The Hog Blog

I’ve recently been contacted by someone who is looking for video footage of hog charges or attacks for a documentary-type show.  If you have some of this kind of video, let me know and I’ll put you in contact with the individuals.

Here’s the thing though.  I had to think long and hard before I put this request online.  Why?

Hog attacks are pretty danged rare.  Sure, they happen, as several of my personal friends and acquaintances can attest.  I’ve seen the scars.  But they don’t happen often and they sure as heck don’t follow any kind of a script.  An attack is most often a case of a wounded or cornered animal responding to a hunter’s presence, and that’s no time to be fooling around with a video camera.  It’s a time to move fast to put an end to the animal before it does you or your companions harm, and to humanely end the suffering of a wounded creature. 

What concerns me is that someone might, for the sake of a little video celebrity, incite a hog to charge or attack, or prolong a bad situation in the hope of getting a few seconds of footage.  PLEASE don’t do that.  If you’ve got footage of an authentic charge, share it.  But don’t go out trying to do this on purpose.  Someone’s gonna get hurt, and I can promise you, the resulting video isn’t gonna be worth it.

The other thing that worries me is the appearance of cruelty that some of this kind of video might present.  Consider the image of hunting and the impact of the video on non-hunters.  If your video includes badly wounded animals, bloodied dogs, or intentional tormenting of the hog, don’t show it.  I’m not suggesting we hide the realities of our sport, but at the same time, there’s no point adding fuel to the anti-hunters’ fire.  Just think first, then act. 

So with that caveat, if you’ve got video of an event like this, let me know and I’ll get you together with the right people. 

I guess I’ve been really remiss here, because while I spent so much time going on about the Lead Ammo ban, I never really said anything about another Assembly Bill that could mean a lot to CA hunters.

Here’s a summary of the bill:

AB 815, Berryhill. Hunting or fishing: local regulation.

The California Constitution provides for the delegation to the Fish and Game Commission of powers relating to the protection and propagation of fish and game. Existing statutory law delegates to the commission the power to regulate the taking or possession of birds, mammals, fish, amphibia, and reptiles in accordance with prescribed laws. Under existing law, the Department of Fish and Game exercises various functions with regard to the taking of fish and game. Under existing law, a city or county exercises certain limited authority with regard to the regulation of fish and game for the protection of public health and safety.   

This bill would provide that the state fully occupies the field of hunting and fishing. The bill would also provide that unless otherwise expressly authorized by the Fish and Game Code or other state or federal law, the commission and the department are the only entities that may adopt or promulgate regulations regarding the taking of fish and game on any lands or waters within the state. The bill would provide that local ordinances and regulations that regulate trapping are not subject to these provisions.

In lay terms, this means that the power to legislate matters related to wildlife management is restored completely in the hands of the CA Fish and Game Commission.  Currently, the cities and counties can set their own laws that conflict with the F&G regulations (often under the guise of “public safety”).  For example, Fish and Game often recommends antlerless deer hunts in certain zones to restore the buck-doe ratio, but cities and counties override that recommendation.  Other areas that may be impacted by this new bill include the management of wild hogs, turkeys, and resident geese in some areas that were previously off-limits. 

AB 815 seems to be doing OK without me, having passed both the State Senate and the Assembly, but it bears mention now.  Why?

Hunters don’t seem to know much about this bill, but a recent visit to PETA and HSUS websites shows that these organizations are doing all they can to mobilize their membership against it.  Now would be a REAL GOOD time to send out our support of this bill.  Contact Governor Schwartzenegger and your state representatives to encourage the final passage of AB 815. 

And while you’re at it, why not drop a note to Assembly Members Berryhill, Maze, Parra, Harman, and Hollingsworth for authoring and introducing this common sense piece of legislation. 

Well, just to cut to the chase on my “catchy” title, yeah… a copper bullet will definitely kill a hog.  I’ve done it a couple of times now, and seen it done as well.  The non-lead ammo has worked fine for me whether I’m hunting hogs or deer (or exotics, for that matter). 

But I’m starting to get some questions anyway, especially as far as certain calibers.  Some of you might remember I mentioned that I’d had some problems getting good groups from a .270 with the Black Hills Gold ammo (loaded with Barnes TSX).  I have the components to handload some rounds for that rifle, but haven’t tried them out yet. 

Holly, the NorCal Cazadora also had issues getting good groups from her boyfriend’s (Hank, the HunterAnglerGardenerCook) .270.  Some of you may have seen her blog post about this frustrating experience. 

And here lately on Jesse’s Hunting and Outdoors, several of our forum members have spoken up about similar problems… almost all with the .270. 

