The Hog Blog

Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve done a Porcine Press, and since there was no update to the blog for a couple of days, I figured I better do something.  Nothing’s too good for you, dear readers. 

So here we go… first to the United Kingdom, where the lead-in reads:

Boar hunting is back in Britain, 400 years after the last native wild boar was killed.

According to the article in the icWales.co.uk website, the hogs have returned due to escapes and illegal releases from farmed stock.  While the hogs are indigenous to the country, their long absence worries many local farmers and agricultural officials about the potential to spread disease to domestic livestock.  Added to that is the popular mythology about the danger wild boar pose to walkers and children, and there was a reasonably large upswell of support for removing the ban on hunting the hogs. 

While most hunting on “public” lands will be carried out by rangers and officials designated by the government, civilian hunters will be able to hunt on private land.  Harvest quotas will be determined on a local basis, depending on the extent of damage done by the feral porkers and the risk to domestic animals.  The hunt is described as a “cull” hunt, but will not likely decimate the population. 

Now off to the tropics!  I’ve mentioned hunting in Hawaii before, but hadn’t considered Fiji as a hunting destination.  The little tale reported here, in The Fiji Times Online, reminds us that wild boar can be dangerous game.  A hunter in the island was badly injured, and lost three of his hunting dogs as the result of a wild boar turning on them during the hunt. 

And back in the States, this issue of the North Texas eNews advertises a workshop I’d like to see here in California.  The workshop discusses most aspects of wild boar, both from a hunting and an agricultural aspect.  It’s the kind of thing where I’d expect to meet and mingle with true experts on wild boar, and get a clearer understanding of the real-time issues that they create. 

Are they really a totally destructive pest that needs to be eradicated, or is there a benefit to allowing a managed population of swine to prosper in certain localities?  Considering that it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever be able to wipe them out in established populations (TX, central CA, FL, etc.), what’s the next best approach?  Instead of playing catch-up, shouldn’t our wildlife managers be looking forward?  Or is that happening already, and most of us just don’t know about it?  A workshop like this could help answer some of those questions, not just for me but for many other concerned and curious CA residents.

I had been looking forward to this Tejon archery hunt for months, especially since the January hunt was postponed.  I have never had much luck bowhunting, and I was really thinking that this weekend might just be the “One.” 

Well, I suppose that, in retrospect, it really wasn’t a bad hunt, it certainly didn’t get off to a very auspicious start.  To begin with, I had some kind of intestinal bug that hit me Wednesday night.  It was rough going for several hours, and with a five hour road trip planned for Thursday afternoon, things looked sketchy.  Fortunately, the worst of it appeared to have passed early Thursday morning, so after an unplanned nap, I felt well enough to hit the road. 

The drive south was uneventful, except for the rain.  I expected some inclement weather on this trip, and while I was prepared with the proper gear (Rivers West pants and jacket), I knew that wet weather meant wet and treacherous roads on the ranch.  This meant that access to many areas would be limited or nonexistent.  There’s a reason I once swore that I’d never hunt Tejon in the rainy season again… but one should never say never.

During the night on Thursday, my stomach bug returned.  It would haunt me all weekend.

I briefly forgot about my stomach troubles on Friday as I met up with the seven hunters in my group.  Three of them were familiar faces, but the other four were new to me.  I didn’t realize at the time that they were new to hog hunting as well.  What a treat they had in store!  We talked about the ranch, and my past experiences there as we waited eagerly for 1200, so we could go check in and hit the woods!

As we rolled out of our meeting place and headed to the ranch, a drizzling, cold rain rolled in.   It couldn’t dampen the spirits of the eight excited hunters though, and the ominous presence of dark clouds over the steep mountains at the ranch entrance only seemed to enhance the anticipation that we were all feeling.

By 1530, the check-in and orientation was done and I was halfway up the high ridge in one of my favorite areas.  I was feeling a bit wrung out, partly from the effects of the bug and partly because this was the first really rugged hunt I’d done in a while.  I was clammy with sweat, and had to stop more than usual on the climb.  The light drizzle had faded away, so I peeled off my jacket and continued up into the oak canopy. 

