Does anyone have info on this guide?

[HOGHUNTER714]

Does anyone know of a property owner by the name of Larry Hamiliton....He runs a outfit in the Lockwood/King City area......He has 3 cattle ranch properties and for a yearly "fee" he'll let you take a harvest a hog...Just kinda curious if anyone has had any experiences good or bad with this landowner?

 

[Slugblaster]

Hoghunter, never heard of him. What is the yearly fee? Is there a limit or per hog fee? Trophy fee? And what is the 714 stand for? Just curious.

 

[Speckmisser]

Hiya Hoghunter714, and a hearty welcome to Jesse's Forum!  

Wish I had info for ya on your rancher, but I haven't heard of him.  However, if you do find some info, please do come back and share it with the gang.  Sounds like a potentially good deal, and right in the area where I like to hunt.

Welcome again, and looking forward to hearing more from you.

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

Slugblaster,

Well, I was a member last year......This was actually the best hunting package I have ever been involved in.....I dont know how the guy made a profit.....He sold memberships as a "Split Membership" for you and a buddy and it was $400 for a year....Sounds to good to be true, but I know cause I cut him the check..The $200 per person covered 1 hog and all the "In Season" upland bird hunting you want. If you wanted an additional hog he charged you another $100 and there was no additional trophy fee..He did limit you on 2 pigs per year....He also had camping on his property. This was ALL self guided and he gave you a combo to his lock to access the property, so you could come and go as you please during your hunt...The first time I hunted one of his ranches was back in Feb of 2001...My buddies and I met his ranch patrolman on a Friday afternoon and hunted thru Sunday. He had us sign all the liabilty forms, and showed us the layout of the properity and basically told us where we could & could not go....Was a total of approximalely 2000 acres and it backed up to BLM land, so you could hunt that as well   Only a 4x4 could access the roads....For the 3 days we saw about a dozen meat pigs, nothing over 150...We ended up getting 3 for a group of 4 guys....Quail was in abundance there and saw a few forkies running around and that is a "A" zone area.....Sounds like a hunters paradise and to good to be true....The only problem is..His number is disconneted and information has no info on him..So, I dont know what happended or if he moved out of the area....I wanted to get another membership, so I was asking if anybody knew anything about his operation.........714 is the area code I live in.....Happy Hunting

                                                                                                      Bryan

 

[SDHNTR]

Bryan,
What I would do is try to contact some meatcutters and taxidermists up there.  They may know his whereabouts.  Just a thought.

 

[Bishop]

Bryan:  

If that's the operation that use to be called "Hamilton Pheasant Club", I think he's going under another name now.  I remember seeing his adds in Western Outdoors News the last couple of years.  I posted some where (I think on Hoss's old forum) asking for info on him.  I got a lot of unhappy guys saying that they had nothing but problems getting ahold of him to hunt the properties, and when they did the properties were devoid of pigs.
I've noticed that there's a nearly identical add "2 People can split membership, $250.00 each a year" in Western Outdoor News now with no name but a phone# of (831) 385-8283.  If it's the same guy you may want to do some more research before sending in your money.  
And by the way, Welcome to Jesse's.  Glad to have another Calif. pig chaser on board.  Being in So. Cal try to make some of the JHP hunts, you'll meet some great guys.  Next one "Carrizo Plain, coyotes and ground squirrels May 31-June 2"

(Edited by Bishop at 5:32 pm on May 20, 2002)

 

[Rick]

It sounds like a different location from the pheasant club, if it's the same guy.  I belonged to his pheasant club one year, and it was good for that.  The pheasant club was right by the green bridge as you head into Parkfield. The hog hunting there was hit or miss.  You had to schedule a date way in advance, and then it was just a matter of watching his fields to see if any hogs came by.  There hogs in the area, but nothing in particular to draw them onto his place and they preferred the barley or alfalfa planted ranches nearby.  But it was okay for a pheasant club.

 

[stickman]

I belonged to his club for 1 year. I can't say I had all that good of an experience. There were problems schedualing the hunts. As far as pigs go we saw lots of them on the road or on his neighbors property where we couldn't shoot. The pheasant/ chucker hunting was just like any other planted hunt. The birds didn't fly without being kicked out of the bush. There were a lot of quail, but good luck schedualing a time to come up and hunt them.

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

Bishop,

Yeah, it is the same guy...He runs that operation as well.. Thanx for the info..It's nice to share information so were all aware...I've heard some negative stuff about him lately as well...Thanx again for the welcoming, love to meet people who share my passion of hunting and just being in the outdoors.

                                                                                      Bryan-HOGHUNTER714

 

[Rick]

My friend near Parkfield used to sell him pheasant and chukar, but stopped after she had a hard time getting paid for the birds.  The best pheasant club I ever belonged to was Hastings Island up in the delta by Rio Vista.  That was "almost" like hunting wild birds.      

 

[1SoCalHunter]

I checked that guy out a few years back and his operation is a joke, his main source of income is his bird club.  His TOTAL land is 800 acres, I just drove there to see things in person before I got involved and coughed up some hard earned dollars and his ranch is way too small, as I said it's 800 acres and it's divided in two almost equal parcels by a main road, so you are extremely limited to hunt there, basically waiting for the pigs to cross the "border" from the other bordering properties that are a lot bigger than his and that hold the pigs.  His neighbors don't like him and they will NOT let you retrieve any animal on their property regardless of where you shot it.
I did see some pig signs while I was there, but nothing impressive, however he gave me a "tour" of his property in less than 10 minutes and he circled around and around and pass through the same spots 3 times (that tells you how small the land is), and of course him telling me all of this grandiose pig hunts that have taken place there with pigs getting killed just about every other day, left to right (I didn't see any signs of it).  Ohhh, I almost forgot, he had mentioned on the phone that he had a pool that members were free to use any time to "refresh" after a hard day of hunting, well, the pool was an above ground pool filled with green moss and muddy water and with ducks swimming on it, if a human been would be to go in there, it will be almost guaranteed that your skin would fall off.
In conclusion, I thought that it wasn't worth it and I didn't sign up, I have done a lot better on other hunts and also on guided hunts.

 

[LavaHunter]

Guys, Beware of him my buudy and i tried him also. Not a good experience he doesn't have the same places now when we went he had a place on highway 1 above the little town of Harmony. Had trouble scheduling because he didn't have his other places anymore and had just gotten this place. The area to hunt was too small and all pig sign was old. He rents from a guy and splits the ranch into 4 places to hunt. No fresh pig sign at all talked to one of the neighbors we were there in Feb no hogs if any till around sept or oct.