The Hog Blog

I didn’t get out this weekend, but it’s not for want of being there.  Sometimes it’s just not meant to be… but as they say at Burning Man, you don’t have to be there.  “The Man will burn without you!” 

So in lieu of my own hunting, I thought I’d do an update on one of my friend’s hunts.

Some of you may remember my last Mythical Blacktail Buck tale and my friend Saul’s report of success.  I finally got around to getting a photo of his animal and, as I expected, it turned out to be a trophy jackalope.  It’s a nice specimen, Saul, and you deserve to be proud of it… especially since you were hunting in Sonoma County.  With all that wine around, most folks down there can’t hit the broadside of the wine cellar.

(OK, seriously, an A-zone buck is always a good thing.  Judging by the last one I killed and ate at the Hedgepeth Ranch, this one should be great on the table.)

Well, it’s good to know some of you folks are getting out there and killing pigs.  Someone’s gotta do it, and I seem to be really falling down on the job! 

Got this email and video link from a fairly new Hog Blog reader, Rich Mellott.  Looks like Rich got down near Paso Robles with outfitter Craig Cavalletto for some serious hog action!  From the video, I’d say the hogs were plentiful, and Rich ended up with a really nice old sow!  Check it out:

Nice job, Rich!

I haven’t been turkey hunting this year.  I’m not gonna whine about it, because, honestly, I’ve done plenty of hunting lately… it just wasn’t for turkeys.

But while I’ve been sitting on my heels, my family and friends have been hard at it, chasing the thunder chickens all over the country.

To begin with, my brother got drawn to hunt the Roanoke River wildlife area  in NC.  He’s got that place dialed in for deer and turkeys, and does well there every year.  This year was no exception, despite unusually high water.  In fact, the water was so high, he actually set up and made the shot right from the canoe! 

There was another good tom nearby, so Scott’s going back on his birthday in a couple of weeks to see if he can fill his other tag.  Sounds like a perfect way to spend a birthday to me!

He didn’t have his good camera, so pardon the picture quality.

Another North Carolinian and Hog Blog reader, Brian (AKA Carolina Rig) also did well on State Game Lands.  Here’s his story!

A fellow hunter beat me to the parking lot of the permit only state gameland hunt Thurs and Friday morning.  He mentioned he had roosted a bird the night before, so I let him get set up where he wanted too, and backed off. 

I walked down the road and told myself if I hear anything, I’ll make the move, otherwise, I’m going into work.  About 5 minutes later I hear a bird sound off on some adjacent private land about a 1/2 mile away.  I wait for another gobble, then book it down to the very corner of the of the gamelands, which puts me as close to the bird as I can legally get, and set up.  I call, he replies. 

This goes on for a few minutes, during which time he has cut the distance between us in half.  He’s fired up now, gobbling at every sound in the woods.  Then he hangs up.  I quickly decide that I’ve got to mix it up a bit, so I stand up, run down the trail away from him about 50 yards and call.  I do this twice, and its all he can stand.  By the time I get back to my spot, I see movement.  He comes in hot, sees the pretty hen I’ve got out for him, and struts his stuff.  19lbs, 9″ beard, matching set of 1″ spurs.

Finally, here’s one more and I’ve got to say it’s probably one of my favorites so far…

I’ve written a time or two about my friend Matt, “De hog shootinest Gent’man”.  He’s shared a lot of pictures of successful hog hunts over the years, but this one really tops things off.  It appears that Matt and his “guide” (his daughter) went out the other morning and really put it all together in short order.  A big tom turkey and a fat boar hog went down and out for the count.  He said his daughter is working on the story, and if I can, I’ll share it with you all.  In the meantime, here’s the proud daddy and his girl.

I’ve been emailing back and forth with an occasional Hog Blog reader, Ian, as he’s begun the journey, fraught with peril, into the depths of the hog hunting addiction.  After a few frustrating attempts, he finally made it all come together.  He’s agreed to share his tale with us here.

I’ve been wanting to hunt pigs for like 10 years, and it all finally came together last week. Shot a nice sized boar right between the eyes and have more meat than I’ve ever seen in one place.

