How slamin was it?

[bighorn67]

I want to add a big thanks to fpscabs for cooking up the elk roast and setting up the raffle. Thanks to Jesse for the giveaway stuff. Thanks to everybody else for keeping it clean and fun. I'll share a camp with any of you any time. Making this an annual thing is a must.

Dave

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

Dang, I wish I could of been there. Sounds like you guys had a BLAST. Congrat's to all that connected.

I wish I was there to just hang around camp and enjoy meeting new people. I will be at the 2005 Ham Slam for sure...

 

[Mel Carter]

Huge Congrats to all the JHO'ers on this hunt, even though some of you didn't connect, you didn't forget the main reason you went, to have fun and put some faces to names

wmidbrook, nice job on the gift!

Speck. Way to go guy, you done good!

I missed this hunt, but not the next. Count me in for 2005

 

[spectr17]

As usual the Tejon was a ball.

It was fun to hunt and meet many of you that I haven't before. I just wish we had more time there to sit around and tell lies at camp. I don't know if we could stand 4 days without baths. Speaking of baths, I tried to get Dave to jump in one of the cattle ponds with me Saturday night to freshen up but he passed. Talk about green slimey water.

Huge thanks to Spec for putting it all together. Big thanks also to Scott for manning the gates and helping with coordination. Also thanks to Wmidbrook for getting the gift for Spec.

Thanks also to everyone for displaying such good manners. Looks like we'll be back in 2005. If anyone has any complaints, suggestions etc. please speak up. One thing we can mention to Barbara is they need to post a sign that the wooden box at the pig hanging spot is not a trash can. Some people threw trash in there because it does look like a trash box.

I did find one tick crawling on me Saturday so check yourself real good.

Things we could do without. Those dang foxtails. I'm still pulling them out of my clothing and truck seat. The knuckleheads in the motor home (not with our group) who lit a roaring bonfire Sunday night as we were leaving. What part of fire season did they miss?

Tony the patrol guy pulled into their camp to read them the riot act and give them their sign.

It was kewl to see several rookies score their first hog. Also very kewl to see the veterans helping the new guys without cracking on them too much.

Thanks also to Fritz and those who took pics. My digital cam is broke and I did some video taping but no stills from me right now.

 

[Hunter29]

That sounded like it was a BLAST. I will have to try to make the next one (assuming I am still in country). Congratulations to all that were successful!

 

[wmidbrook]

Fritz -- great pics~! (To all those who think I dribbled a bit ...that's where I had been resting my icy drink for lack of anywhere else to do so

)

Speckmisser -- you dawg~!

Now, I wished I had of stayed on for that evening hunt regardless of the compound interest that would have had to have been paid via the Honey Do list

Jesse -- Good meeting you and thanks again for the nice, unexpected raffle

OneClearShot, Vandel -- good huntin' with ya guys~!

OCS, I think we'll bag one on the next trip for sure~!

Just wishing I had had more time to get to know everyone a bit more but great nonetheless to at least talked to almost everyone there.

 

[FForF]

Okay, here is the story.

Ppitdog and I went out Friday afternoon ,after getting camp all set up, and spotted a few groups on distant ridges, but way to far away to plan a stalk. Got up Saturday and an hour after sunrise spotted a group of 8 on the opposite side (north) of a Tunis Creek that separates the north zone from the south. One big pig had to go 500 pounds (thought they were cows at first) and the other 7 went 300 to 400 pounds. Largest pigs I have ever seen. Was watching them root around the side of this 2000 foot ridge about 600 yards down from the top. After about 30 minutes of this I’m watching them with my 16x50 when all hell breaks loose, at least 12 shots in 2 seconds. The big guy drops and starts tumbling down the ridge. I’m watching dirt kick up from bullets hitting all around the others as the scramble to get away. The big one starts gaining speed as it tumbles down this ridge and is flying 20 or 30 yards down the ridge with each bounce. Finally bounces into some trees in a finger ravine about 300 yards down from where he was hit, where we assume he finally stopped. Out of the woods come 6 hunters, they did a good stalk from one run of trees to the other because I never saw them. We watch as they try and get down the ridge, sliding on their butts it was so steep. Finally they get down to the trees the pig went into and we hear one guy say “It’s still alive!”, then bang and it was over. Nice huge pig, but good Lord they are probably still packing it out. 800 yards at least straight up the ridge. Way too steep to even think about taking a vehicle down.



