- Thread starter ooja
- Start date
Speckmisser
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2001
- Messages
- 12,900
- Reaction score
- 27
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>
Sounds like you found somebody's skinning tree. Three pig skulls in proximity with the teeth pulled out... and lots of predator scat. Yotes clean up real good after the hunters leave, but leave a mess of their own.
Rifleman: They were scattered. I have not been to this area for about 4 years, and I got turned around in the dark of the morning, and went down the wrong canyon. I was actually cutting through thick brush heading down a long downhill with my dog when I found the first, I then found the canyon I wanted to be in and began heading up the canyon and found the second about a quarter mile from the first. The third and best I found about 400 yards from the second. These were pretty far back off the beaten path. I don't like company when I hunt, and prefer to not use any trails, but this hike was ridiculous. I bike 11 miles a day and was really happy I did at the end of this one.
Speck: Maybe it was a hunter, but they were not all that close together. That combined with most of a deer carcass/skeleton that I found makes me believe that a very proficient predator was working the area. They could be from rifle kills, but that first one...I don't see how anyone would have found it where it was, and if a houndsman did, I doubt he would have bothered killing it. It would have been a real nasty hike back out, several trips, there was no trail anywhere near where I was and terrain was steep. Only the pigs will really know...Good sign though. I will be heading back into that area when there is more water later this season. All the sign (there was tons) was very old and obviously made in the mud, I think this might be a decent area around January/February/March.
Speck: Maybe it was a hunter, but they were not all that close together. That combined with most of a deer carcass/skeleton that I found makes me believe that a very proficient predator was working the area. They could be from rifle kills, but that first one...I don't see how anyone would have found it where it was, and if a houndsman did, I doubt he would have bothered killing it. It would have been a real nasty hike back out, several trips, there was no trail anywhere near where I was and terrain was steep. Only the pigs will really know...Good sign though. I will be heading back into that area when there is more water later this season. All the sign (there was tons) was very old and obviously made in the mud, I think this might be a decent area around January/February/March.
ooja,
I was going in the direction that Speck did, so I wanted to figure out if they were found together or scattered. There's no telling what happened, but I am left to guess that it is either a mature lion or a sloppy gut-shooting hunter.
Were the droppings segmented, with a lot of hair in them? What would you guess their diameter to be?
I was going in the direction that Speck did, so I wanted to figure out if they were found together or scattered. There's no telling what happened, but I am left to guess that it is either a mature lion or a sloppy gut-shooting hunter.
Were the droppings segmented, with a lot of hair in them? What would you guess their diameter to be?
Speckmisser
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2001
- Messages
- 12,900
- Reaction score
- 27
Ooja...
Regardless, I think you're looking at this the right way... if there are pig skulls, there are probably more pigs.
Go git 'em!
Regardless, I think you're looking at this the right way... if there are pig skulls, there are probably more pigs.
Go git 'em!
Rifleman: Lots of hair in them, some definately coyote (smaller) some were huge, probably lion, all were old. One or two of the pigs could have been gut shot and lost I suppose (I didn't think of that), but if I were to venture a guess, I would say the two in the river bottom were together, and the one way up the hill I was going down was something else. The first two skull segments I found were only pieces and only identifiable as pigs by the presence of the holes where the tusks should have been. The third you see the pic of. I am kind of glad I took the detour, as I found some pretty heavy trails (with very old sign) running through the thick stuff, lots of imprints of hoofs, this was either used a lot, or a big herd all went in one direction a few times.
Speck: I know they are in the area, have always known they move through it, but being in the right place at the right time, the luck part just has not lined up for me yet there. I used to find pig hair on the scattered barbed wire through the area (old abandoned wire fence lines from cattle leases long ago I guess, they start middle of nowhere and lead to nothing) but only in the spring. Sign always seemed freshest in the spring too. Lots of rooting action in the area, so I know they feed there as well. I will give it a try again this year, but the problem is the only reason I have to be there in the spring is to hunt pigs, maybe late winter for last chance coyotes, and it is a lot of hiking in beautiful country carrying a rifle, but I have not had success, so it is hard to get motivated after the first 3-5 tries. Well, that is Public Land hunting for hogs, what can I say.
Speck: I know they are in the area, have always known they move through it, but being in the right place at the right time, the luck part just has not lined up for me yet there. I used to find pig hair on the scattered barbed wire through the area (old abandoned wire fence lines from cattle leases long ago I guess, they start middle of nowhere and lead to nothing) but only in the spring. Sign always seemed freshest in the spring too. Lots of rooting action in the area, so I know they feed there as well. I will give it a try again this year, but the problem is the only reason I have to be there in the spring is to hunt pigs, maybe late winter for last chance coyotes, and it is a lot of hiking in beautiful country carrying a rifle, but I have not had success, so it is hard to get motivated after the first 3-5 tries. Well, that is Public Land hunting for hogs, what can I say.
