My latest boar

[sdbowyer]

Just got back from a weekend trip up to San Francisco with the family.  I used the opportunity to scout some sights in the Los Padres National Forest on the coast.  On Friday morning I was lucky enough to catch this boar on my video camera:

http://www.slickpages.com/spotnstalk/boar02.htm

We had just taken the earliest tour of Hearst Castle and got back on the road at 10:00 AM.  It was a beautiful, misty, green coastal morning.  We went past Hearst property and began going past some other fortunate rancher's property going down the Highway 1.  I was keeping my eyes peeled for just this sort of thing when this big fella came bounding toward the highway.  I said to my wife "that doesn't look like a cow to me". She said "No it doesn't!"  I jammed on the breaks and grabbed the video camera.  He ducked under the barbed-wire fence and strolled right across the road like he was William Randolf Hearst and headed toward the ocean.  As my wife yelled "Don't you get hit by a car!" I frantically chased him and got him on some very choppy video.  

Hopefully you can tell by this still but he was an impressive specimen.  I consider him to be the ultimate California coastal boar.  If you look carefully you see he almost has a mane from the thick coat this time of year.  In the excitement I couldn't get a read on tusks unfortunately, but he has all the other traits of a trophy boar.  I'd consider giving my left nut to have some of this real estate and chase prime stock like this all spring.

As far as forest closures, from what I saw the coastal access roads to Los Padres were all open.  If there had been rain it would have been a different story but the weather was perfect.  Spring green and spring boar.  Needless to say, I felt like staying behind instead of visiting big, crazy San Francisco.

 

[Rancho Loco]

That looks like a pretty big boy to me...Was that south of Cambria on U.S. 1?

And here's a question, has anyone ever seen a roadkill hog?  There's a million Deer lining the roads around here along with everything else, but I've never seen a pig...And yes, I do ALOT of miles on the central coast.

 

[sdbowyer]

Rancho, no it was North of Cambria, just North of San Simeon.

 

[bubba]

I've seen quite a feww roadkill hogs  travelling through Hwy 152 and Corral Hollow road between I5 and Livermore.  I seen a huge boar about two months ago on Corral Hollow road right next to Carnegie Bike Park.  His head was gone the next morning.

 

[Speckmisser]

Great Pix, SD!  Like my luck, to see all kinds of game when I can't shoot them.  I need to put the 35mm camera back in the truck.  Yesterday on the way to the ranch I saw a big tom turkey in full strut...  my digital cam requires real close stalking, and I couldn't pull it off.  

Hey Bubba,

You know anybody over that way (Livermore-Corral Hollow) who's hunting the hills there?  I heard a while back that some of the ranchers might be amenable to letting you shoot squirrels, but didn't think to ask about pigs at the time.  

I see a few roadkill hogs out on 198 going to Coalinga.  I know the ranches there are loaded, but apparently tough to get permission.  A lot of guides operate there, I think, so leases are all taken up.

 

[wmidbrook]

Asking a landowner to squirrel hunt or varmit hunt in the off-seasons can be a good inroad to getting permission for hunting big game--especially, if you volunteer some weekend labor in exchange for permission to hunt.  I've had some luck doing that but have been rejected many, many times.

It's tough to keep up with hunting leases near the bay area 'cause last I heard they are really, really expensive.  It costs at least $2000 and I've heard of parties going in on $10,000+ annual leases.  It starts to make the cost of going with an outfitter look like more and more of a good value.  Plus, there's never a sure deal that others won't hunt the land being leased either.  Ranchers often hunt or let their friends hunt after the people leasing the properties have taken their game.  

 

[spectr17]

Nice shot SDbowyer. I've seen bears and deer roadkills but no pigs I can remember. Imagine what is was like being old man Hearst and hunting that land with all the game there.

 

[bubba]

Speck:  Don't know about the ranches up that way.  My uncle has access to a couple of ranches in the area.  One is in Castro Valley, the other is just north of 580 along N livermore Ave near BlackHawk.  I'm pretty sure I can get on whenever he is around (with some friends).  I shot my first buck there last august.  I'm trying to get permission on the Romero ranch and El Torro ranch.(by San Luis Reservoir)  I managed to get permission to cross El Torro ranch for access to some back area on public property.  Working my way up.  I'm also trying to get my own permission slip for the ranches my uncle has access to.  I am going to ask him about going soon for squirrel.  I know by talking to owners that they encourage shooting the squirrels and coyote's.  Last year my uncle seen and took a couple of hogs off that property(Livermore) for the first time in hunting it for 15 yrs.  When I do set up a date, I will drop you a line and see if your interest in coming along.

(Edited by bubba at 12:06 pm on April 2, 2002)

 

[Speckmisser]

Hey Bubba,

That'd be great!  I'll drop you an email.

 

[bowhunting fool]

I seen a road killed boar, and as a matter of fact i saw it get hit and killed. it was right near the little town of Tres pinos, in San benito county, and me and a hunting buddy had stopped at the little junction general store to water up, and while we were standing there we watched as 2 boar about 150 lbs apiece decided to move across the road to go from one wine grape vineyard to the one across the street and the first one made it fine but the second one was a little slow out of the gate and WHAAAMMM! an eighteen wheel big rig just grilled it and flung it into the air about 75 feet before it hit the ground and when it did it slid another 70 feet or so. Me and my buddy just watched with our jaws dropped, and when the boar stopped the truck just kept on going, and me and my buddy ran over to check it out and when we got there it was a bloody mess it was steaming from many tears and holes all over the carcass, We thought about taking some meat but there really was not a whole lot that was not ground up. I tried to look in the mouth to see any tusks but the 2 bottom ones were broken off in the impact and the top were only about an inch, really not worth dulling my knife blade for. So that was my road killed boar story.

 

[Speckmisser]

There're a lot of hogs around that Tres Pinos area.  I've had to stop and let whole herds cross in front of my truck several times.  I had one big sow stop in front of me and stand there while a dozen or so medium and little piggies scampered across.  

In fact, that whole highway 25 corridor is loaded with hogs all the way to 198.  I've heard that people often road hunt them from the highway, but the locals have been cracking down on it and calling in the law.  

 

[Hoggin Hank]

Over here in  Central/South Tejas we have a pretty good number of pigs hit on the roads. There are a couple of ranches here at the lake where I live and work that have pigs dead near the roads that border the property lines. Mostly small hogs are found dead, 30 to 50#'s is average. One of the guys I work with at the EMS hit one last month in one of our Ambulances. It was small so it didn't do any damage..Some ranches in south Texas are so over run with hogs that the deer populations have dropped drastically. I sure wish I could find a ranch like that so I could get some hog hunting in. But I just never get that lucky..