The above quote is from one of my favorite movies (Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers) and the context is this weekend’s wild boar hunting trip up to the Lake Sonoma area.
My wife have for some time been questioning my hunting ability and to some degree if this “hobby” of mine was even true since all my recent trips have produced no “bacon” but once again I ask for the weekend off and she agrees.
I got invited to go hunt this ranch up in Sonoma and I promptly asked my friend Adam to join me, he was sick with the flu but drove up anyway, I arrive Friday afternoon and lace up my hiking boots and grab my .270 and I head out through the pasture that connects the main part of the ranch with the adjacent oak studded hill’s where the wild pig roams.
I hike for some hours and come across one beautiful 8 point buck and some turkeys but I just look at them through my binoculars, I come across some fresh pig tracks and some rooting but alas the elusive Sonoma pigs is nowhere to be seen, I head back to my camp and put the kettle on in the van and warm some chili for dinner, after that I climb “up-stairs” and fall asleep.
At 5:30AM the alarm goes off and I climb “down-stairs” make some tea, get dressed and have a banana and a granola bar for breakfast, I get a SMS from Adam that he is on the way and will arrive around 8:00AM, not wanting to loose the first light I grab my gear and hike out, once through the gates and up on the ridge I walk briskly to get warm, frost is on the ground and the wind has a chill. I am starting to warm up when my eye catches the black dot on the hillside under some oak trees, I grab my binoculars and there it is one big happy black boar rooting away.
As my heart is racing with excitement as I am determining the wind direction, I don’t want to miss this opportunity to “right” myself with my wife. I pick the best route to get in position and start hiking down the drainage towards the next ridge where he is rooting, I cross the first drainage and move through some trees to come out the other side expecting to see him but he has moved and the spot he was at is just torn up ground, I grab my binoculars and scan the area and spot movement in the trees and verifies that he is still there. I sneak up on him and from another angle I see that he is not alone…the whole herd is there, some 7-10 pigs all together. I find a good rest and from 80 yards away I abruptly end his day with a .270 130gr Nossler Partition bullet right behind the ear. The boar never knew what hit him.
The rest of the pigs scramble and take off, I walk down there to make sure he is dead and start assessing how I am going to get 200lbs of pig back up to the road leading back to the ranch. I mark the spot on my GPS and hike back up to the road and through the fields into the ranch, I drop of my hunting gear and refill my hydration pack with liquid and pack my backpack for dressing and hauling the pig out. Adam in the meantime have shown up and is excited to see the pig, I am just happy that I have another set of hands to help and my friend that invited me there is done with his choirs and decides to lend a hand as well.
We hike out to the pig and it takes a considerable amount of effort to drag pig out of there despite first having gutted the pig there. Less weight to carry and you should always leave something for the coyotes and turkey vultures. We make it back to the ranch and Adam and I start skinning the pig to allow for rapid cooling of the meat, the pig was very healthy and have a nice layer of fat.
Anyway the story would be nothing without some pictures so I have attached a few for your viewing pleasure.
--JP
My wife have for some time been questioning my hunting ability and to some degree if this “hobby” of mine was even true since all my recent trips have produced no “bacon” but once again I ask for the weekend off and she agrees.
I got invited to go hunt this ranch up in Sonoma and I promptly asked my friend Adam to join me, he was sick with the flu but drove up anyway, I arrive Friday afternoon and lace up my hiking boots and grab my .270 and I head out through the pasture that connects the main part of the ranch with the adjacent oak studded hill’s where the wild pig roams.
I hike for some hours and come across one beautiful 8 point buck and some turkeys but I just look at them through my binoculars, I come across some fresh pig tracks and some rooting but alas the elusive Sonoma pigs is nowhere to be seen, I head back to my camp and put the kettle on in the van and warm some chili for dinner, after that I climb “up-stairs” and fall asleep.
At 5:30AM the alarm goes off and I climb “down-stairs” make some tea, get dressed and have a banana and a granola bar for breakfast, I get a SMS from Adam that he is on the way and will arrive around 8:00AM, not wanting to loose the first light I grab my gear and hike out, once through the gates and up on the ridge I walk briskly to get warm, frost is on the ground and the wind has a chill. I am starting to warm up when my eye catches the black dot on the hillside under some oak trees, I grab my binoculars and there it is one big happy black boar rooting away.
As my heart is racing with excitement as I am determining the wind direction, I don’t want to miss this opportunity to “right” myself with my wife. I pick the best route to get in position and start hiking down the drainage towards the next ridge where he is rooting, I cross the first drainage and move through some trees to come out the other side expecting to see him but he has moved and the spot he was at is just torn up ground, I grab my binoculars and scan the area and spot movement in the trees and verifies that he is still there. I sneak up on him and from another angle I see that he is not alone…the whole herd is there, some 7-10 pigs all together. I find a good rest and from 80 yards away I abruptly end his day with a .270 130gr Nossler Partition bullet right behind the ear. The boar never knew what hit him.
The rest of the pigs scramble and take off, I walk down there to make sure he is dead and start assessing how I am going to get 200lbs of pig back up to the road leading back to the ranch. I mark the spot on my GPS and hike back up to the road and through the fields into the ranch, I drop of my hunting gear and refill my hydration pack with liquid and pack my backpack for dressing and hauling the pig out. Adam in the meantime have shown up and is excited to see the pig, I am just happy that I have another set of hands to help and my friend that invited me there is done with his choirs and decides to lend a hand as well.
We hike out to the pig and it takes a considerable amount of effort to drag pig out of there despite first having gutted the pig there. Less weight to carry and you should always leave something for the coyotes and turkey vultures. We make it back to the ranch and Adam and I start skinning the pig to allow for rapid cooling of the meat, the pig was very healthy and have a nice layer of fat.
Anyway the story would be nothing without some pictures so I have attached a few for your viewing pleasure.
--JP
