choopers update

[Cold1nhand]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Arrowslinger @ Jun 8 2008, 03:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I won't say who whacked it, but LD and myself spent the entire morning tracking and packing a big tusker w/ a couple other fella's.....BIG boar down!

The biggest tragedy of the weekend was Zimm loosing his Penguin PJ pants.....very sad story, but we do have pics!

More later.................[/b]

It's later now, ready for the story.

 

[Zbearclaw]

What's he dragging?

 

[Zbearclaw]

The group. Good times, Good times.

 

[Cold1nhand]

Looks like one off the wall???? I thought I was the only one that hunted in flip flops.

 

[SDHNTR]

Yeah really. So you pulled one down off the wall?

How come Kirk, Tony and that dude in front are the only ones having fun?

 

[oregoncritters]

Congrats fellas...Sounds like a good time....

 

[hatchet1]

AWESOME!!

 

[Kentuck]

I see Chopper was decked out in his Ultimate Guide outfit. Nice and cool. Looks like it was taken off of graveyard hill. Hopefully it didn't die on the backside of that hill.

 

[DEERSLAM]

Who brought the pig hand puppet?

 

[bigworm]

Nice hog guys. Hope you all had a good time. It was nice to meet a few of you on Thursday.

 

[bigtusker]

who the hell is chooper?

And yes Kentuck, it decided to die on the abyss side of graveyard hill!

 

[Rancho Loco]

I hear some boys took a hike down into that mouth of hell!!

 

[cam188]

How far down the abyss?

 

[wyemjohnson]

Yep, that is a steep drop off, wonder if it is the same boar I had the encounter with back in April, same place. Need the details boys!

 

[Arrowslinger]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

How far down the abyss?[/b]

I was looking up to the lowest cabin accross the way.

 

[Lurediver]

Just got done throwing up. I'll keep it short. Thanks Zimm.

Got into a group of 30 hogs mid-day Saturday. I missed a 35 yard shot. Rancho Loco knows the rest.
Great weekend in all, good stories, tones of beer, BearClaw got attacked by a "bull", Zimm got everyone sick, Youngblood took one heck of a trophy boar and Sunday Chopper said shows over-GET OFF THE RANCH!

Great to meet Flatbroke and Bigworm!

 

[Family Tradition]

LD must be in bad shape with the rare double post lol

 

[Rancho Loco]

What did you guys eat??

 

[YoungBlood]

Sorry for the delay boys.

As always, it was a great time at Chopper’s ranch. Thanks for allowing me to be a last minute addition to the final hunt at his place. CopperJohn and I got up there Friday late afternoon and from the looks of the boys, they had a heck of a night on Thursday. We were stoked because we’d heard everyone had been into hogs and when Orso walked in he said he’d had an exciting night. We had a great time catching up on things and figuring out the plan for the next morning. We cooked up some food and had a couple of drinks, but Team Sacramento looked pretty much worthless and fell asleep early. Team SoCal was cold & tuckered out, but I’m pretty sure Orso would’ve stepped up if he didn’t have such a big day ahead of him.

Saturday morning was warm and sunny. I found some fresh pig scat and may have heard one across a bowl, but wasn’t able to locate it. Later in the morning, we saw one running about 40 mph in the other direction when we were driving to another spot. Zimm was on his deathbed, so went thought we should check on him and cook up some lunch while we were there. Later in the afternoon we went out with AS to a new spot and each took an area to glass some hills sides. I heard one below me as soon as I got settled in, but couldn’t see it. After about 30 minutes and right before dark I heard one whoof at me. The wind was perfect and I wasn’t moving, so Kirk and I were surprised by that. He may have winded Kirk but he was over 300 yards away. Who knows, the winds may have swirled, but they seemed pretty constant. Oh well, CopperJohn saw a couple hogs at least.

Sunday morning everyone got up early and headed out for some serious hunting and last opportunity to make something happen. I have hunted with everyone there before except BearClaw (great guy) and Jason & I were shocked there weren’t 2 or 3 hogs in the cooler by Thursday night, much less Sunday morning. We talked about past hunts and ones we’d like to do in the future. I mentioned I’d love to go on a bear or elk hunt, but I hadn’t earned it yet. I wanted to kill a big boar, and then move on up my personal hunting goal ladder. Anyway, as usual, LD had some smart remarks about the guys from SF, so we were ready to turn it up a little the next day.

CopperJohn and I got up high and glassed during blue light waiting for the sun to come up and spot some hogs. He dropped down to see if he could locate the hogs from the night before and I stayed high hoping to catch at least a glimpse of one. I sat and glassed where Kirk had sat the evening before. After about 15-20 minutes, I looked to my left and noticed a big blackish-gray rock that wasn’t there a few minutes before. I pulled up my binos and it was a good sized hog eating green grass without a care in the world. I ranged it at 114 yards. I was sitting pretty much on a game trail, out in the open with only 1 tree next to me while I was glassing….how in the hell was I supposed to close the gap on this hog with no cover and shoot it with a bow? If I had a rifle it wouldn’t have even been a challenge.

