Howdy all - Per spectr17 (Jesse's?) request, I'm posting this here. I originally posted it at http://www.accuratereloading.com on their Big Game Hunting forum.
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On Friday, March 8, I went on a 1-day pig hunt with Kyler Hamann of Boaring Experiences in Atascadero, CA ( http://www.boaring.com ). This was my first "real" big-game hunt (as opposed to just "walking around with a rifle" ); I chose pigs because of their reputation for being plentiful and not-too-difficult to hunt, and I chose Kyler after seeing him recommended highly on this (Accurate) and other ( http://www.thefiringline.com ) forums, and after exchanging several emails, which he returned quickly and with complete & frank answers to my questions. While we were together we talked about gun writers and chat forums, among other things, and I agreed to post a report here. I'm a paying customer, a regular "nobody".
We hunted near the town of Parkfield, an hour northeast of Paso Robles, on some of the privately owned land Boaring has access to.
We started out at first light, driving from a valley up into hills covered with brush and oak trees. There are barley fields in the valley, and the pigs feed there at night and return to the hills to bed down during the day. According to Kyler, they like the barley so much they're willing to risk crossing the wide, flat, open valley to get it. In the hills, there were tracks and signs of rooting everywhere. The ground under the oak trees looked like it had been tilled by a gardener.
Just after first light, on the way up, Kyler spotted a group of 15 or so pigs moving toward us (and the hills) across the valley. We walked down onto the flat to intercept them. They were about 300 yards away when we got into position. They milled around for a while, crossed onto another property, then came back onto "our" property and started toward us again. After 50 yards or so, they stopped to check the wind. Kyler pointed out there was a slight breeze at our backs, and predicted they would have our scent before long. Right on cue, they trotted off perpendicular to the wind, back toward the other property. As they did, a sow the size I wanted fell behind about two lengths, and I might have had a shot at her, but it would have been difficult: 250 yards, moving, with holdover, in low light. I passed. There was another group at our 9 o'clock, but they were also at least as far away and on the other property.
We drove the rounds for another hour or two, stopping periodically to glass. We spotted two smaller pigs about half a mile away, moving across a clearing on the other side of a canyon. We drove around to the other side of the ridge above them, intending to walk up and over the ridge and catch them from above, but they gave us the slip. They probably heard my huffing and puffing and crashing through the brush. Kyler moves fast, and I got quite a workout trying to keep up with him.
It had been full daylight for at least two hours by that time, so we attempted a bedding area drive. I worked along a brushy canyon with a steep, relatively clear opposite side. The game plan was to jump a pig in its bed, and get a running shot as it went up the other side. I don't know if I was too noisy, or not noisy enough, too high up the side, too low, etc., but I saw and heard nothing. We quit for the morning.
We started the evening hunt just before 5 PM with spot-and-stalk again. We drove to the top of the hills and saw nothing but a deer, but on the way back down, Kyler spotted a group of pigs feeding along the near side of a ridge, moving toward the valley (by this time, I had given up trying to spot anything myself). We drove as close as we could, then continued on foot. We had a stalk of between a quarter and a half-mile, down through a small canyon (more like an arroyo or gully, depending on where you're from) and up the other side toward them. I had spent the midday break nursing sore hill-climbing muscles, and wasn't sure I would make it, but adrenaline got me through. We stopped below a mound on the hillside. Kyler kept an eye on the pigs while I stayed out of sight and caught my breath. He indicated that a lone sow about the size I wanted was working her way down toward us, and was about 60 yards away. I moved up until I could see her over the mound.
I got her framed between two tufts of brush growing out of the top of the mound and moved up some more, enough to get a clear shot from braced kneeling. As I was lining her up, another one wandered over behind her. I looked over the scope to make sure I had the right one. She was in the clear again in a few seconds.
I'd always heard you don't hear the report or feel the recoil. That wasn't completely true in my case. I was vaguely aware of them, but they (along with the muzzle flash) were far away, as though I was firing the rifle in a dream. I was also vaguely aware that someone was working my bolt. It must have been me, because there was no one else within 20 feet.
As I worked the bolt, she went down, then rolled and flopped down the hill a ways. She thrashed for about 30 seconds. Kyler had been ready to fire, watching her through his scope; he said my shot had hit her in the neck, and the kind of thrashing she was doing was typical of a central nervous system hit. (Reading through some of the posts here, I see this is the "alligator dance" or the "crappie flop".)
When I took the shot I was sure she was quartering slightly toward me, but the path of the bullet said she had been quartering away. The bullet hit on the point of the right shoulder and exited at the base of the neck on the left side. Luckily, it centered the spine on the way through, and she was dead instantly. Good thing too, because, to borrow from Capstick, night didn't fall, it positively plummeted, or so it seemed to me. Kyler was pleased at the one-shot-kill; I was relieved that I didn't embarrass myself or cripple the pig with bad shooting.
We hustled her to the skinning tree and got her ready for the cooler. Kyler showed the mark of a pro here by making it look easy (20 minutes). I was surprised at how much (how many?) viscera there is in an animal that size, and the dressed carcass looked decidedly "deflated" without them. There was no fat evident.
Rifle details: Remington 700 in 30-06, in an HS Precision stock, Leupold 1.5-5 Vari-X III; Federal Premium with 180-grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. Speaking of guns, Kyler has a sweet backup handgun, a Lew Horton M629 with a 3" barrel, modified to take full moon clips, with (help me here) grips for the 357 frame adapted to fit (I don't know, when I start hearing about "K frame" and "N frame", the fog rolls in and I stop listening). Anyway, as I said, it was sweet, but he wouldn't sell it to me.
Recommendations/lessons learned/criticisms:
Accommodations: stay at the Parkfield Inn if possible. It's right there; you can't beat it for convenience. However, there are no other facilities except for a cafe, so go to Paso Robles first for food, ice, etc. If you don't stay there, allow at least an hour from Paso and 1:15 from Atascadero. Once you get off highway 46, it's dark, narrow and winding.
The midday break: We didn't hunt at all during high sun, so I had about 6 hours to kill. I hung around in Parkfield, where there is absolutely nothing to do. I did shoot some (more correctly, at some) informal sporting clays. Suffice it to say it's much safer to be a clay pigeon than a pig around me. I could have driven back to Paso, but I didn't want to give Murphy any opportunities.
Scope magnification: I keep my scope on the lowest power, for the usual reasons. I cranked it up to take a look at the pigs before I set up, then turned it back down for the shot. Why??
Fitness: Kyler's tall, so he moves fast, but my inability to keep up with him was just as much due to poor fitness on my part.
Overall, I would rate the experience a thumbs up, and I would definitely echo the others who have recommended Kyler Hamann & Boaring Experiences. I'll go back, next time with a partner and for 2 days, I hope.
------------------------
On Friday, March 8, I went on a 1-day pig hunt with Kyler Hamann of Boaring Experiences in Atascadero, CA ( http://www.boaring.com ). This was my first "real" big-game hunt (as opposed to just "walking around with a rifle" ); I chose pigs because of their reputation for being plentiful and not-too-difficult to hunt, and I chose Kyler after seeing him recommended highly on this (Accurate) and other ( http://www.thefiringline.com ) forums, and after exchanging several emails, which he returned quickly and with complete & frank answers to my questions. While we were together we talked about gun writers and chat forums, among other things, and I agreed to post a report here. I'm a paying customer, a regular "nobody".
We hunted near the town of Parkfield, an hour northeast of Paso Robles, on some of the privately owned land Boaring has access to.
We started out at first light, driving from a valley up into hills covered with brush and oak trees. There are barley fields in the valley, and the pigs feed there at night and return to the hills to bed down during the day. According to Kyler, they like the barley so much they're willing to risk crossing the wide, flat, open valley to get it. In the hills, there were tracks and signs of rooting everywhere. The ground under the oak trees looked like it had been tilled by a gardener.
Just after first light, on the way up, Kyler spotted a group of 15 or so pigs moving toward us (and the hills) across the valley. We walked down onto the flat to intercept them. They were about 300 yards away when we got into position. They milled around for a while, crossed onto another property, then came back onto "our" property and started toward us again. After 50 yards or so, they stopped to check the wind. Kyler pointed out there was a slight breeze at our backs, and predicted they would have our scent before long. Right on cue, they trotted off perpendicular to the wind, back toward the other property. As they did, a sow the size I wanted fell behind about two lengths, and I might have had a shot at her, but it would have been difficult: 250 yards, moving, with holdover, in low light. I passed. There was another group at our 9 o'clock, but they were also at least as far away and on the other property.
We drove the rounds for another hour or two, stopping periodically to glass. We spotted two smaller pigs about half a mile away, moving across a clearing on the other side of a canyon. We drove around to the other side of the ridge above them, intending to walk up and over the ridge and catch them from above, but they gave us the slip. They probably heard my huffing and puffing and crashing through the brush. Kyler moves fast, and I got quite a workout trying to keep up with him.
It had been full daylight for at least two hours by that time, so we attempted a bedding area drive. I worked along a brushy canyon with a steep, relatively clear opposite side. The game plan was to jump a pig in its bed, and get a running shot as it went up the other side. I don't know if I was too noisy, or not noisy enough, too high up the side, too low, etc., but I saw and heard nothing. We quit for the morning.
We started the evening hunt just before 5 PM with spot-and-stalk again. We drove to the top of the hills and saw nothing but a deer, but on the way back down, Kyler spotted a group of pigs feeding along the near side of a ridge, moving toward the valley (by this time, I had given up trying to spot anything myself). We drove as close as we could, then continued on foot. We had a stalk of between a quarter and a half-mile, down through a small canyon (more like an arroyo or gully, depending on where you're from) and up the other side toward them. I had spent the midday break nursing sore hill-climbing muscles, and wasn't sure I would make it, but adrenaline got me through. We stopped below a mound on the hillside. Kyler kept an eye on the pigs while I stayed out of sight and caught my breath. He indicated that a lone sow about the size I wanted was working her way down toward us, and was about 60 yards away. I moved up until I could see her over the mound.
I got her framed between two tufts of brush growing out of the top of the mound and moved up some more, enough to get a clear shot from braced kneeling. As I was lining her up, another one wandered over behind her. I looked over the scope to make sure I had the right one. She was in the clear again in a few seconds.
I'd always heard you don't hear the report or feel the recoil. That wasn't completely true in my case. I was vaguely aware of them, but they (along with the muzzle flash) were far away, as though I was firing the rifle in a dream. I was also vaguely aware that someone was working my bolt. It must have been me, because there was no one else within 20 feet.
As I worked the bolt, she went down, then rolled and flopped down the hill a ways. She thrashed for about 30 seconds. Kyler had been ready to fire, watching her through his scope; he said my shot had hit her in the neck, and the kind of thrashing she was doing was typical of a central nervous system hit. (Reading through some of the posts here, I see this is the "alligator dance" or the "crappie flop".)
When I took the shot I was sure she was quartering slightly toward me, but the path of the bullet said she had been quartering away. The bullet hit on the point of the right shoulder and exited at the base of the neck on the left side. Luckily, it centered the spine on the way through, and she was dead instantly. Good thing too, because, to borrow from Capstick, night didn't fall, it positively plummeted, or so it seemed to me. Kyler was pleased at the one-shot-kill; I was relieved that I didn't embarrass myself or cripple the pig with bad shooting.
We hustled her to the skinning tree and got her ready for the cooler. Kyler showed the mark of a pro here by making it look easy (20 minutes). I was surprised at how much (how many?) viscera there is in an animal that size, and the dressed carcass looked decidedly "deflated" without them. There was no fat evident.
Rifle details: Remington 700 in 30-06, in an HS Precision stock, Leupold 1.5-5 Vari-X III; Federal Premium with 180-grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. Speaking of guns, Kyler has a sweet backup handgun, a Lew Horton M629 with a 3" barrel, modified to take full moon clips, with (help me here) grips for the 357 frame adapted to fit (I don't know, when I start hearing about "K frame" and "N frame", the fog rolls in and I stop listening). Anyway, as I said, it was sweet, but he wouldn't sell it to me.
Recommendations/lessons learned/criticisms:
Accommodations: stay at the Parkfield Inn if possible. It's right there; you can't beat it for convenience. However, there are no other facilities except for a cafe, so go to Paso Robles first for food, ice, etc. If you don't stay there, allow at least an hour from Paso and 1:15 from Atascadero. Once you get off highway 46, it's dark, narrow and winding.
The midday break: We didn't hunt at all during high sun, so I had about 6 hours to kill. I hung around in Parkfield, where there is absolutely nothing to do. I did shoot some (more correctly, at some) informal sporting clays. Suffice it to say it's much safer to be a clay pigeon than a pig around me. I could have driven back to Paso, but I didn't want to give Murphy any opportunities.
Scope magnification: I keep my scope on the lowest power, for the usual reasons. I cranked it up to take a look at the pigs before I set up, then turned it back down for the shot. Why??
Fitness: Kyler's tall, so he moves fast, but my inability to keep up with him was just as much due to poor fitness on my part.
Overall, I would rate the experience a thumbs up, and I would definitely echo the others who have recommended Kyler Hamann & Boaring Experiences. I'll go back, next time with a partner and for 2 days, I hope.
