Pigs for Roofing Swap..........COMPLETE

[PasoRobles]

Hey guys, I posted an ad. in the swap forum a week or so back. I am happy to say I have a new roof on my house and Family Tradition is on his way back home with some pork in the truck. Maybe Mark will stop in later and give you his version of the weekend, I dont want to steal his thunder.
Anyways.........Mark, how was the drive home, good meeting you and Clayton. Now, share the story.
Take care, Jim

 

[Family Tradition]

As Jim said he posted an ad in the hunt and fish swap forum and I replied as I always love to trade out work for play.

I did a search of Jims posts and knew he was legit and after a few phone calls it was a done deal.

After working half a day Saturday we drove from Fresno over to PasoRobles and met Jim at his house. We dropped our gear minus my nail gun which somehow got left at home.

That done Jim asked us to grab our gear and we would head out to the Ranch and look around and take a lil Jeep ride.

After the short trip out and meeting the Roths and Jims son Nolan we loaded up and headed out onto the ranch. It wasn't long and Jim had spotted a small band of hogs and we decided to try and get onto them.........short story is they gave us the slip.

We headed back to the game house and relaxed, BS'd and drank a few beers. We were treated like family and it was nice.

Sunday morning came fast and we were on the roof by 6:30. A quick trip later to pick up a new nail gun and some extra supplies and it was game on. Clayton, Jim, Nolan and myself got to working and by noon we had more than half of the 26 square roof finished. Not a bad morning.

Jim treated us to Subway for lunch and after hiding in the house for the hottest part of the day we got back up top about 5:30 and worked until after dark and finally gave up with about an hour of work left to finish.

Jim again treated us with a nice BBQ dinner + some cold brew and lots of good time talk around the table, it was a good day.

We came up with a game plan for today that started with us getting up @ 4:30 and out to the ranch early to got tip some hogs.

To be continued

MS

 

[el_vaquero]

Come on...don't leave us hangin' like that...at least a pic to wet the appetite.

 

[Family Tradition]

Out at the ranch the gameplan was set. Jim and Clayton would take the Jeep up to a ridge to the east while Nolan and I took the quad up 2 ridges over.

Just before light Nolan pics up 5 hogs (on the wrong ranch) and a few does. The first hour or so goes very slow and its decided that we need to get moving and start checking hog beds so off we went.

After an hour of so of cruising the ranch a dark spot if seen on a distant ridge. We stop and Jim says "Thats a big hog, lets go kill it"

Well those who know me know I'm down with that action

Jim asks who is going to shoot and goes on to explain most missed shots on guided hunts come because the clients cant decide who will shoot quick enough. Clayton at that shrugged and said he didn't really care (He's the bass master not a crazy hunter man)

Since I had given up an opening morning buck in the A zone I quickly said I'll take it. The plan was set.

We start sneaking up to get shot when Nolan says "We have to hurry its up and going to top out"

We jam up and see the hog stop just short of the ridge. I rack a round in my 30.06 and settle in.

Looking at the shot it looked Loooooooooong, very long. Knowing the 06 drops 13" @ 3 hundo I held high relaxed and

BOOM.......PoP!

Clayton says "its down"

We jam up there and find............... A big ole bag of nothing

We leave Nolan and Clay up top and get the Jeep and drive to the next ridge and start looking back for the hog.

Jim spots it and I pull up my Leica range finder and its @ 388 yards..........to far.

We sneak up closer and with a quick shot the hog is locked.

Set up for some Hero shots and Here it is.

[attachment=44539:camp_5_sow.JPG]

To be continued...........

MS

 

[Rancho Loco]

That's a fine lookin' blonde hog.

 

[Family Tradition]

Ended up with a high 200's Sow taken with a 300+ yard shot @ 8:30 am.

First shot hit her in the right ham as she had wheeled to turn as I was taking the shot. Bullet ran through the ham and past all the goodied taking out a lung before it stopped in her left shoulder. Good shot that would have killed her if I had not taken the 2nd shot a few moments later.

Got her back to the cooler and hung before we jammed out to drum up some more hogs..........

MS

 

[Franklin3]

FT you are about the most active trading for a hunt huntrer I ever seen!
Way to go on all counts.
But you gotta be careful
You gonna give the roofing bussiness a bad rap if you keep making the rest of them look bad.
You cant just go around knockin out roofs in a day and a half!
gotta learn to stretch it into a couple weeks so that the folks feel like you spent enough time on their house.
Im kidding really this is tongue in cheek I really respect a guy who clears his mind and just gets after it till its done.
I enjoy reading your posts.
congratulations on the pig and the new freinds.