Shortly after entering the trees, I caught the sound of a hog snuffling through the leaf litter.  Less than an hour into my hunt, and I was already on hogs!  Read the rest of this entry »

Here we go again!  I’m sitting back in this motel room, that Christmas Eve anticipation boiling around in my brain.  What will tomorrow bring?  Will there be hogs behind every bush, walking obliviously out there across the open oak meadows?  Or will the full moon and harsh weather drive them deep into cover? 

Well, tomorrow will tell the tale!  I’ll be offline, of course, until the hunt is concluded… most likely not posting up again until Monday.  I hope to have great tales to tell… and if the weather holds I’ll have some video as well. 

Time to break the jinx on this danged old recurve! 

Yupp, despite an ongoing PR campaign and threats from some environmental organizations to sue the AZ Game and Fish Commission, the decision was made to continue to rely on hunters’ voluntary compliance with a recommendation not to use lead ammo.  Citing the fact that no condors died of lead poisoning in 2007, the commission has apparently found that the voluntary measures are working just fine.

“They should be pretty proud of these accomplishments for a voluntary program to get such a high compliance rate,” said Kathy Sullivan, California condor project coordinator for Game and Fish.

You can read a recent article about this topic in the Arizona Republic online.

So what does this mean for us in CA?  Well, unfortunately, probably nothing.  The lead ban law in our fair state is being held up as an example and a test case for much of the rest of the country.  Groups in Arizona are trying to leverage the passage of this law to convince AZ lawmakers that such a law is necessary there as well, despite the apparent evidence that voluntary compliance is working fine.  What is particularly telling is that the advocates of a ban aren’t simply asking for the ban to cover the area where condors live, but the entire state! 

This is a trend that will continue, and as hunters and shooting sports enthusiasts, it’s important that we stay on our guard against further bad legislation that bans lead ammo without providing for a phase-out to alternatives, as well as exemptions in cases where no alternative is available (e.g. rimfire ammunition and antique firearms). 

BUT… as I’ve said several times before, it is equally important for us to consider the future, both of our sport and our environmental health, and start planning for a move away from lead ammunition.  It is simply going to have to happen.  If we, as members of the hunting and shooting community, take the reins in this change, then maybe we can avoid more AB821 foolishness and drive our own future with our common interests at the forefront.  Otherwise we’re all going to be dragged, kicking and screaming, wherever the general public and the bureaucrats want to take us.

As to that kicking and screaming part…

For those who have yet to do so, make your voices heard to the CA Fish and Game Commission, and to your elected officials…  and if you have already written, do it again!  Follow up with some phone calls. 

Our message?  I’ve suggested it before, but here goes again…

The lead ammunition ban as it is currently written, is unfair to sportsmen.  It places an undue burden on hunters and shooters in a large swath of the state by essentially banning the use of an entire category of firearms (rimfires) and creates a hardship on many others due to the cost and unavailability of non-lead bullets and cartridges.   Hunters and the legislature were misled when the initial wording of the ban was rewritten, after the Governor’s signature, to include rimfire and small game hunting ammunition in addition to centerfire ammo for big game and coyotes. 

As citizens, we should also know how enforcement will be effected, and what training or equipment will be utilized in testing/identifying lead vs non-lead ammunition in the field.  We should also know that a budget for this equipment and training exists, and that the DFG agents in the field will have proper training and equipment at the time the law goes into effect (July 1, 2008).  If agents cannot be trained and/or equipped, then the ban should be postponed until such time as the ban can be properly and equitably enforced for all citizens, and that hunters and shooters are not subject to citation or seizure by under-trained and poorly equipped officers. 

At the very least, we should demand a rollback of the effective dates of the ban until such time as adequate and affordable lead alternatives are available to a majority of hunters, and until DFG officers and other law enforcement have been trained and equipped to correctly identify lead ammunition vs non-lead in the field.  At best, the ban should be removed and education and voluntary efforts, modeled on Arizona’s program, should be put in its place. 

OK, so that title could probably be better.  The HogBlog already is, and hopefully always has been fairly interactive…what with the comments, polls, and open-ended questions. 

But in light of some recent emails and in line with my own (very short) series of guide reviews, I’d like to open up the Hog Blog to you folks (the readers) for your own hog hunting guide reviews and stories.  Submit your review, and I’ll post it up here for everyone to read, hopefully creating a full-featured resource for folks who are looking for a hog guide… not just in CA but all over the country.

The key points I’d look for are:

• Name of the operation
• Location (city, state, region, etc.)
• Cost of the hunt
• Included amenities (lodging, target range, meals, other activities, etc.)
• A description of your experience, both positives and negatives (if any)
• Photos from the hunt

Don’t hold back, and if the experience was NOT good, that’s every bit as valuable as a great review.  Please do share.  However, make sure that all of your negative feedback is quantifiable (give examples), especially if you feel that you got “taken”.  Calling someone out on the World Wide Web as a cheat or a thief is fine if you can support it, but if you can’t, that can get you AND me in trouble. 

Point of clarification, though… this is NOT an advertising section.  If you want to advertise your service or operation, I can put you in touch with our folks at Skinny Moose Media (the network that lets me bring you the HogBlog), and you can work out a deal with them.  I don’t dabble in the business aspect of this thing.  I just like to hunt and write. 

With that in mind… If you’re a guide, please don’t try to sneak in a ringer on me in hopes of self-promotion and free advertising.  That would just be weak, and I’d have to block you from the site… and of course I’d tell everyone why I did.  If you want your service reviewed here, I’d be more than happy to come out and do a hunt with you, then provide my own review.  Or maybe we can set up some lucky HogBlog reader with a comped hunt, and he or she can come back and report on the experience. 

So there it is… let’s see where it goes.

Well, it’s finally almost here!  Some of you remember that I had to postpone the January Tejon hog hunt due to the foul weather and highway closures.  I’ve been jonesing ever since for a good hunt.  Starting on Friday afternoon, it’ll finally happen as I head down to Tejon Ranch for my first real hog hunt of the year!

There will be about eight of us heading out to the north side of Tejon Ranch with bows in hand, looking to improve on the record of my friends two weeks ago.   They took seven hogs for eleven hunters, which is respectable success for bowhunters, even on a property as prime as Tejon Ranch. 

I’ll be spending the next few days, among other things, heading over to the local archery shop’s indoor range to hone my skill.  Since they’ve built some new houses just outside my back fence, I can’t practice in the backyard anymore… and I’m feeling it! 

Anyway, stay tuned… looks like the weather might get tricky down there this weekend, following two weeks of beautiful, sunny and cool days.  That figures, but what’re you gonna do?  Well, I know what I’m gonna do… I’m going hunting! 

As I mentioned before, one of the media shooting days at the 2008 SHOT Show was partially sponsored by Bass Pro Shops.  They’re usually involved at some level with the show, but this year as I scrounged through the goodie bag they handed out at the shoot, I found a DVD of their new television program, 100% Real Hunting.

I have always had mixed feelings about hunting television and video.  For one thing, it’s so often carried out in such controlled conditions, high-fence ranches and feeders with tower stands, that it can be a little boring.  I mean, how often have you gone hunting where you can set a watch by the appearance of the game, and how many places have YOU hunted where you can count on a shot on a trophy animal on every two-day hunting trip? 

I’ve got other issues with it too, such as the perpetuation of the trophy craze and a misplaced focus on marksmanship (long range hunting) over hunting skills… not to mention the number of times on various programs that I’ve seen the ”hunter” shooting beyond his or her abilities, and the number of really bad shots that are quickly covered up in post-production.  I know a gut shot when I see one, and I’ve seen way too many on the hunting programs caused by nothing more than someone in a hurry to take a bad shot…either for the sake of footage or their ego, I couldn’t say which.

It’s also hard to learn much from most hunting programs, because even if they give you tips, it’s usually about the best way to spread your food plot, or the best kind of feed to use to “grow trophy bucks.”  Not that there’s anything wrong with folks who hunt that way.  I do it when I go to Texas, and get a kick out of it as well. 

But I can only put up with so much footage of comfy tree stands and towers where the hunter, a cameraman, and a guide can sit and have a conversation as they pick over a herd of deer to determine which one to shoot. 

Even worse are some of the cheesy reenactments of the shot and/or the recovery.  I give credit where credit is due, and I know some of those hunters on the programs really do have a ton of skill… as hunters.  But they aren’t actors. 

I guess this is the long way around to pointing out what I found refreshingly new and different about the new Bass Pro program, 100% Real Hunting.  Instead of having the hunter reenact the moments before the shot, complete with retakes and scripting, the program adds a second camera to every hunt and captures the hunter with one while the second unit films the game. 