Are we seeing a trend here?  Is there something about the .270 that doesn’t jibe with the characteristics of the copper bullets?  It’s really piqued my curiosity now.

So my question, dear readers, for any of you who’ve had a chance to shoot the copper ammo, how many of you have had problems getting decent groups, and what calibers are you shooting?  Please, don’t tell me what you heard from a friend, or what someone wrote somewhere… I’m looking for first hand experiences.  What have you guys and gals been seeing out there? 

Wow, just like me to take off and leave the HogBlog unattended for three days or so, huh?  What can I say?  I usually like to do a post to let folks know I’m on the road, but this weekend kinda raced right up on me and got here before I was ready.

So I made a run up to Coon Camp Springs for a work weekend from Friday through Sunday.  (If you don’t know about Coon Camp Springs, you can check the site link, or go read my post about the project, and about Dave, the guy whose vision is driving this thing.) The last couple of years I tried to get up there at least once a month during the late spring and summer, but this year with all the other things I’ve had going on, plus the cost of fuel… well, I just couldn’t get up there until now.  Fortunately, Dave’s been up there a lot and has really done an impressive amount of work, both on the camp and the habitat.

The key objective for this weekend was to limb and haul some junipers that Dave and the forester felled in one of the aspen groves.  We needed to get these trees out and disturb the ground some to encourage the aspens to spread.  Aspen groves are in serious decline in CA, so having these on the property is a real bonus, and helping them grow and thrive is one of the important goals of the restoration project. 

So a couple of things should be noted.  First, getting volunteers up to the property for a work weekend is always a real challenge.  For many reasons, not the least of which is the time and cost involved in getting there, folks just don’t turn out in droves when we need some work.  Even though the cost of your fuel is deductible (I mentioned that Coon Camp Springs is a charitable organization, right?), it’s still a pretty rough trip for a weekend. 

Also, this past weekend in particular was the archery opener for deer in many of the CA zones, and since most of our potential volunteers are also hunters, there was a very real conflict.

So it was really great to get this weekend rolling with 10 people on-hand to tackle the work.  Unfortunately, after seeing what needed to be done, we really needed about three times that many.  Dave and Tim had cut down about 35 BIG juniper trees.  If you’ve never dealt with junipers, you should know that they’re really tough trees with limbs that come out at all angles and spread over the ground to form a pretty dense canopy.  To limb a single large tree is no mean feat, especially when the tree has already been felled.  To limb 35, AND to haul the cut limbs down off of the ridge is far more than 10 of us could have accomplished in a single day. 

But we gave it our best shot, and managed to make a good start before we started experiencing equipment breakdowns. 

The first to go was Dave’s chainsaw.  Something happened to the bar and chain, and the chain wouldn’t turn unless he loosened the housing bolts…an unsafe situation.  Next, Dave’s truck went down, the victim of  sage branch breaking the transmission line from the cooler to the tranny.  And then my brand new chainsaw went south too!  Still, we made a day of it, cutting and hauling until we were all covered in grime, sawdust, and juniper needles (wicked, hateful little things that itch their way down your shirt and end up in all kinds of crevices and crannies). 

The killer of killers was, after we wrapped up work for the day, we returned to camp sweaty, dirty, and tired, looking forward to nice, hot showers, only to find that one of the hoses had worked loose from the water pump, and the entire 220 gallon tank had drained onto the ground.  Dave and one of our volunteers had to load the spare tank and drive down to the CDF (CalFire) station to refill the tank, then come back and pump the water back into the reservoir. 

Of course, while we always work hard at Coon Camp Springs, we also eat pretty well.  Saturday night we feasted on smoked wild pork and fallow deer ribs, paired with fresh vegetables from Dave’s little garden.  We even had dessert on the menu… plums in port sauce and vanilla ice cream, but everyone ate so much of the main course, no one had room for dessert. 

Sunday was spent in part recovering from the exertion of Saturday.  Most of the volunteers, including myself, had to hit the road by mid-morning in order to get back home at a decent hour.  We took care of some logistics, filled the water tanks that irrigate some of the recent plantings, figured out the problem with Dave’s truck and got the transmission cooler pulled out, and made arrangements for Dave to get over to Reno and rent a vehicle to use until they got a new transmission cooler. 

I pulled back into the homefront around 8:30 Sunday night, dusty and tired.  After a long shower and a quick meal, it was time for bed to rest my aching back and arms.  I’m way too young to feel this danged old, to paraphrase Garth Brooks.  Swinging a chainsaw in the high-desert heat for hours on end can sure do that to ya! 