 

[Family Tradition]

Thanks Franklin

Jim is a stand up guy and I'd go anywhere anytime with that man..........And his son Nolan is a kid any father would be lucky to have......which says something about the father as well.

Good people......even if he kept making me drink light beer

MS

 

[Family Tradition]

back to the hunt

Jim had a location to look at that was a traditional mid morning bedding spot, sounded great but to our bad luck it was empty.

With that we decided to check one more spot and if there was nothing going on there to head back to town and finish the roof and get home.

No sooner had Jim left the Jeep he was telling us there was a group of hogs bedded under a juniper.

We set up quick with Clayton on the tripod and it was go time.........

Clay picked a hog and I sat and waited for the pork explosion that was sure to come as soon as he pulled the trigger.........

He settled in for a neck shot and BooM..........Hog drops and pigs scatter

Well all I can say as the pigs ran the lead flew.

A boar ran up the hill fast and I took a shot..............missed just high and it topped out a few seconds later.

With Clays hog still laying there I located a nice reddish brown hog running side hill and let one fly!

Hog stopped so I cracked it again.......POP hog runs off and piles up.

Just then Jim yells "hey that hogs up"

Claytons hog had shook off his shot and was running. I take a 2 shots and hit it once but not well.............with that the hot vansished into the hog tunnels and was gone.

We went and quickly found my boar. With a short drag to the shade over I climbed up the hill to look at the beds they were in and look for blood. Got there and found a large puddle right where Clays hog had fell.

As the temps climbed and the trail went cold it was decided to get my boar in the cooler before it got much hotter......its was in the mid 100's all weekend and the hog wouldn't last long like that.

Set up for more photos and made the trip back to the skinning shed.

Claytons hog was lost and he was bummed. We figured it must have been hit in the chime bones and knocked silly and finally came to and made for the border.

Here is my boar[attachment=44545:camp_5_boar.JPG]

 

[Family Tradition]

With that we got all cleaned up and back to work.

45mins of roofing and clean up and the deal was done.

Jims got a nice Elk 30 roof on his house I have some pork chiliing waiting for me to cut in tomorrow and Clayton is going to be able to go back with his son and try again.

WIn, Win, Win

Best part is what started out as business spun into fun and ended up the start of a friendship. Perfect.

MS

 

[bighog]

Great story...I've met and hunted with a few guys I've met here on Jesse's. Making friends, having fun and killing hogs, can't beat that...Congrats to you on your hunt and Paso Robles on a new roof.

 

[Bigisle87]

hunters helping hunters.. the way it should be! congratulations on the nice hogs! it's just after midnight here hawaii time, and i just went out and lit up a 100 lb boar with the 1.5 mil candlepower spotlight in my yard... i'll let him grow up a bit.. or maybe i should set up a snare so i can catch and Laho'ole (castrate) him so he'll get nice and fat eating all the macadamia nuts behind my house...

 

[PasoRobles]

Hey guys....... A big thank you to Mark and Clayton for helping me get one step closer in the completion of my remodel. The work looks great and as Mark said, both my son Nolan and I have made a couple of new friends. And hey, I do appreciate how well you treat my son, he is a great kid and I am very proud of him.
The pig hunting was very slow for that ranch. I believe it was a combination of things, HOT weather, lack of food and maybe even that long tail Clayton and Mitch bumped into. Hope to have you guys back again when the pigs pick up here.
Oh yes.....Mark, that was some great sausage you brought down from Greenfield..........you need to share it more often.
Take care, Jim

 

[CAhntr]

Right on, Mark! Pigs for work, nice trade. You got a couple of good looking hogs there. New friends, new roof, and some pigs. Sounds like an awesome weekend. Congrats.

Eric

 

[hogassasen]

Congrats guys, Dont you just love it when a plan comes together.

 

[Speckmisser]

That's what I'm talking about!

Nice job on both ends!

Work for play... anybody need any web-based training in exchange for a pig hunt?

Too bad I hung up my carpenter tools so long ago.

 

[Family Tradition]

oOOf I'm sore today..........good thing I'm sitting on a stool and the A/C is set at 70

MS

 

[brushstomper]

Sounds like a great trade on both accounts. Good story too, thanks for sharing it.

 

[Family Tradition]

Jim

How much of that do you want????

I've got 60+ lbs to find a home for.

MS

 

[PasoRobles]

Mark, A stud like you sore? Maybe it was from whooping those two young pups putting all that roofing on. if you come over this way to pick the sausage up, give me a holler, we can at least run out to the ranch and flip a couple of squirrels over.
Keep in touch, Jim