Freedivr2
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Thought I'd take a break from butchering this morning to share a couple stories and pics about our hog hunt this weekend.
Last month, we (Val, a fellow JHO'r, an old friend Bruce, and I) booked a hunt for this weekend with Frank Morasci, the head guide & owner of Mustang Guide service. We hit the road Friday morning and after a stop off at Jockos for lunch, landed in King City early afternoon. Two of Franks guys, Jim and Aaron, met up with us at 5 and took us out to the ranch down near San Ardo, where we met up with Frank and I was finally introduced to the infamous "DR. DEATH" (Franks ol trusty truck). The infamous truck is being given a little rest right now after it had augered in the front end purty good on hunt a few weeks ago...
We headed into a ranch that Frank has been using for about 12 years. Frank put Bruce and I up above a big bedding area. The plan was to flush out some hogs up to us and we'd shoot em as they popped out. Well, you know what they say about plans sometimes.....and this time was no different. What happened was that about 1/8 mile below us, they sent some dogs in, and they brought one hog to bay about 1/4 mile from us. The dang hog went the wrong way!!! I guess we should've told him about the plan! Anyway, about an hour later, Val, Frank and Jim reached the hog on a nasty, nasty incline, and in thick cover. They had big Jim pushing down some brush for Val (so he could get a visual on the hog. Val's .280 rang out, and that party was over! First boar down, time approx. 6:30 PM. Val's red hog had 2" lower tusks and we figured he'd go about 160-170 lbs. What an excellent start!
We headed up to a lookout spot and immediately located a nice sized Black boar on a finger ridge below us, about 650 yards away. The run and gun was on! We headed down to the valley below to do a stalk from below the hog. Frank mentioned that we would be coming in from below the boar, and when they had the high ground was when rouge boars might decide to charge, so make the shot good. We parked a ridge or two between us and the boar, then stalked up to him, using the ridges for cover. We got to the bottom of the draw and hiked up, but we didn't see him yet. Unknown to us, he was only 80 yards away (the height of the ridge hiding us from him & vice-versa). The wind was in our favor, which made this perfect. On the way there I told Bruce he would be the primary shooter unless I had a perfect shot with my muzzleloader. About 1/2 way up, there he was, eating oats, right at 50 yards. The sun had just set, and the situation didn't give me a good sight picture at all. I quickly pointed to Bruce, told him to take him, as did Frank. The boar raised his head and looked right at us......BAM.....one shot from Bruce's .308 centerpunched him in a head-on shot, and he was down (heart shot). A coup de grace from my Omega .50 cal under the ear helped to seal the deal on this beautiful pure black Boar, with 2 1/2" lowers and thick uppers, weighing in at a good 180+ lbs.
It was late, so we didn't have time to take photos of this pristine boar, so we were off again, with about 1/2 hr. left of sunlight. Turns out that was it for the evening, we saw no more hogs after that. So not a bad start for Friday evening, 2 shots, 2 pigs. Now 1 to go......
