weimyowner
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- Joined
- Mar 2, 2009
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My wife and I left Friday morning for Paso Robles to go pig hunting with Tom Willoughby. We had plans to meet Tom is San Ardo at 3pm, but due to NASTY Los Angeles traffic, we weren’t able to meet him until 430pm. Our first stop was the hotel to change clothes, gather our gear and grab a quick bite to eat. We hit the road again, heading north to San Ardo (about 30 miles north of Paso). We met Tom and his son Blake and headed up to the ranch. The ranch we hunted was about 25,000 acres, mostly rolling hills with high grass with a few trees here and there. Our means of hunting would be driving around in a Polaris ranger, spotting the pigs and then putting the stalk on them.
It took about two hours to find some hog feeding in the shade along the side of hill, we were about 3 miles back on the ranch when we spotted them. Most of the pigs in the small herd we piglets feeding with it's mom, however there was a decent sized sow in the herd as well. The plan was to have my wife shoot the dry sow and we would find a hog for me later. We put the stalk on the herd, got in shooting position and were ready to shoot when the wet sow spotted us and started making her way up the hill towards us, snorting all the way. I whispered to Blake that "mom" was on her way up, he looked down the canyon and confirmed my suspicion. He then advised my wife it was time to shoot, she made a perfect one shot kill on the sow, the sow ran down hill into the creek bed and died. When she shot, the hill erupted with about 10 pigs we never spotted, in the herd was a red colored boar, I took aim and hit him on the run, he tumbled and I thought he was dead. About 20 seconds after hitting the creek bed, he got up and continued running down the creek bed, I jumped on the quad with Tom and we sped down the two-track to get ahead of him, I jumped off the quad out the crosshairs on him and put him down for good. WHEW! Two pigs down within 2 hours!
We were both shooting Federal Premium Barnes Triple Shock bullets, my wife had her .308 (150Gr.) and I was shooting my .270WSM (130Gr.)
Tom and Blake estimated the pigs weighed about 175lbs each.
We had a great time, Tom and Blake are good guys, hard-workers. Tom was nice enough to offer us the use of his walk-in cooler for the pigs while we spent the rest of the weekend in Paso Robles.
As most of you guys know, marriage is about compromise....we spent most of Saturday on the wine tasting room circuit...
I will try and figure out how to post pictures.....
It took about two hours to find some hog feeding in the shade along the side of hill, we were about 3 miles back on the ranch when we spotted them. Most of the pigs in the small herd we piglets feeding with it's mom, however there was a decent sized sow in the herd as well. The plan was to have my wife shoot the dry sow and we would find a hog for me later. We put the stalk on the herd, got in shooting position and were ready to shoot when the wet sow spotted us and started making her way up the hill towards us, snorting all the way. I whispered to Blake that "mom" was on her way up, he looked down the canyon and confirmed my suspicion. He then advised my wife it was time to shoot, she made a perfect one shot kill on the sow, the sow ran down hill into the creek bed and died. When she shot, the hill erupted with about 10 pigs we never spotted, in the herd was a red colored boar, I took aim and hit him on the run, he tumbled and I thought he was dead. About 20 seconds after hitting the creek bed, he got up and continued running down the creek bed, I jumped on the quad with Tom and we sped down the two-track to get ahead of him, I jumped off the quad out the crosshairs on him and put him down for good. WHEW! Two pigs down within 2 hours!
We were both shooting Federal Premium Barnes Triple Shock bullets, my wife had her .308 (150Gr.) and I was shooting my .270WSM (130Gr.)
Tom and Blake estimated the pigs weighed about 175lbs each.
We had a great time, Tom and Blake are good guys, hard-workers. Tom was nice enough to offer us the use of his walk-in cooler for the pigs while we spent the rest of the weekend in Paso Robles.
As most of you guys know, marriage is about compromise....we spent most of Saturday on the wine tasting room circuit...
I will try and figure out how to post pictures.....
ig-laughing:
