I just received an email from a fella in Sacramento, asking a few questions about hog hunting. Since these are pretty good, general questions, I thought I’d take a stab at them here for everyone. I hope this is helpful…
Is there a message board where hunters can exchange contact information and arrange to get together for hunting?
There are several great message boards/forums out there. Two of them that I frequent that have a lot of CA content are Jesse’s Hunting and Outdoors and The Outdoors Forum. Another site that a lot of hunters like is the 24 Hour Campfire. There are a couple of social networking sites you might also try. One of the best of these (at least one of the most active) is Camo Space.
I do want to offer a couple of tips on getting info and connections from these forums. First of all, remember that a forum that has been around awhile is something of a community. A lot of members come to feel sort of possessive and protective of the space over time, and as such, a certain level of etiquette and decorum will go a long ways toward making inroads. If you just pop into a forum and say, “hey, can someone tell me where to go kill a pig on public land,” I can almost guarantee you’ll get a cold shoulder. (If you’re lucky, someone will point out the error of your ways in a friendly voice…others may not be so friendly.)
A better approach is to introduce yourself, just as you would if you walked up to someone’s campfire. Share a little about yourself, where you’re from, and what you’re all about. Let folks know that you’re willing to do your own homework, but could sure use a little tip in the right direction. And offer something in return, if you can. For example, offer to drive or pay for gas if someone wanted to accompany you on a scouting/hunting trip. Or offer to meet up at some public place for coffee or beer to chat about hunting. In other words, come looking to make friends, not just to gather intel.
California has a depredation compensation program for pig damage to private land owners. To be compensated for damage, do these land owners have to allow access to hunters?
To the best of my knowledge, there is no requirement for public access. Usually, the program provides a depredation permit to the landowner or his “agents” to kill problem pigs, and that’s about it. The permit generally allows alternative methods, such as night hunting and trapping. I’m not sure how many ranchers actually see fiscal compensation for hog depredation.
That said, I do know that the DFG is (or was) working on adding hog hunting properties to the SHARE program, however I haven’t heard much more on that since the effort was announced. Keep an eye out when the new booklets come out for 2010-2011 for announcements on this program.
My preference is to hunt private land, for which I am willing to pay. What is the typical daily trespass fee to be allowed onto private property?
Private land “tresspass fees” and guided hunt costs vary pretty widely. For the most part, you’ll see prices from $400 on up, depending on the level of service and accomodations. The cheapest that I know of personally is over at Bryson-Hesperia Resort, with day-hunt packages beginning around $200 for an unguided hog hunt. That’s a great price, and right now is a perfect time to get out there, as the barley crop is coming up and the pigs are more predictable coming to the food source.
One of my favorite places, but a bit of a drive from Sacramento, is the Tejon Ranch. Tejon offers a monthly “Wild Hog Management Hunt” from December through June every year. At a cost of $450, this is an excellent hunt on one of the premier properties in California. The hunt is a weekend hunt, running from Friday noon through Sunday noon. Hunters are allowed to take one hog, and hogs are plentiful on the ranch. It’s a hunt I strongly recommend to new hog hunters in this state, as the opportunity for success is high, and there are usually plenty of other helpful hunters around during the weekend to offer suggestions, tips, or even an extra set of hands to get that big boar out of a steep canyon.
Another option is to join one of the clubs like Wilderness Unlimited or Golden Ram Sportsmen’s Club. These clubs lease properties in many areas around the state, and members have access to all of the properties to hunt various game, from upland and waterfowl to hogs, deer, and bear. Initial costs may seem a little steep, but for the hunter who will utilize the properties several times per year, it’s worth the investment. I’m currently a member at Golden Ram, by the way, and I’ve found it to be worth every penny for good hunting on private lands.
Assuming there are pigs in an area, how many acres need to be accessible to actually shoot one?
That’s a tricky question. The fact is, if you know of a small farm, food source, or waterhole that’s getting hit by hogs, you don’t need a lot of property. A few acres will do. However, to keep a huntable population of hogs on a property, you need a good combination of food, water, and bedding shelter. Without all three, you may have thousands of acres without a realistically huntable population.
Hogs cover a lot of ground during their daily travels. In many places, they’ll literally travel for miles between bed, food, and water (although when possible, they like to bed relatively close to their water source). They are not, by nature, nocturnal animals, but they will adopt night-time habits quickly in the face of hunting pressure. Once they do, it can be really tough to catch them in transit. For this reason, a bigger piece of land would be optimal, since it would allow you to distribute the hunting pressure without focusing on a single location.
For what it’s worth, when I was looking (unsuccessfully) to buy a piece of land to hunt on, I was pretty set on nothing less than a half-section (320 acres). That’s big enough to allow me to set aside “sanctuary” areas, manage food plots, and also to go out without crossing my own tracks every time I hit the field. By limiting hunting pressure to myself and a couple of friends, I figured that would be sufficient. However, there’s nothing to say you couldn’t be successful on 100 acres, or even 50. I doubt you could successfully hunt a smaller place on a regular basis… at least not in the typical CA habitat.
How much hunting pressure will drive hogs to abandon an area?
Again, the answer will vary a bit from situation to situation. The single, best answer is to limit hunting pressure on any small area as much as possible. In some cases, one hunter can ruin an area for days or even months. In other cases, there are places that can be hunted hard time and again without driving the hogs away.
As with any other game, the keys are availability of food, water, and bedding shelter. If you have a consistent supply of all three of these in an area, then that area will withstand a good bit of hunting without losing your hogs. This is particularly true for a food source, like barley or other crops. When the barley is coming in, hunters can (and do) pound the hogs hard and they just keep coming back (assuming the herd is plentiful). The same goes for isolated water sources… the hogs have to have it, and they’ll keep coming. The biggest factor you’ll deal with here is the hogs becoming more nocturnal. They won’t leave the area, but your chances of seeing them in the daylight get slimmer with every hunt.
Travel corridors can also take a pretty good beating. Hogs tend to use the same general paths to food and water (with minor variations). Moderate pressure on these corridors can translate into consistent success and a reliable area for later hunts.
One thing you’ll want to avoid is hitting the bedding areas too hard. This is the “safe zone” for hogs, and if they feel that it’s not safe anymore, they will pack up and move. I don’t know of any magic number of hunts that trigger the exodus, but once they leave a bedding area it may be a very long time before they return.
A final note about hunting pressure. In many cases, simply because there are a lot of hunters in a place doesn’t necessarily mean the hogs will be driven off. Keep in mind that the majority of hunters, both on public and private land, barely enter the outer edges of prime hog habitat. Most of these folks will seldom stray far from a road or major trailhead. If you’re willing to get off the beaten track, your odds of success go way up. I’ve certainly found this to be the case on most of the properties I’ve hunted, from public plots to Tejon Ranch.
Again, I hope some of this is helpful information. I’m also open to suggestions, corrections, additions, or recommendations from any of you readers out there.
