The Hog Blog

It’s been a while since I was in Texas, and I have to say that state really grows on me.  Fortunately, I’m about to head back down for a week and some change.  Kat and I are hitting the road tonight, and expect to be in camp by the Frio river with my brother (the bloodthirsty savage) and his wife, as well as my mom. 

Definitely gonna be doing some hunting for hogs and exotics while I’m there.  We’ll be hunting with Shane, from Borderbandit Outfitters.  I also hope to look around at some properties.  Yeah, I like it that much! 

I don’t know how much I’ll be able to post while I’m down there.  The campground has wireless, but last year I found the connection pretty danged sketchy.  Hopefully they’ve upgraded a little bit since then.  One way or another, I’ll try to get some pix and updates online.

Many of you who keep up on sportsmen’s issues have probably heard the uproar about United Airlines’ recent announcement that they’d stop allowing hunters to bring their harvested antlers aboard the aircraft.  I can say it created quite a flap in many quarters, and I certainly wasted no time in shooting my own email off to the airline, expressing my anger and dismay at the decision.

Well, it looks like those voices have made a difference.  Just got this from the US Sportsmen’s Alliance:

The voices of sportsmen were heard loud and clear by United Airlines as the company made the decision to change a new policy that would have banned antlers from being allowed onto any flight.

As previously reported, sportsmen from coast to coast were enraged as it became known United Airlines had quietly initiated a policy preventing passengers from carrying on or checking antlers or animal horns of any kind. 

After receiving thousands of complaints from sportsmen, who were informed by the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA), through Bowsite.com, and from many other concerned organizations, United Airlines has reconsidered this policy.  In a message sent to the USSA and other organizations, United stated:

“As you have recently contacted us, I wanted you to be the first to know that we have heard our customers’ feedback about our Antler and Animal Horn policy, and are responding.  Soon we will begin accepting Antlers and Animal Horns as checked baggage again.

As many of you may recall or have seen on our web site, in October 2008 we stopped accepting Antlers and Animal Horns because of the damage the tips caused to the cargo section of the aircraft and to the luggage belonging to our other guests.

We will soon publish new requirements – and ones we previously did not have – about packaging and cleaning Antlers and Animal Horns to ensure their safe, clean transport. These travel requirements will also provide information on the size of Antlers and Animal Horns we can accept based on the type of aircraft being flown (i.e., traditional jet vs. a regional jet) and the special handling fee, which we previously had in place and is similar to other items that require special care.

Stay tuned for further updates on the baggage section of united.com

“United proved that just because you make a mess doesn’t mean you have to stay in it,” said Pat Lefemine, the developer of the nation’s leading bow hunting website, www.bowsite.com and one of the first to sound the alarm over the anti-hunting policy. “It also proved again that when sportsmen unite behind an issue, their voices will be heard.”

The USSA echoed Lefemine’s sentiments.

 “We’re glad that United has considered the views of sportsmen and hope the new rules will reflect our concerns,” said Bud Pidgeon, USSA president and CEO.  “Regardless, the USSA plans to examine these new policies to be sure that they are fair to sportsmen.”

Now I’ve still got issues with all of the major airlines, regarding service and their treatment of baggage (and of treating passengers like baggage), but at least I’d be willing to call this one a real victory for the sportsmen!

I was thinking about my “dream hunts” post, and I realized something. 

For me, a key requirement of all of my dream hunts was to do the hunt in a place where I can bring home the meat.  Whether it’s Alaskan moose, Newfoundland Caribou, or Rocky Mountain elk, part of what makes every successful hunt special is not the trophy antlers, horns, or hides, but the meat that comes from each of these animals. 

I’ve eaten an awful lot of wild game through my life… everything from snapping turtle to frog legs, to tree squirrel to rabbits.  I’ve had several different kinds of deer (whitetail, blacktail, mulie, axis, fallow, and elk), as well as antelope (pronghorn and blackbuck) and wild sheep.  When it comes to fowl, I’ve eaten pheasant, bobwhite quail, mountain quail, valley quail, mourning dove, pigeons, turkeys, ducks, geese, and a couple of other birds I’ll not mention (some were very good, and some…well, not so much).  The list includes bear and bison as well.  And, of course, I’ve had a lot of wild pork. 

But despite the extent of my list, there are still a bunch I’d like to try.  I’ve heard that caribou is awesome, as is moose.  Both are high on my list of dream hunts, in part for this very reason. 

So… of the meat I’ve eaten so far, what would be my favorite?  That’s a tough one.  I guess, in order to make it fair, I should draw a line between truly “wild” game, and ranched exotics. 