After watching that we headed back to camp for a good brunch of, eggs, Texas pig Italian Sausage and Chorizo, potatoes, fresh percolated coffee, yummm! Something about food cooked over a Colman stove on cast iron skillets. Anyway, then we head out again. We went to Tunis Ridge, found Tunis Creek on my Rino and found a way down to the bottom where we find a jeep road with Tunis Creek running along the bottom of this deep gorge. That Rino 120 with the topo maps loaded in is amazing! Saw 6 about 250 yards up on the side of the ridge. Let them go, would of been the death of me to try and get them out. Decided to follow the jeep trail that follows the creek into the gorge. We keep going in, and it gets rougher and narrower every mile. It’s cold down in there and dark, (about 40 degrees, had frost off my breath). The road is now mostly a game trail and there is no human sign, tire track or footprints. We were the first in in a long time. Pitdog's Jimmy is amazing. We bumping along over rocks and through the creek when 20 feet away on the other side of the creek 4 pigs bust out and start running down the creek. Pitdog and I jump out, load up (all in about 3 seconds) and lock on to a smaller boar that has stopped in the bushes. Steve is in front of me and I have the boar in my crosshairs at 25 feet and thinking shoot! shoot!, when bang and he drops. Steve hit him in the neck and out the eye. The other 3 start running up the creek. I take off running at full speed knowing I have to get ahead of them and find an open spot to get them as they come out of the brush growing along the creek. Only chance I’ll have for a shot. After about 50 yards of running full speed I stop and listen and there they are still parallel with me in the creek brush and moving fast up the creek. I take off again and run 100 yards further up, got ahead of them and found an opening. Have the gun up and looking over the scope trying not to shake or wheeze too much (dang cigars). Out they come at 15 feet away, the big one first. Hit her in the neck and dropped her in her tracks. Steve said he didn’t know I could run that fast. This is at a little after 7:00 PM. Got them gutted out, had quite a few victory beers, and were heading back by a little before 9:00 PM. Took us 2 hours to get back to camp.

Hell of a hunt and a fantastic time! Thanks to all who were involved in putting this together. I'm definately in the next one.

I'll try and get some pictures up befor I leave for the East Cape.

 

[Norcalihunter]

Dang! I REALLY wish I coulda been there...... Next year

 

[gwhunter69]

AS Bubba said I had a great time even though I walked away with nothing more than sore feet and back.

Bubba and I hiked all over hell and high creation. We saw pigs, but they were always on another ridge. I am sure we were the one that scared up all the pigs for the other guys who got'em. You're welcome.

I saw a lot of wildlife while I was hiking. I saw a ton of deer...some really nice bucks. I wish I could afford to hunt deer there. I know where they all hang out now. I ran into a cougar...my first one.

It appeared to be paralleling me in the brush, so I set on changing its mind. It did not show itself again, so I got the hell out of Dodge. Also, saw a Bobcat, a kit fox (or a coyote pup), a ton of coyotes, turkey and rescued some gopher snakes from the road.

Thanks to Jesse, Speck, all the guys we met especially the guy with the Tequilla (sorry forgot the name) for making this weekend great. If they do not jack the price up to $400, I will be back next year.

BTW: Jesse, what was that box for???

 

[Hogskin]

I thought my bitterness at not being able to go peaked Saturday night. After reading all this and seeing the pix, it's at a new high. Glad you guys had such a super time.

 

[Speckmisser]

Hogskin, I really wish you could've made it too. If it helps any, my knee still hurts from humping up and down those canyons.

Fritz, I did fail to give a particular thanks for cooking up the elk roast. It was danged tasty, and sure did hit the spot after two days of cold food (I had no time for cooking on Friday or Saturday).

Wmidbrook... I told you that you should stay.

To all, I just got in touch with Barbara. She's been under the weather (too much time out in that wind weighing all your hogs), so she wasn't ready to talk about next year... but she is definitely happy with us and more than ready to have us back. As I said before, "details to come."

