- Thread starter Caninelaw
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Caninelaw
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Best Father's Day Ever - Full Report - Cedar Canyon
Ok, here’s the full report.
Since my little essay that got me chosen for the 2010 JHO Cedar Canyon Hog Hunt Giveaway was about me giving the hunt to my son, he and I arrived at Cedar Canyon about 2 PM on Friday. Chris is 23 and I’ve never had an opportunity to take him on a big game hunt. In fact, the last time I was on a big game hunt was before he was born. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do with him and I’m thankful to Bill, Jesse and JHO for this opportunity. We meet Bill and shortly Jesse arrived. We fired the rifles to make sure they were still sighted in and they were good to go. I had my .44 Super Redhawk along too but I hadn’t had a chance to fire that with copper rounds yet. I couldn’t even get that on the paper at 50 yards so I figured I’d just carry that for the coupe-de-grace if needed.
About 5 PM or so Bill told us we should go sit at one of the upper canyons on the ranch and wait for the pigs to start moving. Jesse went with up with us to film and we headed out. When we got to the area we hopped in the blind Bill had prepared there and we waited. About 8:05 pm a large boar steps out of the brush across the canyon at about 220 yards. Chris lines up on him and fires. The boar runs down slope and Jesse thinks Chris hit it. Chris hikes over and can’t find any blood, hair or anything. It’s now getting dark so he hikes back over. We go into camp and tell Bill and he sends Paul and Ryan with a couple dogs to try and track the pig and determine if Chris hit it.
After an extensive flashlight / dog search they don’t find anything so we conclude it was a miss. Even though Jesse got the shot on tape we still couldn’t tell for sure with the small monitor on his camera. Due to this search, which was delayed because they were searching for a wounded pig from another hunter, we’re in bed about midnight. We get up Saturday morning and head for a small canyon with a spring in it. Jesse’s along filming again. We set above the spring for several hours and don’t see anything. We come into camp and eat lunch and relax a while and decide to head back to the spring area. Still nothing in this area but we do get a glimpse of a pig running by a couple hundred yards away, no chance for a shot on that one, and a couple of piglets run by above us, but they looked to be about 20 pounds each. While we’re sitting in this canyon we hear some ravens going off about something for about 15 minutes.
All of a sudden we hear a blood curdling scream which sounds like a pissed-off bobcat. I don’t know if the ravens were harassing him and he finally had enough of it or what the deal was but that kind of made the hair on the back of the neck stand up. We decide to leave this area and check out another spot on the way in with about 45 minutes of light left. We get there and we’re standing there looking over the canyon and a nice boar pops out of the brush. Chris takes a shot at him at about 150 yards, no hit. He spins around and heads back uphill. I’m backing Chris and get off a shot at about 175 and another at about 200 as it runs back up the hill. I’m thinking I missed, Jesse thinks he saw the pig go a little sideways like it could have been hit.
So Chris takes off down the hill and up the other side looking for any signs of a hit. Ryan and Paul heard the shots as this spot wasn’t far from camp and they come up in their quads with the dogs. They go over where Chris is looking and start looking around but neither they nor the dog could find anything so it looks like another miss (guess we’ve both go pig fever, LOL). Anyway, back in camp that night Bill has a nice BBQ for everybody, which was great! Sunday we get up early and hit the same canyon we got the shots in last night. Jesse told us to go on our own and see if our luck changes. About 6:00 am we see one huge boar but he’s way across the canyon at about 500 to 600 yards so all we can do is watch him trot across the slope.
About 7:15 am we decide to head in and decide what we’re going to do next. We drive down the road and I hop out to open the gate. As I do Chris, in a loud whisper says, “Pigs!” I say “where” and he says “over here” pointing to the left of the road. I look and there are a couple of pigs walking down the fence line towards us. They’re only about 50 yards away and they either see or hear us and freeze. We bail out and I shuck two rounds into my magazine and Chris, shooting his Ruger #1 loads his one round. He targets the lead pig and fires. His pig is hit and goes down like a rock kicking in the air for a few seconds. I fire about a second after Chris and hit my pig. He squeals and run down to the bottom of the draw and runs to the left of us. Since we were in the truck and unloaded I only had time to put two rounds in the rifle.
Also I didn’t have the Redhawk with me since I took the holster off my belt and unloaded that when we got in the truck. I go down in the draw and start trailing the pig. I go about 20 yards and start seeing a real good blood trail. After about 75 to 100 yards further I see some of the tall grass in the draw moving next to a dead log. I circle around the log and I can see the pig hiding next to the log acting confused like he doesn’t know witch way he wants to go. I put another one in him and he’s done, (good thing since I didn’t have any more ammo on me). Since we’re like 100 yards from our camp Ryan comes out right away with the quad and hauls the two pigs back for us.
Wow! Father’s day and I get to see my son harvest his first big game animal and I get to harvest one of my own seconds later, how could it get any better?