There’s no question (and no surprise) that when it comes to pure, quality meat, the ranch-raised animals get the edge for several reasons.  These animals generally live high on the hog, cared for with feeders full of high quality grains, plentiful water, and a general life of leisure.  For me so far, it’s a real close race between axis deer and fallow… with the nod going to the fallow buck I shot  at Native Hunt last year. 

That meat was everything beef wishes it could be.  It was very flavorful (but with a mild flavor instead of that stronger venison edge) and tender, even though the buck was pretty mature.  I imagine a younger buck or a doe would be even better… if better is possible. 

Of the truly wild game, I’m really on the fence.  A nice, fat whitetail doe certainly gets high marks.  Properly cared for in the field and in the kitchen, it’s hard to beat the flavor and tenderness.  However, a healthy, young hog can sure bring a smile to my face as well.  If I had to choose, I’m not sure I could.  I suppose the tie-breaker is the fact that more of my non-hunting friends seem to like the wild pork better than venison, so if I’m serving friends I’ll usually default to the hog. 

What about the small game, you might ask (you probably won’t, but you might)?  Cottontail rabbit, hands-down!  I’ve probably eaten more squirrel than any other small game animal, and I like it well enough, but if I had my pick, a nice coney is how I’d go. 

Anyway, that’s kind of where that train of thought runs out of track…  so now I leave it to you folks.  What’s been your favorite wild game (or exotic) so far?  If your dream hunt were based on the pursuit of meat as well as a trophy and experience, would that change your list?

Compared to past years, I’ve really been spending a lot more time hunting on the computer than in the field this year. There are good enough reasons for this, I suppose, and I’m not here to whine about it right now.

Nope, rather than complain, the time away from the field has given me time to think about how to maximize the time I do get in the field… fulfilling hunting dreams.

Right now, I have a pretty short list of “dream hunts”. High on the list is a trip for caribou. Ideally, I’d do that when the Northern Lights are at their peak, but I don’t think those seasons really overlap… nice dream, though. But really, caribou in Quebec, or in the Northwest Territories would be a spectactular opportunity with or without the Aurora Borealis. My brother and I are planning to make the trip, but we haven’t locked in a date.

Elk were always high on my list, and even though I’ve killed a couple now, I still dream of taking one with my bow. After the experience on my last trip (before the “good” guide got hurt), I can still close my eyes and see that bull bugling in my face from 12 yards. I want that again, and I want to make the shot next time too. Next to getting my caribou, taking a bull with my bow ranks pretty high on the dream list. Again, this one will be a reality… possibly next year if things keep going well.

But then what? Go back and start over? I mean, there are a lot of hunts I’d like to do, and many that I’ll do again and again. I do have daydreams of having a “real” African hunt (think Ruark, Capstick, and Roosevelt), but that’s a rarified air that never was the realm of “regular” guys. To do a month or two safari outside the fenced concessions is possible, but it’s crazy expensive. It’s just not going to happen, and I can’t see myself being satisfied by a week over waterholes and hay bales… no matter how much game I see. I can really do that in Texas, without leaving the comforts and relative security of a first-world nation. Not only that, but if I hunt Texas, I can bring the meat home too… and that’s a pretty big deal to me.

So I’ve been lately thinking about moose hunting. My grandfather went many years ago, and came back disgusted. “It’s like shooting a cow,” he complained. “And then a lot of work to get him out of the swamp.”

He never went back, and pretty well discouraged me from taking the trip myself. But now that I’m getting more and more into this bowhunting, I’m thinking maybe this is an approach that would change my perspective… especially if I could do it in some really remote place, like the Yukon or the Alaskan outback.

And then what? I dunno… but it’s pleasant to think about.

Would love to hear what some of your dream hunts are, folks. Wanna share?

I’ve been observing an intriguing trend in the hunting community over the past several years, and while I’ve commented on it a time or two, I’ve never really had the time or incentive to explore it more thoroughly.   (I’m not sure that I have that time or incentive now, for that matter, but what the heck… if I don’t start, I’ll never finish.)

So, then… what I’ve been seeing is an ever-increasing influx of hunters who are coming to the sport late in life.  Some of them may have had early exposure to hunting and shooting, but never got fully involved.  Many others are completely new to it. 

Personally, as someone who literally grew up hunting, I’m curious as to what these folks’ experiences must be like, what motivated them to start hunting, and what challenges they face getting started and becoming successful.  Who do these new hunters turn to for mentoring or inspiration?  How do they learn… and just as importantly… what are they learning?

I’m also intrigued by what this new crop of hunters will bring to the general hunting “ethic”.  What I have seen so far suggests that there’s a very different perspective, and it’s carried to further extremes, by individuals who recently made the decision to take up a blood sport.  I think this fresh point of view holds some pretty big implications for the future of hunting, although for better or worse remains to be seen. 

For now, I’m simply glad to see that there are still more people coming into the community.  We’ve (hunters) been at serious risk of stagnation as the older generations fade away, and the new generations don’t have the interest or the time to take up the sport. 

This train of thought was chugging through my mind back in May, when I saw an article in the SF Chronicle about an organization calling itself the “Bull Moose Hunting Society.”   The gist of the article is that a couple of guys in San Francisco wanted to start hunting, and realized that there were very few resources, especially in the urban environment, for people to learn how to hunt.  They also found that there was a lot of interest in eating wild game meat, even by folks who would probably never hunt for it themselves. 

I followed the article link to the Bull Moose Hunting Society website to learn more about the organization.  These guys had stumbled onto a great idea and a fascinating concept.  That concept has evolved a little from it’s original roots as a sort of “wild game cooperative”, but it’s still an excellent idea.  One of the things that particularly captured my attention, though, was the Mission Statement:

Leave no trace, take a clean shot, respect the animal, be a part of nature; these are qualities we at the Bull Moose Hunting Society express and would like to instill in a new generation of hunters, of human predators. Where the government of this country fails to establish ethical hunting guidelines, we educate and inform. Where the urbanized people of this country are removed from nature, we provide a means to return. Where the private landowners feel repulsed at unruly trophy hunters, we are an alternative. Bull Moose is an organization dedicated to providing a means for those of us who have lost our instincts, our predatory skills and our connection to the wild world to get those parts of ourselves back. We provide guidance through state hunting regulations and equipment purchases. We provide a link between private landowners and responsible, ethical hunters like ourselves. And most importantly, we bring the wild out in you.

That truly is a “statement”.  There’s a lot there, and it speaks volumes about this “nouveau hunting ethic” that I’ve been wondering about… at least as these guys see it. 

After reading and digesting a bit, I shot an email off to Bull Moose Hunting Society founders, Nick Zigelbaum and Nick Chaset to see if they’d be willing to answer a few questions.  It took a while to get our respective crap together, but we did finally get a chance to do a little email interview.   

I don’t really like the Q&A format on a blog, but in the interest of getting everything in context, here’s the entire exchange (excluding a couple of questions that were left unanswered): Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I was gonna put this out there yesterday, but this past weekend at Native Hunt really left me pretty wiped out!  It was fun and all, but by the time it was over, I probably didn’t get more than 10 hours of sleep between Friday and Tuesday, and the waking hours were pretty danged active. 

But it was fun! 

In addition to Monday’s big dove hunt, we had three hog hunters and two sheep hunters over the weekend.  These were, I believe, the last management hunts of the year, which means no one was after a trophy hog. 

One of our regular clients (and one of my favorite guys to hunt with), Fabio R., had chosen to use his new TC muzzle loader to take a Eurasian Boar.  I was excited about the prospect.  I love shooting black powder, and I think it’s a great choice of weapon for hunting under the close-quarters conditions we’d have with these exotic species.  I was also, honestly, really curious to see how the 295 gr Barnes muzzleloading bullet would perform.

Both the hunter and the bullet did a great job!  A solid, mid-sized boar came ambling up on our backtrail as we were moving for a shot on another hog.  He took us by surprise, but when he stopped to sample some acorns, he offered Fabio a beautiful, broadside shot at around 40 or 50 yards… well within the range of a modern smokepole.  Fabio placed the bullet perfectly, splitting the hog’s heart.  Even hit that hard, the animal bolted up the hill for probably 50 yards before expiring.

“Well,” thought I.  “My job here is done.  I can relax until Monday’s dove shoot!”

I’ve been wrong before. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it’s another weekend and time to head back to the woods.  This time I’m off to Native Hunt to help out with some pig hunts before the big dove hunt on Monday. 

Yeah, I know, the dove season’s already well under way, but we haven’t shot at them down at the ranch yet so it promises to be a great time!  Along on this trip will be Hank Shaw (Honest Food Blog) and Holly Heyser (NorCal Cazadora). 

Among other things on this hunt, we’ll be working on a cool new project at Native Hunt.  I hope to be telling you all about it both here, and at the new Native Hunt blog (launching soon). 

So hang in there… hunting season is in full swing, and I’m making the most of it while I can!

Rolled in and got to bed around 0100 this morning, and here it is about 0545 and I’m getting ready for work.  …or I should be, but instead I’m in here tapping away at the keyboard.

Got some great video from the weekend hunt, and I’ll try to get that online as soon as possible.  It was a lot of fun, and while I hate spoilers, I can say that the bucks will live another day.  Saw a bunch of deer, just none with legal antlers. 

