Lake Sonoma afternoon hunt

[BDB]

Today was my third afternoon hunt at Lake Sonoma in as many weeks. All I can say about today right now is WOW !! I just got home and am spent but still have a bunch of work head of me so I will post up a full report tomorrow from work.

 

[Gyopo]

I hope this means you got one.
If so, good job!!
Pics?!

 

[hunt hard]

hope to see some pictures with you and a hog.

 

[Kentuck]

Sweet! Looking forward to getting the scoop tomorrow. Sounds like having to postpone Friday's trip might be worth it! If it's not too bad Friday I may drive up and hunt some of the day.

 

[Cal hunter]

You just had to give us a teaser didnt you!Cant wait for the story and hopefully some pics

 

[BDB]

Just finished skinning and cleaning up the carcass and putting it on ice until the butcher job tomorrow night. I do have pics but I"ll have to download them and shrink them at work tomorrow when I get in. I really need a shower and I just picked a tick off my leg as I was typing this so I am not done for the night yet.

10 hogs seen, in the hunt zone, another 25+ in the no hunt zone. 2 stalks made first one didn't work out, second one on 3 hogs did. 2 were in the 150-200 range and one was about 100#. I was over a mile from the truck straight downhill with dark closing in, guess which one I shot !!!! 100# boar at 35 yards with the other two at 25. It was a good choice !!!!!!!!

 

[BDB]

OK, dog walked, shower taken, time for bed. I'm not trying to drag this out I just want to write up what went down but really can't until tomorrow. That said, I just had to share a bit as I was so jacked up from the afternoon.

I downloaded one pic so here is my bloody arrow with the new boar wraps. I knew they would be pig killers

You will notice however that my quier holds 5 arrows and there are only 3 there, one with blood. More on that tomorrow

 

[larrysogla]

Awesome!!!!......Congratulations!!!!! God Bless.

 

[Speckmisser]

Congrats, Steve! The persistence paid off, huh?

 

[Rancho Loco]

Kick down the story!

See the evil Speckmisser's influence has brought?

 

[SacFireJT]

Congrats

 

[Franklin3]

Way to B..........BDB

So you don't think you wanted to try to roll the big ones down the hill!
Don't blame you a bit on that.
Rest up and get to writing.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

sounds like a very succesfull hunt.cant wait to here more details

...........

 

[sdbowyer]

Public land archery pig. Love it, love it, love it!

 

[Arrowslinger]

I just got off the phone w/ Steve......he's got a great story to tell!

congrats again

 

[Kentuck]

Yeah baby. Checking this thread was one of the first things I wanted to do this morning. Congrats!

 

[Orso]

Come on all ready!!!!

I don't recall the last time I've heard so many success stories about public land hog hunting... I guess becuase the people that do get'em usually keep it quiet.

Hurry up already.

Congrats BTW.

 

[BDB]

Sorry, unfortunately an 8:30 meeting sucked up some precious Jesses time

OK, here's the story. As I pull in to park my truck I see another rig there and am a little bummed thinking someone else is already hunting the area I want to hunt. Then I notice the guy is still in his truck so I head over to chat. It turned out to be a JHO member and he was done hunting and heading out. I forget his handle right now, say hi if you read this Brian! He was hunting all day and saw a bunch of pigs and was pretty happy with the day.

I gear up and hit the road as I walk into the hunt zone I check my watch and it's 3:15. Plenty of time to do some good scouting before setting up and waiting for the hogs. As I am walking a ridge line checking out the scenery I see something brown in a meadow about 8-900 yards away and way down hill. I pull out the binos and sure enough it's a nice hog. I glass the area around him and see 5 more, all black!!! Game on and it's only 3:35! I look them over and pick a nice approach route and head out to close the gap. As I get down off the ridge the wind is a little different so I changed my approach a bit to keep the wind in my face. As I get to what I think is about 200 yards form the hogs, I drop my pack frame and keep on going. I get up into the meadow they were in but there gone. As I keep working towards the tree line I hear them rooting. They have moved behind a manzanita thicket and are feeding under some oaks. As I ease around the thicket I see the first one, the brown one. Quartering away and rooting. The problem is the more I move around the thicket the more my scent is blowing closer to him. I finally ease into a spot a little over 20 yards away and have a quartering away shot. Perfect!!! As I start to draw I hear a grunt to my right. Not even 10 yards away in the manzanita thicket is a big black hog looking at me and grunting ! I have no shot on him but decide I had better hurry the hell up and shoot the brown one before they all bolt. I draw and aim real low for a heart shot. I let one rip. Just barely under the pig, and I mean just barely, maybe he was little farther than I though, don't know for sure. The brown one and the other 4 that were a little farther away bust a$$ out of there. The black one stays and keeps grunting at me. I knock another arrow and start working around the thicket to find a hole to slip an arrow into him. He finally has enough of that and starts to trot out the back of the thicket. I get one chance at about 25 yards with him at a slow trot. I know moving shots aren't ideal but I am pretty jacked up at this point so I draw and follow him and let one rip. Anyone who has ever had an arrow zip into a manzanita thicket knows the sound of an arrow pinballing off a dozen branches. Not a good sound. So here I am at 4:15 with 2 missed shots and am cursing myself up and down. Anyhow, lots of light time to move on. So now you know why my quiver only had 3 arrows later on.