The price will almost certainly go up, but don't hold me to that until I have confirmation. As far as registration and all that stuff, I'll probably try to handle it the same as last year... I think that worked out pretty well.

As Jesse said, if there's anything (within our control) that we could change, sing out.

 

[Suzmar1997]

Well, I was gonna wait till I had my pics before I posted, but seeing my Dad (Gnn961) accidentally erased the whole photo file on his camera, there is no reason to hold off any longer. What a trip it was!! Wanna thank Speck and Jesse and everyone else who helped in the Ham Slam becoming a reality. My Dad, 2 buddies (Huntsndives)(Shrigley) and new hunting buddy (Reddog5) headed out for the Friday evening hunt. We checked Geghis Ridge and came up empty handed at all of the spots where we saw pigs last year. We continued up Geghis and took it back to where it meets up with Tunis and followed it back to where Bear Trap meets with it. While glassing a hillside (Purdee Ridge?) we see 2 hunters dragging a nice hog down. We continued down the road and eventually run into Deadducks and his buddy (?) driving out with a nice sow. We decided to glass the nearby hillside and see approximately 10 monsters crossing from right to left. We determine the hogs are exactly 600 yards straight across, but after looking at the climb and the fact that it was the first day: myself, Gnn961 and Shrigley decide not to pursue these guys. My buddy Kenny (Huntsndives) and Reddog5 (Sean) decide to give it a go and drop down into the creek (Approx. 150 yards straight down) and up the opposite hillside. We watch as Kenny (Part mountain goat) quickly comes to within 250 yards of the hogs. While watching the stalk we realize there is a huge boar (300+) just to the left and approximately 150 yards up from the others, but he had no idea as the climb left little visibility due to the terrain. Kenny ranged the pigs at about 215 yards and was getting ready to fire when all of a sudden the winds shifted and they reversed course and high-tailed to the right 4 ridges and then straight up. Kenny fired once when the lead pig was on the run, but didn't connect.

Sean and Kenny finally made it back up and probably wondered why they even considered climbing it in the first place. Before getting back into the truck Kenny see's another group of hogs coming down the hillside and towards the road where we met up with Deadducks. We jump in and head towards the lower road to hopefully intersect the hogs. We stop short of where we think there gonna emerge and start walking. Kenny and Sean were in the lead and come to an abrupt stop. Kenny asks Sean if he sees anything and before Sean answers he cracks a shot off up the hill. Before I can get to them they proceed to empty their rifles up the hillside and I watch as pigs and dirt fly up the hill. I was a little pissed as I thought we could have set up in the area and the pigs would have walked right into all 5 of us, but Kenny and his trigger finger had other plans. I guess he had a good shot on 1 of the hogs, but didn't connect and we headed back to camp right at the stroke of darkness.

