting that baby. And I says, Out of the way. I'm going in. And so uh how much detail you want me to give here? Well, you flung one arrow, yeah. Flung one arrow and it couldn't walk anymore. Introductory damage. Yes. Missing a leg or two. And then yeah, the next one just did the job, and we probably eaten a little bacon today.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

For clarification, though, two shots to my one. Yes. Fair enough. Absolutely. Two shots.

SPEAKER_06 5:20

My first one, it was running away from me. 40 shot. Yeah, 26 yards. And we pretty much stopped him with that one. And then the second one we just went and perfect. Yep. Finished him off. The ethical kill. Okay. Nice. As my daughter said, Piggy made it to market. Yes. Yep. Or didn't make it to market. No, it was definitely awesome. It was a good shot. Felt great. Good time. Okay. So what was your total pig count at the end? So your hog count, actually. The whole counting little piggy, I got three of them. Okay. Yep. Three hogs.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Now the rest of them were all, I think, that we all got were 40 pounds to 200 plus pounds.

SPEAKER_06 6:01

So yes. The one I got was 184, I think. Your big one? Yeah, my big one was 184. Is that the one I shot in the butt? Yeah, actually.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 6:11

So let me tell you about that shot. That was a good shot, too. So we're up in a tree stand, me, my brother, and Scott, and it was, I think, 26 yards away. And starting to run around the corner, I shot right after I shot, it jumped up. It ran about 20 yards and just fell. Just like that. It was the perfect shot for a hog. Wonderful. So I was so proud of it.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

20 yards after Archery, because these are tough critters. So I shooting my 44 Magnum, Smith and Weston model 29, and shot two in the butt. You were a butt shooter. I was game for the hind end. Yeah. So don't hurt the ribs. You finished tough the first one. You know, I like as long as they don't hit the shoulder. Yeah. Well, I like that pulled pork. That's right. Okay. And your total, Alan.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Oh. For the with little piggy. I had little piggy, then I had four other hogs. 58 pounds, 63 pounds, 128 pounds, and 227 today.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah, you had the number two big one. Yes. Except for the mystery hog. Except for the mystery hog. The mystery hogs. The mystery hog. Yes. We'll have, I don't know, maybe Dave or uh Mike can share that story. So okay. Thank you guys for jumping on and sharing your story of the hog hunt. Again, we're at Boars All Day. Yes. And you've been here several times.

SPEAKER_06 7:35

We have, yeah. We've been coming now for about four years. Okay. Four or five years. And every time we just it we have a better time every time. Just gets better and better.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

So highly recommend a different crew out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 7:48

And every time we come, everybody we show up as friends and we leave as family. I mean, it's a great time.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah. That's the best. That those are the best times. Yep. Literally. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 7:58

We've met so many good people just on this trip. It's been a blast.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Very cool. Okay. So we'll bring up the next two victims for the podcast. And thanks for joining us. Sure appreciate you guys. All right. Next up, Dave's here. Hello.

SPEAKER_07 8:12

Dave's my hero, by the way, guys.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

And we have Mike Dippo, part two of the Dippos, the one who does not claim to be the better

How The Trip Came Together

SPEAKER_01 8:19

looking one.

SPEAKER_07 8:19

No, I'm just the smartest one. Yeah. Because I don't tell people I'm the good looking one.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

So because I'm not. Mike is the one who put this together. And how did you find that boars all day?

SPEAKER_07 8:32

Man, it's this place is awesome. We've been here for a few years now, and we have a good friend by the name of Dana Nichols. Dana, if you hear our podcast, thank you so much. He invited Dan and I to come out here a couple years back, and we just had the opportunity to come here. We met Dylan and Chris. Chris is the owner, and Dylan is the host, and they've just become like family to us.

SPEAKER_08 8:53

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_07 8:54

We just, yeah, every year we try and make a trip out, and any opportunity that we have to bring new people to experience what they have out here, we try and do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Okay. And Dave.

