bisonic
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- Feb 11, 2007
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I've been wondering what the Ranch fire would do to the pig hunting on my place... looks pretty good! I went up yesterday to do some post-fire road and fence work, nice to see that things are greening up pretty well and the on-and-off rains don't seem to have led to much erosion so far. There was a ton of hog sign around, clearly made by a large group as they tore up lots of ground. Ran a few errands then returned around 4:15 and soon thereafter spotted a big group of hogs slowly working their way across a hillside at the far end of the property, about a mile off. I headed that way and came across them as they were descending into the valley - very cool looking herd as most of them were patterned in black and white. I picked a cool looking one and had a bead on her when she walked near a bigger one that was mostly white with black spots - much better! Shifted crosshairs to her and bang... thud... roll...roll...roll... all the way down into a ravine! The rest of the herd took off but one big blotchy one stopped broadside about 175 yards out and I couldn't resist launching a round at her. Heard her squeal and take off running. So not it's starting to get cold and dark and I have at least one pig down... trot the mile back to base for the quad and head back out. Halfway there I see the herd heading up a hillside in thick brush. I found the second sow pretty quickly (one of the advantages of the brush having burned off!) and drag her down to the valley. Now to the first one... she's about 150 yards up the ravine and there's no way I can get the quad in (I tried and almost flipped it!) so I start dragging her down the ravine thru the mud, dark, and increasing cold (it was in the 30's). Probably 1 1/2 hours later I finally get her down and one by one drag them with the quad back to base. First one was about 250 lbs, second one about 200, both with thick fat layers and swollen bellies. Finding food post-fire sure doesn't look like it's been a problem for them. Finally got done around 9:30, cold, tired, hungry, and thirsty. Advil has been my friend since then!
I left one hanging there and went back to pick it up this morning around 10 - figured I'd take a ride around so jumped on the quad and rode part way up the ridge where I stopped and started glassing. Less than a minute later I hear a grunting behind me and turn to see the entire herd of hogs walking up the road from where I'd come from! I hadn't brought my gun so just sat still and waited... when the lead sow was no more than 50 feet from me she finally looked up and saw me on the quad, then turned and led the herd into the brush off the road. I counted them as they went - 37 hogs! Probably about six big sows, another 10 medium ones, and a bunch of youngsters (but all pretty good sized, no footballs).
It had been almost exactly a year since I killed my last hog there and didn't take a deer due to the fires so great to be able to start re-filling the freezer. This was the first time I used copper bullets in my 270 - they performed very well, with full pass-thru's on both hogs.
Unfortunately I was too tired to get good pictures of the sows and all the dragging covered them in mud so it's hard to make out the coloration. The one at the top (the first one) is actually almost all white - I'd dumped some water on the bottom one to clean some the mud off before I dressed her out).
I left one hanging there and went back to pick it up this morning around 10 - figured I'd take a ride around so jumped on the quad and rode part way up the ridge where I stopped and started glassing. Less than a minute later I hear a grunting behind me and turn to see the entire herd of hogs walking up the road from where I'd come from! I hadn't brought my gun so just sat still and waited... when the lead sow was no more than 50 feet from me she finally looked up and saw me on the quad, then turned and led the herd into the brush off the road. I counted them as they went - 37 hogs! Probably about six big sows, another 10 medium ones, and a bunch of youngsters (but all pretty good sized, no footballs).
It had been almost exactly a year since I killed my last hog there and didn't take a deer due to the fires so great to be able to start re-filling the freezer. This was the first time I used copper bullets in my 270 - they performed very well, with full pass-thru's on both hogs.
Unfortunately I was too tired to get good pictures of the sows and all the dragging covered them in mud so it's hard to make out the coloration. The one at the top (the first one) is actually almost all white - I'd dumped some water on the bottom one to clean some the mud off before I dressed her out).
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