It was a great weekend, though, and I want to thank all of the volunteers who made the long drive and put in a long, hot day of hard labor for Coon Camp Springs.  I’m sure that, when he returns on Tuesday, Dave will add his own thanks on the Coon Camp Springs website, along with some of the photos he took of the weekend. 

With Native Hunt’s annual dove hunt in the wings, and a need for some game meat to feed the hungry hunters at this event, Native Hunt owner/CEO, Michael Riddle generously offered to let me come out and see about putting a fallow deer in the cooler for the event.  I guess I’d mentioned how cool I thought the fallows were, particularly the white ones, and Michael, being the generous guy he is, put me on the trail.

Some of you will remember that a few of us CA Hunting Bloggers were just out at Michael’s place earlier this summer where Holly (NorCal Cazadora) and I both took home some pork, while Hunting With Jim’s videographer, John, followed me to catch the quest on video. 

This trip was a little different, as the target animal was a little less specific than before.  Earlier, the plan had been for me to come out and shoot a buck that couldn’t seem to grow more than one antler.  A few days before my visit, though, that buck turned up dead.  Michael gave me the news, but then told me to come and just shoot another one.  Hey, you don’t have to make me an offer like that twice!  But that meant that this time I had to decide what to shoot for myself.

When I arrived, Michael had a couple of other guests at the lodge.  These guys were all hard-core dog guys, so their focus for the weekend was to work the hog dogs on some of the “euros” (European wild boar).  I’d be on my own to do this fallow-deer hunt.  Read the rest of this entry »

Well, here’s a second look since my first look at the Olympic shooters in Beijing.

The US so far has six medals in the shooting events.  As you may remember, Corey Codgell was the big story, the newcomer who wasn’t even expected to be on the team worked her way through the obstacles and managed to wind up with a bronze medal in the women’s trap.  Kim Rhode took her fourth medal, a silver, in the Women’s Skeet, and Glen Eller took the gold and a new world record in Men’s Double Trap.

Since then, a few more stories have been told:

Jason Turner put in a tough fight in the 10 metre air pistol event, only to finish in fourth place.  However, a positive drug test disqualified the North Korean competitor, moving Turner into the third place spot for the Bronze.   Sure, I don’t think that’s how any Olympian wants to win a medal, but it’s no less an accomplishment for folks who compete at that level of skill.

Matt Emmons has been here before, but in the finals of the Men’s Prone Rifle managed to shoot a great score to lock in the silver medal, edged out by Ukrainian Artur Ayvazian. 

Most folks remember Emmons for his disastrous “cross-shot” in the Athens games, where, with the Gold Medal almost guaranteed, he fired his final shot into the target next to him. 

Emmons went on to his next event in this year’s Games, the Men’s Three Position Rifle, and lightning struck again… with the Gold Medal practically around his neck, Emmons’s final shot went wild, essentially off the paper and knocking him all the way back to fourth place. 

Medal #6 for the  US went to Men’s Skeet shooter, Vincent Hancock who took the gold after a fairly dramatic shoot-off with Norway’s Tore Brovold.

In the qualification round, Hancock set a new Olympic record, breaking 121 out of 125 targets.  That’s pretty danged good shooting.  He missed one target in the finals, while Brovold had a perfect round, tying their scores and leading to the shoot-off. 

How about archery?

Unfortunately, U.S. archers came away without any medals at all, but that’s not due to lack of skill and quality on the team.  They were out-shot in every event, but they made an impressive showing up until the end. 

I think there are still a couple of shooting events left, but the Games are almost over.  Congratulations to all the shooters and archers, from every country.  The impressive level of skill and marksmanship is impossible to overstate, as these folks really do represent the best of the best.

…she’s making movies on location
she don’t know what it means…
                                Dire Straits – Skate Away

Well, it took a while and some additional prodding, but the folks over at Hunting With Jim have finally updated the site with the first of the videos from our June hunt.  I know, it’s been so long, most folks have already forgotten about the CA Bloggers’ Hog Hunt with myself, Jim and John of Hunting with Jim, and Holly from NorCal Cazadora.  Holly and I both wrote epic, two-part posts about the hunt and all the fun we had, but those slackers over at Hunting With Jim just sat on some great hunting footage. 

For those who’ve forgotten and want a refresher, here are both parts of Holly’s Hog Hunting Story:

Part 1

Par 2

And here are both of my takes:

Part 1

Part 2

And here, at long last as posted on the Hunting With Jim blog, is one part of the infamous video, starring your’s truly…

And here’s a preview of the bigger story, which I hope to see released before digital videography becomes obsolete.