SPEAKER_07 9:04

So No, I actually with Dave, the way this kind of came together a little bit is had an opportunity to shoot with Dave at the Northwest Mountain Challenge. Found out he was related to good friend Joe, my good friend Joe Riley. And now I got two Coach Rileys. And I know people that listen to our podcast, I talk about you guys all the time about Blacktail Coach and the Coach Riley's and that. But we just got talking about it, and he said he's always wanted to do a hog hunt. And I said, Hey, I got a deal. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Well, Dave and I have been talking about doing a hog hunt for a few years now.

SPEAKER_04 9:38

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

It was always one of those that I kind of wanted to do.

SPEAKER_04 9:41

But what's funny is so we talked to Mark Boone, who has gone on a hog hunt, who's one of our pro staff who's here this weekend. Yeah. And he was kind of skeptical because the first one he went on, they spent how many days did he say?

SPEAKER_01 9:53

It was like th a few days and nothing.

SPEAKER_04 9:55

Yeah, three or four days didn't see a hog one the entire time. They hunted day and night and didn't see a single hog.

SPEAKER_07 10:03

Holy smoke.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

Yeah, so he was a little gun shy when we'd mentioned this and everything. But I talked him into it and I said, hey, Mike's a straight shooter. Supposedly, this is target rich environment.

SPEAKER_07 10:13

I did almost have a miss, so that's not quite straight.

SPEAKER_04 10:17

But just being here, this is a very target-rich environment. Yes, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

And they do have something called the purge, which is it's a flat fee, and you can kill as many hogs as you want. They don't put as big a ones in there, so you're not paying by pound, but you get to go purge.

SPEAKER_05 10:34

Purge.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

You get to go purge. Yeah. Yeah. And there was some military group, ex-military guys that were here, and we heard them attacking their hogs in full force. Yep. They storm in the beaches of Normandy.

SPEAKER_04 10:48

All in the name of training. All in the name of training.

SPEAKER_07 10:51

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Okay. So let's get into some stories about how many hogs did you end up with, Mike?

SPEAKER_07 10:56

So I ended up with two.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

You guys were both our tree. Yep.

SPEAKER_07 10:59

Yep. I was I ended up with two. I ended up with a couple of real nice ones, but I was pacing myself because I also knew I wanted to do an odd ad or a ram this weekend. I paced myself and yeah, it was awesome. I say paced myself, but I think I probably still shot some bigger pigs than I thought I was getting.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Pigs are very dense. They are much heavier than you think they are. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 11:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

I was looking at one and thinking, ah, that probably is about 40 pounds. No, it was 80, 100 pounds.

SPEAKER_04 11:29

Yeah. I shot mine thinking it's about a 30, 40 pounder, which is talking with Jimmy and everything, that there's a certain range you want as far as for better eating pigs, and that's what I was looking for. I didn't necessarily come for the trophy. I didn't necessarily come for the high numbers. I came because I wanted my guys to have a great time. We brought some of the pro staff, and I feel like that's happened, but I was just wanting to get a couple. And I got a couple, but I shot them thinking, yeah, it's about 30, 40 pounds. This one might be pushed. Yeah, they're a lot heavier than you think.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yours was 80 and 114. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:02

Yeah. You double what you think they are.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah. I ended up, I thought I shot two small ones. Yeah, 67 and 76. Yeah. It was 140 pounds between the two.

SPEAKER_07 12:12

I I think mine was 167 and 140 something. Yeah. But we're all going home with a lot of good meaning. So yeah. And thanks to Jimmy the Butcher. Uh huge shout out to Jimmy. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

We got to clarify that because you just said Jimmy the Butcher. That makes him sound like we've got our enforcer here. So Jimmy is one of our pro staff, current veterinarian, but used to be a butcher. Yes. And so that's why he's Jimmy the Butcher. But he actually really trimmed up, he spent 12 hours today.

SPEAKER_07 12:47

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Just cleaning up everyone's meat so that we could take home just meat and not pay for taking home bone and yeah, because we especially we're all packing it home as luggage basically in coolers.

