YoungBlood
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CopperJohn and I decided to head up to L. Sonoma Saturday morning for a day hunt. We got up there a little later than we hoped, but thanks to Wal-Mart in Windsor we got CJ a new pig tag. He had used his last one on the monster at Chopper's place.
It was a little chilly, overcast and foggy once we arrived and the wind was shifting quite a bit. We found fresh hog tracks not even 10 feet from my Pathfinder and jumped 3 deer in the first 8-10 minutes. Since it had just rained the day/night before everything we saw was fresh. We walked up to the old road and sign was EVERYWHERE. Those hogs had been rooting up these little gren plants with a brown hairy looking bulb base with a white center even in the road! They weren't wild onions, but whatever they were, the pigs loved them. The remnants of them were all over the place. Sorry I don't have a pict, I was so excited to get out there I left it in the truck. I have a pict on a reg. camera, but won't have it processed for awhile.
CopperJohn noticed some dew trails, probably 4-6 hogs, so we started tracking them. It was really amazing to see because the sun started to come out and the dew trails were challenging to follow, but a great time. They were rooting up the ground all over the place. We followed them for quite aways and stopped to listen. The wind was good, we were moving slow and quite and we heard the first hog. It wasn't an alarm call, but it wasn't a happy grunting sound either. CJ tested the wind and before he put away the checker, that wind hit the back of our necks and we knew we'd be busted. We split up and tried to follow the dew tracks, but the sun had come out and we couldn't see them anymore. We walked until we came to a fence and turned back. We were excited, but a little mad at those G.D. hogs for out smarting us.
We walked up the hill back to the road and decided to split up and walk down the other side of the terrain. In just a few minutes we were into a bunch of fresh sign again. I was moving slowly because I thought I heard something to my left crunching around in the leaves on the next hillside. I heard a grunt (at least I thought I did, but sometimes our minds can play tricks on us when we want to stick a hog), so I got out my rangefinder and glassed through the shooting lanes to see if I could see anything. Unfortunatley, I didn't see anything, but something was walking around over there. The wind was shifting all over the place, so I thought I'd go further down the hill and get to the other side of whatever it was and put on a sneak. Jason and I met up at the bottom by another fence line and planned our attack. He walked down the fence line to set up an ambush and I circirled around to get position on the animal on the hillside. I walked up and couldn't see into the brush becuase it was so thick but once I slowly rounded the edge of it. It felt like I was hit in the face with a 2 X 4, by it, I mean the smell of a rank hog!. Pigig and Jason are always talking about "I smell pigs". I give them a rough time about it, but now I know what they are talking about. The sun was out, I had no cover to keep from showing my outline and I couldn't see into the brush. As I walked around the corner, I heard a quail flush from about 50 yards down. I might have spooked him, but I wasn't going to be killing a hog by standing on the outside looking in, so I walked right into the brush and I found an amazing bed. It was huge and had 3 piles of dung and I use that word because they were huge, fresh and rank. He had pooped them in a triangular pattern around his bed and they were so fresh they were soupy and the flys weren't even on it yet. I took pictures w/ my bow by the bed and my Rhino by the poop just to show the size, but as I mentioned, it wasn't a digital camera, so you'll have to wait for those. I called Jason and told him those G.D. Hogs got us again.
We meet up for a lunch of peanuts, crackers, miniture snickers and a mini mt. dew. We had to eat healthy to keep up our strenth for the upcoming portion of the day. Next time we plan a last minute outing we may have to plan for lunch and dinner.
