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An unsuccessful pig hunt, or was it?
Paul McHugh, Chronicle Outdoors Writer
Thursday, June 7, 2007
A pamphlet titled, "Why We Hunt," could start with an anecdote like this. At 4:30 a.m. one day last week, I arose, buttoned up my camos, shrugged on my pack, shouldered my rifle, then went into the pre-dawn gloom.
While I walked softly through lower pastures of a Mendocino County ranch, a brown streak zipped across the dewy grass -- something about the size, shape and speed of a coyote. In any event, it was a critter who happened to spot me a second before I saw him.
A bit farther, a big jackrabbit up to his neck in vegetation turned the "Y" of his radar-dish ears toward me. I toyed with the notion of altering my intended menu from wild pig bacon to rabbit stew. But that jack bounded into a manzanita grove before I decided. Through my "binocs," I saw his body levitate, land and float again as he vanished into shadows.
Air grew milky as sunrise illuminated morning fog. The drowsy twittering of songbirds in the brush became more forthright chirps and trills. I heard the distant, first calls of wild turkeys descending from their roost trees.
Up on the hill, with no fresh pig sign or sightings to induce caution, I decided to gamble on blowing a "piglet-in-distress" call I'd purchased. That high squeal echoed across the forested glens. No wild pig appeared in response. However, a four-point buck, his horns still sheathed in velvet, jumped up about 70 yards away, and stared hard at me, trying to figure out what in the heck I was.
"Nice," I thought. "Maybe we can continue this conversation on a day in August."
I didn't take any pigs on that day. Even so, they provided me with a reason for a fine woods walk early on a beautiful morning.
I had killed a 300-pound sow on this ranch two years earlier, and a more tender and tasty 80-pound sow on a Santa Clara County spread in April. Now, at the end of May, it was getting on toward the period when pigs, because of changes in diet, aren't quite as desirable as game. Even so, come deer season, savvy hunters also will poke a pig tag into a pocket, even if bagging a buck is their primary aim.
"Some deer hunters also carry a bear tag. Well, when I'm out packing around a rifle, figure I might as well have a pig tag, too," said Doug Updike, a senior wildlife biologist with California's Department of Fish and Game. Updike supervises the state's wild-pig program. He also instructs at big game clinics -- such as a well-attended event last weekend in Sonoma.
Pigs were declared a game animal in 1957, but they had scampered in the woods as escaped livestock for at least a century prior. In the 1920s, feral-hog genetics were bolstered by the introduction of European boars at a Monterey game ranch. Since then, the animals have grown tougher, hairier and far more prolific.
"Their numbers continue to expand in California," Updike said. "Pigs respond to positive habitat conditions, like a wet winter. In a given area, numbers might jump by a factor of four over what they were the previous year."
Besides now being the second-most-popular game animal (after deer), pigs also are pests. They're despised because they wreck fences, roto-till native plants and gobble up just about anything they can catch, from newts to lambs. Ranchers and farmers need to have them controlled. This has made selling or granting pig-hunting access to private land an attractive deal for ranchers and hunters.
Native predators have adapted somewhat to the pig presence. Resurgent mountain-lion populations have put pigs in their diets. Coyotes and golden eagles might snatch a piglet when that opportunity presents. But because pig numbers, like their range, continue to expand anyhow, even these predators may have their paws or talons full.
That's where you come in. Updike says the department's clinics provide hunters with the tips they need to get started. Such as:
The drier it gets, the more pigs are drawn to green, lush and marshy areas. Look for signs of recent rooting and wallowing. Pig tracks are more blunt, and the hoof lobes more separated than those of deer. Habitual pig trails are harder-packed, as well as more dish-shaped and worn down than other game trails.
Pigs are "crepuscular," they prefer twilight activity. So get yourself in position prior to the "half-hour before sunrise" legal time to begin hunting them. At mid-day, look for pigs to be laid up and snoozing in brush piles and dense groves.
Although their vision and color perception are poor, pigs have good hearing and an excellent sense of smell. Always try to hunt upwind; drip a pinch of dust or plant chaff from your fingertips to see which way the breeze blows. You don't necessarily need to wear camouflage -- merely soft (non-rustling) clothing with muted colors. Still, it doesn't hurt to break up your visual outline.
Shot placement is critical. Pigs are strongly built animals, and the "engine room" of lungs and heart is smaller and pushed more forward than it is in deer. The spine also dips down behind the shoulder, instead of going straight into the neck. So, try to aim low and going forward into the center of the chest, just behind the foreleg. Older pigs develop a stout "shield" of cartilage around the front of the body; you need to go through or under it. Use caliber .243 or better.