But it’s the other stuff I saw that made the weekend… and it’ll all be in the video.  So don’t go away! 

How’s that for a teaser?

Well, about a week or so ago, I got an email from one of my “virtual” friends, Nate Treadwell.  Nate’s been living the hunting dream of late, heading out to Africa last year to bowhunt big game, and getting in a good bit of hunting here in CA as well.  This year, one of his big treats was an antelope hunt in Colorado, and as he mentioned in the email, he did alright.

So, I had his pictures and his story all queued up to go on the Hog Blog this week, but a couple of other items came out first… and it looks like now I’ve waited too long.  My buddy John, at the Western Wanderer, beat me to the draw.  It’s a good story, and a great goat, so be sure and go check it out! 

John just came back from a pretty awesome hunt himself, over in Nevada.  He came home without venison, but from what he wrote, it sounds like a successful trip nonetheless.  Imagine, spotting 51 bucks in a single day! 

Good stuff, and congrats to both hunters for getting out there and giving it their best.  Hopefully, I’ll be finding a chance to get out for a bowhunt before the season rolls past me.

It’s an annual, September ritual around many parts of the country. 

Back “home”, in NC, I remember the dove opener as a big, social event.  It usually included real barbecue (Barbecue is NOT a verb!), slow cooked for hours and served up right off the cooker.  With full bellies, we’d sally out to our spots around a freshly harvested field… corn, safflower, melons… and load up the shotguns.  You couldn’t start shooting until noon on the opener, a gentlemanly time to begin hunting.  The build-up to those first shots at the grey blurs was almost like Christmas.  And, of course, the dove dinners that followed… oh yeah!  Fried, grilled, baked, cooked with dumplings… 

Since coming to CA, I’ve learned that the dove opener can be just as big a deal.  One difference here, though, is that the opener is set by the calendar, so the season often begins on weekdays, as it will this year.  CA dove season opens on September 1, which falls on a Tuesday.  A lot of hunters all over the state will still be taking days off from work, and pulling their lucky youngsters out of school for the traditional trip to the dove fields. 

Others of us won’t be quite so lucky, and will have to wait until Labor Day weekend to get after the feathered flurries.  But we’re looking forward to it just as much.  Kat and I will be down at the Native Hunt ranch again this year.  I’ll be helping out with the rest of the clients, but we ought to have plenty of opportunity to fill our limits.  There are a ton of doves down there right now, and they should hang around as long as we don’t see any serious cold snaps or severe weather.  Even if the weather does change, there are always enough birds there for a great shoot. 

This hunt is usually by invitation only, but this season, Michael’s opening up the hunts to customers. 

As you may have been hearing, Native Hunt is announcing its annual Labor Day Bird Hunt. For the first time in our history, the bird hunt is being opened up to the public. This one time offer is only $250 a hunter and includes a 1 day bird hunt valued at $500 & a gourmet lunch prepared by our on-site chefs at no extra charge.

We are also offering $500 hog hunts on Sunday the 6th. This special price is only available to hunters that are participating in the Bird Hunt on the 7th and is only available for the 6th. We are also opening up part of our property for tent camping and RV’s the night before the Bird Hunt to accommodate guests that have farther to travel. If you are planning on camping you MUST make arrangements ahead of time with one of our Hunt Coordinators.

Space is limited to 25 spots for this event and we are filling up fast so call or email us today to secure your spot! Remember… the date is September 7th 2009, the event is the Native Hunt Labor Day bird hunt the price is an unbeatable $250 and the number is 1-888-HUNT-321.

The dove opener is apparently a big deal in Texas too, with some estimates showing that the Lone Star State is responsible for about one-third of all doves harvested in the US each year.  Despite several invitations over the years, I’ve yet to experience a Texas dove opener, but I’m keeping it on the list… one of these days.

A further temptation came in my email yesterday, from my friend, Shane Hearn, owner/operator of Border Bandit Hunting.  Shane’s got some great sounding dove hunting opportunities on properties he’s managing this year.  Here’s what he had to say:

Just wanting to let everyone know about the dove hunting availability I have right now. Dove are looking great in South and Central Texas ….. alot better than I thought originally due to the drought.  Here’s what I have available for the Central Zone opener …
 
Eldorado, Tx – $60 a day, 2 day min.
 
Uvalde, Tx – $100 a day, 2 day min.  …. lodging available
 
Please call or email for more details …. also have some whitetail, axis and hog hunts still available.
 
Thank You!
Shane Hearn
aka “Borderbandit”
Borderbandit Hunting Services
www.borderbandithunting.com

The Central Zone season opens on Sept. 1.  Wish I could make it down there for some of this action, but not this year. 

What are ya’ll doing for doves this year… in the states where you can still hunt them?