SPEAKER_07 13:00

And when you pack it home with the bone and everything like that, you're putting some extra weight in there. But he basically did all the hard work today. Oh, yeah. Cut and wrapped. Yeah. So we've got we clean that, we pull it out and we get it all cleaned up and seasoned, and it's ready for whatever we decide to do with this. So yeah, huge shout out to Jimmy. Sorry, Jimmy the Butcher, but that's the cool new name that you got. Jimmy the Butcher. It demands respect, Jimmy the Butcher.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Jimmy the Butcher will probably not be on the podcast. He does, he tends to not want to participate in the podcast, which I'm always cool with. But how many did he get? Did he have two as well? Yes. Yes, he had two.

SPEAKER_04 13:38

He actually killed first on the first morning. He was the first one to put a pig down.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:43

And he was he was archery as well. He was down about 100, 120 yards from me. I hadn't heard a single gunshot. And all of a sudden I hear this. I heard a pig squealing down where he's at. And I thought to myself, that sounds just like a pig being shot with a bow. And sure enough, that was him.

SPEAKER_07 14:00

That was Jimmy. Oh Jimmy's a great shot. Yeah. Holy smokes. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

I had a lot of leg shots and butt shots were all mine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

He shot one at eight o'clock, eight o'clock, and then shot another one at 8 20, and he was done.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

And he's he only wanted two, like me, so he was done. So he and I just kind of I shot my two and we just kind of sat there and listened to the machine gun pit that was going on behind us.

SPEAKER_07 14:24

Yeah. And we can't complain because thanks to them machine gun pitch, they kept him moving. And those of us that did archery were benefiting from the fact that they kept him moving. Yeah, no, it was a lot of fun. And man, yeah, Jimmy can shoot. Holy smokes. I think he had two arrows and two pigs. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 14:40

Yep. And they and the first one, he said he looked up and he saw one at 40 yards and he was gonna take it. But then another one popped out a little closer. It was like 15. So he ended up shooting that one. But yeah, like I said, a target-rich environment. It was we started at seven, seven thirty.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, about seven thirty by the time we were in our stands.

SPEAKER_04 15:01

And then we got out of there about eleven thirty, and in four hours there were 19 pigs put on the ground on that first day.

SPEAKER_07 15:08

And that includes archery pigs.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

So and then we got another six today.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

Six more today. There were fewer guys that went out. Not everybody went out. And then an odd ad. Yep.

SPEAKER_07 15:22

And I shot an odd ad as well with my bow today.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

So yeah. A lot of meat going home.

SPEAKER_07 15:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

So about a quarter of a and this so the educational aspect. And I in my intro I said this would not be educational. Now I'm going to say here's your piece of education. If you go do a hog hunt, about a quarter of the weight is actual meat that you can take home. So if it's a hundred-pound hog, you got about 25 pounds of meat.

SPEAKER_06 15:50

Yep. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

So there you go. You learn something every time you listen to this podcast. Absolutely. That is the goal. Okay. So we're going to find a couple more people. I'm going to pass along the hosting duties to Dave, and yeah, we'll go find somebody to see who's next.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

Okay, we're back. It's me, Dave Riley, the blacktail coach. Aaron has stepped away for a few minutes, got called up to the front office, being reprimanded for something, I'm sure. But right

DJ And Alex On The Chaos

SPEAKER_04 16:16

now I'm here with my son DJ and our all-star pro staffer, Turkey Hunter Extraordinaire, Alex Cheney. And we're out here at Boers All Day. So we've got some stories to tell. One of the funniest ones is sitting here to my left. That would be my son. Yep. Lots of good stories. Yeah. But let's kind of so how would you guys think so far?

SPEAKER_02 16:38

I'm having a great time. Oh yeah? Yeah, great time. Great people. It's a great experience.

SPEAKER_05 16:42

Great first experience. I'm gonna say I've never been on a hawk hunt before, but yeah, everything was just a blast.