We still couldn't believe the sign and how fresh it was everywhere. These pigs had been right out in the open roto-tilling everywhere and it was from last night! We started a new plan of attack from the meeting point AS, SacFire, LD and I had last time we hunted. CJ walked low and I stayed on the high side of the hill walking in. It didn't look like it would work out because the wind was blowing at our backs and sideways, but it had changed so much once you got into the brush we thought we'd give it a try. The ground was still pretty wet, so we were able to move pretty quietly, but we had to check the wind all the time. Deer sign was everywhere, but we didn't find any sheds this time. As we ducked and dived over brush, trying not to slip into a creek or get our friend, poision oak, we kept looking for those hogs. All of the sudden, we heard a weird nose and tried to figure it out, was that a pig or a deer? Crash, crash, I look up, pull up my bow and see two nice deer 15-20 yards away! Screwed again. I started to climb over a limb and Jason motioned me to stop......."There's a hog right there". I tried to move back where he was, but of course my pack was caught on a branch. I slowly and quietly unhooked it and moved back to see a HUGE, blackish, gray hog about 18-20 yards from us feeding. FINALLY, we get to see one after tracking them all day by dew, rooting, scat, scent and finally visual contact. My heart was pounding. There was so much brush between us and the hog, there was no way for a shot.....well AS might have been able to do it, but I've already ass-shot one hog, it died, but we didn't want to risk it with this monster
Jason moved around to the right and I climbed over the tree limb and under the next one. As I stood up, I saw there was a blonde hog. The colore was not reddish, like AS's last victem, it was a light blonde color. I could only see a patch of fur, so I ranged it. It was at 17 yards. I couldn't see the first hog from where I was, but I wanted this one. As it moved around rooting, I was it was even bigger than the blackish one. I was so psyched, public land and I'm getting ready to pop a big ol' hog!
The wind was still good, we were both moving silently to get into position and waiting, waiting......of course the wind hits the back of my neck (for once it blew it off away from the hog), but were CJ was positioned it may have winded him or just started to feel something wasn't quite right. The big hog bolted without an alarm call. This thing was running full speed and it looked like it was almost bounding between strides. This isn't exactly the type of shot I was hoping for or watch on the hunting show on Big Game Thursdays, but this was reality. The hog was coming out of the brush and right towards me (I'm not to proud to say I was scared), but if it was going to take me out, I would at least sling an arrow at first. I pulled up my bow, it saw me and changed directions in mid-air. I knew I only had a split second to decide what to do and a good friend of mine named Chopper said, "You can't kill'em if you don't shoot at 'em". So I lead it and let it fly............To bad the brush was so thick in front of me my arrow barely made it through then riquoced to the ground. As this was happening the hog was still at full speed and ran directly into a fench. The sound and power of it was unbelievable. I heard the "twannnngggg" and it simply backed up and halled a** away from me. I went to retrieve my arrow which was about 5 feet from where the hog hit the wire and looked at what it did. The head had broken 2 of the wires, but it didn't go all the way through. I was stunned and bummed. Oh well, I was still shaking from the experience. At least we got to see them and even get a shot off. Those G.D. hogs!!!!! The way SopperJohn says it, you'd think they did something to him personally
I was standing there looking at my arrow and re-running the events through my head wondering where Jason was. I hadn't been able to see him sneaking on the blackish one for awhile and I assumed since one spooked, they probably both spooked. Anyway I walked towards where the blonde had gone I though there could be more hogs around, so I was quiet and stood still..........grunt, grunt was the next thing I heard. I was already facing that direction and I was ready to do some killing this time, warm-up was over. It's reddish head with black spots was heading up the creek/hillside right towards me. As it looked back, I raised the bow and waited. The brush was thicker than hell, so I looked ahead of it and picked a small shooting lane and waited.........I was probably 13-15 yards when I saw the head move through my zone, once I saw the shoulder I let it fly. THWACK and a loud squeeze was music to my ears. This was also a big hog, the biggest I've arrowed yet. The penetration was not much and it tore out of there quick. It ran around 15 yards and the arrow in the right front shoulder smacked a tree and broke off. I was shooting 30" Carbon XPress Terminator Hunder Select arrows and Tekken II broadheads w/ the extended cutting blades. I was surprised the arrow didn't go deeper, but I knew I didn't miss and it would do some damage, especially after it hit the tree and and sliced and diced that hog some more. It ran towards CJ and we decided to give it some time. My hands were shaking like crazy as I checked the spot where I hit him. No blood, not a good sign, but I've read tons of stories on JHO that doesn't mean it's not hit well. We went to pick up the broken arrow, it had blood, but when I measured it to my others it looked like it only had 4.5-5" penetration, which is not ideal. We had time, it was only 1:20PM, so we talked to PIGIG and let it have it's time to get comfortable. We decided to walk around some more instead of just sitting there. I still couldn't believe I just had 2 shots at 2 huge pigs w/in 5 minutes of each other. Jason said I'm spoiled because everytime I've been hog hunting (4 times) I've seen hogs, 2 confirmed kills and now arrowed one on public land. I just wanted to find that G.D. Hog...
