mattador96
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- Apr 25, 2010
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1-07-2012 I hunted with Alfred Luis of Central Coast Outfitters. I have been hunting with Alfred on the Cojo-Jalama Ranch since 2007. This is an excellent time of the year since it is not very hot and the pigs always seem not very pressured on the ranch. I met Alfred at his place at 5 am and we headed off to the ranch. I decided to bring my Excalibur Crossbow and my Browning X bolt chambered in 300 wsm. On this trip I was using 180 grain Barnes Triple Shock bullets. Right off the bat we found a nice boar and were able to get within crossbow distance. Alfred used his Leica ranging binoculars and he told me the boar was 37 yards away. I had the crosshairs of the scoped crossbow a little high and behind his shoulder. He was a little farther than I wanted to shoot and I was really looking for some good eating sows. Most people in their right mind would have pulled the trigger but I decided not to. He was a nice boar and I watched him trot off. We hopped back in the truck and went looking for some more pigs. We founds some more pretty quick but they scurried off over a hill before we could get into crossbow range. He took me to another hill and mixed in with some cows were several nice pigs. One was a massive boar. I decided to stay focused on my goal of a sow and put a triple shock bullet through one of the sows shoulder. She instantly went down and the others scurried off. I was glad that she went down so quick but unfortunately I blew one of her shoulders apart. I know I lost some food meat. Alfred cleaned up the pig and hung it in a tree. By now it was lunch time so we headed to Jalama beach for their famous burgers. Definitely something not to miss. We took a 2 hour break or so and went looking for more pigs on the massive ranch. We found some pigs but couldn't close the deal before they scurried off. I am sure that we had seen 25-30 pigs so far including some wet sows with numerous football sized piglets. It was nearly 4:30 before we found some more good hogs. These were a group that we had encountered earlier that had scurried off on us. They were a long ways off and mixed in with some cows when Alfred spotted them. We stopped the truck about 300 yards from them. The wind was in our favor. We got to within 100 yards of them and they separated out from the cows. I put the cross hairs of the Nikon Monarch scope behind the shoulder of the one furthest to the right and pulled the trigger. The pig instantly dropped. It kinda looked for a few seconds like it might get back up but never did. Upon inspection the bullet entered kinda far back on the right side and exited through the left shoulder. That did the job. I have hunted with Alfred numerous times and fully plan on hunting more with him. Every hunt I learn something. I need to extend my comfortable range with my crossbow. I will do that. Being familiar with your weapon and skill level is a must. There is no substitute for good optics. A good guide and a productive ranch makes all the difference.
