The Hog Blog

Well, I’m back.

It was an eventful couple of weeks at Coon Camp Springs… too eventful, in fact, for me to simply summarize the hunts in a single post. Instead, I’ve decided to write up each hunt separately (although there’s a great connection between the first two).

Click Here to view Part 1

Click Here to view Part 2

Here’s the final part, then… hope you enjoy it!

The waxing moon was the biggest concern for our next hunt.  David Brown would be arriving on November 1st, and the moon would be completely full on the 2nd.  Way up in that country, a full moon lights up the night like daytime, and the deer stay active all night long and then bed up during the day.  The only bright spot was my hope that the moon would also help kick off the rut.  Nolan’s buck had been chasing does three days earlier, and on the Saturday before David’s arrival I glassed up a really nice 4×4 leading a harem of does, so things were looking really positive on that front.  As long as the moon didn’t screw us up, I had hopes that we’d see a pretty good hunt.

I was in Reno when David arrived on Sunday, so Dave (Allen) would take him on the tour, and go over to the shooting bench to check out his rifle.  I thought they’d also go ahead and hit the field for a little while before I got back, but they decided just to relax in camp and wait for me.  The hunt would start Monday morning.

Over dinner, we talked about the last couple of hunts, and I told David about the big 4×4 I’d seen.   I described what I thought was the best strategy to get on him, just sitting on a glassing point and waiting as long as we could stand to sit there.  A lot of western hunters can’t sit still for hours, but with the deer moving consistently over the same area, the longer we could stay put, the better our odds of getting a shot on that buck.  David assured me he loved glassing and sitting, so the plan was made.  We had a great dinner of elk and pheasant, and headed off to bed with visions of big bucks dancing in our heads.

Monday morning’s hunt was a guide’s dream come true.   Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’m back.

It was an eventful couple of weeks at Coon Camp Springs… too eventful, in fact, for me to simply summarize the hunts in a single post. Instead, I’ve decided to write up each hunt separately (although there’s a great connection between the first two).

Click Here to view Part 1

Here’s the second part, then… hope you enjoy it!

When Nolan left with his father on Tuesday night, his plan was to get home, visit with his family a little bit, and then come on back out to the ranch on Thursday afternoon.  Tom said he might come back as well.  Even though he already had his buck, he wanted to be there when Nolan tagged out.  In the wings of the plan was the possibility that Nolan may bring his six year-old son back up with him to enjoy the hunt and camp, and possibly to see his father take a buck, just as Nolan had been there 35 years earlier to see his own dad tag out. 

With these plans in our minds, Dave Allen (President of the Coon Camp Springs non-profit org), Kat (my girlfriend and camp cook for the week), and I decided to take our downtime on Wednesday to get out to town and pick up some supplies.  We did some work around camp and headed up the hill to the highway.  Just before we topped the last ridge, a black truck came up the road toward us.  Nolan just couldn’t stay away!  I bailed out and let Dave and Kat go on to town.  I’d spend the evening hunting with Nolan and his son, Tommy, and see what we could do to fill that tag. 

With a six year-old in tow, the cards were stacked against us on this one.  On this property, there are a couple of ways to hunt.  One is to sit tight on a high spot and glass, and then either shoot or stalk for the shot.  That requires quiet, patience, and sitting still… none of which are exactly common traits among the first grade set. 

The other method is to still hunt slowly through the juniper thickets.  This is slow, silent going, and is difficult enough for a solo hunter.  With a couple of experienced hunters, getting close to a buck is a real challenge.  With two hunters and a youngster, it’s almost a guarantee we wouldn’t see anything except tracks. 

There is a third method, of course… road hunting.  While I’m not against the practice, and will do it from time to time, it’s not really something we encourage at Coon Camp Springs.  The terrain is pretty friendly, and there’s almost no place the most out of shape hunter can’t go on foot.  Besides, riding around in the truck isn’t the kind of experience most mule deer hunters are paying for. 

I had some decisions to make, and none of them looked promising.  This was gonna be tough and no way around it.  Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’m back.

It was an eventful couple of weeks at Coon Camp Springs… too eventful, in fact, for me to simply summarize the hunts in a single post.  Instead, I’ve decided to write up each hunt separately (although there’s a great connection between the first two).  Here’s the first part, then… hope you enjoy it!

The huge mule deer stood broadside… not 40 yards from where I crouched with my hunters, glassing the thick brush.   “I can’t see his head,” said Tom Henry, the senior of the father-and-son team.  “Is it a buck?”

His son, Nolan, whispered back.  “It’s huge, that has to be a buck’s body.”