In the sample episodes included on the DVD, I got to watch Bob Foulkrod choke on a long-range shot on a nice stone sheep in British Columbia… and saw the whole thing play out on his face as it happened.  The concentration and focus showed his professionalism, but you could also see the disbelief in his eyes as the first, and then the second shot went wide of the mark.  That was kind of cool, at least to me.  On the split-screen footage, I could watch his reaction and the reaction of the ram at the same time… and it was fairly clear to me there was no acting.  None was needed.

The second episode on the sample disc took Jerry Martin to Oklahoma for big whitetails.  While this one wasn’t quite as remarkable as the first, I still enjoyed the fact that they didn’t try to pull the wool over our eyes by staging the shot and the recovery.   It was also cool to see the deer react when the wind switched, and seeing Mr. Martin’s face off with the nosy doe was educational and entertaining. 

 I also like the fact that the series is committed to 100% “Fair Chase” hunting.  While they still hunt some super-hot properties, like the D Bar Ranch in Oklahoma where Jerry Martin’s episode was shot, at least you don’t get the feeling that they’re shooting livestock on camera. 

Ken Chesson over at the From The Stand blog does some of the camera work for Bass Pro, so he’s been in on this concept from the beginning.  He can probably speak better to the added complication of having not one, but two cameras on every hunt.  Even so, I’m thinking it’s gotta add a whole new layer of complexity, not to mention making it pretty darned tricky to get close enough for archery or black powder hunters.  I’m looking forward to seeing how they work it all out.

Anyway, as much as I might gripe about televised hunting, I still watch it whenever I can.  I can only hope more of the programs will follow the lead of 100% Real Hunting, and throw some quality viewing in with the standard run of ”horn porn”. 

Catch it on the Versus network… if they’d just get rid of the ridiculous cage fighting and bicycle racing programming. 

Out of curiousity, I’ve posted up a new poll (look to the right of this post). 

I know a lot of folks, myself included, belong to a handful of conservation and hunting organizations such as Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Mule Deer Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, National Wild Turkey Federation, Pheasants Forever, etc.  Maybe the market is already a little rich with such groups, all clamoring for a bit of your money and/or time.  But one thing I haven’t really seen out there is an organization for hog hunters.  Maybe it’s because we’re still a fairly small part of the hunting community, but we’re definitely growing.  You’re seeing more and more hog hunts on the national television shows (and you’ll see more now that deer and elk seasons are over). 

So I’m wondering what you folks think.  First of all, does anyone know of an organization specifically for hog hunters?  Would you join such an organization?  What would it need to offer to get your interest? 

I know I’ve tossed this out before, and if it seems like I’m fishing for something, maybe I am.   But I’d sure appreciate your input as well. 

Not quite the warm and cuddly mass-manufacturer merchandise (do they celebrate Valentine’s Day in China and Indonesia?) stuff that we’ve all been guilty of buying for our “loved” ones.

Just do what comes naturally… you’re all hunters.  http://www.myblackvalentine.com/

I just wanted to get this update out to folks who have been following the CA Lead Ban issue with me.  I’ve exhorted folks to get out to the Fish and Game Commission meetings to challenge the new law and speak up on how it’s going to impact you.  In a recent post, I mentioned that the next meetings are in Concord, CA on March 7-8, however a quick check of the meeting schedule shows those meetings in Stockton, CA instead of Concord.  If you look at the link, you’ll also want to notice the times for the meetings!  

0900 on a weekday morning is hardly amenable to public input!

I hope this doesn’t come as a sellout, but no matter how badly I want to be there, the real world won’t stop for me.  I have a job to tend to, so won’t be able to attend these meetings. 

Is it just me, or does it strike anyone else as somehow wrong that OUR Fish and Game Commission meetings are being held at times that are impractical for the general public to attend?  I know I’ve heard other people comment on this before.  Well, to me that makes one more thing that WE, as California Sportsmen (and women) need to address… or redress, as the case may be.  Our interests and concerns should be a driving factor in the FGC meetings, yet when they’re scheduled at a time (and often in places) that make it impossible for us to attend, then we’re NOT being represented fairly. 

Ahh… I’ll stop my gripe session now, but I do think this is a serious problem and no doubt at least one reason more hunters and fishermen aren’t being involved in the process.

More to come, I can guarantee that!