Many thanks to John, from Hunting With Jim, for getting these online so quickly.  Many things are afoot, and hope to have interesting news for faithful HogBlog readers soon. 

I just realized no one has really done a good, all-around primer for CA hunters impacted by the lead ban.  Sure, there’ve been press releases and that weak and outdated FAQ from the DFG website, but nothing really addresses the questions that hunters are asking, and the issues we’re facing.

Well, I put together this video.. and when it was done I realized that still, no one has done a really good, all-around primer…  but I tried.  Maybe someone will think this is cool and pay me to put together a real, production quality video. 

But in the meantime, I hope you find some useful information in the following presentations (in two parts, due to YouTube file-size limits). 
Part 1
 
Part 2

Most of you, like me, are just about at saturation with the Summer Olympics.  Yeah, they’re still thrilling, but there’s only so much you can watch… especially if you’re watching on network TV and listening to the banal observations of the “experts” and announcers.  The only way I can bear it, sometimes, is just to remember the announcer in Christopher Guest’s mock-umentary,  ”Best in Show“.  It reminds me to see the humor above the annoyance, and I get by… but barely.

But what I’m not getting enough of in the televised coverage… actually, what I’m not getting ANY of on network TV… is the shooting sports.  Archery, pistol, rifle, and shotgun events have been part of the games for ages, but in recent years televised coverage has dropped to nil.  Some folks believe there’s an anti-gun/anti-shooting sports reason for this lack of television exposure.  I’m not sure I completely buy that.  The more logical argument put forth by the networks is that these aren’t really crowd-pleasers and they don’t generate enough attention to merit coverage… which amounts to the fact that if they don’t generate enough advertising they don’t rate air-time.  I guess that’s valid enough, since TV is all business.  But it still grates on me. 

Another reason you won’t see a lot of the shooting sports on US network TV is that the US has generally been fairly tepid in the Olympic shooting sports.  Our shooters put up a great effort with an occasional stellar performance, especially in the shotgun sports, but we’re often outgunned by other marksmen (and women)…particularly the northern european countries.  That makes it tough for some of the flag-waving crowd to get behind, but dammit, these shooters are all the BEST IN THE WORLD!  That’s how they got to be at the Olympics in the first place!  They ALL deserve recognition and coverage.  I believe that’s sort of the point of the Games.

Anyway, since you won’t hear a lot about this in the mainstream, I just thought I’d let ya’ll know that so far the U.S. shooters have taken three medals.  There are still some events left, including a couple where our team should make a good showing, but for now we have the following:

Women’s Skeet – Kim Rhode won the silver following a three-way tie and shoot-off for the gold. 

If I remember correctly, this is Kim’s third or fourth Olympic medal, going back to the 1996 games where she won gold as a 17 year-old competitor in Women’s Double-Trap!

Women’s Trap – newcomer Corey Codgell took the bronze medal. 

As the press-releases tell, Corey wasn’t even expected to make the team this year, much less medal in the events.  As a brand-new face at the Olympic Shooting Camp, she was just there to learn more and train fo the 2012 games in London. 

Following a pretty awesome performance in the qualifications, and in other key shoots, she suddenly found a spot on the team and with this bronze medal win, made her own mark in the annals of Olympic history.

Men’s Double Trap - Glenn Eller took the gold, and set a new world record in the process… 190 out of 200 targets! 

This is Eller’s third Olympics, and his first time on the Podium.  As of right now, he shows promise to be there again in London, four years from now. 

You can learn a lot more about the US Shooting Team by going to the USA Shooting website.  Read up on the program, and the participants, then find out what you can do to help this great organization continue to bring us even more world-champions. 

There’s a lot of great stuff going on in Archery too, and as that competition begins to gel, I’ll bring you a salute to some of America’s (and the World’s) best archers! 

In the meantime, I just want to recognize the intense drive, determination, and dedication these shooters and archers have demonstrated in order to get where they are.  This isn’t the kind of thing you just learn to do overnight. 

Here’s a short Porcine Press for this evening… saw it and absolutely had to share it with you folks, especially since it’s sort of in keeping with the last post.

Here’s the headline from the Columbia Tribune: Pig’s Feet Spark Apartment Fire. 

And a short quote from the article:

The building is owned by William Payne, according to county records, and the fire department said the apartment was rented to Trenda Walker, who was not at home at the time. The fire started while Brenda Warren, Walker’s mother, was cooking pig’s feet, the news release said. No injuries were reported to Warren or Walker’s children, who were in the apartment.

There ya go!  Not really hog hunting, but there’ the combination of a classic headline, a fire-safety note, and hogs (pigs’ feet).  It just doesn’t get any better.