Wild pig hunting Inc.

[Backcountry]

Just so no one gets confused....

Me
= white Dodge ram, check
= Jesse's sticker, check
= '46 Willys, no joy (but big jealousy)

 

[559hog]

Me = black obnoxiously loud subaru. Gold rims lol, should be able to spot me out of no where.

 

[Mel Carter]

Everyone,
One thing I told George I would mention to all, lets all treat this property like it was our own. I know with this group I don't need to worry about trashing the place, it's just that George was telling me he had a couple guys out there that he had to go and pick up after. He even had to bury their TP, he said it looked like hell when they left the camp.

Again, I know everyone will be great and this won't be problem, but I did tell George I would mention it.

So, lets all have a great hunt and a safe hunt, I'm glad to be a part of this group. It's going to be fun.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

loaded and ready to go, just got to load up some ice, JB i will be in a 4x4 explorer that looks like a rhino ran into the side of it, i be up at 2 and out by 3 and should be at the lake by 5:30 or so. its raining steady over hear right now, but nothing that some river's west cant handle. cooking up some salmon steaks for me and my wife right now, yum, yum!........................tra

 

[559hog]

Loaded and ready to go. Contemplating whether I should make a drive to my cousins for the night in modesto, and leave there in the morning instead. We'll see what happens.

 

[jb229]

Damn Mel, George should charge those guys and never let them back. That's just plain disrespectful. 559, put some Spinners on the sucker! j/k

see ya'll later.

 

[sancho]

Everyone,
One thing I told George I would mention to all, lets all treat this property like it was our own. I know with this group I don't need to worry about trashing the place, it's just that George was telling me he had a couple guys out there that he had to go and pick up after. He even had to bury their TP, he said it looked like hell when they left the camp.

Again, I know everyone will be great and this won't be problem, but I did tell George I would mention it.

So, lets all have a great hunt and a safe hunt, I'm glad to be a part of this group. It's going to be fun.

that sucks!! anyone bringing a shovel?:bag-on-head: we will be neat!

 

[559hog]

Damn Mel, George should charge those guys and never let them back. That's just plain disrespectful. 559, put some Spinners on the sucker! j/k

see ya'll later.

lol, not my choice of "style"

 

[sancho]

TRA, the menu sounds stunning. my feeble "keep me alive" food will pale by comparison. i will help you unload and clean whenever i can. the food sounds delicious.

 

[Backcountry]

Mel, thanks for mentioning what should always be obvious to everyone, but sometimes isn't.

I'll have extra garabage bags if anyone needs any (and a shovel!).

BC

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

well it's time to crash, so see everyone tomarrow! Sancho, i have plenty of food and your welcome to it. and have my own shovel, thankyou. GOODNITE................tra

 

[559hog]

Heading out in 5 mins, can't wait to get up there .

 

[Tuffy]

I'm thinking we should change the address to Jesse's while they're gone so they can't find us when they get back :mooning:
That's how jealous I am :smiley_green_with_e

 

[Mel Carter]

Well, were back. Very tough hunt. Weather was great, no hogs spotted until Sunday. Everyone hunted their butts off. There was 1 lucky hunter, and i'll let him tell the story.

To everyone at the hunt, it was great meeting everyone, had a great time with all. That made the hunt a success for me. Hopefully we can get together again with George first starts up the hunts in October, should be a lot better with no hunts going on for 5 months.

Sorry it wasn't more of a success for others, but I guess that's how it goes.

 

[Backcountry]

There was 1 lucky hunter, and i'll let him tell the story.

The lucky guy better post up soon with a story and pics before there's a riot!

Thanks for setting this hunt up Mel. Great seeing you again... put me on the list for October.

BC

 

[559hog]

Just got home! Sucked that not everyone wasn't able to get a pig, but that's part of hunting . I want to try out this ranch again, since I know the layout of the land now. Let me know when you start another group Mel. It was great meeting everyone, especially sancho, muddy_udders, and the roman archer . Congrats to the one successful hunter :smiley_green_with_e

 

[elkguys]

well so far sounds like you all had a long but good time.sorry only one hog down but thats the game.we hope to be on your next one.looking for the pics.