I’m not from a long line of hunters. In fact, no one in my family has EVER hunted. When I was a kid I had a Crossman 766 bb gun and was pretty obsessed with shooting robins and chickadees in my suburban Philly backyard, but after a few years of bloodshed I either lost interest (or the birds got smart). Not exactly Davey Crockett lineage. But I love being outdoors (was a former Outward Bound Instructor), camping, surfing and was an Environmental Studies major in college. After seeing some wild pigs in Henry Coe State Park 10 years ago, and learning about their natural history in the state, I decided I wanted to shoot one. I also love pork.

After buying a 30-06, enduring the most insultingly uninformative hunter safety class (10 hours on a metal chair, being read a dmv-style booklet), a few trips to Wal Mart and the shooting range I was ready. That whole phase took like a year! The most fortuitous turn of events, however, was my friend’s purchase of 170 acres west of Lake Sonoma in 2007. It’s an amazing piece of land. Full of deer, pigs and turkey. He grew up hunting birds, and being a fellow fan of swine meat was more than happy to host hunting trips (which we’ve been doing each month for the last 5 months). The 3rd member of our team is a guy hunting experience (deer, turkeys) and his presence reassures my wife because he knows what he’s doing, unlike me.

We’ve been up 5 times on strictly hunting trips (no kids, etc) and have seen pigs 4/5 times. Shots (misses) fired 3/5 times. A month ago I took a 175 yard shot that missed. I learned a couple things: 1. I should (and could) get a lot closer, and 2. don’t aim so high.

This 5th trip last week was the charm! It was 6AM after a mostly moonless night, I walked right up on this boar. He was 75 yards away and looking right at me. I thought he’d bolt, but he didn’t. He nodded his head a few times as if he were trying to figure out what we were, then started rooting around again. I lay down on my stomach, waited like 20 seconds to stop breathing so hard, and he faced me again. Just staring right at me. I didn’t wait too long — put the crosshairs on his head and fired. He dropped right down to his side, kicked for 30 seconds or so and died. I got him right under the left eye. Having the pig face me seemed to simplify it — just shoot it in the head. The combination of shooting from my belly and being somewhat rushed resulted in a nice gash on my forehead from my scope.
Didn’t have the rifle against my shoulder — duh. But being a newbie, I figured it was kinda fitting. It’ll keep me humble, and serve to remind me to slow down a little on future hunts.

We gutted him in the field and I have to say I was really surprised at how healthy, clean and interesting the whole process was. I was worried I was going to emerge from the experience a vegetarian, but it was totally the opposite. This animal was so amazingly…healthy.
His guts and blood just smelled a little like iron. Natural — that’s how I’d characterize it. Makes me wish all the meat I ate came this way. I was surprised at how tough some areas of his skin was, but after a little bit I felt like I got the hang of the gutting.

We put the pig in the Mule and took him back to the cabin where we hung him and skinned him. That took a while as none of us had skinned a pig, which is definitely harder than a deer (so I’m told). After a nice breakfast of eggs and his tenderloins, we dropped him in the cooler and headed for town/butcher.

Got about 60-70 lbs of chops/roasts/ribs, plus 2 big bags of meat for sausage. My buddy has a nice meat grinder and tons of spices so we made the sausages ourselves. They came out great!

Great job, Ian!

Well, the little adventure this weekend didn’t really pan out… which is just as well, I suppose.  I’ve got a freezer full of meat, and a Texas trip coming up at the end of this week.  But it looks like I’m not the only one who’s been out in the field lately.

First of all, there’s my friend Bruce (a friend I’ve yet to meet in person) over in Hawaii.  Bruce has been living the life over there on the Big Island… hunting hogs, goats, and all sorts of birds at one moment, and then out pulling in big fish from the clear, Pacific waters.  Here’s a recent report…

Went up on Mauna Kea yesterday and took a nice pig and a sheep.  I shot the pig with a .270 Nosler Ballistic Tip, the third time I’ve used that particular bullet in the past several weeks to take a hog.  I think it is possibly the worst bullet in the world to use on big hogs and I can back up my claim.  Is there a section on your blog to post such commentary and if so, what is the protocol?

Going back up tomorrow [Friday] to try for a big ram.  We’re experiencing a terrible drought and many animals have moved down into the jungles on the east side of the island.  You need dogs to hunt there and that ain’t my bag.  It’s also turkey season, so I’ll bring along a shotgun.  I saw 50+ turkeys but was way too pooped after a tough hike at 8000 feet to stalk them.  I’ll take some photos or video this time if you’re interested in them.  That pig yesterday was my 46th since I started hunting here 3 1/2 years ago. 

Hope all is well.  I’m really enjoying your hunting site, slowly working my way through it.

There are a couple of interesting points here, beginning with Bruce’s comments regarding the Ballistic Tips… 

My own experience with these bullets hasn’t been great either.  On the one hand, everything I’ve shot with them died quickly, and they were extremely accurate out of my 30-06.  But they were also extremely destructive bullets, and I hate meat loss.  So Bruce, here’s your opportunity to tell us about your experience… 

But you should know we’re going to temper our empathy for your misfortunes with a hot stroke of jealousy… 46 pigs in 3 1/2 years! 

Of course, you should know that Bruce has been enlisted by several neighbors to help with porcine raiders hitting their gardens and yards.  That’s the mixed blessing of being a hog hunter in a place like Hawaii, I guess.  One of these days, I swear I’m going to take him up on the offer to show me around over there. 

Several thousand miles away from Bruce, regular Hog Blog reader and commenter, Brian (Carolina Rig) made a trip into the South Carolina swamps for sus scrofa, and it sounds like he did great too!

Got back last night from the annual public land trip down to SC.  This is the third year in a row I’ve made it down for the SC March hog season.  Its relatively inexpensive for a non-resident ($40 for 3 day license, $76 for WMA permit) since you don’t have to get a ‘big game’ license.  For a DIY’er its great.  26,000 acres of sandy pine ridges, oak flats, and cypress swamp bottoms offer plenty of room to get away from crowds.  The crew I convinced to come down with me managed numerous sightings, and have 10 on the board right now (two guys are still down there!)  Sizes ranged from 15lbs shoats to 150lbs boars. 

Yummy.  As always camping with friends, and wildlife sightings made the trip….including a scat trifecta.  You ever seen a deer, pig, and turkey shit so close to eachother?!  Got another trip planned with family for mid March with an outfitter.  Taking a couple first time hog hunters….I remember my first time…I haven’t been the same since.

Oh, and one last note from the East Coast.  Every week day, I try to keep up on the newspaper from back home, the Wilmington Star News.  The sports pages offer a small section of outdoor reporting, and it’s how I get a regular dose of homesickness remedy (you’d think after almost 16 years, I’d be over that, right?).  Right now is that slow time of year, with hunting seasons ended and still too cold for most offshore fishing… but I still check in.

One Star News feature I often enjoy is a column and blog by reporter Amy Hotz, called It’s Hotz Outside.  Amy isn’t a hunter yet, but it looks like she’s getting ready to change that on Wednesday, with a feral hog hunt in Brunswick County.  When I left NC, feral hogs really hadn’t come back into the area in huntable numbers, so I have to admit I’ve been reading her recent posts about the planned hunt with a touch of envy.

All this talk of jealousy… seriously, I’m glad to see folks out there doing it up, and really looking forward to hearing from more of you.

Photo courtesy of Jamie Cameron

I often ask folks to share up their pictures and stories of successful hunts, and I do appreciate when you do. 

This past week, Brian (who goes by the handle of Carolina Rig in the comments section) returned from a pretty awesome hog hunt down in Florida (one of the states on my MUST HUNT list).  Brian carried both his rifle and his bow, in hopes of scoring with both.  But heck, why should I tell the story when he tells it so much better!

Got back from Florida yesterday.  Had a hell of a trip.  Drove down after work Thursday night, hunted Friday and Saturday, and drove back Sunday.  10 pigs between the 5 guys hunting.  We stuck to spot and stalking orange groves.  Did manage one out of a trap our host set up.  That was quite the experience. 

Photo courtesy of Jamie Cameron

I dropped a nice 200 lbs boar with the H&R, but managed to miss a pretty sow with my bow.  Put a perfect stalk on her with the wind in my face.  Shot sailed just under her.  I held my draw way too long and figured I missed due to muscle fatigue.  Oh well.  It was a clean miss, and I was tickled I managed to get within 25 yards of her.  Going to have to wait until March in South Carolina before I get to throw another arrow at a pig.  Here are a few pics my buddy Jamie took.