Day 2 we headed up bear trap and saw Deadducks, firing up towards the hillside at a nice boar. We briefly speak with him and head up the road to find his boar sprinting up over a ridge about a quarter of a mile from where he fired at it. We drive to the next ridge and try to head it off with myself and Shrigley lying in wait while Kenny, Sean and my Dad try to drive it from the thick area we saw him running into. They sent him running and crashing through, but he must have doubled back and I believe he was later bagged by someone down the road 20 minutes later (Congrats). We were in the area of Martinez Ridge when we saw a Gray Suburban parked off of the road. We glassed one of the hillsides and saw approximately 15 pigs high-tailing it up a finger ridge and over the hill and out of view. We then followed the road up to Martinez Ridge and tried to locate the hogs but they must have gone straight up the hill as they disappeared. We later found their tracks heading up into a wooded area on the top of the mountain. We decided against following the trail and thought maybe we'd run into them in the evening. We headed over to the hillside where we saw pigs the night before and didn't see anything so we continued on towards Tunis from Bear Trap. While driving along Tunis we look out onto the hillside and see what appeared to be 6-10 cows grazing along a steep hillside. Upon further inspection we realized that the cows were of the pork variety and tried to figure out a way to get close to the ridge. We found a road that got us somewhat close, but it wasn't quite what we wanted. We had a 1/2 mile hike down (Steep) and realized we were still approximately 3 ridges away from the pigs. We saw a vehicle directly across from us (Must have been u FForF) but I have no idea what this ridge is considered (Thought it was part of Martinez, but obviousely not after looking at the map now). We began our stalk and had the wind directly at our faces. We walked the two ridge lines and then began climbing down the steep hillside for a shot. We (Gnn961, Reddog, Huntsndives and I) set up along some trees approximately 135 yards from the pigs and tried to coordinate who was going to shoot which pig and when. Reddog called out the count and we fired (Almost at the same time) and I saw my pig cart-wheeling down into the deep abyss. The pigs scattered from the tall grass and I believe there were probably 4 more shots fired at the scattering oinkers. We began climbing down to where we fired on the pigs and realized over the edge was a hellacious hillside (45 degrees +) that was probably 300-400+ yards before heading into thick trees. Unfortunately, there was no pork between us and the trees and we knew we were going to be in for a brutal day. We slid down the steep embankment and located my hog (Nice black sow) approximately 75 yards down from where the trees started. She was still kicking so I gave her the finishing touches with my Glock 27. I couldn't believe how far she had navigated through the trees, but was thankfull she even stopped considering the pitch of that hill. I hit her in the head (As that was just about all I could see from the tall grass) by the left ear. Kenny and Reddog located Reddog's hog approximately 50 yards below mine (Better him than me). We took our photos and began the drag from hell. After about 15 yards we decided to field dress her to lighten the load. In the haste of getting down there we didn't grab our pack, so my Dad and I each had a hind leg instead of our sled, rope, etc. It was pretty brutal climbing that hill as we'd go about 8 feet and slide back 4 every time. After what seemed like an eternity we finally crested the top and the rest of the group assisted by each grabbing a leg. I tell you what, Gatoraide never tasted so damn good when we finally got to the truck. We hit the scales and my pig was about 125 field dressed and Reddogs was just under 80 (I think).

We headed back out for the evening hunt and hoping that we could fill the three tags we had remaining in our group. We headed back out to Purdee Ridge area and saw Superduty and his buddy (In a Jeep Rubicon) glassing some pigs (6) on the same hillside we'd been seeing them on. Sean and I met up with him on top and spoke to him (Pleasure meeting you). My Dad and Kenny decided to walk up a creek from the lower road in hopes the pigs were on their way down. They ended up hiking all the way up the creek and then up the hillside (Brutal) to the area where we last saw the hogs. We watched from the opposite hillside hoping we'd see them connect, but the pigs vanished in the thick stuff. Kenny decided to walk back to the area where he took the hail mary shot on Friday and ran into a nice boar. We couldn't see it from our side, but we figured it out when we heard the shot ring out. Kenny said he took a 215 yard shot and hit the pig causing him to stagger and slide down the hill about 15 yards and stop. He fired another round and the pigs legs buckled and he began sliding farther down the hill and into the thick Manzaneta approximately 100 yards below. He found the blood trail and followed it to the point where he was on his hands and knees, but then lost it again in the thick brush. We tried to locate the pig into the darkness but were unsuccessful. We flew back to camp and hit the raffle (Awesome prizes..thanks guys) before hitting the pillows.

Slept like a baby that night until waking up to the dreadfull pain of a hamstring cramp. I couldn't get out of my sleeping bag to stretch it out and just had to ride it out for the next 20 minutes or so (Talk about comedy). We woke up to vehicles passing our campsite and realized we were a little behind. It took everything I had to want to get out of my sleeping bag, but figured I owed my Dad dragging rights on his pig if he got one. Shrigley decided he'd rather sleep in as he figured he was to beat to hunt unless the pig sat next to the road for him. We (Sean,Kenny,my Dad, and I) headed up bear trap and not 5 minutes up the road we saw a nice hog, laying on the hillside between two bushes. I stopped the truck and he didn't move, just looked in our direction. I almost thought it was a black calf until I looked in my binos. My Dad and Kenny exited and took aim, the agreement was for my Dad to take the first shot. We waited and then click and then a shot rang out and the hog tumbled down the hill, and rested about 30 yards from the truck.
My Dad, in the scramble, forgot to chamber the round and just dry fired, Kenny hearing the fall of the hammer figured his gun malfunctioned and didn't want to chance the hog exiting stage left before it was cleared so he took the shot. Needless to say my Dad was not a happy camper at that moment. The pig was a huge boar with 2"+ cutters (Didn't measure). We took photos (Hopefully Kenny will post when he returns from vacation) and then field dressed and loaded him up.

