Wild Pig Hunting Inc. II Report out

[Mel Carter]

Ok guys, just rolled in and I'm pretty tired. It was a great weekend, weather was perfect but pretty windy, met some great new JHO'ers and hopefully some new hunting buddies.

Got to unload the truck, take a shower, spend some much needed time with the wife and will report back later.




Oh yeah, I almost forgot, someone's having wild hog for dinner? Care to take a guess :wavin hello:

 

[sancho]

awww mel...slam a redbull, get some energy back and COUGH UP the details?

you got one? anyone else?
where? how?...COME ON!!!

 

[Mel Carter]

Ok, showers done, truck can wait.

We all met at the visitors center on Friday at 11:00am. Did the normal meet and greet then it was on to the ranch. We got everything set up and we headed out. I went to "my spot" took pmillerusa, his son and ruger mac with me.

We got to a spot where we could glass and discuss our options for the morning hunt. Ruger mac and I headed to to a different area so we could glass more area while pmillerusa and son glassed a different spot. Ruger mac and I went back to hook up with the other guys, they weren't there. We started walking down the road and they were coming up the road. They said they seen a group of hogs on the other ridge and tried to make a move on them, they were gone before they could reach them. On our way back to the truck, we spotted two more hogs making a move and again, we couldn't get in for a shot. Not too bad for the first day, things were looking pretty good.

Day 2 - We were back to the same spot glassing. We didn't sit down for more then 5 minutes, when about 200 yards down below us about 12 hogs came out. I took a shot and it looked and sounded like a hit, we went to look but found no sign of blood. We all fanned out and walked down the direction to where they headed and still no sign of blood. It was either a miss, or hit pretty far back and not bleeding. We ended up loosing them and chalked it up as a miss.

We headed back up to the truck to discuss our options. We stuck with the original plan, pmillerusa would walk down the road towards the lake while ruger mac and I would walk the other direction. Not 5 minutes after we split up, I glassed up another group of hogs about a mile away, the move was on. We dropped down to the bottom and start up the other side, now I'm not the most in shape guy in the world, and I had to take a couple of breaks on the way. I continued to glass as we were heading their way, I figured when we go to them we would be about 100 yards away. We continued up the other side walking the road. When we got to where they were, they were a little lower in the canyon then I expected. We discuss out next plan, I told Ruger mac he was up, I had him slide his back pack up to the top of the hill and I would shoot after him. I ranged the group at 238 yards, he felt they may be a little far. We moved a little higher on the hill and noticed 2 more at only 100 yard, bingo! there's his shot. Ruger mac layed out and got ready for the shot, I would take the ones down in the bottom. Ruger fired then I fired, he connected but I didn't. After unloading at the group of hogs running through the bottom, 2 more came running up towards up, I took the last one out.

By 9:00am two hogs down. Here are some money shots, i'm not going to tell the story of pmillerusa, i'm sure he will post something when he gets back. 2 others ended up getting hogs as well. So at the end of Saturday, 4 hogs layed dead and everyone had shots. One guy tpuig was in them but no shots. When I left this morning, there were still 4 guys out, so the take may be more.

Enjoy.

Here's ruger mac with his first big game animal

Here's a cool skinning shed George just finished.

Hopefully when everyone returns they will have their own stories to tell.

Just heads up, the first week of October has just become the JHO weekend every year.

 

[ruger_mac]

Well just walked ing the door and had a great time!!!! This being my first time big game hunting I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to hunt with. I shot my first pig at 9:00 am Sat. along with Mel.

There were four guys who went out today for there last chance and two of them got lucky. They were Paul and Nathan, father and son from So. Cal. Nathan got a nice big boar and Paul got a smaller boar. Nathan Had the biggest pig of the weekend not bad for a first timer and he' only 14!!

More stories to come, I'm sure, after we all recover.

Thaks again for a great time and hunt!

-Adam

 

[Mel Carter]

It was a good weekend for sure. We seen over 30 hogs on Saturday morning.

Can't wait to hear all the stories and can't wait until next year.

Way to go guys :JHO rocks:

 

[Mel Carter]

ruger mac, tell your story. I kept some things out so you can add to it. Hope I didn't steal your thunger.

 

[ruger_mac]

I willm post in detail later this eavening.

Adam

 

[sancho]

ruger...nice rookie outing! congrats to the group!

how did the few archers do?

 

[ruger_mac]

Well as Mel said "It couldn't have worked out any better." We knew we were in good srea of the ranch after the scouting we did the night before.
Like Mel said not ore than 5 min. into our "plan" we spotted a group of pigs on a hill side about a mile or so from us and the chase was on.

We picked up the pace and covered the distance pretty quickly. We got with about 400 yards of the pigs and We dropped everything we didnt need for the final stalk, just backpacks and rifles. We hike down on the low side of the road, it was realy windy so we didn't want to take a chance at giving us away. We came to the last little bend in the road just ahead of where the pigs were. Mel and I snuck up a small rise just above the pigs, came to the top and got down low. He folded the legs of bi-pod and I laid down with my rifle on my backpack. I told myself to settle down take a deep breath and SQUEEZE the trigger. Put my cross-hairs on top of the pigs shoulder and BLAM! Mel starts blazing away pigs are running every wich way. Through my scope I can cleary see my pig stumbling but when I went looking for her she was no where to be found.

