Overhill Cherokee STONE AGE BOAR HUNT

by Man True Spirit

"look!" I whispered to Dustin as I was pointing towards two pigs rootin' away from us in the primal looking underbrush of northern Florida. Locals told me Hernando DeSoto came on the road I was using and had built a mission here around 1539. These pigs I was helping control most likely had some genes from the original stock introduced by the explorer.

My great adventure here had begun a few years ago when we met at a Stone Age & Primitive Arts gathering close to here in White Springs Fla. I do several similar events in the south each winter demonstrating the use of a spear thrower or Atlatl. This ancient device represents mankind's first long range large game hunting implement and is said to have been in use some thirty thousand years! Early Americans hunted mammoth and mastodon on the very land I was hunting with this same device some twelve thousand years before me. Most stone "arrow heads" found are actually light spear or dart points used with this hunting implement. I've been told of an engraving made by the DeSoto expedition around 1540 depicting a Cherokee fishing with an atlatl along a river showing this device was still being used in modern times.

The Spear thrower or Atlatl is a simple lever used to throw a light spear or dart with many times the energy a hand thrown spear would have. The darts resemble arrows but are much larger at up to eight feet or more long. The device has tremendous energy due to the darts weighing between 4 and 12 ounces. An Atlatl can propel a hunting dart distances over one hundred yards but realistic hunting range is ten yards and ten feet is even better. In the same way archery equipment requires a magnitude closer range than a rifle, the Atlatl requires a magnitude closer range than archery equipment for effective use. At very close range it was shown to be more effective than archery equipment when shooting a fast moving "Charging Boar" target at the Oxford Traditional Archery Rendezvous 2010 Oxford, NY.

The two pigs disappeared into the thick saw palmetto, oak, and persimmon brush. But more pigs worked the ground around a feeder 50 yards behind where they had been. Now less than an hour after stepping from the car road weary from the 1200 mile drive, I was crawling stalking pigs. Confused wind patterns carried my strong road scent over the pigs and spooked them when I was less than twenty yards away. One ran by some 12 yards away but my aim was low and missed. Dustin had run around to other side of a stand of brush corralling a few pigs between us two. A small blonde boar and a piglet stepped from the brush as Dustin walked in the other side. They stopped broadside about 50 feet away. A simple shot for a rifle or bow but one of the hardest for an Atlatl. The flagging motion of throwing the dart combined with its' relatively slow velocity allows the quarry time react and move out of the way. I missed again.

The following day, rested, fed, and showered I still hunted the whole area to become familiar with it. The fenced and gated 600 acre family owned hunting property contained a serpentine shaped 300 acre pond with enormous shoreline length. Cypress trees grew from the pond and surrounded by long needle pine stands. Free range cattle with real long horns and lots of calves roamed the brush and many cow trails. Huge areas had been rooted up by the many pigs.

Next day I was issued a rifle and told to go get a pig. I spotted the head of a fine eating size sow about 80 yards away as it looked across the cow trail. I instantly brain shot the sow. Pressure now off to prove myself as a hunter to my gracious host I could now put in the time and effort it would take to be successful with the spear thrower.

I got real serious about eliminating scent and noise. I also "gullied" up by adding saw palmetto fans to my left side. These formed a "walking bush" form as I stand somewhat sideways to shoot and could hide behind my own moving blind.

After still hunting to determine generally where the most pig activity was I decided to work my way towards a certain feeder to be there when it cycled near dusk.

Shaking the feeder as I walked by it to determine how much corn was in there was like a dinner bell for the creatures of the area. I'd just got in my ground blind some 25 feet from the feeder when two turkeys came running up the trail and got right on the few pieces corn that fell. As I watched the turkeys an eating size black boar ran by me towards the feeder not more than five feet away from my feet! Startled, my composure a little rattled I abandoned slow movement and instinctively jerked into shooting position. A second boar with blond hair had followed the first right by me and found itself at the wrong place and right time. The dart passed through the neck wear it joined the front quarters hitting the underside of it's' spine and exiting the far side the boar cart wheeled... The dart actually went through so far it stuck in the ground. The shot had been at a range of about ten feet and the boar trotting. I thanked the creator and the spirit of the pig for giving itself. Two in the freezer.

Feeling confident and unpressured I moved with stealth still hunting a brush hogged trail along the back side of a pond. It had been very hot for a few days and I hoped to find the pigs near water/mud. I'd been motionless for a few moments and taking a step two little pigs emerged from under some brush right next to me. Unready the pigs visible for only a second I never shot. After chastising myself for a few seconds for missing my opportunity I resolved that I'd always be ready for this. That didn't take long for as I took another step 12-15 pigs spooked out that lay in the brush just in front of me. I shot my 4.5oz. bamboo dart hitting a black boar at about 12 yards as it ran away from me. The dart passed through its side cutting lung as it exited out the front of the chest and stuck into the bottom of its lower jaw.

Other priorities took me out of the woods for a few days. Upon my return I still hunted for several hours finding out where the pigs were. With dark approaching I sat in a ground blind a few feet away from another feeder. Soon the feeder cycled telling me that it still had corn in it. Dinner bell! Within moments the fence keeping the cattle out of the feeders shook and rattled. A black boar bigger than me came from the palmettos directly to the feeder with no caution. He was the dominant boar of the area and seeing this explained the sign I'd been seeing at this feeder. All the whole kernels of corn gone and lots of little pieces left behind and not many tracks. This pig must have been keeping this feeder for himself! Now feeding right in front of me he turned to the perfect angle for me to cast my dart. His greed was about to do him in, with no other pigs to watch and warn him, anticipation boiling over, I took a full power step into the shot overhand throw casting my dart to the boars quartering away vitals. With a resounding THUD that all successful big game hunters know as a solid hit, my dart struck. Instantly the boar turned and came for me! As he came crashing through my blind I presented him with the rest of my handful of darts as I jumped to avoid getting gored. One of the hand full of darts I'd used to defend myself with passed thru the abdomen and excited the bottom. The pig went right on thru my blind and ran off a little ways, stretched out and fell down dead.

I was in shock, this being my first charge! I'd thought I was out meat hunting but foundmyself hunting "dangerous game in close quarters" with two sticks! Upon butchering we found the initial shot had sliced the liver and both lungs and killed the boar, he just hadn't realized it yet when he charged me.

I'll remember this Boar hunting trip forever. It may stand as the most successful Atlatl hunt to date by a non aboriginal!