Big Game

[SlugMaster]

Has anyone heard of hog hunting starting up again on Santa Cruz Island? Also, for $25 accesss fee you can hunt Bighorn Ranch in Riverside for Pigs Sheep and goats. Kill fee is $275 and $20 to gut skin and cool your kill. Its an easy hunt and excellent for introducing kids and adults. Especially new archery hunters.

 

[Bwht4x4]

You know for a few extra $$$ you could take an up and coming hunter to a real place to hunt, where the animals are free roaming and not stocked like trout.  There are plenty of pig hunting guides along the central coast that could provide a better hunt for slightly more $$$$.  The new hunter would be able to see hunting for what it should be like and in an area that is away from the city and not within ear shot of Interstate 10.  Not to mention some friends of mine in the past have hunted at Big Horn Canyon Farm, oops I mean ranch and found that many of the animals were not as wild and/or ellusive as they'd hope.  Thus taking a new hunter to such a place would give them the false idea that hunting is easy and no work.  Hunting should be tough and physical.  There should be many uncertanties about hunting.  At BHCR it's going to be shooting, not hunting, you'd might as well teach that new hunter to become proficient in looking for the best prices on meat in the local supermarkets, because that's all which is really happening .

 

[SlugMaster]

jUST LIKE FISHING, it helps a 12 year olds inthusiasm towards the sport to get that fish or pig or deer after many days of not seeing anything so they are not turned off. My son had a great time hunting a Dall Sheep and making a perfect 150 yard double lung shot with his .30-.30. He felt the same pride in himself as he did on that first trout and his first touchdown in football and first pheasant planted by the DFG. What do you think of all those fat asses sittin inthe luxury stands on TNN waiting for that 10 point buck just walk right up to them?

 

[Bwht4x4]

Well I can't figure out your reply.  It sounds like you agree with me, especially with your examples.  

On another note.  You took your son on a Dall Sheep hunt and he made a 150 yard shot with a 30-30.  All I have to say is that your son made a hell of a shot after you gave him such a huge handicap by making him use a 30-30.  Why would you do such a thing?  Sheep hunting is known to be a hunt of occasional long shots.  How would your son have felt after spend days and days hunting for sheep and having many opprtunities at sheep 250 yards and greater?  Don't get me wrong a 250 yard shot is no piece of cake, but due to the lack of power and lack of accuracy of the 30-30 that kind of shot would be ethically wrong, and you probably wouldn't have let him take such a shot.  Wow!

 

[Speckmisser]

Bwht,

I'm sure slugmaster can, and will speak for himself, but in the initiative post he said they were hunting on a ranch (AKA Preserve).  I doubt this was a Dall Sheep hunt in the more "traditional" sense.  

150 is still a long shot with a 30-30, but not completely unreasonable... especially with good ammo and a scope.  Not knowing more about the shooter and his skills/practice, I'd hesitate to criticize.  

I've got really mixed feelings about preserve hunting, but I can also see the desire to "guarantee" game to a young beginner.  Personally, though, I'd say give the kid more credit than that.  If he quits after a season or two without killing something, then maybe his priorities aren't set quite right anyway.  It's a complicated thing, though.  Big game hunting in CA isn't well suited for beginners.