SPEAKER_04 16:48

Right on, right on. Plenty to shoot at, right? Oh yeah. We're not coming back with any ammo. We're laughing right now because my son, the first morning, ran out of ammunition. He shot so many times. And it's funny because Mark and Alex, go ahead and tell them about how you guys were in your blind and how you were counting all the shots.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah, so there was a we were in our blind, there was a bunch of empty cases left from previous hunters, and every time we would hear a shot, we would put a case, an empty casing up on the shelf. And so go ahead. And so by the time our three or four hours or however many hours we hunted that morning were up, we had probably about 40, 40 shelf casings in one morning.

SPEAKER_05 17:28

I just want to go on the record, those all were not mine. All right. Half of those are Alan, but how many shots did you take? Oh, easily 15. 15 shots. And how many pigs did you walk away with? I walked away with five, but a lot of it was just double taps to finish them. But yeah. How many did Alan shoot? Alan, oh, he ended up walking away with three that morning, and then he went back the next morning and got two. And I think he got the second biggest one. But yeah. Alan was just a kick in the pants. And oh my gosh. He was actually the first one that drew first blood. No, I Jimmy. I think Jimmy did.

SPEAKER_04 18:00

Jimmy did. Alan was the first rifle guy to to uh kill a pig, but Jimmy was the first one to hit a pig in the morning. I don't I want to say put an arrow in, but it was the very first pig, period. They were running. It was crazy. Yeah, it was it wasn't as easy as they see on TV where they're doing fake stations and that, and the pigs come in and they're standing still. These pigs were scooting. Oh man, you only had You had seconds. Seconds.

SPEAKER_05 18:26

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the time the shots that me and Alan took, they were all moving. There was very subtle, or there were very few points where they actually stopped and we could get a good shot.

SPEAKER_04 18:35

And when they did stop, it was like one to two seconds, and then they were moving again.

SPEAKER_03 18:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

But yeah, I was on one side of this area, and all the rifle guys were on the other side, and there was so much shooting coming out of your area. When the pigs went by me, I shot two, that's all I wanted. And I kind of was sitting there. I hung my bow up and I was just kind of sitting there listening and everything. But they'd come by my stand, and because I wasn't shooting or moving or anything, they would just sit there and linger for a little bit, and then they would make their way back over behind me towards you guys. And I just kept saying to myself, don't go back there. Yep. They know what's coming. It's not good. It's not gonna end good if you go back there. And it man, it wasn't two minutes later, boom, boom, boom.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

Yeah. Me and Mark, first morning, we're watching these pigs, and we had plenty of shot opportunities. We just didn't see anything we wanted just yet. We watched them for a bit and they started going towards Alan and DJ's way. And I was like, oh no, they're walking into the danger zone. Yeah. No more than 15 seconds later, boom.

SPEAKER_04 19:33

There's a shooting gallery going on over there.

SPEAKER_05 19:35

I just want to say Alan was a bad influence.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

That's the only reason I shot that. That would be my recommendation. It's easy to get carried away at someplace like this, you know what I mean, where it's you're paying by the pound, and it's really because even Mike said on the second day, he said, I didn't intend on going out there and shooting anything. And he just made the mistake of taking his bow, and then all of a sudden he we shot a couple more pigs, and it's just yeah, you really gotta be disciplined and a lot of self-control because it's easy to get carried away here and whatnot.

SPEAKER_05 20:05

But yeah, Mike was telling me that, or he was telling everyone at camp before we went out, just make sure you pace yourselves because the pigs are heavier than they look, and you can get carried away if you shoot three pigs. I mean, you're looking at the builds, oh, okay, I'm probably done, or you just gotta spread that out throughout the two days or however long you're staying. But I'm thinking next year, because there's already a lot of guys don't want to do the purge, and if anybody doesn't know that, it's four guys together, $700 each, kill as many pigs as you can. And we actually had another group on the second day come by and they were on the opposite side of the right, the military group. Yeah. And oh my gosh, there was one point where they just cornered all these pigs, and they all had semi-auto rifles. So at one point it just sounded like a the fire it's just going off like crazy.

SPEAKER_04 20:51

It makes it sound real inhumane, but all of these pigs are being they're gonna they're not going to waste, they're being harvested and cut up, and all the meat is either donated to some kind of food bank and or goes home with the shooter, so nothing goes to waste. And so we don't want to pin it in a light word it's just shoot them and leave them kind of thing. They come out and they have a big trailer, and man, we had 19 pigs on that first day. That trailer it was full, it was full, and yeah, they took good care of us, they cleaned it, hung them, cleaned them, quartered them out, put them in the walk-in cooler, and so yeah, it was really cool that way. But Alex, you got the biggest pig of the trip.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Yep, yes, I did.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Yeah, I knew what I wanted. This was 11 years ago now, but if I've been on a pig hunt before, oh, have you with a knife, right? With a knife, yeah. Yep. Yeah, this was down in Florida. So I've and I just got the one. It's not like I shot multiple. Uh huh. But that was a smaller pig, and so I knew what I wanted and wanted to hold out for a good one and finally found the good one on it was the first day, but in the afternoon, and yeah, they took you right back out for another opportunity. Yep, exactly. So we put we sat in the blind on the m the The first morning I had lots of so shot opportunities, but didn't see anything that I wanted to pull the trigger on and went out in the evening, did a spotting stock and was able to connect with a big boar. Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

And you're getting uh a Euroed or what are you thinking? I think I'm gonna do a shoulder on this one.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Yeah, my my uncle used to be a big hog hunter. Oh. And he's he's no longer with us, unfortunately, but just kind of for him, for his sake. Yeah, I think I'm gonna go that route.

SPEAKER_04 22:27

Nice, nice, yeah. That's a great way to to end your hunt. Yeah. You know what I mean? A nice way to remember him.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:33

Right on. Well, guys, I want to say it's been fun sharing camp with you. My son, I am so glad you've got a job and can pay for all of this yourself because you went nuts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:44

I was gonna I was thinking to myself at the beginning of his trip, it's like, all right, I gotta fill out and get all that I want so that the next day or the rest of the hunt, I could film everybody else. And it ended up working great. I got to go film Alex getting his biggest boar. I got to film me and Alan together. I got to film Mike when he got his aw dad. That was a really cool hunt, and that'll be uploaded shortly soon. But yeah, it's just it's been a very great experience. Awesome here.

SPEAKER_04 23:08

Awesome. Yeah, and the facilities here are just it's outstanding. This lodge is awesome. There's plenty of room. We got what, 12 guys? Something like that. And everybody has their own bed, and there's plenty of bathrooms, and it's a man cave. Yeah, I mean, it's really nice. Yeah, I'm really impressed. So you got the fire pit outside, pool table, right? Cornhole. Yeah, and they're out there barbecuing some backstrap for us now, and yeah, TVs everywhere. It's a good time. Yeah, it's a great vacation. Nice place to come and relax. But anyway, that was my son and Alex Cheney down here from Washington, down here in Texas. We are putting the herd on some pigs, and boy, have they done that this weekend. But we brought Mike Dippo back. We've got we want to go a little bit more in depth with the Aw Dad hunt. My son is also here with us. He filmed it for you.

Mike’s Aoudad Shot And Redemption

SPEAKER_04 23:59

So walk us through it, Mike. What was going through your mind? How long have you been preparing for Aw Dad?

SPEAKER_07 24:05

For a few days. No, actually, I I when we were getting ready for this trip, I had an opportunity when I was talking to Dylan about it, and he had said that they had a spring special or something. I don't know. Are we in spring or summer? I don't know. But he had a special for it. So I was like, all right, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. I want to do it with my bow, which I'm telling you, it is harder than people would think. And so yeah, no. And DJ, he talked me off the cliff a few times because it's not that easy taking some of those shots. And there my the one particular shot, I had a good view of it, 35 yards. It should have been an easy shot. And I did I kind of stood up, drew my bow back, and when I released, my cam hit the rail.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

I saw the video and I was like, oh, I could see just before it was it was you could have slid paper between that bottom cam and it was really, really close.

SPEAKER_07 25:02

And that was kind of my fault because I wasn't paying attention. I was focused more on the odd ad itself because it was tough to get him to kind of come in and get in a position to where you could take that shot. But I think hopefully he doesn't have it, but I think I might have cried a little bit because I thought, oh, I just blew this and was a little bit worried about it. And D just it's okay, it's okay, just be patient. They'll come back. And he did, yeah, he was right. It took a little while for a while. In fact, it was funny because Dylan texted us when we were sitting in the stand and he's I think I see him over here. You want to come down and do a spot and stock? And I was like, sure. And then just about that time, we kind of saw some movement, and I'm like, wait, we might be they might be coming back. So we just kind of set up, and DJ would be my conscience, and my good cheerleader back there was like, just take your time, set up the shot. Yeah, set up the shot. Talk you through it. Yep. He said, Don't be in a hurry, let them come in, let them get in position, and then take your shot. And man, he was right. Oh, yeah. No, I'm not even exaggerating, just so you know. It was like, and then going from that absolute feeling of I just blew it, right? You know, of from that to just the adrenaline rush of I hit it, I hit it. Did you see that I hit it? And he's like, Yes, I saw it. I recorded it. No, it was an amazing opportunity, and it was so awesome to have DJ there with me.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

And it's so nice when you have someone there that can actually be because I've taken enough guys out, Blacktail and Elk and whatnot, and even Bear, that you get excited. Oh, yeah. And you don't realize some of the stuff that you're doing while you're doing it. Yep. Because you're so focused on that moment that you're not taking in all this other stuff that's happening around you. And so it's good to have that second person there, not just to only to film, but just to keep you grounded so that you work hard for that shot. Yep. And to relate that to our typical elk or deer or bear hunting and stuff, you work all year or months for that shot. You've put in all this effort, all this work, all this time, and then when it gets there, you still have got to seal the deal. Yep. And that's the thing. Is and I've done it myself, I've watched a lot of guys do it. You get that opportunity and you blow it because you make little mistakes that you don't realize you're making at the moment. And so true. And you get that, you there's a there is that heavy feeling when you I don't want to say blow it, but when you do miss or something transpires where you're not hitting the animal like you had planned, it's easy to get down and discouraged just to throw in the towel. That was it. I'll never get another chance and whatnot. But yeah, it's always good to have a voice of reason there to say, you know what, they didn't know what happened, or you know, no, and that's exactly what Dylan or DJ did was he was like, It's okay, you'll get another shot.

SPEAKER_07 27:58

And I think I was like, Oh, we just we done, we're done. Oh no, we're not. I could see it in his face.

SPEAKER_05 28:04

Oh, I just blew my one opportunity. And it's funny because I've been in those situations where it's you had one shot, you blew it, but then again, too, it's they just came back all of a sudden, and you feel there's no reason that they should. I mean, they had no idea what happened other than they just heard branches break and then they just took off.

SPEAKER_07 28:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 28:23

But then again, it was just awesome filming all of that and just watching I like especially I love it doing with my dad too, just capturing the raw footage of them just being themselves in the woods and just letting them concentrate. So I because it makes one, it makes it more authentic because they don't have to worry about the camera. Yeah, it's a hundred percent real for them. I just get to be there, I get to just record it all, and I just get to put it together and make something really cool out of it. But in the end, for me, as shooting a buck is the same thing as recording somebody shooting a buck. I feel the exact same way. Sometimes better just seeing other people succeed.

SPEAKER_07 28:56

Yep. And to that to that point, I actually have a Cupid that you put on the front of your bow and you can record with your phone and that. And after I missed that shot, I was like, I'm just not gonna record anymore. Good. Let me deal with the recording. You just focus on the odd advanced. I'm gonna delete that last.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

Yeah, I was like, oh, it's good.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

Let me play recording. Never happened.

SPEAKER_06 29:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

But you hunt long enough, you're gonna miss. It's just that's the reality of it. It's hunting, it's not killing, and that's the way it is. But you got an arrow in him. Walk us through that. How was it was the feeling of oh well was the pressure off, or were you still pretty wound up?

SPEAKER_07 29:37

The pressure was off, but I think my knees were still shaking because I was so excited. And I just I probably told DJ about five tenths, I hit it. I think I hit it. I think I hit it. He's like, no, you hit it.

SPEAKER_05 29:47

It was a good shot. It was a good shot. I was looking through the camera. I was okay. You hit it. Where did you hit it? Yeah. Okay, it looked good enough. We'll give it five minutes five minutes. Next thing you know, we have Dylan come walking out. I found him. Yeah, Dylan fast.

SPEAKER_07 30:02

Oh, he did it, yeah. He didn't, I don't, what do you say, 20, 30 yards or whatever? And he dropped.

SPEAKER_05 30:06

Oh, I would say 30. Yeah, he did not go far, but he went to a point where we couldn't see him because there's a big tree in the way. So all right, I I lost him, but I didn't hear a crash. So it's like, all right, we'll just give it time. And then he walked up and said, Hey, I found it. So like, all right, let's go walk up and get this audit.

SPEAKER_07 30:20

Yep, yeah, it was a it was a clean shot and it was fun because I think we did watch the video a few times in the stand while we were waiting just to verify and make sure that that was a hit, right?

SPEAKER_04 30:29

That was that's and that's one of the things I love about having a cameraman or filming myself, is that you can look the footage over again and get an idea of where because there's times, especially when you're hunting an animal that you've never hunted before, and you finally got a bullet or an arrow in them, and you're like, okay, I was so wrapped up in the moment I didn't necessarily I know where my pin was or I know where the the crosshairs were, but yeah, did I flinch? Did I do this? You you know, you always that's when all the doubting seems to come in, you know, and so it it's nice when you can look back on that footage and say, Oh yeah, that's exactly where I was aiming, that's exactly where I hit him. Good deal. Good deal.

SPEAKER_07 31:06

No, and appreciate that as well in the sense that even if you do miss and you do fail, having that video to watch and just kind of learn from it is still Am I torquing my wrist or what is it that's going on when I'm shooting my bow? And just having that footage. And then on top of that, one of the things that we at Nakaholics take a lot of pride in is capturing that moment forever and memories and being able to relive that. I promise you when I say me and DJ, we got history now with that. I'm gonna be talking about that history way before that. But I'm gonna have this video showing my grandkids. Look, DJ did this. So which brings me to my next point.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

I've been asked to break it to you. That footage got deleted.

SPEAKER_05 31:50

No, it didn't because he sent me a copy of it. Dude, I was so pumped for you as soon as you got that second shot. Because I mean, you I could tell you're totally down after that first one. Oh, and it's just it's gonna happen, dude. It's gonna happen. It's what you picked yourself right back up. Stay pumped. And then you waited and they came right back in and you got it done. Stay pop in.

SPEAKER_07 32:07

I'm super excited because if you haven't seen some of the work that DJ is doing as far as videography, he is making some epic stuff, and I cannot wait to see what he puts together with that video because yes, he did get he was there, and I think he recorded the misshot too. I just hope that the hole that I was doing wasn't on it, but just know that it was tough, and I appreciated him being there, the support saying, Hey, come on, man, keep your head up, it's gonna happen, they're gonna be back. And then the triumph the way that we did was amazing, and so I'm super pumped to see what video what he puts together when he releases his little his video.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

I'm sure we're gonna we're gonna post it just about everywhere. I know I will. We may even we may even post the hit. The miss I know is gonna make prime time.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

All right, guys. Thank you, Mike. Thank you for inviting us and bringing us all here. What a wonderful time. Thank you guys. But I'm gonna wrap this up, and we got one more interview left. And yeah, thank you guys. Yep, thank you. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Okay, we're gonna wrap it up now with Dave still here, and we've got Mark Boone. Hey, he's going to wrap it up. So, how many hogs did you end

Mark’s One Shot Trophy Talk

SPEAKER_01 33:20

up with?

