The Hog Blog

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. 

Well, since I’m still really a greenhorn blogger, maybe this isn’t such a great accomplishment (maybe I should be spending more time online rather than less), but I actually managed to get almost all the way through this weekend without getting on my computer.  That may not mean much to some people, but that’s no mean feat for me.  My family is still in shock.

In the meantime, at least in the world of wild hogs, there wasn’t much happening.  I check the news feeds, and with the exception of yet more of Jamison’s Folly, there just ain’t a lot there.  I guess I need to get out and hunt more, and make my own news.  Heck, who knows, maybe there’s a 1000 lb. boar running around here somewhere.

It was a great, un-wired weekend, though.  Spent some quality time on horseback, cruising through the East Bay hills.  Finally located my local bachelor herd of blacktail bucks on Saturday.  They’ve relocated about a half mile north of where they hung out last year.  I’ll get up with the camera soon, I hope, and try to get some photos.  There are at least two real whoppers in the group. 

As far as hog hunting… well, hopefully next month I’ll get out during the archery deer opener on one of the Golden Ram properties.  If I can’t get on a buck, then there should be some hogs around. 

But in the meantime, it sure was good to take a break from this minor addiction for a couple of days. 

Well, it looks like California big game hunters got a brief reprieve from the State, as the Fish and Game Commission decided to push out any decision on banning lead ammunition for the 2007 hunting seasons.  According to this column from Jim Matthews, at the Outdoor News Service, the Commission has decided that no change would be made at least until January, 2008.

Is this a good thing or bad? 

In the short term, it’s probably a good thing.  While I have stated my support for moving away from lead ammunition, it’s a little early for a full-fledged ban.  The industry isn’t ready, and the hunters aren’t ready. 

With the exception of Barnes bullets, there are no other lead alternative bullets out there.  Winchester/Nosler are close behind, but their offering hasn’t even been sent out to the press for trial yet.  It definitely won’t be on the market in time for the 2007 big-game seasons. 

It will be expensive and time consuming for other manufacturers to come up with their own offerings.  This won’t happen at all if the demand isn’t there.  Fortunately, I think that they’re seeing the writing on the wall (boy, this post is full of cliches) and recognize that a ban on lead ammo is coming…and not just in California. 

Hunters aren’t ready either, although the biggest part of me believes they never will be.  The only way I believe most hunters are going to switch is by mandate of law.  The voluntary change is absolutely unlikely.  Shoot, in 2003, the State offered a $15 rebate to any hunter who would buy non-lead ammo.  Most hunters ignored that offering. 

I’d like to have more faith that hunters, with all our talk of “conservation” and “working for the habitat” really would be more pro-active in this issue.  But I’m simply not seeing it.  The only way change is going to happen here is the same way it happened with waterfowling… by law.

Anyway, I don’t want to sound like a broken record playing the same sounds over and over.  But it’s time that all of us, as hunters, step up and walk the walk, instead of just talking the talk. 

Well, our perspective on time is sure compressed in this Internet world.  I’ve been gone for four days, and it seems like an eternity since I’ve posted up here on the Hog Blog.  Sorry about that.  I know how it is when I find a place I like to visit, and suddenly I stop getting fresh content for a few days.  It makes me hungry… so until I get time to really do a little writing, here’s an hors d’oeurve to hold you over.

Where have I been? 

I believe I’ve mentioned Coon Camp Springs, the habitat restoration non-profit I work with.  Well, I haven’t had a lot of time to get out there over the last few months, so I thought I’d try to make up with a long weekend up on the property we’re working on. 

Also, as part of the project, the Ca Department of Fish and Game has allocated four deer tags and one antelope tag to us under the Private Lands Management (PLM) program.  These tags are for us to use as we see fit.  We can use them to hunt, or we can sell them to other hunters.  Since the property is in a prime mule deer location, the four deer tags should bring a pretty good price.  We’re selling these tags with a fully guided/outfitted package, with an eye toward bringing in somewhere around $3000 apiece.  (Last year these same tags sold for $2500/ea for an unguided hunt.)  The money is badly needed to help finance the project, so it’s a welcome injection.  (For anyone interested, by the way, the cost of the hunt is tax-deductible except for the PLM registration fee of $55.)

The antelope tag was a little bit of a question mark.  The Exeter, CA chapter of the Mule Deer Foundation just happened to be holding their annual banquet, and after some discussion between CCS founder, Dave Allen, and their chapter President, we decided to let the chapter auction our tag at their banquet on May 10 (last Thursday).  The deal was that we’d split the proceeds evenly between the two non-profit organizations.

Dave and I decided to drive down there to watch the proceedings, and to possibly spread the word about our mule deer tags as well.  Afterward, we’d drive up to the property and spend the weekend working on some odds and ends that needed attention. 

The auction went quite well, and both Coon Camp Springs and the Mule Deer Foundation came out with good donations. The hunter who bought the tag came out well too.  On Saturday, I had the opportunity to take several pictures of this guy.

On Friday morning, after the banquet, we made the long haul up to the property.  This place is about 40 miles out of Susanville, CA, just off Highway 395.  It’s quite remote, and in some of the prettiest high desert environment you’ll ever see. 

Some time, I’ll try to do a complete write-up about the project itself.  But in a nutshell, it’s the brainchild of Dave Allen.  His wife’s family has owned this 7000 acre parcel since it was homesteaded way back when (dates are eluding me), and it has been grazed by sheep and cattle, and also logged ever since.  In addition to the pressures that these extractive practices introduced, the fire management policies have limited the natural cycle of wildfires that would have controlled many invasive and non-native species. 

The project then, is to reverse as much of that damage as we can.  Two key parts of the program are to restore water sources (there are springs all over the place), and bring back some of the native species that should be there.  A big part of this involves removing juniper, which takes over an area and sucks up the groundwater… essentially killing the competitive plants by dehydration.  Juniper has limited value as wildlife food, so as it spreads it eliminates both food and water sources…causing the wildlife to go elsewhere.

On the project, we’re removing thousands of acres of junipers to encourage the return of groundwater and natural foliage.  We’re also planting native plants.  The best thing is, the returns have happened much more quickly than we’d anticipated.  Water sources have reappeared, and the wildlife has come back with them. 

Waterfowl, in particular are arriving and staying in the area as more water has become available.  The valley that runs through the property we’re working on was originally all a wetland, and this corridor is a traditional nesting and summering ground for many types of waterfowl, including geese, swans, and sandhill cranes. 

Deer and antelope are also thriving on the property.  With the increased food and water supply, they’re staying longer as well.  Small game is making a reappearance also.

Anyway, the weekend was spent working on bunkhouses for our work parties and hunting guests, and also on doing some planting and such.  No computers way out there, no cell phones, and no television…  paradise for a few days.