We had one last tag to fill and headed up Tunis from Bear Trap. We saw a loan boar (Huge) on a hillside (3 ridges over from the road) and quickly parked and headed out. We made the stalk with the wind in our face, but as we crested the last ridge he was no where to be seen. The whole surrounding area was loaded with fresh sign, but no pork. We then decided to head on back and skin the boar that was bleeding all over the inside of my Dad's truck bed (Needless to say we'll have a hitch carrier next time). Kenny's boar weighed in at 185-190 on the camp scale and then we returned to our camp. While we were away Shrigley informed us that a hog was taken in the muddy swamp just below our camp site (Not 50 yards). He said he was looking in there not 5 minutes before it was shot as 2 deer had come out of it while he was packing our gear. We laughed and then informed him of the boar that was waiting for him on the side of the road (Just as he wished for) but he had to catch his beauty sleep instead.

All in all in was a great trip. Beautiful scenary, lots of different game, and a whole lotta hog sittings (40+ not counting piglets). Our group was 3 for 5 and had a good chance of 100% if we would have located Kenny's Sat night boar and done things differently Friday night. My Dad actually shot the same sow that I hit (Figured it out after skining it-through and through in the chest) so who knows if we would have communicated better on that ridge we may have had another out of that group. It was great meeting alot of the crew and good seeing some familiar faces (Scott from Sonoma, Dave). Sorry this post was long winded but I figured i'd try to make up for not having any pics. Thanks again Speck and Jesse and everyone else and it will be a shock if we didn't fill both areas for the next Ham Slam in 2005. By the way, remind me to buy a Ford F-250 deisel when the time comes....those things are amazing and my Dad's really got the job done out there.

 

[gwhunter69]

Suzmar1997: Hell of a story. Thanks for sharing it.

Speck: I cannot think of any major complaints about Tejon. I wish they made some of those gates easier to open. Bubba and I ran into one off of Squirrel Canyon that was an SOB to open, but other than that....

You might want to tell her that Bubba and I came across a light tan, almost white, cow on the Squirrel Road side off of "Access Road #6" just past the corral that looked like it was in pretty bad shape. It was limping badly and wobbling. They might want to go over there and check it out. We came across it laying in the middle of the road and it was slow to react that is how we noticed it was in bad shape. Judging from the way it was walking, I am sure it is coyote food by now. We meant to tell her on the way out, but forgot....

 

[Rancho Loco]

Yep - I really can't think of any way to improve the experience, except for mebbe escalators installed on some of the ridges...

So has anyone got a final count?

 

[prohunter]

What a Great Time! What a Great Group! Thanks to speck! Thanks to the others that I borrowed stuff from! Jesse thanks for having a great place to hang out.
ok heres my pig. I took it Saturday Morning about 5:30 A.M. He crossed the dirt road in front of me as we were heading to our spot! I don't road hunt, but hey he made it to easy for me. My hog weighed 150 lbs with 2" tusks. I shot him once with a 7mm-08 140 grain nosler partition. It rolled him right over. Thanks Again!!

 

[BDB]

Nice hog Prohunter !!

Sounds like you had it pretty easy compared to some of the stories I have read. It's nice sometimes isn't it?

I'm with Hogskin on this one, I have been getting greener and greener for the last 2 days.

 

[Shot]

congrats to all

I wish I was there

 

[vandal968]

OK, so here's the story on my hog (pics posted on the first page of this thread by me and wmidbrook).

We scouted out a great spot on Friday and spotted several pigs. I've got good eyes, but I couldn't believe how well wmidbrook was picking out animals several hundred yards away. Even with him pointing them out, it took me a while to see them.

Anyhow, Oneclearshot, wmidbrook & me got up around 4am on Sat and got to our area around 5:30 or so. This time we parked about half a mile farther away than we did Friday night so that we wouldn't risk spooking the pigs. After hiking for a while Oneclearshot split off and followed a road that went down the canyon. Wmidbrook and I went farther up the road to the area that we had scouted on Friday. We headed a few hundred yards from the road down the hill toward an area where wmidbrook had spotted 3 pigs the previous day. Wmidbrook decided to head down to a saddle where we had seen pigs and I stayed higher up on the hill to scout that area. I looked around a little, then sat down to enjoy the view and glass the hills through my scope (left my binocs in the truck). After about 20 minutes of enjoying the view, I heard a grunt over the crest of the ridge.