It was facing towards me half of the time, looking around from time to time and eating alone. I watched it for about 5-10 minutes before I even thought about getting up to stalk it. I really thought it would see me or more likely smell me since my wind was blowing right towards him. Finally, I decided I had nothing to loose and started creeping down the game trail towards him using the couple of trees that were close to him as cover. I was looking down at my feet to ensure I was not going to break a twig or step on a rock or leaf when I glanced up to see him coming down the trail towards me! There was only 1 tree close to me, so I turned around and ran 15 yards back to it and hid on the backside of it. I looked back and thought he’d be gone, but he had turned and nibbled on some more grass instead. After my heart slowed down and I could breathe again, I gave it another chance. He had moved into some deeper grass and I was pretty much hidden while advancing toward my target.

As I got closer I could see the grass move and hear his teeth chomping on the grass. The sun was in my eyes and I had closed the gap to about 25 yards, but couldn’t see him over the knoll. Finally, I could see a bit of his back and he started trotting back towards where I saw him earlier. I thought it looked a lot smaller and maybe it was a different pig, but wasn’t sure. I didn’t care if it was a different pig, this was the last day and I was going to sling an arrow at this thing no matter what. I ducked behind a tree as it moved back to the shorter grass, drew back my Tribute, leaned around the tree and finally saw teeth sticking out of his mouth. He didn’t have a clue I was only 20 yards from him. He was broadside and walking. I thought, aim a little low and let it fly…..thwack!!!

He didn’t make a sound; well, other than hauling ass towards a DEEP canyon. I could see the white and orange fletching sticking out of him as he ran and it was pretty much right in the crease. I was able to see him run off and was waiting for him to drop any second….that didn’t happen. I got on the radio and told Jason I just stuck a big one. I didn’t want to push the hog, since I had done that with a smaller one previously and if this one was pushed it would make for a long, long day of hiking. When Jason showed up, I had found the front half of my arrow and the blood trail. We started following it down, down, down. The blood was good, bright red and pretty constant. I also radioed LD & AS and they were on the way to help us out in case we lost the trail. When they arrived we were looking around and Kirk picked up the trail in a couple of seconds. It was really bleeding good, blood was on leaves, grass, rocks, and of course, poison oak.

After we got down a little farther we split up and I went into the pig tunnel on AS’s advice…not too excited about going in there since I had to leave my big knife at home. Anyway, I didn’t see it, but blood was still there. AS & LD went around and found more blood and then heard it hissing at them. They hucked a couple of rocks on the downhill side of him and then decided to give him a little more time. I had shot him at 6:38 AM and it was now about 8:30. We decided to give him until 9:00AM before we went after him again. AS and I went back through the tunnels and CJ and LD went on the downhill side tunnels. It was REALLY thick stuff. After crawling around I came into an opening and it looked much different than everywhere else we’d been crawling through. The Chemise was pushed down and broken. I said, “I think he’s rolling”. I looked further and saw the body and torn ear of a big black boar. That was a hell of a feeling to know we finally found him. None of us wanted to give up on him and I’m glad we worked hard to find him.

Almost instantly, reality set in….now that we found it, how big was it and more importantly, how are we going to get this thing out of here? We checked out his tusks and one side was broken, but the other side looked big. After a few pictures, Jason and Tony started clearing out a path and Kirk showed me how to do the gutless skinning method I’d read about on JHO, but never tried. It was a little tough in the cramped quarters of the brush, but we did it. I can’t ever thank Jason, Tony and Kirk enough for all their help tracking, butchering, brush clearing and even carrying out the meat.

It was hot, bugs were swarming and we had to head up 500-600 yards of about a 45 degree angle carrying this hog out. I had the head and cape and my pack. I knew it’d be tough, but honestly, I didn’t think it would be that bad. I had thrown it over my shoulder and made it about 15 yards when I saw Kirk and Tony at the top…they had challenged each other who could get back to the truck the fastest for a beer. Needless to say, it took me a hell of a long time to get out of there. Jason stayed just far enough ahead of me to not let me quit, but there were a few time I thought I was going to pass out or have a heart attack. I finally hooked a rope to my pack and dragged it since I couldn’t really secure it to me any other way.

By the time Jason I got to our truck, everyone was there to congratulate us and had ice cold beers and waters. BearClaw and LureDiver measured it and the tusk was 3” long. BearClaw took picts., but I don’t have any right now other than what he posted.

What an amazing place that is and I’m so proud to be the last one to take a hog off of Chopper’s ranch. I know one thing, without my buddies, I know I would’ve never gotten that beast out of there. Thanks again everyone.

-YB

 

[Speckmisser]

Good job, CJ, and to all!

I hope to one day get to hunt a place as nice as "Chooper's" again... and maybe by then I'll actually be able to hit a big game animal with the bow.

Or even better, I'll be able to hit it with the arrow.