Saturday morning we left the motel at 4 am to head to a new Ranch in the Carmel Valley. We met up with Frank and one of his guys named Kek, who SDHNTR had said earlier would be a treat to hunt with. No words were more true, as I found Kek to be an intense, consummate hunter. At about 5:15 am, we started driving around this beautiful ranch, seeing a good number of excellent Blacktail bucks (and I mean excellent, lots of mass and good spreads and height already) of course, still in velvet. But we glassed no hogs early. At 6:30 we were almost to one of the high points on the ranch. Kek stopped his quad and motioned to me to get out of Frank's truck and setup quickly. There were 3 hogs visible at about 100 yards(the beds to their right later made us think there were a few more hidden behind the brush). I quickly chambered a round in my M70 30-06 and got a good rest. The two boar on the left were HUGE, with good teeth, but before I could get the gun on them, they took three quick steps to the left and were gone. In the meantime, the remaining visible hog got up and started heading the other way, just as I was squeezing off a round. BAM!! Spun the hog around big time, and down she went! I heard someone say they thought I broke her back, and I was slow to chamber another round. UP SHE POPPED, and started running to the right, headed down a steep incline into a never-never land type of canyon. I probably had about 3 seconds to take my best aim and squeeze off another round. BAM! But, no noticeable effect, and the sow ran down the side of the canyon and disappeared from view. We went over to the site. Kek had said he'd seen my first shot hit the sow pretty far back (when she took that step, I didn't move my gun with her, so the bullet went in just ahead of the right ham). We looked for a blood trail and about 10 yards away, one had started. Then it got big....the blood trail was about 4" wide, so we knew I had hit an artery or something and we'd hoped she'd bleed out. Down the side of the canyon we went, following the trail. 75 yards later, there she lay, stone dead! My 2nd shot hit low in the brisket, and when gutting her out, Kek held up her heart and the bottom 1/2 was totally blown apart, looking like a hand grenade went off in it (I hope I made up for my lousy 1st shot with that running heart shot, helping me save a little bit of face with Frank, Kek, and my partners). These are some amazingly tough critters for sure. Kek estimated my sow to weigh 150-160, and the 1st shot had nicked the intestine but was basically a pass thru. Below is a pic of Frank (on the left, and man does he look like George Bush sometimes!), the new "Dr. Death" (check out the license plate), me, Kek, and the sow.
What I thought was cool was that none of our (3) hogs were in or around barley fields, and each was a different kind of hunt. We had a great time with Frank and his guys and will definitely gunna see him again. If you guys ever want to hunt with an excellent guide with a great sense of humor and at the same time is hard working and as serious as they come on hog hunting, I couldn't recommend anyone higher. And make sure Kek gets involved, he's a hunters hunter and a great dude to talk with........OK, nuff said, back to butchering.......
P.S. To Hoghunter714..........Bryan, I'm sorry ya had to miss what turned out to be a fun and great hunt. Maybe next time........
Last month, we (Val, a fellow JHO'r, an old friend Bruce, and I) booked a hunt for this weekend with Frank Morasci, the head guide & owner of Mustang Guide service. We hit the road Friday morning and after a stop off at Jockos for lunch, landed in King City early afternoon. Two of Franks guys, Jim and Aaron, met up with us at 5 and took us out to the ranch down near San Ardo, where we met up with Frank and I was finally introduced to the infamous "DR. DEATH" (Franks ol trusty truck). The infamous truck is being given a little rest right now after it had augered in the front end purty good on hunt a few weeks ago...
We headed into a ranch that Frank has been using for about 12 years. Frank put Bruce and I up above a big bedding area. The plan was to flush out some hogs up to us and we'd shoot em as they popped out. Well, you know what they say about plans sometimes.....and this time was no different. What happened was that about 1/8 mile below us, they sent some dogs in, and they brought one hog to bay about 1/4 mile from us. The dang hog went the wrong way!!! I guess we should've told him about the plan! Anyway, about an hour later, Val, Frank and Jim reached the hog on a nasty, nasty incline, and in thick cover. They had big Jim pushing down some brush for Val (so he could get a visual on the hog. Val's .280 rang out, and that party was over! First boar down, time approx. 6:30 PM. Val's red hog had 2" lower tusks and we figured he'd go about 160-170 lbs. What an excellent start!