“Does anybody see horns,” I asked? 

It seemed like we were standing there for several minutes before I was able to spot antler tines protruding well above the juniper branches that obscured the deer’s head.  Once I saw that, I was able to piece together the rest of the rack and head.  I had been looking too low… this sucker was big!  It was definitely what we were looking for. 

“It’s a really good buck,” I hissed. “Kill it!”

“Did he say it was a buck,” queried Tom?

“It’s a buck,” answered his son.  “He said, ‘kill it.’” 

“What,” said Tom?

“SHOOT IT!”

At the crack of Tom’s .270, the buck hopped and kicked out his back feet, then tore out through the brush.  His right leg was flopping.  To all appearances, it looked like a textbook shoulder/heart shot.  I breathed a sigh of relief, and started out to follow what I expected would be a really short blood trail to a really dead deer. 

The last time the elder Henry killed a buck with his son was almost 35 years ago, when Nolan was a youngster of around six.  They’d hunted together since then, but it seemed that Tom was destined to go home empty-handed every time he joined Nolan in the field.  This year he’d bought two of our PLM tags at Coon Camp Springs as a birthday gift for his son, both as an opportunity to spend that time together, but also as a chance to break that long, unsuccessful streak. 

This was the first full day of hunting with these guys, after spending the previous evening checking the zero on their rifles, touring the property, and scaring the coyote population with a few long shots.  Since we had a little daylight left, we even sat and glassed for a while before heading back to camp for a big dinner of wild boar sausage with apples and wild rice. 

At first light, we were back on that rock. Shortly after we settled in, I spotted some does off in the distance.  They were way off the property, but we watched them as they slowly worked their way toward our fenceline.  There were about eight or nine deer in the field, but no bucks that we could see (they were over 1000 yards away).  Suddenly, Nolan hissed, “deer!”  Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I know it’s been over a week since I returned from the woods, but I have only just had time to sit down and compose a bit of a write-up about the hunts at Coon Camp Springs. 

The epic version is on Jesse’s Hunting and Outdoors, so I’ll spare you the 3000 word version.  If you wanna read it, go on over and check it out.  (Registration may be required, but it’s free.)  Dave will be reprinting it, along with his own write-up, on the Coon Camp Springs site as soon as he gets a chance.  I’m working on video too, but will be waiting for some still photos from Josh.

So anyway, in a nutshell the hunting was really tough. 

It looked really promising, as I got a call from my partner, Dave, on the first evening.  One of his hunters tagged a really big forked-horn on the first afternoon.  Normally, you wouldn’t expect someone to pay for a guided hunt in the Eastern Sierra and then settle for a forked-horn, but the hunter, Jack, had specifically said he was looking for a really nice forkie to go with his other mounts (a 5×5 and several 4×4s).  This one definitely fit the bill, with a huge body that would easily go over 230lbs, and a spread in the neighborhood of 20 inches.

About halfway through the first week, a storm rolled through and it seemed like it simply washed the deer off of the property.  Tracks were washed away, and for the first day and a half after the storm, no new ones appeared.  Deer finally started to appear near the end of the first week, but we were unable to locate any shooter bucks for Jerry (Jack’s buddy).  They rolled out on Thursday morning, and I spent most of the rest of the day scouting the ranch to figure out where the deer had gone… with minimal success.

Arnie and Josh, a father and son team from Central California rolled in on Friday at around noon.  These would be “my” hunters, but Dave took them on an introductory drive after they unpacked, while I went back to scout some more.  During the drive, they had a great opportunity at a real nice 3×3, but since it was the first day, Josh decided to pass on the shot.

In all, we averaged seeing one buck per day, terrible ratio for this property, but all things considered, it worked out.  Josh took a really good 3×3 on Sunday (after a frighteningly long period of indecision as the buck stood and watched us from 225 yards), and Arnie ended up tagging a nice 3-pointer on the next-to-last day of his hunt. 

We didn’t take any monsters over the two-week hunting period, although Jack and Jerry did spot a really nice buck on the neighboring property.  Even so, everyone went home happy, and everyone had shot opportunities (Jerry passed up on several bucks, and Josh and Arnie passed on a couple as well). 

Here are Josh (on right) and Arnie with Josh’s buck.  Click for the full-size image.

First, thanks to all for the kind comments regarding the videos.  They’re a blast to put together!  The next part will have to wait a day or so, since Thursday night is “movie night” with my daughter, an inviolable evening of family time.  Once the movie is over (now), it’s a little late to try to put a video together.  Time for a nightcap and beddie-bye. 

But in the meantime, I’ve got time for this quick update. 

I’ve mentioned that things are pretty busy, hence the slowdown on HogBlog posts.  Well, besides my real job, I figured it’d be worthwhile just to let you all know what kinds of things are keeping me so busy around here.  I know it came as a shock to me, when I looked at my calendar and found myself booking and turning down hunts as far out as April, 2008!

This weekend is a light one.  I’ve gotta move a horse to a new stable on Saturday morning, then thinking I might take advantage of a B-zone deer tag to slip out for an evening and a morning hunt up in my old stomping grounds, Kokopelli Valley (not its real name, and not on a map).  Haven’t been there in a few years, and really miss the old place.  Who knows, but with the changing weather and some reports I’ve been hearing… there could be some swollen-necked bucks wandering around this weekend. 

October 19-21 I’ll be hunting hogs with Deedy Loftus and crew at the Bryson Hesperia Resort down in central CA.  In addition to trying to get a little hog blood on the new rifle, we’ll be filming some bowhunters there as well.  Hopefully we’ll see some really good footage, and who knows where that stuff might end up.  My little You-Tube site probably won’t be seeing much of this video… although I promise there’ll be some to share with any of you who want to see it.

As soon as I get back from Deedy’s it’s time to switch from my hunting hat to my guide hat, as I head up to Coon Camp Springs for a couple of weeks of guiding mule deer hunters.  Week one will consist mostly of scouting on horseback while my buddy, Dave, guides the first pair of hunters.  Should be a lot of good pictures and video from that.  The second week I’ll be in high gear, trying to get a father and son hunting team on a big, eastern-Sierra muley. 

After that, it’s off to Texas for a wedding.  Ya’ll won’t care much about that, although it sure would be cool if a hog hunt or something was to come out of that trip.  One never knows, does one? 

The holidays will be on us pretty quick after that, with Thanksgiving rapidly rolling into Christmas.  Holy cow!  Is anyone else as shocked as I am at how fast this year has gone by? 

I’ll squeeze in some waterfowl and pheasant hunts in that interim, and there’s currently a hog hunt at the Tejon Ranch planned too, if nothing comes up between now and then. 

Weekends have become a precious commodity, though, and there are some loved ones who are starting to have a hard time recognizing me when I come through the door. 

January brings more waterfowl, and a JHO hog hunt at Tejon Ranch later in the month.  I didn’t realize how much I had going on already when I scheduled that one, but it’s on the books now and I’m running it, so I guess I better go.  Dang. 

The first of February brings the 2008 SHOT Show, something I haven’t missed in about six years now.  It’s an opportunity for me to put my hands on all the new toys for the upcoming seasons, and a chance for you all to get a preview of what’s coming up in the hunting and shooting world.  I can promise pretty thorough coverage…or as thorough as one guy can provide.  It’s a BIG show.

I’ll be bowhunting Tejon again in February, then down to Texas in late March for exotics and hogs.  That takes me clean into the spring, and I haven’t even considered “local” hunting. 

Anyway, all that is somehow balanced with family life.  Fortunately for me, my loved ones recognize what an important part of my life this hunting thing is to me.  I’m also lucky enough that they will join me on occasion. 

So, yeah…. I’m busy.  But it’s a good busy, I suppose. 

As you may have noticed, I put up a new poll this morning. 

The old poll definitely generated some interesting responses.  Seems like opinions were pretty evenly split, with about half of you agreeing that it’s OK to take a kid on a “guaranteed” hunt for a taste of success, versus the other half who thought a kid should have a “real” hunting experience and learn that killing something is a rare reward.  The final tally, for those who like numbers, was 23 in favor vs 22 against. 

As I said before, I am still a little ambivalent.  I’d hoped for some overwhelmingly convincing argument one way or another, but there ya go… that’s what makes it fun. 

I don’t think the new question is quite as tricky… more of a personal preference.  Do you “hunt horns”, or are you just out to fill the freezer?  Shoot the little ones or let them grow?  I’d love to hear if someone has an ethics aspect to their argument, one way or the other, though.  That should be interesting. 

As usual, I’ll let the poll run a while before I chime in with my own opinions.  Thanks, in advance, to all who participate! 

I hope this one doesn’t come off looking like a bad advertising insert in your favorite hunting magazine, but it does seem like now is a good time to think about adding a few new pieces of gear to your kit… unless, like me, you’re already well into your hunting season.  Maybe I should’ve written this one sooner. 

Oh well…

I’ve had the opportunity over the summer to put my hands on a couple of new products. 

