My first hog

[Mel Carter]

This picture is in my album, but I thought I would post it again with a little info on him. For years, I did the normal thing of hunting public lands with no luck. I did this for about 4 -5 years and got sick of not seeing anything. I decided to go with a guide, so I started calling everyone I could find. I hooked up with Tom Willougby, he had the best prices and had a guarented shot or no pay. We met Tom in San Miguel at an old bar, we headed out about an hour or so after we met with him. We were sitting up on a high hill when we seen about 8 hogs feeding in a barley field. We got to about 50 yards of the group but could only see the tops of their backs due to the high barley. When I finally got a decent shot, I took it. Some how I hit him high and a little far back, the shot broke his back and he was off and crawing as fast as he could. We went into the barley after him, hogs were running all over the place. The hog I shot actually started fighting with another hog and injured the other hog, Tom thought the injured hog was the one I first shot so he told me to shoot him again. It turned out it was a different hog all together. When we finally caught up to the first hog, we caught him crawing under a fence and I put another one between his shoulder blades as he was crawling away. We never weighed him on a scale, but Tom said he was over 300 lbs. When we took him to the meat locker, his hanging weight was 186 lbs. Some people have told me that the hanging weight of a hog is about 1/2 of what the live weight would be, this would make him about 370 lbs. Anyhow, he was my first hog and actually my first big game animal. I've killed about 10 hogs since then, but this one sits on my wall. The other hog was over 200 lbs. Tom took this hog because he said he had a wedding to go to the next day and it would make for a great BBQ.

Mel

 

[76scout]

Nice pig Ihope my first one is at least half that size

 

[FForF]

Nice hog! How do you get in contact with Tom?

 

[Gus]

Nice hog

 

[Mel Carter]

I got Tom's number from Jesses' web site. I don't know if it is still his number but you can give it a try. Here it is, Tom Willoughby ph# 831-385-3003. When I went with him he was charging either $300 or $350, I can't remember which one. Good luck.

Mel

 

[Freedivr2]

1) That's a heck of a hog for your first big game animal.

2) I also took my first hog with Tom Willoughby about 10-15 years ago. Met him in that same (you're exactly right) OLD bar on Friday late afternoon in San Miguel, went out and promptly took my first hog with a head shot (OK, so what if he was bedded down?), 160 lb. black Russian boar. Tom also told me to shoot a hog for him if we saw another nice sized meat pig. Guess he goes to a lot of weddings or something, huh? Go figure that one......

3) There's a lot of good guides out there now. I think Tom was one of the first and one of the better guides years ago. Not much for conversation, but sure knew how to find the pigs on that ranch East from San Miguel, that's for sure.

 

[Mel Carter]

One of the guys that was with us was from LA, he killed his hog the next morning on that property east of San Miguel. I took mine north of San Miguel on a piece of property that bordered Don Ingalls property. I was fun but very quick, a two day hunt that lasted actually about 3 hours.

Mel

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

Nice hog Mel......Thats my only complaint when you go with a guide. Its usually over way to quick.

 

[archerygrl76]

Nice hog!!! I will be going on my first hog hunt soon, mabe I should look into getting a guide. I don't think I can wait 4-5 years to bag my first one.

 

[Mel Carter]

Well, if your going to be going on public land anywhere other than camp roberts, you will probably have to wait longer than that. I just got tired of waiting after 4 -5 years. Good luck.

Mel