Pig O Rama South Side Tejon -March 17-19

[grtwythunter]

DILPRXO just called with an update.......about a foot of snow on the ranch this morning and the Grapevine was shut down all morning meaning anyone camping at the Motel 6 didn't get on the ranch till after 10am or so. He's only heard of two hogs taken. It started hailing while we were BS'ing.

Good luck and be safe guys.

Scott

 

[Rancho Loco]

yikes

 

[larrysogla]

Those towering Tejon ridges visible on the Fwy.5 will swallow any 4wheeler foolish enough to slide sideways off the mountain. My knees are shaking just at the thought. You guys are brave. 'Nuff said.

 

[One Track]

Bearclaw just reported in. His dad whacked one about ten minutes ago.

 

[Blackknights154]

Kinda glad i am at home next to my heater!!!!

 

[Speckmisser]

Great to hear! Keep those reports coming!

Yeah, it's gonna be a little scary on the top roads. I bet there'll be stories about more than just hogs after this weekend!

 

[spectr17]

I've never hunted pigs in the snow, that would be fun.

I've seen human skeletons in some of those deep canyons, swear.

That one time Scott (grtwythunter) and I stayed late Sunday and got caught on top of a ridge in a storm was high adventure. My GPS kept me from driving off the top of the narrow ridge coming back down.

I was fixin to stay the night since I had enough cigars and whiskey left until Scott came down and we slid the rest of the way down to the pavement.

 

[Eric Mayer]

Always fun to check out the weather on the live cam overlooking the 5 up on top:
http://www.thealpacastore.com/grapevinecam/

Edit: This is the shot (it will update as the cam updates):

Eric A. Mayer

 

[Rancho Loco]

Snow should be melting today....

That means more mud to play in.

Can't wait for the body count - human and porcine.

 

[switch]

I can't wait to hear the stories. I hope all return safe, pig or no pig. I love this forum and the way guys in the field can stay in touch with the rest of us. What comraderie!

 

[Rancho Loco]

Nobody crawl out from the wreckage yet?

 

[DILPRXO]

Just a quick recap, I made it back in one piece..I think

Pigless... but in one piece. The roads are just insane with the snow,I have 2 wheel drive and ended up just making lots of pushes up the smaller draws and canyons accessable by the pavement.. It was a repeat of the March 2003 trip and then some.I hit Roadmisser Ridge from the bottom Friday night, saw a small group running after some gunshots farther up the canyon, but they where to far out to attempt a shot. Saturday morning was a bust, I stayed at the hotel and the CHP had closed the Grapewine overnight due to the amount of snow overnight.. got to the ranch about 10:00am. I got into a group of about 14 of them last night just north of the lake.. missed an easy shot on a 170 pounder at about 200 yards.

Hunted the same area this morning but couldn't get back on to them... hunted the bottom of Roadmisser Ridge for abit and called it. Still a fun trip.. one I'll remember for a long time. Last I heard there was 7 pigs taken on the south side.

 

[Speckmisser]

Sounds like a pretty tough hunt, especially if Luca Brasi came home empty-handed!

At least you saw critters and got a shot. That's good for something.. although empty shell casings don't taste nearly as good as pork chops.

How'd you other guys do?

 

[Zbearclaw]

Here is my recap.

FIrst off, the snow chains were a lifesaver, with them and the FX4 we went whereever we wanted to, and had no issues, the roads were bad, but only once did I even question getting in or out of an area, and that was Sat night on an area where the snow had melted, and when getting dad's boar out, and the road was the gutter for that melt, otherwise we never really spun the tires too bad, and only puckered when the fog made it hard to see.

if you didn't have chains and four wheel drive I am guessing you hunted the paved road.

all in all we saw a ton of pigs, dad busted a 170 or so pound young boar, dressed weight at checkin was 141, I put about twelve or more stalks on a bunch of pigs, shot once and had the arrow hit an unseen twig about two feet from the boar, and landed harmlessly behind his back leg, and I passed up two shots on that same group inside forty yards because it was at a sow, and I wanted the big daddy, oh well wish in one hand.

After all was said and done, we had the best weekend ever, and I mean ever. If my body could have handled it, I would have stayed forever, but I am sore as heck.

I had four stalks on lone big boars, all my stalks got within eighty or so yards, I had a few passed shots, and could have killed on all of my stalks had I not been pig headed with the bow.

I don't think most people will have the same recap, there were only twenty five pigs taken as of about three pm Sunday, and that is both sides, 12 on South.

Barbara and two different guides and a couple volunteers said it was the worst kill ratio, and weather they had ever seen, and basically told us we were the only folks smiling, but we are still smiling, my truck has atleast two inches of clay/mud on every inch of her, we had to stop about three miles up the grapevine and scrape mud off the inside of the rims because it was bucking like a bronco, but man what a weekend, and if that was a bad POR, I am burining to get in on a good hunt.

we got rain the first day, right as we were setting up camp Friday, Snow that night and most of Sat, and then a good bit of fog and clouds Sun.

I only hope ya'll have a tenth the fun we had on the May POR, and it will be the time of your life, we had a blast.

also those icebreaker chains by Qick Grip were worth a million bucks.

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

All in all, sounded like a great trip. Wish I could get up to Tejon this year and make a repeat trip for the 2006 JHO POR. Last years trip was a BLAST and getting a hog was just the icing on the cake. Tejon is really a majestic place....

 

[Rancho Loco]

Wow, sounds like a tough hunt, but lots of fun at the same time...
Now hopefully those hogs will be getting fat and lazy in the time leading up to the JHO hog-killing extravaganza.

HogHunter - 'cmon man, all the cool kids are going.

 

[btrebil]

So we had a great time, through the snow, rain, and mud and with our group got two little meat pigs. Mine was a sow at 120 lbs. I was putting a staulking a group of about fifteen, and there was one big boar in the group, about 300+ lbs. I could only get within 67 yards of him and missed with my first shot. The arrow went right underneith him by about two inches. then he ran up the hill to about 110 yards, so he was out of range. but there was a sow at about 37 yards still so i shot her. The other pig was just 97 lbs and my buddy picked him off with his 30-06 at 107 yards, then came the hike back to the truck through all the snow and fog, but we got them out. All in all, this was a great hunt, we never had any problems with the mud or snow since i was running chains on my 4x4 with lockers so we got everywhere we wanted. I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did.

 

[btrebil]

Hey bearclaw, i think we saw you passing us by the green gate? I had a birch 1/2 ton 4x4, was that your dark blue fx4? Did you guys mainly hunt just north of the lake and caral?

 

[Speckmisser]

Pretty cool... two bowhunters at the POR, and one got a hog, the other got a shot! Congrats to you guys... especially in that crappy weather!

 

[beastslayer]

Post pictures plssssss! And, not only of the hog but also of the worst stuck. Good there are no human casualties -- or injuries.