The essence of hunting remains this: Clear your mind of mundane, work-a-day concerns; open all your senses; move carefully; and pay attention to subtleties. Updike says you can learn to identify the faint noises that pigs use to stay in touch with each other (especially when piglets are present), and the light sweet-sour scent that pervades the air when a troop of pigs recently has wandered a given area.
As far as hunting access is concerned, that's usually the most difficult hurdle in the whole deal. On public land, you must be willing to go in farther and stay out longer than most other people. On private land, advance agreements have to be arranged. Experienced and licensed guides can give you useful direction on both of these.
But if you want to try to work out your own agreement with a landowner, let me offer one broad hint on a way to go about it: On my recent visit to that ranch where I tried a morning hunt, I spent one whole day stripping and painting a toolshed I had built for the rancher years earlier. He was really happy to see me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Swine in your sights
Pig hunting info: The next CDFG Big Game Hunting Clinic is June 26-27, on Wilderness Unlimited property near Williams (Colusa County). Participants must provide their own camping gear and meals. Cost: $50. (Other clinics: Land Navigation, July 17, Tehachapi, $40; Survival Skills, Aug. 14, Tehachapi, $40; Waterfowl, Sept. 11, Williams, $40; Upland Game, Oct. 16, Williams, $40. Contacts: Susan Herrgesell, (916) 653-7448; Troy Swauger, (916) 654-2096.
Hunting guides: Of 208 big-game guides licensed by CDFG, more than half offer wild-pig outings. Generally, you learn more, faster, by hunting with a guide than any other way. Beginners are ordinarily welcome, but to make the most of that experience, fully disclose your abilities and expectations, then follow instructions and safety protocols to the letter. Find the guide list at dfg.ca.gov. Then type, "2007 licensed big game guides," into the box on upper-right corner, and hit "search dfg" to bring up the list.
Basics: Starting July 1, a California resident hunting license will be $37.50; a pig tag will cost $17.85. A schedule of hunter-education courses (needed before you get a license) can be found at: dfg.ca.gov/huntered/index.html. Pigs can be taken by center-fire rifles, high-caliber handguns, shotguns firing slugs, black powder arms or archery.
E-mail Paul McHugh at pmchugh@sfchronicle.com
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...SPG16QAAA51.DTL
This article appeared on page D - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Paul McHugh, Chronicle Outdoors Writer
Thursday, June 7, 2007
A pamphlet titled, "Why We Hunt," could start with an anecdote like this. At 4:30 a.m. one day last week, I arose, buttoned up my camos, shrugged on my pack, shouldered my rifle, then went into the pre-dawn gloom.
While I walked softly through lower pastures of a Mendocino County ranch, a brown streak zipped across the dewy grass -- something about the size, shape and speed of a coyote. In any event, it was a critter who happened to spot me a second before I saw him.
A bit farther, a big jackrabbit up to his neck in vegetation turned the "Y" of his radar-dish ears toward me. I toyed with the notion of altering my intended menu from wild pig bacon to rabbit stew. But that jack bounded into a manzanita grove before I decided. Through my "binocs," I saw his body levitate, land and float again as he vanished into shadows.
Air grew milky as sunrise illuminated morning fog. The drowsy twittering of songbirds in the brush became more forthright chirps and trills. I heard the distant, first calls of wild turkeys descending from their roost trees.
Up on the hill, with no fresh pig sign or sightings to induce caution, I decided to gamble on blowing a "piglet-in-distress" call I'd purchased. That high squeal echoed across the forested glens. No wild pig appeared in response. However, a four-point buck, his horns still sheathed in velvet, jumped up about 70 yards away, and stared hard at me, trying to figure out what in the heck I was.
"Nice," I thought. "Maybe we can continue this conversation on a day in August."
I didn't take any pigs on that day. Even so, they provided me with a reason for a fine woods walk early on a beautiful morning.
I had killed a 300-pound sow on this ranch two years earlier, and a more tender and tasty 80-pound sow on a Santa Clara County spread in April. Now, at the end of May, it was getting on toward the period when pigs, because of changes in diet, aren't quite as desirable as game. Even so, come deer season, savvy hunters also will poke a pig tag into a pocket, even if bagging a buck is their primary aim.
"Some deer hunters also carry a bear tag. Well, when I'm out packing around a rifle, figure I might as well have a pig tag, too," said Doug Updike, a senior wildlife biologist with California's Department of Fish and Game. Updike supervises the state's wild-pig program. He also instructs at big game clinics -- such as a well-attended event last weekend in Sonoma.