We walked around, but the sun and wind had dried the ground more than earlier so it was tougher to be as quiet. I showed Jason the bedding spot I found earlier and he was amazed at the size of the scat and the bedding area. I want to smoke that hog next time. We walked back to the spot and started to try to find a blood trail. It had been 2.5 hours and we had to head back to SF that night so we needed to get started. We found some blood, only a couple of drops at first. As we tracked it, the blood got heavier, but then it went under a fence to private property. We looked and glassed from the fenceline, but stopped there. We hated to leave it, but it could've ran for miles.
Oh well, that's why we love those G.D. hogs and hunting them. I can't wait to get back out there and get on them again.
It was a little chilly, overcast and foggy once we arrived and the wind was shifting quite a bit. We found fresh hog tracks not even 10 feet from my Pathfinder and jumped 3 deer in the first 8-10 minutes. Since it had just rained the day/night before everything we saw was fresh. We walked up to the old road and sign was EVERYWHERE. Those hogs had been rooting up these little gren plants with a brown hairy looking bulb base with a white center even in the road! They weren't wild onions, but whatever they were, the pigs loved them. The remnants of them were all over the place. Sorry I don't have a pict, I was so excited to get out there I left it in the truck. I have a pict on a reg. camera, but won't have it processed for awhile.
CopperJohn noticed some dew trails, probably 4-6 hogs, so we started tracking them. It was really amazing to see because the sun started to come out and the dew trails were challenging to follow, but a great time. They were rooting up the ground all over the place. We followed them for quite aways and stopped to listen. The wind was good, we were moving slow and quite and we heard the first hog. It wasn't an alarm call, but it wasn't a happy grunting sound either. CJ tested the wind and before he put away the checker, that wind hit the back of our necks and we knew we'd be busted. We split up and tried to follow the dew tracks, but the sun had come out and we couldn't see them anymore. We walked until we came to a fence and turned back. We were excited, but a little mad at those G.D. hogs for out smarting us.
We walked up the hill back to the road and decided to split up and walk down the other side of the terrain. In just a few minutes we were into a bunch of fresh sign again. I was moving slowly because I thought I heard something to my left crunching around in the leaves on the next hillside. I heard a grunt (at least I thought I did, but sometimes our minds can play tricks on us when we want to stick a hog), so I got out my rangefinder and glassed through the shooting lanes to see if I could see anything. Unfortunatley, I didn't see anything, but something was walking around over there. The wind was shifting all over the place, so I thought I'd go further down the hill and get to the other side of whatever it was and put on a sneak. Jason and I met up at the bottom by another fence line and planned our attack. He walked down the fence line to set up an ambush and I circirled around to get position on the animal on the hillside. I walked up and couldn't see into the brush becuase it was so thick but once I slowly rounded the edge of it. It felt like I was hit in the face with a 2 X 4, by it, I mean the smell of a rank hog!. Pigig and Jason are always talking about "I smell pigs". I give them a rough time about it, but now I know what they are talking about. The sun was out, I had no cover to keep from showing my outline and I couldn't see into the brush. As I walked around the corner, I heard a quail flush from about 50 yards down. I might have spooked him, but I wasn't going to be killing a hog by standing on the outside looking in, so I walked right into the brush and I found an amazing bed. It was huge and had 3 piles of dung and I use that word because they were huge, fresh and rank. He had pooped them in a triangular pattern around his bed and they were so fresh they were soupy and the flys weren't even on it yet. I took pictures w/ my bow by the bed and my Rhino by the poop just to show the size, but as I mentioned, it wasn't a digital camera, so you'll have to wait for those. I called Jason and told him those G.D. Hogs got us again.
