Trip Details 1
I was both surprised and excited when my friend Tom (#1) invited me to join him and his friend Tom (#2) on a hunt at Wild Hill Preserve in Fairlee Vermont. Excited to be able to see and hunt these animals so close to home, and surprised because my wife said yes.
Wild Hill hunts are 2.5 day hunts, either Fri, Sat, and Sun AM, or Mon, Tue, and Wed AM. You arrive the night before. Because of work, we had to shorten our hunt and planned on arriving on Friday night. One important note to mention. There is no cell phone signal available, but there is a land line phone in the office that you can make credit card/collect calls from.
Tom #1 planned to hunt a Bison on Saturday and a boar on Sunday, while Tom #2 and I planned to hunt boar. From my house, it is about a 3 hour drive to Fairlee. I picked up Tom #1 in Chelmsford MA and then Tom #2 in Concord NH. From Concord, I was already half way there.
I had plugged Wild Hill's address into my GPS and it brought me right to the front door. When we arrived at WH it was around 6:00 PM and we were greeted by this:
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We entered the main cabin and met some of the other hunters who had been hunting that day. We met Bill and his son Eric and we were shown our room. We brought our packs in from the truck and began to settle in.
Main Cabin:
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There were probably at least a dozen people staying in the main cabin which had two main open areas with rooms off of each. The main gathering room was well equipped with sofas and chairs as well as dinning tables. It housed a well equipped kitchen and there were probably 3 or 4 bedrooms off of this area. The other area had a couch and a desk (office). The bathrooms (with showers) were off of this area as well as 2 or 3 bedrooms, I think.
Both rooms were decorated with many trophies as well as pictures and souvenirs from Bill's hunt in Alaska and Africa.
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After Dinner, the butchers arrived to pick up the harvested animals. They took each hunters order request and brought back the processed meat the next afternoon. One of the butchers was a young girl who was given a hard time by one of the customers. He was being very particular about what he wanted done because he had a bad experience the previous year, with a different butcher.
Our room was comfortable, but both Tom and Tom snore, but not as badly as some of the others that had rooms near the bathrooms.
Our Room:
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac206/kengog/Wild%20Hill/IMG_0306.jpg
We awoke Saturday morning to coffee brewing. The two coffee pots had trouble keeping up with the demand at first, but eventually caught up. Bill was there keeping the coffee pots brewing and telling stories. Bill is quite a guy and people would tend to migrate in his direction as he spoke.
A very nice woman named Marty came in cooked up breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Each meal was delicious and usually included some game along with eggs, potatoes, etc. One morning I we had boar sausage and french toast which was fabulous.
While eating breakfast, Bill mentioned he had a reduced rate on water buffalo because he wanted to thin out the herd before the winter. Tom #2 decided to change his hunt to a buffalo.
After breakfast everyone met outside in front of the main cabin for Bill's briefing. After that, each hunter was brought to different "stands" (not tree stand) by way of ATV.
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From the front porch you can see the two trout ponds on the property which are allowed to fish, so bring your fishing rod if you like.
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Arron, one of Bill's other sons, brought me to a nice looking area and told me to keep a sharp eye out and they would be back to check on me later. I was there maybe an hour and a half, but didn't even see a squirrel. I did see some deer scat, so I was hopeful. Bill's other son Eric showed up.
He told me they spotted some boar near a field and I should go with him. He also told me that Tom #1 had just shot a boar (he was after a Bison) with his bow and took it with one shot.
We drove up to the field and he told me to follow him on foot. Eric was communicating with Bill and Arron via 2-way. After crossing the field on foot, he told me to wait while he checked on something. While I was waiting I noticed right in front of me, in the woods, was a deer.
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The whole time Eric was gone this deer and I had a staring contest to see who would move first. I won when he bolted as Eric arrived. We hurried back to the ATV, after stopping briefly to grab this shot of the White Mountains.
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We hopped on the ATV and then met up with Bill and Arron. We talked a bit and Bill suggested Arron bring me to this other stand which was next to the edge of the field, with the woods behind me and an ATV trail to my right. They all left and I waited.
As I waited I kept good watch. I made sure to scan the woods behind me as a hunter from the previous day missed a deer because they had come up behind him. I would scan the field and the ATV trail as well. As I scanned I noticed some branches blowing up on the hill in the field. Eventually I realized that one of those branches was not a branch, it was an antler. I continued to scan, but kept a close eye on that antler and sure enough, slowly but surely this fallow deer walked right up the ridge, maybe twenty yards in front of me.
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I must have watched this guy for 45 minutes, pondering the financial decision of whether to take him or not. I sighted in on him a few times, but my pocket book could not handle the $1500-$2000 hunt fee, so I passed on him.
I then heard some wrestling to my left and found a small buck with 4 does. The does were much more alert but I managed to capture one with my camera.
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac206/kengog/Wild%20Hill/IMG_0334.jpg
When I turned back to the Buck I had been watching he was standing straight and alert and looking right at me. Busted. Then I realized he wasn't staring at me, he was staring at the does. Then he proceeded to walk right past me toward them.
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Eventually he followed them off to the woods and I was alone again. Eric then showed up and said we needed to move to another spot. We got there and started moving along this ATV trail. Eric stopped suddenly and signaled to me that one was coming our way.
I got ready and sure enough this beautiful (well maybe not beautiful) boar is heading right in our direction. I got him in my sight and fired. Eric said "You got him!" and then I said "Then why is he still running?". The boar headed up a steep hill that was thickly wooded. I tried to get another shot off before he went over the hill, but I missed him.
We hurried back to the ATV and went around the hill, then we followed him on foot. He was hurt, but still moving. Eventually we caught up to him, and by this time Bill had caught up to us. The boar appeared to be cornered and looked like he was ready to charge and was facing me head on.
Bill was yelling to shoot him while I was trying to figure out where I could hit him without shooting him in the head/face (I planned on a trophy). I fired before he charged. The angle was not good and I think I hit him in the gut. He was still on the move. I dropped my fanny pack and Eric and I gave chase. We caught up to him and he was down but still moving, so I put one right behind his ear.
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Eric field dressed that animal like a pro in no time. They loaded the boar onto the front of Arron's ATV and he and I rode back down to camp, passing Tom #1 on the way down. I met up with Tom #1 at my truck and we each discussed our morning adventure.
Apparently, Tom #1, who was hunting buffalo, came upon a boar so he decided to take it as he was planning on getting a boar as well. He put his pack and bow aside (out of reach) to keep them clean as he field dressed his boar.
No sooner did he start when another boar came upon him, within 20 feet. He didn't move. No bow, and a .357 sitting out of reach on his pack. He see's Eric pop up on the hill and slowly started waving his arms and backing away. It turns out Eric had another hunter with him and they were tracking the second boar.
When Tom #1 was far enough away, the other hunter fired and dropped the boar. Here's Tom #1's boar.
http://i900.photobucket.com/albums/ac206/kengog/Wild%20Hill/Picture020.jpg
Eventually all the hunters made it back to the cabin for lunch. We shared stories and pictures. Tom #2 had not seen any buffalo but was still optimistic. There were 6 boars and a fallow deer taken that morning. The fallow deer was taken by a soldier who was on leave. He was going to make jerky out of all his game to bring back to his unit in Afghanistan.
Here's his deer:
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