We headed up to a lookout spot and immediately located a nice sized Black boar on a finger ridge below us, about 650 yards away. The run and gun was on! We headed down to the valley below to do a stalk from below the hog. Frank mentioned that we would be coming in from below the boar, and when they had the high ground was when rouge boars might decide to charge, so make the shot good. We parked a ridge or two between us and the boar, then stalked up to him, using the ridges for cover. We got to the bottom of the draw and hiked up, but we didn't see him yet. Unknown to us, he was only 80 yards away (the height of the ridge hiding us from him & vice-versa). The wind was in our favor, which made this perfect. On the way there I told Bruce he would be the primary shooter unless I had a perfect shot with my muzzleloader. About 1/2 way up, there he was, eating oats, right at 50 yards. The sun had just set, and the situation didn't give me a good sight picture at all. I quickly pointed to Bruce, told him to take him, as did Frank. The boar raised his head and looked right at us......BAM.....one shot from Bruce's .308 centerpunched him in a head-on shot, and he was down (heart shot). A coup de grace from my Omega .50 cal under the ear helped to seal the deal on this beautiful pure black Boar, with 2 1/2" lowers and thick uppers, weighing in at a good 180+ lbs.
It was late, so we didn't have time to take photos of this pristine boar, so we were off again, with about 1/2 hr. left of sunlight. Turns out that was it for the evening, we saw no more hogs after that. So not a bad start for Friday evening, 2 shots, 2 pigs. Now 1 to go......
Saturday morning we left the motel at 4 am to head to a new Ranch in the Carmel Valley. We met up with Frank and one of his guys named Kek, who SDHNTR had said earlier would be a treat to hunt with. No words were more true, as I found Kek to be an intense, consummate hunter. At about 5:15 am, we started driving around this beautiful ranch, seeing a good number of excellent Blacktail bucks (and I mean excellent, lots of mass and good spreads and height already) of course, still in velvet. But we glassed no hogs early. At 6:30 we were almost to one of the high points on the ranch. Kek stopped his quad and motioned to me to get out of Frank's truck and setup quickly. There were 3 hogs visible at about 100 yards(the beds to their right later made us think there were a few more hidden behind the brush). I quickly chambered a round in my M70 30-06 and got a good rest. The two boar on the left were HUGE, with good teeth, but before I could get the gun on them, they took three quick steps to the left and were gone. In the meantime, the remaining visible hog got up and started heading the other way, just as I was squeezing off a round. BAM!! Spun the hog around big time, and down she went! I heard someone say they thought I broke her back, and I was slow to chamber another round. UP SHE POPPED, and started running to the right, headed down a steep incline into a never-never land type of canyon. I probably had about 3 seconds to take my best aim and squeeze off another round. BAM! But, no noticeable effect, and the sow ran down the side of the canyon and disappeared from view. We went over to the site. Kek had said he'd seen my first shot hit the sow pretty far back (when she took that step, I didn't move my gun with her, so the bullet went in just ahead of the right ham). We looked for a blood trail and about 10 yards away, one had started. Then it got big....the blood trail was about 4" wide, so we knew I had hit an artery or something and we'd hoped she'd bleed out. Down the side of the canyon we went, following the trail. 75 yards later, there she lay, stone dead! My 2nd shot hit low in the brisket, and when gutting her out, Kek held up her heart and the bottom 1/2 was totally blown apart, looking like a hand grenade went off in it (I hope I made up for my lousy 1st shot with that running heart shot, helping me save a little bit of face with Frank, Kek, and my partners). These are some amazingly tough critters for sure. Kek estimated my sow to weigh 150-160, and the 1st shot had nicked the intestine but was basically a pass thru. Below is a pic of Frank (on the left, and man does he look like George Bush sometimes!), the new "Dr. Death" (check out the license plate), me, Kek, and the sow.
What I thought was cool was that none of our (3) hogs were in or around barley fields, and each was a different kind of hunt. We had a great time with Frank and his guys and will definitely gunna see him again. If you guys ever want to hunt with an excellent guide with a great sense of humor and at the same time is hard working and as serious as they come on hog hunting, I couldn't recommend anyone higher. And make sure Kek gets involved, he's a hunters hunter and a great dude to talk with........OK, nuff said, back to butchering.......
P.S. To Hoghunter714..........Bryan, I'm sorry ya had to miss what turned out to be a fun and great hunt. Maybe next time........