First is the Black Hole archery target. 

I received a press release announcing the release of this new target just as my older target, The Block, was breathing its last (so to speak).  I needed a replacement, but I wanted something that would stand up to the big, Magnus broadheads I shoot from my recurve. 

Most of the targets I’d tried so far, including the Block, withstood the heavy onslaught of field points I generally sling, but when I started putting those two-blade daggers into the foam, I’d remove slices with almost every shot.  I totally destroyed my 3-D Delta deer, cutting it clean in half in the first six months I had it.  The Block held up better, but the target face was completely gone after a year. 

I received a test sample of the Black Hole early this spring, and started shooting right away.  As I’d feared, big slivers of foam came out each time I retrieved one of the broadheads from the target.  Still, the foam compressed and “self-healed” over the cut as it is supposed to do.   I didn’t shoot as much over the summer as I’d planned, but the target seems to be in pretty good shape. 

One of the things I particularly like about the Black Hole target is that it has a bunch of small aiming points of various sizes scattered across the target face, instead of the consistently spaced and sized bullseyes on some other block-styled targets.  To me, this lets me focus on picking a spot every time, rather than simply relying on spatial relationships (just aim at the center of the box) and getting lazy.  With other targets, once you figure out where the bull is, it’s easy to just start point shooting… a big mistake when you switch from targets to live animals. 

You can order the Black Hole for under $70 for a 24″x20″x14″ target, which is about par for this type of target.

The other item I had a chance to play with a bit this summer was a Konus Pro 3-9×44mm rifle scope. 

I’d initially contacted the Konus press representatives in order to try out one of their scopes on a project rifle I’d planned to put together for a hog hunt and article.  For the project, I was planning to use a rifle in the new .480 Ruger chambering, so I wanted something that would withstand a serious recoil.   Konus has engraved their reticle directly into the glass of the scope, so it should be impossible to dislodge the crosshairs…making it a good choice for a hard-kicking rifle. 

Unfortunately, the rifle part of the deal never came together, so the scope sat in the box on my desk for quite some time. 

Finally, I decided to replace the old Tasco 3-9×50mm on a Browning A-bolt 270, since the Tasco seemed to have some fogginess at higher magnification.  I used to be a big fan of Tasco scopes, but the last two I purchased sort of let me down.

The Konus is in the same price-range as the Tasco, retailing in the sub-$200 range (MSRP on the unit I tested is about $149), so I figured a comparison of these two should be fair. 

I found the clarity and brightness of the Konus to be a bit above that of the Tasco, even though the Tasco offers a 50mm objective vs the 44mm on the Konus.  I also thought the Konus maintained that clarity much better than the Tasco as I increased the magnification.  I even checked it against a couple of other Tasco scopes in my cabinet, and found that it was consistently clearer and brighter. 

Finally, I pulled out one of my Leupold VX-II scopes, in 3-9×40, just to see how the Konus stacked up against a higher-priced competitor.  From my unscientific perspective, and to my surprise, it measured up very nicely. 

I really had no good way to test the recoil-resistance of the scope, since the .270 barely kicks at all.  However, Konus offers a great guarantee to anyone who breaks the reticle, but since it is engraved into the glass, it seems unlikely that anyone will collect on that one. 

Another new product, at least for me, is the Magnus Stinger, four-blade broadheads. 

I’ve been shooting Magnus two-blade broadheads since I started bowhunting, about three years ago.  They seem to perform well, although I’ve yet to harvest a big game animal with the bow.  The blades are very strong, though, and hold an edge through a good bit of abuse.  I actually shot one through a board and into a cinderblock wall, chipping the cinderblock without doing any damage to the blade.  That’s tough!

Anyway, I always liked the idea of the added cutting surface of a four-blade head, and the Magnus Stinger, with the bleeder blades looked like a good match.  I sent a trial packet to my brother, and after his success on a NC whitetail, I decided to try them myself. 

I had been shooting a 140 grain head, but the closest I could find in the Stinger is a 150 grain.  It wouldn’t hurt me to go up a little, since I’m planning to use these on elk next month.  That will take my total arrow weight up to around 549 grains (draw weight is 52lbs), and can only improve my penetration. 

In target practice so far, the Stingers have performed wonderfully.  I barely noticed a difference in the trajectory or impact over the 140 grain field points I have been shooting.  I also found that they don’t plane like the two-blades when I flub my release…as long as I don’t flub it too bad.  The two-blades were really sensitive to that, which makes sense, I guess.

