Lake County boar down

[bisonic]

I looked at the weather forecast this morning and it had the rains ending in the early afternoon so I headed up. Drove north thru heavy rain, but it ended as I got up around 2:30. Started walking the main ridge, glassing the valleys to both sides. Saw a couple of coyotes in one area playing together like best friends, then a bit later spotted a big herd of hogs (20 or so, including piglets) in the valley to the west. I dropped down into the valley, but then faced what is normally a little creek but was then a pretty serious river without any obvious spots to cross. I had to head several hundred yards before finding a spot to cross, and even that took a mighty leap and ended up with a wet foot. Headed back toward where they were and pretty quickly spotted one in perfect profile about 75 yards out. Dropped him with my trusty Tikka .270 (it ain't pretty, but damn it sure shoots well!), then missed a follow up on a similar one as they all scattered.

I've always had good luck hunting right after a heavy rain.

About 140 lbs on the hoof, nice layer of fat on him. Bullet entry is in photo, double-lunged with bullet lodged in the far rib cage. My freezer is full so I gave him to a guy who'd posted to a FB hunting site about needing meat for his family.

Scrapes on his shoulder are from dragging him in with the quad.

View attachment 87635

 

[ruger_mac]

awesome!!

 

[CaliJeephuntr]

Nice!!

 

[Revo2811]

????


Man of few words

 

[snoopdogg]

Well done, boom!

 

[julian999]

WTG!!

 

[Bubblehide]

Sweet, congrats!

 

[hntboar]

Love it and thanks for posting

 

[Planetcat]

That's a great pig. Good story too. Congrats!

 

[Bigbadboar]

Nice. Have you tried bowhunting yet? Have you noticed any effects on the wildlife at your ranch from the wildfires?

 

[bisonic]

Nice. Have you tried bowhunting yet? Have you noticed any effects on the wildlife at your ranch from the wildfires?

I recently got a bow and have been practicing, feel pretty good up to 40 yards. I had both bow and rifle with me yesterday but had to make a choice when I crossed the creek. Opted for the rifle as I would have had to cross an open area to get near the herd and probably would have spooked them.

The fires were at the opposite end of the lake, over 20 miles from my place, so too far to affect my place. Certainly a heck of a lot of land near me could use a good burn as it's a complete thicket - virtually impassable and little forage for wildlife. Cow Mountain is in my backyard - used to be great hunting according to old timers but now virtually no deer are taken there. I try to do controlled burns on my place but it's really hard to do so as they only let you burn when, well, nothing wants to burn. It's amazingly hard to get chemise to light up in January despite pouring diesel/gas on it from a drip torch - it flares up, then dies out.

Most of what burned in the Rocky fire last year was chemise thicket, much of which was public land (Cache Creek. That should offer much better hunting in the next few years. The far more destructive Valley fire was mostly on private land.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Wtg bio with the boom stick, thanks for sharing!.....tra

 

[vogel002]

well done and great time

 

[thewolfman]

That's a great eater... Congrats and awesome how u gave the meat to a needy family

 

[Huntin Dave]

That's a great eater... Congrats and awesome how u gave the meat to a needy family

I second the giving the meat up to a family in need. One of the unspoken joys of hunting, is helping others.

 

[KTKT70]

I second the giving the meat up to a family in need. One of the unspoken joys of hunting, is helping others.

+10000. Real cool to help others. I hope to be able to do that sum day.

Do you guys find that you can off set your food bills with hunting or is it a total loss? I was thinking that after lots of years maybe guys can get the art down to a low price when off set by eating meat you kill.

What do you think?..

 

[Wolfe]

NICE I have the same rifle and love it. The Tikka rifles rock and are not a lot of cash. Great looking hog.