I decided to move to some higher ground and then glass a bit just to settle down and stop sweating. Glassed up a bunch of hogs in the no hunt zone a mile or so away but nothing close by. I decided to drop back down low and work along the ridge. I actually walked up on my first bedded dear that didn't see me before I saw her (close range one anyway). When I got to about 40 yards she picked me out and was off like a flash. I am still side hilling this ridge line and as I come over a little rise I see another brown hog about 100 yards ahead. With the wind in my face I close to about 60 yards and drop my pack frame. As I work in to about 50 yards I see two more pigs. Definitely bigger pigs. They are happily rooting on some bulbs (pic to follow) and I get to 35 yards. I sit there for quite a while hoping they will come my way for a nice little chip shot but it appears they won't so I need to take a shot soon. I look them all over and as I said earlier decided on the smaller on at 35 yards instead of the large one at 25. I draw and hold for just the right shot and let another arrow fly. SMACK ! The smack was followed immediately by a nice squeal and the three of them headed down hill towards the bedding area they had come from. The shot looked really good. Low in the chest just behind the shoulder (after skinning it out, it was about 1.5-2 inches behind the leg). I wanted to wait an hour but with it being 5:15 and light soon to be failing I only waited 20 mins after finding my arrow to get on them. Great blood on the arrow but after about 50-60 yards of trailing them in the open meadow I still have not found a speck of blood but I did see where they went over the rise so I focussed there. Sure enough fresh tracks and my first blood on the ground. Then I hear some rustling in the brush down hill about 40 yards away. My first though was, damn he's not dead and I don't want to bump him so I freeze and just listed. Next thing you know a big ole black and white pig wanders out and starts feeding. I immediately kick into hunter mode and knock and arrow and close in to 18 yards. At full draw on the chip shot I decide I have more important things to be doing and let up and go back to the blood trail.

I followed it another 40 yards until it hit the trees but the blood was very sporadic and not much of it. I lost blood and started doing circles. The problem was the area is thick as hell not far from me and I knew without blood I was in big trouble with the 50 minutes of light, only about 25 of which would help me in the trees. Next thing you know the big black and white pig is back and within 20 yards. Finally I say the hell with it I'll kill him two and make a few trips (boy would that have sucked). I chased him up and down the hill for about 5-10 mins before he finally had enough and ran off. I decided the best bet was to go back to the last blood and start over instead of doing circles. I find the last specks and start looking again. I finally found some but they had changed directions and no longer were going side hill or down but a little up. That didn't make me happy but hey I had blood again. Another 30 yards of hands and knees looking for blood and I look up and see a little hump about 30 yards away in the thick stuff. Is that a rock I think? I pull out the binos and BAM there's my pig piled up under a manzanita tree!!!! I can't tell you how happy I was top find him, especially after the pig I lost at MikenSoCo's a month and half back. He went about 120-150 yards after the shot.

Anyhow I drug him to an opening as I didn't feel like bending over a carcass in lion country looking like two free hot meals. I didn't get any pics with me and pig because I just didn't feel like burning daylight trying to get it setup properly. So at 5:50 I was gutting, at 6pm I strapped on the pack and started for the truck. I arrived at the truck 35 minutes later after I figure about a mile up hill. Boy did that cold beer taste good while I organized and packed my truck!

It was one of the most amazing short hunts I have ever been on. 10 pigs seen in 2.5 hours of hunting is awesome for public land 1 hour and 45 minutes from home. I'll be back there before the season is over, you can bet one that!!! I'll post up a few pics in 2 more posts just because it's quicker right now.

 

[BDB]

And here was the poor little fellers last meal and all the rooting damage they had been doing. You can also see it's a little hilly and why I wasn't excited about a big dead pig down there !!!

 

[BDB]

This is the type of blood I had for most of the tracking and it was only every 4 or 5 feet on many places. Not as much blood as I expected to see based on the hit, that's for sure.