Will you please help me plan...

[ozstriker22]

Good weekend, everyone! My name is Jesse, or Oz if you prefer.

I'm down here in San Diego. I've talked to a few of you already, and really appreciate the advice I've received so far! My wife and I had a couple friends over and while we were talking "Guy Stuff" around the BBQ we realized we've each been on deer and upland game hunts, but while both of us have always wanted to go on pig hunts, we've never been.

Here's the point: I have decided to plan a wild pig hunt in SoCal for Ed and Myself. Neither of us want a guided hunt. We're armed and dangerous, but have nowhere to aim

This is where you all come in... Hopefully. We would, of course, each like to get a meat hog, but heck, if one of us get's one, we'll split the meat and be happy. After looking on the net and reading old posts here, I've been thinking about either CR or FHL. Although it seems like BoarTracksCa isn't too happy with CR...

that REALLY bites and I'm sorry for him, but CR may still be a valid option for us. I also noticed that the harvest reports consistently mark San Luis Obispo area as a good area... maybe I need to find some BLM land up there?

Also, the JHO Tejon ranch thing sounds cool too... but it may be hard for me to convince my wife I need to spend $300 to shoot a pig

.

ANY and ALL advice would be VERY much appreciated! Seriously, please let me know if i'm on the right track. Let me know where you killed your first pig in SoCal. Any tips on finding/traking pigs would be great too. I don't need to know your own favorite honey hole.

Both of us are members of the "If you didn't hike a ways off the beaten track, you didn't earn a shot" club. I can take a good map and find my way with a compass in the dark, but I don't know which maps to buy, and what areas hold pigs.

So tell me what you think, and I hope you have a great week and good hunting!

Sincerely,

The Other Jesse.

 

[bighorn67]

Oz,

Welcome to the forum!

As far as pigs on public land go, they are very hard to get. There is a link at the top of this forum called Helpful Hog Hunting Links. Check out the stuff there. You should find a link to FHL and CR. Camp Roberts is closed until April. There are a lot of hogs at FHL, but they are spread out and hard to find. If you live in San Diego the drive to FHL is going to be a good 7 hours. Add in fuel, food, lodging and hunt registration fees. You will probably have to go more than once, so multiply by at least 3.

I would recommend a Pig O Rama at Tejon. Aside from the $300 fee, camping is free, the drive would be at least 2 hours less, and you have a much better chance of seeing hogs the first time you go. You can also hunt on Friday afternoon. You can't do that at FHL or CR.

Hope this helps

Dave

 

[reddog5]

I have been to C.R. 3 seperate times and have not even seen pigs . Lots of sign , and loads of other animals but no pigs. You are coming from San Diego and i would say that is about a 6 hour drive to hunt pigs on basically public land for the fist time. You might get lucky , but if i were you i would spend the 300 for a Tejon Pig-O-Rama. My fist 2 pig hunts were guided and i got pigs both times. The guide also kicked down some free knowledge on hunting them. But i've gone hunting on other public land several times, also no pigs. JHO is having a "HamSlam" basically a Pig-O-rama for JHO members only in May at the Tejon ranch. $300 and a great way to meet other JHO'ers. Plus, maybe other members might help you out by giving you hunting tips or areas in which to concentrate your efforts. Like i've said, C.R. costs me about $75 a trip, i've been 3 times, and no pigs. Almost the price of a guided hunt or a P.O.R.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Shawn

 

[DILPRXO]

Hi Oz...
Welcome aboard...

As for your questions I have to agree with the other members advice to you. Try and hit a Tejon Pig O rama..public land hunting is very tough..and the odds of success I would guess are under 10%.But the expense of gas, food, etc. etc is going to put you in the $300 bracket very quickly.Tejon Pig o Ramas,while unguided, are running a success rate I believe of 50 or 60% and are a good 3 hours closer to you. If your used to hunting deer and working for them, you already possess the basics...start learning to identify sign etc by reading up on the helpful links column, the DFG site and I believe there are a few books on the sport available such the Bob Robb book. If you have your heart set on a public land hunt..look at Laguna mountain or Coalinga Mineral Springs..there are directions to them on the helpful hoglinks. The Mineral Springs is a "death march" and from what I heard Laguna isn't a walk in the park either. The dates of the Tejon Pig O Ramas are posted at on the top of the forum as well...hope to see you there..hint hint.

Again welcome to the group.

 

[Speckmisser]

Oz,

The guys have pretty much hit it dead on.

The question to you is... do you want to hunt, or do you want to kill pigs? In other words, what will justify the expense of the trip?

There's great public land hunting from San Luis Obispo up to San Jose (and some more on the other side of the Bay Area), but the odds of killing a pig are slim... especially on your first trips. Pigs ain't like rabbits or ducks. Just going to a good area isn't going to get you on game.

You'll run up a pretty good tab just learning the areas and deciding where to hunt. Figure the cost of the drive, fuel, food, and time. Is it worth that to come home empty handed? You probably will. Barring extraordinary good luck, you may not even see a pig on public land, much less shoot one.

On the other hand, pay a fee or a guide, and you'll probably get a pig the first trip. In fact, with a guide, you're likely to get a pig on every trip. You still have the cost of the trip, but at least you're bringing home meat.

On the Tejon hunt, you're pretty much on your own, but there are a lot of pigs and someone who hunts hard has a pretty good chance of getting one. It's not 100%, but it sure is better than most public land hunts.

For me, I primarily hunt public land because I love to HUNT. I want to be out there with the possibility (however remote) that I'll kill a hog. It's worth it to me, but then, I only have to drive three hours, tops, to be in prime hog country. And even so, I still kick out for at least one paid hunt every year. Gotta have some pork in the freezer.

Welcome aboard, and good luck with whatever you choose to do!

 

[BLASTMASTER]

I gotta put my 2 cents in on the defense of public land hunting. I love to hunt, and for that $300 POR, I can do about 3 trips to public land. I almost always get close, and that's real exciting for me. No POR will ever compete with the feeling of accomplishment you get after taking a pig on public land. It's the whole of the experience, for me. Money isn't that important for me, but I want to spend it on the cost of the trip, not the price of a pig. Knowing I will probably get a pig, if I plop down $300, makes it UNDESREABLE to me. I go to the same public land spots over & over. It's like school, for me. CR is just perfect for kids, and the novice hunter, with the easy hunting and beatiful sceenery. Laguna Mt. is where you go to be with nature, and spend some time in the elements, hunting hard.
One day I'll probably change my mind, but for now, I'll leave the PORs to the others and defend the intangible benefits of public land pigs.

 

[Shot]

Blastmaster,
You couldn't have said it better! I agree with you, the feeling of success on public land is no where near private land success. But I guess some people like it the other way around.


Oz, since its your first time pig hunting I would recommend POR, since you have a high chance of seeing pigs and most importantly meet people that would teach you some things about pig hunting.

 

[One Track]

From San Diego, you can not beat the Tejon Ranch. If there were pigs in San Diego on public land, I wouldn't even think of paying to hunt a ranch. I'm not able to take off every week and drive up to Central CA to hunt public land. So, the few weekends that I do get out, it's great to have somewhere to go, where my chances of putting pork in the freezer is good. Don't be mis-lead. Tejon is not a walk in the park. A lot ot people get blanked. I've been blanked. In my search for a big boar, it has made Tejon much more challenging. I find that I work and hunt much harder for that boar, making it a more worthwhile experience. However, you do have a very good chance of seeing hogs and killing one if you hunt hard. Some guys get real lucky, by just driving down the road. I guess I'm not a lucky guy. I usually put many miles on my boots, lots of verticle, and it takes a week for my legs to recover. And, it seems that every hog I kill on Tejon is a mile down in some hell hole, definitely adding to the strenuous back-busting experience that we all enjoy so much.

Three hours from San Diego. Fun. Good people. Great country. Good success rate. Can't beat it.

 

[ozstriker22]

Oz here,

Your reply's make sense. Since I'm new to pig hunting I think it would be good to hit the JHO POR for my first hunt. Meet some of you in person and see some pigs. Learn how they move, and what their sign looks like, get tips and tricks, etc.

I WILL want to go on a real hunt too, on public land. But maybe after I've had a little experience. As far as my hunting style goes, let me put it this way: shooting fish in a barrel is shooting, not fishing. I enjoy shooting dove as an exercise in shotgunning. I enjoy hunting quail as hunting. I started with dove and moved to quail. Then pheasant, then deer, now pig and soon turkey.

That said, any other opinions are VERY welcome.

I don't have a decent pair of Bino's right now... I was going to spend about $350 -$400 on a pair in April, but if I go on the POR that'll be mostly used up. Do you think I should get an $80 -$100 pair to hold me? I'll have about $400 saved up to buy Bino's for my deer hunt in September.

What do you think?

Sincerely, "The Other Jesse"

 

[Bishop]

I've got to agree with One Track. Hunting the POR's is not like a guided hunt where the guide drives you around, spots some pigs, then tells you to shoot one. And then your guide hauls out your pig, guts him, and drives you back to the camp.
You go on a POR and your on your own. You drive the hundreds of miles of dirt roads (hopefully it dosen't rain and your tetering on a cliff). If you find pigs they will probably be in some terribly steep terrain. And if your lucky enough to shoot one, you may take hours to get him back to your truck.
The first time I went on a POR one of the JHO guys shot a pig the first day about 4pm. The 4 of them struggled trying to get that pig to the truck that night and finally gave up about midnight. They hung the gutted pig in a tree and got a hold of one of the guides in the morning. With a 4WD truck and quad it still took the guide and them a couple of hours to get the pig out in 2 pieces. And this story is not uncommon. It happens on every hunt there. That's why the POR's are $300.00 and the guided hunts are $650.00. For $300.00, you get in the gate. The guides will help you if you get in trouble, but that's it. The ranch is one of the most beautiful places I've ever hunted, but when the weather turns bad it's also one of the scarriest.
On a rare occassion you may see some pigs close to the road, but most of the one's shot are a long ways down from any roads. There's probably 50-100 guys here who have hunted the POR's, and I don't think anyone will say it's a easy hunt. But it sure is fun sitting around the campfire laughing and talking about Speckmiesers truck hanging over the edge of a muddy cliff with just a few tow ropes keeping it from going over.

 

[ozstriker22]

Okay, I'm pretty convinced on the whole JHO POR... Not sending in for the application from Speck just yet... but when I know for sure, I will.

Before I make my final desicion, I'd really like to look at a few TOPO maps of Tejon and of some public land in San Luis Obispo. Any recomendations of maps to purchase? Or where I can download some for free?

Thanks as always!

Jesse

 

[SDHNTR]

OZ,
Dont waste your cash on cheapo binos. You will end up tossing them anyway. Spend the cash you had intended. There are a few decent models in that range like the Leupold Wind River, the Nikon Monark, or the Pentax DCF WP (the best of the group). Other than that you will probably spend way more than the $300 public land hunting before you even see a pig. If you are like me your time is precious. I at least want a decent chance to just see an animal. Like One Track since I cannot drive 6-8 hrs every weekend to put in the time required, I am happy to pay some cash once or twice a year and have a good chance with the limited amount of time I have.

 

[One Track]

Like SDHNTR said, "Save your money and buy the best bino that you can." Sell something in your garage that you never use. (Like a treadmill or a mountain bike.) I have the Zeiss Classic 10x40. I paid $799. I just saw them in Cabelas for $650. Great bino.

 

[cincoflatspirate]

It's nice to see down to earth people recommending stuff we can afford, If this was a mm forum everybody would be doggin' you for not having swaro or zeiss scopes and binos.

 

[ozstriker22]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

If this was a mm forum everybody would be doggin' you for not having swaro or zeiss scopes and binos.[/b]

I have to admit, MM was the first hunting forum I logged on to, and I've really gained a lot from it. However, you couldn't be more correct!

I don't have that much to sell... so I'll just have to save. I talked to a freind of mine, and he'll let me borrow his Nikons for the hunt. Come September, maybe I'll get those Zeiss classics! Although, I've heard really good things about those Pentax DCF's. They've been compared to much higher end bino's...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

If you are like me your time is precious.[/b]

Hmmmm... they say one of the biggest time waisters is the internet

My boss would probably agree if she knew how much time I spent surfing

No you're right. I am 85% sure the JHO POR in May is going to be my first pig hunt. I'll not make up my mind until I have finished reading the CA DFG guide to hunting pigs though (picked it up yesterday)... a few public land areas to check out.

Thanks again, and If you have any more free advice, I'll take it!

Sincerely,

"The Other Jesse"

 

[raidernation]

I just got my Leupold Wind River 10x50 Olympic series in Wednesday. I got them for $326 deliver from riflescopes.com Awesome glass at a great price. Everywhere else they were $340 - $380 plus frieght. FYI

 

[SDHNTR]

Here is a great deal on optics. Kahles are fantastic glass. And you get two Motorola radios with the deal. And Eagle optics is a JHO sponsor. A win win situation.


http://www.eagleoptics.com/search.asp?q=kahles

 

[ozstriker22]

Do you use 8x or 10x? What objective should I purchase?

 

[Speckmisser]

Ahh... binoculars. OZ, there's a ton of good learning in the Binoculars and Optics forum. Some of it could be good reading before you go out and spend money. But as the guys have said... you'll get what you paid for. The more you can afford to spend on glass, the happier you'll be with the results.

In general, consider weight and performance, and consider a compromise. 8-10 power glasses will generally suffice. Don't be lulled by the super-duper high-power glasses (like I was). They're bulky, they're heavy, and the fact is... it's real hard to use anything over about 12x without some kind of support (monopod, tripod, etc.).

For objectives, 40mm to 50mm is great (just like your scope). If you're getting the high quality glass, you can get away with 32mm to 36mm. I just picked up a pair of the Wind River 8x23 compacts, and I'm tickled with them... however, the small objectives don't gather much light, and you're really limited at dawn and dusk.

Knowing what I know now, if I had the money to spend and didn't already have too much stuff... I'd get a nice set of 10x50 and never look back.

 

[raidernation]

That's a tough one. I was going to purchase 8x42 since the areas I usually go are not wide open plains. More hills with brush and trees. Also 10x is a little bit harder to hold still, Pretty bouncy. I went with the 10x50's due to the fact that I got them for the same price that you can generally get the 8x at, Plus the series I got are only 1 inch longer and I think they were like 4-6oz. heavier. There was not much difference in size,weight or $$$. Plus if I ever do need that extra power I will have it. That's my 2 cents.