We meet up for a lunch of peanuts, crackers, miniture snickers and a mini mt. dew. We had to eat healthy to keep up our strenth for the upcoming portion of the day. Next time we plan a last minute outing we may have to plan for lunch and dinner.
We still couldn't believe the sign and how fresh it was everywhere. These pigs had been right out in the open roto-tilling everywhere and it was from last night! We started a new plan of attack from the meeting point AS, SacFire, LD and I had last time we hunted. CJ walked low and I stayed on the high side of the hill walking in. It didn't look like it would work out because the wind was blowing at our backs and sideways, but it had changed so much once you got into the brush we thought we'd give it a try. The ground was still pretty wet, so we were able to move pretty quietly, but we had to check the wind all the time. Deer sign was everywhere, but we didn't find any sheds this time. As we ducked and dived over brush, trying not to slip into a creek or get our friend, poision oak, we kept looking for those hogs. All of the sudden, we heard a weird nose and tried to figure it out, was that a pig or a deer? Crash, crash, I look up, pull up my bow and see two nice deer 15-20 yards away! Screwed again. I started to climb over a limb and Jason motioned me to stop......."There's a hog right there". I tried to move back where he was, but of course my pack was caught on a branch. I slowly and quietly unhooked it and moved back to see a HUGE, blackish, gray hog about 18-20 yards from us feeding. FINALLY, we get to see one after tracking them all day by dew, rooting, scat, scent and finally visual contact. My heart was pounding. There was so much brush between us and the hog, there was no way for a shot.....well AS might have been able to do it, but I've already ass-shot one hog, it died, but we didn't want to risk it with this monster
I was standing there looking at my arrow and re-running the events through my head wondering where Jason was. I hadn't been able to see him sneaking on the blackish one for awhile and I assumed since one spooked, they probably both spooked. Anyway I walked towards where the blonde had gone I though there could be more hogs around, so I was quiet and stood still..........grunt, grunt was the next thing I heard. I was already facing that direction and I was ready to do some killing this time, warm-up was over. It's reddish head with black spots was heading up the creek/hillside right towards me. As it looked back, I raised the bow and waited. The brush was thicker than hell, so I looked ahead of it and picked a small shooting lane and waited.........I was probably 13-15 yards when I saw the head move through my zone, once I saw the shoulder I let it fly. THWACK and a loud squeeze was music to my ears. This was also a big hog, the biggest I've arrowed yet. The penetration was not much and it tore out of there quick. It ran around 15 yards and the arrow in the right front shoulder smacked a tree and broke off. I was shooting 30" Carbon XPress Terminator Hunder Select arrows and Tekken II broadheads w/ the extended cutting blades. I was surprised the arrow didn't go deeper, but I knew I didn't miss and it would do some damage, especially after it hit the tree and and sliced and diced that hog some more. It ran towards CJ and we decided to give it some time. My hands were shaking like crazy as I checked the spot where I hit him. No blood, not a good sign, but I've read tons of stories on JHO that doesn't mean it's not hit well. We went to pick up the broken arrow, it had blood, but when I measured it to my others it looked like it only had 4.5-5" penetration, which is not ideal. We had time, it was only 1:20PM, so we talked to PIGIG and let it have it's time to get comfortable. We decided to walk around some more instead of just sitting there. I still couldn't believe I just had 2 shots at 2 huge pigs w/in 5 minutes of each other. Jason said I'm spoiled because everytime I've been hog hunting (4 times) I've seen hogs, 2 confirmed kills and now arrowed one on public land. I just wanted to find that G.D. Hog...
We walked around, but the sun and wind had dried the ground more than earlier so it was tougher to be as quiet. I showed Jason the bedding spot I found earlier and he was amazed at the size of the scat and the bedding area. I want to smoke that hog next time. We walked back to the spot and started to try to find a blood trail. It had been 2.5 hours and we had to head back to SF that night so we needed to get started. We found some blood, only a couple of drops at first. As we tracked it, the blood got heavier, but then it went under a fence to private property. We looked and glassed from the fenceline, but stopped there. We hated to leave it, but it could've ran for miles.
Oh well, that's why we love those G.D. hogs and hunting them. I can't wait to get back out there and get on them again.