Pigs were declared a game animal in 1957, but they had scampered in the woods as escaped livestock for at least a century prior. In the 1920s, feral-hog genetics were bolstered by the introduction of European boars at a Monterey game ranch. Since then, the animals have grown tougher, hairier and far more prolific.
"Their numbers continue to expand in California," Updike said. "Pigs respond to positive habitat conditions, like a wet winter. In a given area, numbers might jump by a factor of four over what they were the previous year."
Besides now being the second-most-popular game animal (after deer), pigs also are pests. They're despised because they wreck fences, roto-till native plants and gobble up just about anything they can catch, from newts to lambs. Ranchers and farmers need to have them controlled. This has made selling or granting pig-hunting access to private land an attractive deal for ranchers and hunters.
Native predators have adapted somewhat to the pig presence. Resurgent mountain-lion populations have put pigs in their diets. Coyotes and golden eagles might snatch a piglet when that opportunity presents. But because pig numbers, like their range, continue to expand anyhow, even these predators may have their paws or talons full.
That's where you come in. Updike says the department's clinics provide hunters with the tips they need to get started. Such as:
The drier it gets, the more pigs are drawn to green, lush and marshy areas. Look for signs of recent rooting and wallowing. Pig tracks are more blunt, and the hoof lobes more separated than those of deer. Habitual pig trails are harder-packed, as well as more dish-shaped and worn down than other game trails.
Pigs are "crepuscular," they prefer twilight activity. So get yourself in position prior to the "half-hour before sunrise" legal time to begin hunting them. At mid-day, look for pigs to be laid up and snoozing in brush piles and dense groves.
Although their vision and color perception are poor, pigs have good hearing and an excellent sense of smell. Always try to hunt upwind; drip a pinch of dust or plant chaff from your fingertips to see which way the breeze blows. You don't necessarily need to wear camouflage -- merely soft (non-rustling) clothing with muted colors. Still, it doesn't hurt to break up your visual outline.
Shot placement is critical. Pigs are strongly built animals, and the "engine room" of lungs and heart is smaller and pushed more forward than it is in deer. The spine also dips down behind the shoulder, instead of going straight into the neck. So, try to aim low and going forward into the center of the chest, just behind the foreleg. Older pigs develop a stout "shield" of cartilage around the front of the body; you need to go through or under it. Use caliber .243 or better.
The essence of hunting remains this: Clear your mind of mundane, work-a-day concerns; open all your senses; move carefully; and pay attention to subtleties. Updike says you can learn to identify the faint noises that pigs use to stay in touch with each other (especially when piglets are present), and the light sweet-sour scent that pervades the air when a troop of pigs recently has wandered a given area.
As far as hunting access is concerned, that's usually the most difficult hurdle in the whole deal. On public land, you must be willing to go in farther and stay out longer than most other people. On private land, advance agreements have to be arranged. Experienced and licensed guides can give you useful direction on both of these.
But if you want to try to work out your own agreement with a landowner, let me offer one broad hint on a way to go about it: On my recent visit to that ranch where I tried a morning hunt, I spent one whole day stripping and painting a toolshed I had built for the rancher years earlier. He was really happy to see me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Swine in your sights
Pig hunting info: The next CDFG Big Game Hunting Clinic is June 26-27, on Wilderness Unlimited property near Williams (Colusa County). Participants must provide their own camping gear and meals. Cost: $50. (Other clinics: Land Navigation, July 17, Tehachapi, $40; Survival Skills, Aug. 14, Tehachapi, $40; Waterfowl, Sept. 11, Williams, $40; Upland Game, Oct. 16, Williams, $40. Contacts: Susan Herrgesell, (916) 653-7448; Troy Swauger, (916) 654-2096.
Hunting guides: Of 208 big-game guides licensed by CDFG, more than half offer wild-pig outings. Generally, you learn more, faster, by hunting with a guide than any other way. Beginners are ordinarily welcome, but to make the most of that experience, fully disclose your abilities and expectations, then follow instructions and safety protocols to the letter. Find the guide list at dfg.ca.gov. Then type, "2007 licensed big game guides," into the box on upper-right corner, and hit "search dfg" to bring up the list.
Basics: Starting July 1, a California resident hunting license will be $37.50; a pig tag will cost $17.85. A schedule of hunter-education courses (needed before you get a license) can be found at: dfg.ca.gov/huntered/index.html. Pigs can be taken by center-fire rifles, high-caliber handguns, shotguns firing slugs, black powder arms or archery.
E-mail Paul McHugh at pmchugh@sfchronicle.com
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...SPG16QAAA51.DTL
This article appeared on page D - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle
