Trifecta: lobster, hogs and pheasant*

[asaxon]

Trifecta: lobster, hogs and pheasant*

It was a tough decision – do I post three pieces on different forums or just drop in on one. I’m lazy so here it all is. There is some hog hunting in here somewhere, Part 2…

Part 1, Dinner bugs

After working too hard, much too hard for a “retired guy” according to the Admiral, we had arranged a patch of “my time.” It started off with jump into Santa Monica Bay with an ulterior motive; T3 & DTL were coming up that evening to go wild pig hunting the next morning. I needed to get them dinner.
View attachment 83823 Seven am found Subarch, Grasshopper and I launching the Moby Kate into a calm blue sea. It had been flat for days so we figured on good underwater visibility and good hunting. First dive at 60 feet saw Subarch & Grasshopper disappear into calm blue water that looked like we’d arrived in the tropics. Freakin’ gorgeous. Then the two come up all smiles with a bulging game bag. View attachment 83824 Two limits, 14 lobster in one jump and they even had time to take pictures of the lobsters on the bottom. Whow, now that’s smokin! The pressure was on me but I had to make two dives in an area a mile north to grab my 7 lobsters. My excuse was I was sorting thru them so to only take male lobsters – we leave the females if we can as they are the “breeders”.

We headed home flying our “victory flag” – a Sponge Bob & Patrick kite. Sure got some very funny looks on our way into the harbor. We even got pulled over by the Harbor Patrol – they claimed they needed to be sure we weren’t terrorists but we knew they just wanted to check our catch. They did ask; “So where exactly did you get those lobsters?” to which they got the standard reply “Out there in the water.”


















End of Part 1

 

[Bubblehide]

Okay, part 2 and 3, already, we don't like waiting!

 

[asaxon]

Trifecta Part 2

Part 2: The hog war

Around 4 pm T3 & DTL show up and after getting introduced to their food, we have dinner and hit the rack early as we are in for an 2 am departure up to the Paso Robles area. I did make the promise that if they didn’t get a pig on day 1, I’d eat my shoe; one for each of them. It was noted. Coffee in hand, we head up the road and meet up with TW and Jim in Paso at 5:15 am. We then drive 30 min out to a 23,000 acre ranch just north of the famous Jack Ranch. Before getting started, TW warned us that rumor has it some of the hogs on this property had taken to carrying side arms – we all sort of laughed... We get our hunting gear together and T2 & DTL hop in a pickup with Tom while I get in another pickup with Jim and head out as shooting light starts. Jim and I head down one canyon while the others travel in a parallel canyon to our south. No more than 30 minutes later, I hear shots – I mean what sounds like of bunch of shots and figure, “my shoes are safe”. Then as the sun comes up over the horizon, Jim and I see a huge boar that has slowly crossed the fence 100 yards in front of us onto Jack Ranch. Well, a) I am under orders not to shoot any boars, the Admiral only allows sow meat in the kitchen, b) the admiral has advised me that if I don’t come home with a pig at all, that would be a good plan and c) this big hog is now on the neighbor’s property. He was very very safe.
With the sun up, I get a good look at the countryside. It is pretty darn barren – not only from the drought but it is mainly dry brown hills with very little in the way of scrubs and a few spots of junipers and oaks. Very different than and not nearly as pretty as the oak and grass woodlands I usually hunt with TW further west. We meet up with the others where the canyons converged.

Turns out all the shooting was about a small black & white boar. I wasn’t there but as I understand it, DTL spotted this lone boar 200+ yards away. As he’d spotted it, DTL was given the first shot but it went wide. Then they swear the hog returned fire (and we laughed at TW’s warning). So as DTL provided suppressing fire, T3 grabbed his Remington Model 70 in .270 win and joined in the fray. On T3’s second shot, down went the boar with a 130 gr Hornady GMX right behind the shoulder. Of course, T3 shrugged it off like “no big deal” while privately confessing to us later he was absolutely amazed he’d hit the damn thing. That’s what they told me and TW never contradicted ‘em so….

An hour or so later, Jim and I spot a group of 5 or so hogs feeding under some junipers out in the open a couple of ridges in front of us. We call the others and with them in front, head up toward the ridge. TW drives right up to where we’d seen the hogs with Jim saying to me; “Tom’s too close, he’s almost on top of them…” Jim was right. DTL gets out of the passenger side, and takes a couple steps to the right and finds himself looking at 4-5 pigs already hightailing it way down the hill but see a black hog in moving away to the front as I come up behind him. DTL takes a difficult shot at the pig as the hog is quartering away from us. It misses as the pig goes over the ridge only to reappear running up the next ridge at 300+ yards. I then take a couple of “Hail Mary” shots which only serve to move the hog into overdrive as its disappears for good.

We jump in TW’s truck and race downhill to try to get in front of the group that went downhill. We get to a great spot where we can see the whole countryside above us and glass but no pigs appear. They’d outsmarted us, either going some other way or simply hid out in the brush. Now I am getting worried about eating my shoe. Tom takes the opportunity to casually gut the first hog; I timed him – 34 seconds and he still had all his fingers. I checked.

So it is off again and over the next couple of hours, we manage to flush a nice buck but no pigs. By now it is warm and late so we are pushing through areas where TW knows pigs are likely to be bedded down. Then as Jim and I stationed are across a canyon; we see was the others going down the opposite side and stalking something out of our line of sight.

So I set up figuring if they jumped a group of hogs, some might come running up by me and I’d have a shot. As I watch, I see DTL set down, raise his rifle and fire. Then he stands up. I figure, great, we are done and no shoe eating for me. However, DTL moves to his left and fires again, and again and again. Four shots? Nothing appears on my hillside. Oh crap, how does a salted shoe taste anyway? Is it best with garlic and butter? So with great concern we radio TW. I’m happy to learn they have one hog down. But only one hog?

According to DTL, TW spotted a lone boar bedded down under some oaks but they could only see part of him so they moved to about 200 yards away. At that point DTL figured it was unfair to shoot a sleeping hog according to our rules of engagement so he fired a warning shot which got the boar’s attention. However, the boar was still just standing there 200 yards away so DTL gave him a couple more warning shots. That got the hog running at full tilt a good 250 yards out. Now DTL figures the hog has had a fair chance and puts a 30-06 Winchester 150gr etip from his Tikka T3 30-06 right through the cervical spine. The hog is down and out. Since I couldn’t see what was going on, what can I say? I checked the carcass and sure enough, there was only one bullet hole in the neck. So that’s DTL’s story and I for one am sticking to it. When I asked T3 about it, he just smiled….
By the time they had recovered the second animal, it was pushing 11 am, sunny and warm and heading for “hot”. So we went back to a barn to skin the animals so they’d cool better. At that point, I had the chance to go out and hunt the evening when the animals would be up and out again but amazingly, good judgment struck me. That very rarely happens with me but on this occasion it did. I decided to “call it” and go home early especially since that would allow T3 & DTL to get back to San Diego at a reasonable hour with little traffic as it was Sunday.

Thus we packed up and were home in Santa Monica before 4 pm. Overall, we covered a lot more ground (and very barren looking ground at that) then I’d ever done before on a pig hunt with TW. We’d managed to scratch up a couple of small/medium boars for our efforts. I’d “saved” my pig tags for another day and hopefully by then we’ll have had some decent rains and the countryside won’t be so parched. We did get held up "forever" on the road coming home finally topass where there had been a tiny fire that was long out with dozens of firemen hanging around - I won't repeat what my buddies said about "Government employees."

End of Part 2

 

[asaxon]

Trifecta Part 3, sky blasting

Part 3; Sky blasting

After an unexpected but thankful day off on Monday as I had no hog to butcher, the Admiral and I took off for Rio Vista to go pheasant hunting with Air Rubin and his owner, the Jägermeister and MC. We had a great treat on the way up to Hastings Island Game Preserve; gas for under $3.00/gal. We haven’t seen that for a long time in LA County but many stations on the way had gas for less than $3. The lowest we saw was $2.81 – if it gets to $2.50, I’m going to buy a tanker truck and use it for storage.

At 7am met up with Air Rubin, the Jägermeister and MC. We got our gear sorted and started pushing brush. Rubin was so stoked to be out hunting that we had a bit of trouble reining him in initially so he jumped a number of birds “out there”. The cry was “Rubin too far”.


Once he tired himself out and settled in, Rubin did some gorgeous points. In spite of the birds often not “holding” but running, we managed to knock down some nice pheasants. Rubin also pointed and flushed a rather sleeping and pissed off owl – we all held fire thankfully. By 2 pm we were shagged out and called it a day. The next morning, after a night of rain, it was still drizzling. We thought the birds might hold better in the wet weather but most would not. Rubin would often find them out there– they’d run and he’d go after them and finally they’d take off before we’d get close enough to get a good shot. And then when he’d get one up closer, I’d fill the air full of lead rather than the pheasant. I was trying out 20g Mossberg pump rather instead of my semi-auto Browning and I couldn’t get it together. The safety is different, being a thumb slide on top of the action so when I did remember to take it off, I’d shove to the point of messing with my aim and then of course, I would forget to pump for the follow up shot and pull the trigger on an empty cartridge. Well, it was another step toward enlightenment. And my language help take the chill out of the air… The most amusing incident was when Rubin pointed a bird and I missed with both rounds in my shotgun. As I’m standing there cursing: “oh bother how dreadful” or something like that and not reloading, not one, not two but three other pheasant fly out of the same patch of brush I’m standing by. Doh! Rubin finally got so tired of me missing that he caught a bird himself – actually, he caught a wounded bird that must have been lost by some other hunters. On that note, at 10:30 am we called it for an early day . We’d gotten some more lovely birds and it was now time to get some breakfast, clean the birds and head back to S. Cal to wrap a very busy 6 day Trifecta.

*No animals were unnecessarily harmed in the telling of this story but the truth sure took a beating.
​

 

[Bubblehide]

Sounds like a good time all the way around.

 

[solus]

I always love your stories Andy. Keep them coming!

 

[Land Cruiser]

I am thoroughly enjoying your adventures and writing style. Thank you!

 

[ltdann]

It was a good time Andy and thanks for introducing us to Tom. I've rarely met a man so intense and as deeply committed to his craft.

We should have gotten a clue during the introductions...."Hi, I'm Tom....you guys brought plenty of ammo, right?

I wouldn't have thought it possible to find pigs hiding in that terrain. There wasn't any grass! He knew his stuff.

If any of you book with Tom there's a few things you should know a) bring twice as much ammo as you think you need b) be prepared to run and gun c) don't expect conversation because it's pigs, all about the pigs and nothing but the pigs d) you WILL get a pig e) don't blink when he starts to field dress because it's the fastest and cleanest gut job I've ever seen. 33 seconds by my watch.

WOW!

 

[ltdann]

duplicate

 

[scottmarine]

Great story... Congrats guys


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[Sniper1]

Great story, thanks for sharing.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

Wow thanks for sharing your super adventure, great story and photos, congrats. It sound like u need a vacation after the vacation. ..lol
Those lobsters look damn good! Yum, yum....tra

 

[Bubblehide]

Wait a minute, I just re-read the story. So let me make sure I got this right. You catch lobster, but serve bugs for dinner, right?

 

[Portuguese Pointer]

Great thread, pics, and stories Asaxon. Thanks for sharing.

 

[eoats]

I love a story with a yummy ending!

Thanks for the tale!

 

[7MMHunter]

Thanks for sharing the whole experience, it was like we were right there next to you enjoying every minute!!!!


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[asaxon]

Wait a minute, I just re-read the story. So let me make sure I got this right. You catch lobster, but serve bugs for dinner, right?

Of course we served them bugs. T3 and DTL are retired US marine and US navy respectively. You don't me want to make them soft so while the Admiral and I had lobster, we served them bugs. The favorite was the giant Madagascar hissing cockroach, they are big but slow moving; serve them live in a jar. You then spear them with a wooden stick and cook them in a fondu pot with hot oil. I thought of getting a food truck and serving this as it would take the term "roach coach" to a whole new level but the Admiral nixed the idea.

And I'm glad you all enjoy the stories. I started my "hunting story writing career" here in JHO and when I look back on the early ones, it appears I've become a much better hunter which means my lies get bigger and bolder over the years....

As Lt Dan said, it was intense - Tom had a family emergency that meant he was going to have to bail at noon and needed to "get done" so of course, the animals were hard to locate which meant the hunt was more pressured than I would have preferred but in the end, we got it done.

And thank you to whomever gave me an official JHO "thanks' . I'm trying to catch up with "Where's Bruce" - he gets all these "thanks" and doesn't lie at all.

 

[dustin ray]

Thanks Andy sharing your adventure and the cool pics

 

[Hog slayer]

Great story and what a great trip. I am starting to look forward to retirement. One more year, you got me going and wanting to retire sooner on this adventure.

 

[Bossbrott]

Damn impressive!
Hope I can muster all that in my retirement years.