I quietly snuck over the ridge and spotted a big furry black ear behind a tree about 20yrds away. It was clearly a pig's ear, but I could only see a hint of the body. I was surprised that the ear was not moving at all, I am used to seeing animals twitch their ears to keep bugs away. I initially thought that the pig was dead and that someone hadn't gotten around to collecting it yet. I looked at the pig through the rifle scope to see if I could detect any movement, but it was completely still. I knew that the scope should be at minimal magnification for a follow-up shot in case I shot & missed, so I began turning the scope down from 9x to 3x (it was at 9x, because I had been looking across the canyon). Just as I finished adjusting the scope, the wind shifted, it had been blowing lightly from the pig, but now it shifted toward the pig. He smelled me.

Instantly, the pig jumped to his feet, I was still about 20yards away and about 10ft above his position. I aimed just behind the shoulder and fired. Instantly, the pig was running down the hill, WTF?! I quickly cycled the bolt as his zig-zagged away down the hill. As he cut to the right about 50yrds away, I fired a second time aiming for the same spot. He didn't react at all and disappeared over a ridge.

I stood there in shock for a few minutes. How the hell could I have missed? I was right on top of him! And how could I possibly have missed twice? I felt like an idiot. After a few minutes I walked down to his bed. As I stood there, I saw Wmidbrook starting to make his way up the hill toward my postion. When he was about 100yrds away, I tried to pantomime the following thought "Shot twice, missed twice, pig ran away". As you can imagine, there aren't any internationally agreed upon hand symbols to express that sentence, and I probably just looked like a lunatic waving my arms around on the hillside. I waited in the bedding area for wmidbrook, still kicking myself for missing and thinking that I had spoiled the area for all three of us with the noise.

By the time that Wmidbrook was about 25yrds away, I was looking more closely at the bedding area. That's when I noticed the bright red blood on some of the grass. I said "you know, I thought I missed, but it looks like I actually hit". Wmidbrook looked at the blood and said "see how bright red and foamy that is? You got him in the lungs, he's a goner. Lets give him a few minutes to bleed out before we chase him."

After a few minutes we started following the trail. I was surprised at how easy to follow it was, we would find a few drops every 10 or 15ft, then we would find a large bloody area, then drops again. About 150yrds from the bed (and down hill of course) we found him laying next to a downed tree with his head wedged under the trunk. Wmidbrook said "give him a shove with your rifle and make sure he's dead". I said, "why don't we give him an extra 5mins just in case". I had never shot anything before and wasn't too eager to even get close to this thing. After a few minutes, I hit him in the butt with my rifle, no response. I did it a few more times, a little rougher each time. He was dead. That is when I noticed that both shots had hit, the first went right through the lungs right where I had aimed. The second had hit him in the rear leg and exited the leg without entering the body.

We took some pictures after I worked up the courage to actually touch the pig. Wmidbrook was incredibly patient, and after a little while I was elbow deep in the pig pulling stuff out. It's amazing that it seemed normal after a very short time.

We dragged him up near where I first spotted him, and a few hours later oneclearshot and I dragged him down the hill to the truck.

What an amazing experience, sorry I'm so long-winded.

best,
c

 

[Vinswitch]

Greetings All,

I'm new to this sight but not to the Tejon. I've been on many hunts there and been fortunate enough to get my fair share of pigs. It's always a wonderful experience with numerous sightings of many different species of game. It has not always been easy, and I've been taken off the ranch on LifeFlite and rescued in a snow storm on Tunis Ridge by a quad, but where else can you see spectacular scenery without the riif-raff of public land hunting? My hat is off to all of you that went on the first Ham Slam, and may you fully appreciate what a wonderful opportunity the Lord has blessed us with!

Oh yeah, I'm a Buckeye product!

 

[DILPRXO]

In a word..the trip was Outfreakinslamming!

Thanks again Philip, Jesse and Scott