The Hog Blog

Nic Barca is a hog hunter and wildlife biology (or something like that ) student in Hawaii.  I’ve long sat and drooled over his stories of hunting in the islands for wild hogs, goats, and wild cattle (don’t laugh… these cattle are wild and rank… the poor man’s Cape Buffalo).  It’s not just that he gets to do all this great hunting, it’s the beautiful place where he’s doing it!

Anyway, Nic has been doing some video work in addition to his hunts and stories.  Most of them are worth seeing, and if you take a look at YouTube and look up nbarca, you can find some great stuff.  But when I saw this video that lays out the process for gutless field dressing, I thought it was worth sharing.  I’ve used the method on elk, deer, and hogs, and it’s worked great.  Folks have asked me about it, and while I’ve explained it, maybe seeing it on video will make it a little more clear.

So, without further ado…

Someone just turned me onto this video.  Watch as this hog hunter becomes the hog hunted… well, sort of.

 
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I know, I’m on and on about MyOutdoorTV, so don’t get me wrong… I’m not a shill for the website or company, but I really do like what they’re offering.  Besides, I don’t have cable, and wouldn’t pay for it anyway, so the programming on MyOutdoorTV.com is where I get my fix of hunting shows. 

Anyway, I’m always browsing for shows featuring hog hunting, and every time I drop in I find more and more of them.  Most of them follow the same old, same old, but I stumbled over this program from Steve Huber’s OutdoorFrontiersTV, and it rang a bell.  The episode opens with Huber, family, and friends on the blood trail of a feral hog in, of all places, Wisconsin!  “There are no feral hogs in Oneida County,” says Huber, dubiously… although, of course, there obviously is.  This opening episode is the best part of the show, in my opinion. 

I like what he has to say about finding the pig in that part of the country, and his perspective on hunting them when and where you can.  The only thing I can add is, if you’re in a place where hogs are just becoming a problem, get out and get hunting permission now.  As soon as landowners find out there’s money to be made off of tresspass fees or guided hunts, the days of just asking and receiving permission will be over. 

He heads down next to Georgia for some hunting over dogs.    He’s skeptical, at first, about the sporting aspect of hunting with the dogs, but he soon changes his tune as they head out on a couple of high-octane chases through the Georgia bottoms.  The only problem I had with this episode was the choice to use a bow with the dogs.  Maybe this isn’t that controversial to some folks, but to me it just looks like a really bad idea.  Just how bad an idea it is is illustrated after he takes his first shot, and suddenly the boar is armed with a razor-sharp broadhead jutting out of his side.  Now not only can his tusks rip the dogs to bits, that broadhead is a major risk as well.  Seems to me if you’re gonna hunt with dogs, a knife (where legal) or a firearm are much better choices of weaponry.

All that said, I still really enjoyed the show, along with several others over the course of the morning.  None of these hunting shows is quite perfect, but then, I’ve never been on a perfect hunt either. 

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. 

Coming soon, to a theater near you… or, maybe not so soon.  Maybe not ever.  But hey, it’s a movie called, “Pig Hunt”, so it can’t be all bad, can it?  I know the HogBlog movie reviewer (me) is waiting eagerly to screen this flick!

Here’s a short synopsis from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB):

When John takes his San Francisco friends to his deceased uncle’s remote ranch to hunt wild pigs, it seems like a typical guys weekend with guns - despite the presence of John’s sexy girlfriend Brooks. But as John and his crew trek deeper into the forest, they begin tracking the awful truth about his uncle’s demise and the legend of The Ripper — a murderous three-thousand-pound black boar! Their pursuit leads them through fields of marijuana and into the muddy landscape of Big Wallow, involving high-powered weaponry, the violent and unpredictable Tibbs Brothers, massacred emus, a machete-toting Hippie Stranger, vengeful rednecks, and throat-slitting Cult Girls who grow dope by day and worship a Giant Killer Pig by night. By the time the pig hunt is done, no one is innocent - or unscathed. Not for the faint of heart, PIG HUNT is a darkly comic horror film that combines the best of DELIVERANCE, JAWS, and DINER, but remains uniquely Nor-Cal in its tone and scope. It is cinematic punkabilly - fresh, shocking, unforgettable!