Well we/I search and search but nothing, not a drop of blood. I figured beginers bad luck, oh well. Mel guts his pig takes a few pics hangs her in a tree and we go get his truck. Im not a sharp shooter but I was certain
I hit that pig and saw her go down and I couldn't get it out of my mind so when Mel came back down with his truck and we go pick up his pig. I had to look just one more time so while Mel loaded his pig I took a quick hike above the road and glassed the area again. Low and behold there was my pig!! She actually ran up hill a little not more than 60-70 yards. I ran back to the road and gave out a yell of success "I found my pig", got down to her gutted and dragged UP hill the truck for some picks. I coldn't have asked for a better ending. I hit the pig in the shoulder wnet through one lung and her spine. That just made my morning, a perfect ending to a perfect hunt. Thanks for taking this rookie along with you Mel. I'm HOOKED!!

Adam

 

[Land Cruiser]

Congrats! Great job, gents. Good times and I hope all those first timers are now hooked for life I took my first big game animal on that ranch with George and Ken. Something I'll remember forever.

 

[pmillerusa]

Great photo's and a great time Mel.

Short Story -

Met some great guys... hunted some intense property... spent the weekend with my oldest son... 948miles round trip...

oh, and we've got a double-date with the butcher tomorrow

Amazing time.

I know, I know,

:smiley_worthless pi

Details and some more photo's tomorrow once I catch up on some sleep.

- Paul

 

[HOGHUNTER714]

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEET! Looks like you guys had a blast. Glad you hammered the pork. Hopefully, I can make next years..Thanks for the reports!!!

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

good way to wake up this morning for some successfull hog hunting adventure stories to read, congrats mel on blasting a piggie and also everyone else! if it was real windy i am sure those temps were really cool at night when the sun went down but i am sure you had a raging bond fire going on at the camp! cant wait to hear some more stories and what about the archer's? anybody get lost out there? Mel, was Ken W. there to help over the weekend too? thanks for sharing your story and photos! have a great day!............tra

 

[Mel Carter]

Only had 1 bow hunter, he didn't see much while bow hunting and quickly switched gears to rifle. I'm sure he'll post up his story soon.

TRA, Ken was up there but not with us. He was helping the owner out putting in some vineyards. I didn't even see him, he was gone sometime Saturday, he had a party to go to.

This was probably the most hogs I have ever seen on the ranch. I'm guessing that I seen over 30 hogs in just my two outings, and pmillerusa was probably close to that as well.

Can't wait to hear his story.

pmillerusa, congrats to you and Nathan. It's great to see first timers like your selves, and ruger mac bag game on the first trip.

 

[bassassassin772]

sounds like yall had a blast and congrats to all who scored i'm in next year for sure

 

[superduty]

Hey Mel, congrats on the pig and a big congratulations to all the rest that scored. Nothing more fun then hunting with a bunch of JHO'ers.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

thanks for the reply Mel, i am starting to make plans already for days off to hunt Lake Sonoma, so hopefully we can hook up if evrything works out. have a great day and will chat soon my friend............tra

 

[ruger_mac]

a

 

[ruger_mac]

More pics??? maybe

 

[pmillerusa]

Well here goes… (sit a spell, it’s a long read) opcorn:

Day 1 –

My son and I were up at 1:30 on Friday morning:skeered:, the car being packed the night before, and we got rolling about 2:10am from the Antelope Valley, North of L.A.

The plan was to meet up with the group near 11 at the Lake Sonoma visitor center, so we planned for plenty of traffic contention. All went very well on the drive up, no traffic to speak of at all. Nathan’s iPod playing some classic “X Minus 1” and “The Shadow” radio shows to pass the time.
We arrived at the visitor center about 9:30, so we had time to check out the hatchery there and grab a quick breakfast while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive.

Everyone else rolled in over the next hour and we got all of our paperwork signed and started the caravan down to the camp. Made the last call back home to kiss the wife and younger kids before we dropped “off the grid” for 3 days.

Camp setup was quick, and by 2:00 or so we were geared up and headed back into the ranch. Mel took “RugerMac”, Nathan and I back to start the afternoon hunt. As Mel mentioned, we worked our way up the road and then we all glassed for a bit on the ridge. Mel and RM headed off to the right for a bit and Nathan and I stayed on the ridge. We spotted some hogs feeding under the trees about 1500-2000 yards out, all the way across the valley.

Somewhere down there…




Nathan and I took off across the valley and left a makeshift note (some sticks shaped in an arrow) of where we went. By the time we made our way down the ridge (30-45min), those hogs had moved on, leaving us a heck of a hike back up the hill to meet up with Mel and RM. They were just coming down the ridge to see where we went when we got to the top. We all glassed for a bit more and decided we’d work our way back down the hill.

As we started off the ridge, Mel spotted 2 hogs working pretty quick up a draw and he was on ‘em. Nathan took off with Mel as well. I was pretty winded still from the hike up the hill and my legs were hammered. Mel and Nathan made it to where the pigs where, but they had already made it over a saddle and down the other side (they were moving pretty good)
<O
We called it a night… saw plenty of deer and tracks on the way back to camp.

First night everyone came back dry, but I think we may have been the only group to see any hogs.

... more on day 2...