asaxon
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On Monday, I went up to chase hogs for a second time with Tom Willoughby as guide. A friend came along for the ride – he got to ride with the dogs (picture 1). My first (and last trip) in Jan. was very instructive but short (two hours, two shots & two small pigs). I brought two tags as was planning on hunting for a “regular sized sow meat pig” and if really lucky, a small pig for a friend who wanted to BBQ it whole. On Monday PM we hunted outside of San Miguel in a different valley & property than before. We glassed for miles around from the tops of several hills (picture 2, glassing). We saw lots of black tail deer, Jackrabbits and raptors up close but the only hogs we saw were one large group feeding in a field with cattle some 2-3 miles away and one small group that was about 1 mi away and moving in the wrong direction. For want of a Cruise missile, we didn’t try to go after them.
This morning, Tuesday, we met up in San Ardo and hunted north of Fort Hunter-Liggett. First set of canyons we went up we found two groups of 4 to 5 bull elk. We then spotted a group of 8-10 hogs trotting along the ridgeline way above us. Too far to shoot and there was no way to get in front of them so we moved on across the river bottom to the other side of the valley where Tom has seen a hog as we were driving in. We hunted all over that ridge and finally saw about 6 hogs heading back down where we’d come from, of course. So we hustled to the bottom and waited to see if they would show. Finally, he spotted them some 200 yards going away from us and cresting a ridgeline. By the time I’d seen them and was ready to shoot, the last two were disappearing over the ridge. I passed on the shot figuring the best I could do is wound one in the butt if I was lucky enough to hit it at all (picture 3 – ready but no shot). After that, it got pretty wild for as we went back up the ridge, another group of 6 hogs came trotting diagonally toward us. We hustled over to where Tom thought they’d pass and got there just in time to see them running across the hill some 150 yards below us. I raise my rifle to line up on a black and white one when Tom says “shoot the last one” (apparently it was the largest but I was too excited to notice) (picture 4). So I glance up, see the last one is a black hog, get it in the scope and Bam! The animal takes two steps forward, one back and drops still. Tom says – “ok, shoot one of other small ones” so I look around and see the rest of them running through some trees. I swing my rifle as I had clean shots and make three nice clean misses! Tom guts the downed hog, a nice 150 lb sow (picture 5) in moments and then we hustle down toward the valley floor hoping to see the hogs cross. Half way there, we see the tail end of a third group of 5 adults with 6 baby hogs goes skittering across no more than 30 yards below us and disappear in seconds…I’m thinking, where the heck did all these hogs come from? So we move to the valley floor and here comes two more yet different hogs trotting along on the flat no more than 100 yards away. I pop the first one quickly and it simply collapses, kicks its legs a couple of times on the ground and was dead. Turned out to be about a 175 lb boar according to Tom (picture 6) – so much for the small hog for my friends BBQ. It had nice 3” tusks. Tom and his friend Jim again skinned the animals in record time (picture 7) and you can see Tom looking at the boar’s balls with envy (picture 8) And then to top off the morning off, while driving out to the main road to go home, we come across a badger running right along the road with what looks like a kill in its mouth but it turns out it is carrying a tiny baby badger. How cool is that?
Not only did I have a great time, got to see some fantastic country, shot a couple of hogs, but once again I learned a lot – another steps toward total enlightenment.
- Don’t slam your car door on your shooting sticks… (don’t ask)
- 150 gr Hornady Superformance GMX work just fine for me – I shot both animals with this round as I had some left over from the range where they were just as accurate for me as the Federal with Barnes TSX. Both bullets went all the way though so I couldn’t recover the bullet.
- Hogs can move pretty darn fast when they want to.
- I don’t like the flip up Butler Creek type scope cover. Once open, too flimsy and in the way when action gets hot.
- And other things it is too late tonight to remember.
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