Oh yeah, this one definitely seems ready for Sunday afternoon runs on the SciFi Channel!  And no, while it definitely sounds like something cooked up by my friend, Rex over at the Deer Camp blog, it’s a for-real movie!  Hopefully, it’s as bad as it sounds… sure to be a classic on the lines of Halloween and Friday the 13th! 

If anybody’s beat me to it and already seen this one, I’d love to hear what you thought. 

If you’re keeping up, you know I’m off hog and deer hunting this weekend.  If all goes well, my bowhunt will come up with some meat for my freezer and some great video for my YouTube site. 

So, anyway, while I’m gone hunting and you’re not, I thought I’d share one of my more favorite shows from MyOutdoor TV.  This show is called Quest for Adventure, and there are a couple of things that I really like about it. 

First of all, one of the hosts shoots traditional.  He does longbow instead of recurve, but I’ll forgive him for that (seriously, nothing to forgive).   He’s good, and if you watch the episodes where he’s target shooting you’ll be amazed at the smoothness and accuracy of his shots.  This is what I strove for when I shoot the recurve, but to shoot like he does is the result of hours and hours of constant practice and reinforcement. 

Secondly, these guys strike me as real people… not made-for-TV caricatures like some of the shows offer up these days.  They are definitely not perfect, but the fact that they let their imperfections show is part of the allure of the show.   One of the best episodes (and most relevant to this blog) is called Old Tusker.  Look it up and enjoy… it gets a little “hammy” (pun intended), but it’s good fun. 

Finally, I love that most of their episodes take place in the waterways of Florida…one of my favorite places.  I have yet to hunt in that state, but I’ve done a lot of diving in the same waters… the Rainbow River and Silver Springs… and I love fishing the offshore waters all up and down that coast.  It’s a unique and beautiful place, and this show offers it up in all its splendor. 

So, until I get home and post up my hunting stories for the weekend…  go check ‘em out.  You won’t be sorry. 

If you’re like me, you have an ongoing love/hate relationship with hunting videos and television shows.  I mean, on the one hand, it’s a great escape and an opportunity to hunt vicariously with the various hunting personalities.  You get to see a lot of great game, and some beautiful parts of the country and the world.  You can also occasionally learn a little something from time to time.

On the other hand, you have to put up with an awful lot of sales pitches, overhyped gadgets, and some really bad choices made by these professional “hunters”.  I also think these shows can really mislead a lot of people about just how hard hunting can be, at the same time as they drive the whole trophy craze.  They could sure use a little more reality from time to time, but of course nobody would watch if they didn’t kill something on a regular basis.  I would like to see them get skunked occasionally though. 

Anyway, the whole point is that I haven’t had a lot of time lately to watch the shows, as I’ve been a little too busy doing my own hunting.  But since this past weekend, I’m done hunting for a few weeks.  I decided to cruise over to MyOutdoorTV.com and see what kind of hog hunting shows they had to offer, so I can satisfy my hunting jones during the coming weeks of downtime. 

When I reviewed MyOutdoorTV last year, they had some good content and a great idea.  Well, let me tell you, they’ve made it even better!   There’s more shows there now than ever before, and if I had a key complaint it’s only that there’s a lot more than I can sit and weed through.  Fortunately, there’s a simple search feature that let me type in “Boar” and get a listing of shows primarily about hog hunting… well, all eight of them, anyway. 

I’ll finish those up pretty quick, so I guess then I’ll start daydreaming about elk hunting again.

Anyway, it’s good stuff getting better.  Check it out if you’re interested… and especially if you’ve got a good computer and monitor. 

Here’s the first of two videos from the Memorial Day hunt at Tejon Ranch.  

You can read the story of the hunt a couple of posts back, if you’re up to my usual long tale.  Otherwise, enjoy the movie. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, the first part was fun, so may as well add part deux.

 If anyone missed it earlier, the hunt was with Rick Webb’s Dark Timber Outfitters, out of Montrose, CO.  It was a Unit 62 archery hunt.  Rick runs a great outfit, and the lodge is a wonderful, comfortable place to come back to in the evening.