For those that are curious we were both shooting Hornady 7 mm Remington Magnum GMX 139 grain. We were slightly above the pigs shooting down at them. Chris spine shot his and the GMX just looked like it exploded and left a fist sized hole in the pig’s back (picture below). I hit my pig a little off center and the bullet traveled through his right shoulder and raked along his ribs making a ½ inch wide wound channel. I probably got an artery as he was bleeding real good and didn’t go too far. The finishing shot was though the back and out the bottom of the chest but that one didn’t look like it expanded at all. All the bullets went through so none were recovered.
We had Bill and his crew skin and process the pigs and left with a couple ice chests full of steaks, ribs, roasts and sausage.
We both though that the hunt was as challenging as any other hunt on any ranch could be. Although they do put the pigs on Cedar Canyon, after hunting there I am of the opinion that the only thing that means is that at least you know there are some pigs there. All the pigs we saw acted as wild as I’ve seen them on any other ranch and would hide and run just like “wild” ones. As far as I’m concerned these pigs are as wild as any other on any other ranch. We came within a couple hours of leaving without a pig so it obviously isn’t a walk-right-up-to-them-and-shoot-them such as you may have heard about another “ranch” in the Riverside area.
I’d like to again thank Bill and Jesse for choosing us for this pig hunt as it was truly a “dream come true” (to use an old cliché).
Here’s some pictures of the ranch.
Here's the wound on Chris' pig. (not for the squeamish)
And one more time with the pigs, me and my boy!
Ok, here’s the full report.
Since my little essay that got me chosen for the 2010 JHO Cedar Canyon Hog Hunt Giveaway was about me giving the hunt to my son, he and I arrived at Cedar Canyon about 2 PM on Friday. Chris is 23 and I’ve never had an opportunity to take him on a big game hunt. In fact, the last time I was on a big game hunt was before he was born. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do with him and I’m thankful to Bill, Jesse and JHO for this opportunity. We meet Bill and shortly Jesse arrived. We fired the rifles to make sure they were still sighted in and they were good to go. I had my .44 Super Redhawk along too but I hadn’t had a chance to fire that with copper rounds yet. I couldn’t even get that on the paper at 50 yards so I figured I’d just carry that for the coupe-de-grace if needed.
About 5 PM or so Bill told us we should go sit at one of the upper canyons on the ranch and wait for the pigs to start moving. Jesse went with up with us to film and we headed out. When we got to the area we hopped in the blind Bill had prepared there and we waited. About 8:05 pm a large boar steps out of the brush across the canyon at about 220 yards. Chris lines up on him and fires. The boar runs down slope and Jesse thinks Chris hit it. Chris hikes over and can’t find any blood, hair or anything. It’s now getting dark so he hikes back over. We go into camp and tell Bill and he sends Paul and Ryan with a couple dogs to try and track the pig and determine if Chris hit it.
After an extensive flashlight / dog search they don’t find anything so we conclude it was a miss. Even though Jesse got the shot on tape we still couldn’t tell for sure with the small monitor on his camera. Due to this search, which was delayed because they were searching for a wounded pig from another hunter, we’re in bed about midnight. We get up Saturday morning and head for a small canyon with a spring in it. Jesse’s along filming again. We set above the spring for several hours and don’t see anything. We come into camp and eat lunch and relax a while and decide to head back to the spring area. Still nothing in this area but we do get a glimpse of a pig running by a couple hundred yards away, no chance for a shot on that one, and a couple of piglets run by above us, but they looked to be about 20 pounds each. While we’re sitting in this canyon we hear some ravens going off about something for about 15 minutes.
All of a sudden we hear a blood curdling scream which sounds like a pissed-off bobcat. I don’t know if the ravens were harassing him and he finally had enough of it or what the deal was but that kind of made the hair on the back of the neck stand up. We decide to leave this area and check out another spot on the way in with about 45 minutes of light left. We get there and we’re standing there looking over the canyon and a nice boar pops out of the brush. Chris takes a shot at him at about 150 yards, no hit. He spins around and heads back uphill. I’m backing Chris and get off a shot at about 175 and another at about 200 as it runs back up the hill. I’m thinking I missed, Jesse thinks he saw the pig go a little sideways like it could have been hit.
So Chris takes off down the hill and up the other side looking for any signs of a hit. Ryan and Paul heard the shots as this spot wasn’t far from camp and they come up in their quads with the dogs. They go over where Chris is looking and start looking around but neither they nor the dog could find anything so it looks like another miss (guess we’ve both go pig fever, LOL). Anyway, back in camp that night Bill has a nice BBQ for everybody, which was great! Sunday we get up early and hit the same canyon we got the shots in last night. Jesse told us to go on our own and see if our luck changes. About 6:00 am we see one huge boar but he’s way across the canyon at about 500 to 600 yards so all we can do is watch him trot across the slope.
About 7:15 am we decide to head in and decide what we’re going to do next. We drive down the road and I hop out to open the gate. As I do Chris, in a loud whisper says, “Pigs!” I say “where” and he says “over here” pointing to the left of the road. I look and there are a couple of pigs walking down the fence line towards us. They’re only about 50 yards away and they either see or hear us and freeze. We bail out and I shuck two rounds into my magazine and Chris, shooting his Ruger #1 loads his one round. He targets the lead pig and fires. His pig is hit and goes down like a rock kicking in the air for a few seconds. I fire about a second after Chris and hit my pig. He squeals and run down to the bottom of the draw and runs to the left of us. Since we were in the truck and unloaded I only had time to put two rounds in the rifle.