Anyway, the true test will come in two weeks, when I will try to slip one of these broadheads behind the shoulder of a Colorado elk.  I’ll be sure and report back on that.

Finally, I just want to mention the products from Gun Safety Innovations. 

I don’t do a lot of treestand hunting since I’ve moved to California, but it was almost all I ever did back in North Carolina, and it’s what I do whenever I go back for whitetails.  Generally, I’d use a plain old piece of parachute cord to pull my gun or bow into the tree, and that seemed good enough.  But once the gun is up there, I’d untie it.  More than once, I came real close to dropping my rifle from the stand (particularly after nodding off on a slow afternoon).  My brother actually did drop his rifle once, muzzle-down in the mud.  It cost him a deer that afternoon, but could have cost him much worse.

Gun Safety Innovations has developed and is marketing the Gunslinger, a simple but innovative piece of safety equipment, designed to keep your rifle off of the ground.  It’s basically a shock-absorbing safety line that attaches unobtrusively to your gunstock. 

It’s a great idea, but one of the drawbacks is that many of us, especially in the southeast, hunt from stands that are waaayy up in the tree, and the Gunslinger is too short for our purposes.  Not to worry, now you can get the Gunslinger Extender. 

Read more about Gunslinger and the Extender on Kristine’s blog, Hunt Smart, Think Safety.

Well, that should keep your credit card busy for a little while. 

My adopted home state is on fire…well, not all of it, but it seems that way.  You’d think that I, and the national news media, would be pretty much used to this annual state of affairs.  But I’m not, and to see the headlines it’s pretty obvious the media isn’t tired of it either. 

I don’t want to make light of it, but really… is this news?

Actually, it looks like this is going to be another pretty tough year all across the West.  It’s only July, and the smoke is already getting thick.  There are serious fires in CA, ID, UT, CO, and MT. 

For those of you in CA, the California Department of Forestry (CDF) has an excellent site with maps, impacted areas, and updates.  You can view it here:  http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_current.  There’s also an excellent blogspot for fire discussion online at http://calfire.blogspot.com/.

We’re keeping an eye on things at Coon Camp Springs, and our fingers are crossed that we don’t end up with one of these things there this year.  I know it would probably be a good thing in the long run, but we’ve done an awful lot of work up there that just doesn’t need a fire right now.

As promised in the previous post, I have a couple of pictures from the weekend up at Coon Camp Springs.  Some of you may (or may not) remember that we have acquired four Private Land Management deer tags on the 7000 acre property.  Rather than use them ourselves (tempting as it is), we are selling the tags to finance the habitat restoration project.  We offered the tags as fully guided and outfitted hunts, with myself as one guide and my friend Dave Allen, President of Coon Camp Springs Habitat Restoration, as the other.  (One of these days, I promise the whole story of this place, but it’s gonna require sitting for several conversations and many drinks with a couple of people…an exercise that almost always makes it very difficult to write.)

Anyway, over the weekend one of my goals was to do a little scouting.  We have established one active travel and feeding route, but I have been a little uptight about where to go once we hunt that area.  There are more deer on the property, and I intended to figure out where they were hanging out.  And I did… and I have the pictures to prove it. 

So, these aren’t hogs…they’re HAWGs.  Or at least one of them is.  With a solid month or more of growth left, though, none of these fellas are going lacking.

They don’t hang around long, and getting a good photo through the underbrush is a little tricky.   Seriously though, look at this guy!

They don’t wait around long. 

And here’s one more look at the big-daddy!  Thunderhoof, watch out! 

I have a lot of catching up to do for you folks here on the Hog Blog, and hope you can bear with my multiple absences of late.  I’m back now, though, so onward and upward.

Had a great weekend working up at Coon Camp Springs.   Among other things, we’ve installed some new irrigation systems on some of the planted areas, and also managed to get some fence repaired.  I did a little scouting for our upcoming hunt as well.  I’ll upload photos tonight, but let’s just say that I think our clients are gonna get their money’s worth on this hunt. 

On to another topic… hey it’s Monday.  I can do that.

From a couple of messages I’ve received, it sounds like some folks would like me to share some wild game cooking suggestions/recipes.  Since I love to cook and eat wild critters, I think this’ll be fun.  Look for the first recipe to come across the line in a day or so.

But here’s the deal…  I’d like to see some of your recipes too.  Share them up in the comments section.  If something sounds really good, I’ll try it.  If it IS really good, I’ll post it up on the main blog (with due credit, of course) along with my personal review. 

Let’s keep it interactive.  You, the readers (all three of you), are as important to this blog’s existence as I am.