 

[sancho]

i just slept 12 hours.

here is my take on the hunt. it was a great time! everyone is super cool. TRA is the best camp cook i have seen in a long time. his pork chops were fantastic. (even with the starvation factor). super cool guy that pushes pig hunting enthusiasm to new limits. thanks Roman!

there were four bow hunters. 559, roman, muddy, and myself. muddy elected to take his .44 the second and last day. he was a true gentleman and went to each of us to make sure we were OK with his decision. no problemo! he had about the same effective range with open sights. plus the big BANG! what's to say "no" to?

btw, when it comes to muddy udders, those udders belong to a goat. the man can hike! i teamed up with muddy. he rode me about on his quad. on the second day, we did some elevation only to find ZERO pig sign up high. dropping down slowly, we found a pig stratum. pig sign galore. we found an area, muddy deemed, the pig party pit. it smelled like a barn. i convinced him to camp out there for the evening to see if any wandering pigs come in to Rave. the wind would not cooperate, and we switch hiding spots. we had the ambush fully discussed, and i would silently take the first shot with an arrow, and he could go dirty harry on another. it would be great! no pigs came thru the gauntlet. we hiked out at night, with headlamps. the final morning. we thought it would be cool for TRA to take 559 to the party pit. we gave him visual clues, and directions and sent them in. we hunted the opposite slopes. crisscrossing and sidehilling, looking for the "pig strata" on this side of the valley. we found a wallow that was hit recently. we followed mud splatters, and muddy tree rubs up into the hills. if you imagine muddy pigs, you realize mud dries up, and the trail weakens. so we turned to following laid down grass and footprints. that group lead us up and up! we got 2/3 up this hideous hill. (i had to strap my bow in my badlands so i could us both hands to climb safely). muddy turns and sees 3 HUGE pigs on the opposite hill! we discuss and elected to find the elusive pigs on our side. afterall, those other 3 were about a mile away. (well very very far) we go the final 1/3 to the top. ken had told us there was only 2 ways up and down that slope. we broke the rules and scurried up a ravine. we wanted a shot at those 3 pigs! we looked for the grassy knob to get down off that hill. so we hiked along the ridge top. it narrowed down to a foot in some places. one mis-step would send you down a cliff either side. it was nerve racking. we we got tired of looking for the one way down, so we found a less severe slope and jumped. we "snowboarded" down the hill. at the bottom a quick snack, strip off some warm layers of clothing. and we sped-walked thru the hilly valley and blasted up the other side. we found the exact area the 3 pigs were. found the tracks, but alas we have run out of time. it was time to go. we had to be back at camp at noon, and we only had a few minutes. we slid down the hill again, and went home.

i think with 2 or three hours more we could have tracked those three. wind was right, time was short. i was exhausted and packing up my tiny camp took considerable effort. i had to assist my clutch leg with my arm on the drive home. i was done. even killing a pig would have been more than my body could handle at that point, but i would have tried.

the only downside of the hunt? i felt the guides (well our quad drivers) should have taken us up in the hills in the dark. they all insisted on 6 am starts, and the sun was well on it's way to illuminating the world at that point. i think drive up in the dark, hike to the pig party in the dark, and then start the hunt at legal light. that is how is should have played out. they would not let muddy and i take off on our own. they wanted to make sure we had radio and tracking devices.

overall, despite the pig butt kicking, and pathetic pig harvest, it was money well spent. i met some great folks, and made some (hopefully) hunting partners/contacts. great sarcastic, funny group of guys. the joking started immediately. FUN!

 

[muddy_udders]

The lucky guy better post up soon with a story and pics before there's a riot!

BC

That post is ghey!!!!!!!!! :mooning:

I just got up from my 12hr coma.
Didn't think I hiked that hard till I got back to camp and started packing up. Damn was I dragging ass.
Like Sancho said we were in sign the whole time. Ken pointed us to where they should be and they had been there each night while we were sleeping but we just weren't able to find them. We jumped a few does and had a button buck feed to within 13yds but only pig sightings were half mile as the crow flies.
Our ambush spot was a great bottle neck on the trail and I ran the scenario in my head a thousand times during the four hour wait.
Put the front sight on a hog, wait for sancho to release, hear the hit and fire. It worked everytime!! They just never came. I have to say packing the handgun made the bush whacking a walk in the park compared to lugging around my crossbow or even my recurve.
Wrapup:
Would have liked to be in the field by legal light but didn't express that to our guides, I hinted at it "can we head out early without you?" but he wanted us to have com device with us.
Learned the ranch better, met some great hunters and hopefully new friends/hunting partners and had a great time.
Money well spent!!!!!!!!! :JHO rocks:
Muddy
PS:I'm in for Oct.

 

[Mel Carter]

I agree, we should of been out of the camp area at 5:30am or so to be at the spot at first light. That really is the only issue I have. When we set this up again for October, I'll set that up with George to head out by 5:30am.

I would of liked to be able to drive around, but George is a little nervous about someone getting into troubles somewhere. It really isn't a liability thing, he's covered on that. He was just really stressing the point from more of a safety standpoint, it's his business so I have to respect that.

George did comment during the hunt that everyone was great as far as keeping things picked up and how hard people hunted. There was NO lack of effort by anyone.

To the lucky hunter, POST UP PICS ALREADY! I know you didn't drink that many Corona's.