Also I didn’t have the Redhawk with me since I took the holster off my belt and unloaded that when we got in the truck. I go down in the draw and start trailing the pig. I go about 20 yards and start seeing a real good blood trail. After about 75 to 100 yards further I see some of the tall grass in the draw moving next to a dead log. I circle around the log and I can see the pig hiding next to the log acting confused like he doesn’t know witch way he wants to go. I put another one in him and he’s done, (good thing since I didn’t have any more ammo on me). Since we’re like 100 yards from our camp Ryan comes out right away with the quad and hauls the two pigs back for us.
Wow! Father’s day and I get to see my son harvest his first big game animal and I get to harvest one of my own seconds later, how could it get any better?
For those that are curious we were both shooting Hornady 7 mm Remington Magnum GMX 139 grain. We were slightly above the pigs shooting down at them. Chris spine shot his and the GMX just looked like it exploded and left a fist sized hole in the pig’s back (picture below). I hit my pig a little off center and the bullet traveled through his right shoulder and raked along his ribs making a ½ inch wide wound channel. I probably got an artery as he was bleeding real good and didn’t go too far. The finishing shot was though the back and out the bottom of the chest but that one didn’t look like it expanded at all. All the bullets went through so none were recovered.
We had Bill and his crew skin and process the pigs and left with a couple ice chests full of steaks, ribs, roasts and sausage.
We both though that the hunt was as challenging as any other hunt on any ranch could be. Although they do put the pigs on Cedar Canyon, after hunting there I am of the opinion that the only thing that means is that at least you know there are some pigs there. All the pigs we saw acted as wild as I’ve seen them on any other ranch and would hide and run just like “wild” ones. As far as I’m concerned these pigs are as wild as any other on any other ranch. We came within a couple hours of leaving without a pig so it obviously isn’t a walk-right-up-to-them-and-shoot-them such as you may have heard about another “ranch” in the Riverside area.
I’d like to again thank Bill and Jesse for choosing us for this pig hunt as it was truly a “dream come true” (to use an old cliché).
Here’s some pictures of the ranch.
Here's the wound on Chris' pig. (not for the squeamish)
And one more time with the pigs, me and my boy!
HOGHUNTER714
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Sweet! Congrat's!!!!
Vermonster
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After reading your report, I am kind of glad that I didn't win. Glad to see you and your son experience that together!!! Congrats!!! :toast-yellow:
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Here's the video from the weekend. On the first shot Friday night it appears to be high. I didn't see the pig Chris was shooting at leave the frame on the camera and thought he had been hit but you see he veers high in the frame and runs off. The shot was lasered at 221 yards and Chris had a little of an angle, 8 degrees maybe, uphill.
On the 2nd shots Chris and Eric took Saturday night I was setting up the camera when that hog popped out and never got any video of that Chinese Fire Drill. It was an oh crap moment. It was almost the same setup as Ron's shot from last year, same hill except this pig was closer where Ron ended up shooting his 3rd and 4rth shots. This hog turned after being shot at and his back end seemed to buckle but no blood was ever found. Without video to review all I can think of is with the high sage he just made a clean get away without us seeing him go up the ridge.
The weather was almost perfect, staying in the low 70s and kind of cold sometimes in the shade. No snakes but the bugs were the usual pests.
Thanks to Eric and Chris, it was fun to see them work hard to get two hogs. Also huge thanks to Bill, Paul, Ryan and the rest of the crew at Cedar Canyon Ranch for taking care of us and searching for blood on those two shots.
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On the 2nd shots Chris and Eric took Saturday night I was setting up the camera when that hog popped out and never got any video of that Chinese Fire Drill. It was an oh crap moment. It was almost the same setup as Ron's shot from last year, same hill except this pig was closer where Ron ended up shooting his 3rd and 4rth shots. This hog turned after being shot at and his back end seemed to buckle but no blood was ever found. Without video to review all I can think of is with the high sage he just made a clean get away without us seeing him go up the ridge.
The weather was almost perfect, staying in the low 70s and kind of cold sometimes in the shade. No snakes but the bugs were the usual pests.
Thanks to Eric and Chris, it was fun to see them work hard to get two hogs. Also huge thanks to Bill, Paul, Ryan and the rest of the crew at Cedar Canyon Ranch for taking care of us and searching for blood on those two shots.
<object height="385" width="480">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7vePoFixQuY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></object>
Caninelaw
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Do it! There was a guy with his son there that weekend, I think the kid was like 9 years old. Kid got the first pig on Friday afternoon and I believe it was the biggest of the weekend at around 250 pounds. Do it quick though if you want to go to Cedar Canyon. Just found out they lost their lease and they're out of there in December.
Coolusername
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Congrats on winning the contest and getting two nice piggys with your son!!! Very cool story and memories for sure!