SPEAKER_08 33:20

I was a little picky. I got one.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

You got one. One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill. And you were in the tree stand, those with restraint. One shot, one kill. And same with Alex, he had one shot, one kill, right? Yeah, we were together in the morning there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 33:37

So you had plenty of opportunities. You just only wanted we were analyzing the situation quite a bit. We never hunted, well, he hunted pigs once he didn't have the target-rich environment like this, but I've never done it before. So I wanted one with those tusks, right? And I thought they were like warthogs in Africa, they really stick out, and that wasn't the case. So we were pretty patient and just analyzing, looking to see which one we really wanted.

SPEAKER_04 34:02

Yeah, yeah. You guys were after the trophy.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Their nose looks like a Coke bottle, it just flares out the their lips, their lips, yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_08 34:10

Yeah, you don't see the tusk too much or the ivory part of it. You do a little bit, and we're 80 yards away looking through our binoculars, trying to judge this, right? So it was fun. But we never hunted together, and so it was kind of cool because we got to see both of us were patient like that and really analyzing and saying, Oh man, I think that one right there, or that one, and then it'd be squealing and oh yeah, that's a bore for sure. Right. Right. Right. It was fun. That's funny. Just one.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

So that restraint. And he only fired one round.

SPEAKER_08 34:40

One round, Alex was right there. Solid did a little, I don't know, uh, a rodeo bowl kind of kick thing and went 20 yards, and that was it. Get out your wallet. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

Get out your wallet. Yeah, we got to pay up here in a few minutes. Yeah. Finish up this.

SPEAKER_08 34:54

Yeah, it's fun though, but I was able to take all the hide off and I'm gonna bring it home and do a euro mount with it. And it got exactly it was a scrapper. It actually only had the tusk on one side. Oh. The other side was broke off. It was ears were all tore up and everything.

SPEAKER_04 35:09

So a lot of character.

SPEAKER_08 35:10

Yeah, yeah. I'm taking it. And he the the guy here said, Oh, we could give you another tooth. And it's like, no, this is how he is, right? So unique, just those black wheels.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

You want want one that's stuck around. Yeah. I don't think these hogs stick around very long.

SPEAKER_04 35:23

They're moving all the time.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

They're moving, and there's lots of turnover because they said that just on this ranch that they it harvests seven to nine thousand a year. So hogs in Texas, they're invasive species. And I know Dave had mentioned that the the meat goes to food banks and it's not going to waste. This is an invasive species. They go and actually capture these off of ranches and farmland where they're destroying things and bring them up. Just on this ranch.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

So you gotta think of how many there are across the state of Texas.

SPEAKER_04 36:03

If there wasn't something like this to do, can you imagine how they would just overrun state after state after state? Because they litter every three months.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

Yeah. And that's the problem with invasive species, is you've got to deal with them. So you you just do. And so this has been this is a very good way that brings money into the economy. And we get to go home with some meat. We just had a sample of the steaks, the backstrap that we're having. So it's very good. Yep. Really good. Tasted like your the pork you're buying out of the store. I was a little worried it was gonna be gamey, and then I was gonna have to not touch any more of it. But that was not the case because I will not I I won't eat anything that's even remotely gamey.

SPEAKER_08 36:46

Now you gotta try it without it soaking in milk and see if it really made a difference.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

And that's what I want to do because we soak this in milk overnight. Yeah. This that we're eating tonight.

SPEAKER_04 36:55

Now these are the backstrap off of Alex's bore. Is that correct? We shoot so many. I thought it was the backstrap. It might have been. Is it not off? Okay, it's I'm getting a head shake. No. So this is the backstrap off of a pig.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Off of a pig.

SPEAKER_04 37:09

That's that's how specific I'm gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

One of the 24 or 25 was probably a bigger one, though, I would imagine, because of the size.

SPEAKER_04 37:16

Yeah. The size of the group as well.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Yeah. Yeah. So there were ten of us total here at this hunt. And yeah, like I said, Nakaholics, Archers All Day.

SPEAKER_04 37:26

Or the everyday archers, sorry. Yeah. Fours all day.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Go check out their podcast. Thank you for listening to ours. If you could go on,

Meat, Invasive Hogs, And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_01 37:39

subscribe, follow, do all of those things. That would be great. We will be coming up with our class schedule of what's happening next year. Looking forward to that. But until next week.