Well, as the A-zone deer season fades into memory, hog hunting in the area is picking up steam again.  I just got an email from regular reader and commenter, JR Young, about a great hunt he just had with his dad.  I’ll let JR tell it in his own words:

Phillip I thought I’d share my good fortune with the rest of the Hog Bloggers.  My wife and I recently had our first child so planning parental and other family visits has taken a fair amount of coordination.  However, my Dad’s visit took a little extra.  He lives in northern Idaho and while I really wanted to coordinate an elk camp this year with him and my brother it just wasn’t in the cards, so I thought planning a pig hunt while he was here would be the next best thing.  So I began looking at dates, the moon cycles and the ever important possibility of plentiful acorns on the ground.  A little over a year ago I booked a hunt with a guide who owns property near Pacheco Pass and had a great time so I had him set us up for this past Thursday night and Friday.
 
I haven’t hunted with my Dad in close to ten years since we both moved out of Washington so I was pretty damn excited to head out and chase some hogs.  We grab a license and tag for him, some snacks, water and hit the road.  We met our guide John at Casa de Fruta at 5pm and were quickly off to the property.  He filled out his paperwork and we were off.  I rode on a hay bale in the back of his truck while my Dad rode in the cab.  Right off the bat we were surrounded by blacktails who were pretty thick in the rut, I was wondering where they were three weeks ago.  After watching the blacktails chasing does we were on our way for real and not three minutes later into the drive we spotted a nice boar about 400 yards off feeding on acorns.  We drove up to the next bend in the rode and bailed out of the truck to stalk in on him.
 
As we got closer on foot and the bend opened up to the hillside he was on we found him obscured by the trees.  He was across a small ravine and a hillside sloping toward us.  As we watched his movement behind the oak trees we saw he was inching toward a small shooting window, my Dad took a knee and raised his rifle.  As the boar was on his quest for acorns he came closer and closer to the narrow window and finally presented himself.  Now I’ve only hunted pigs once before but the first thing I notice about them is that they rarely stand still.  With their nose leading them they are always moving.  My Dad wasted no time and squeezed the trigger as soon as there was a shot.  The 7 mag roared, the boar took a couple of hops and he was down, we’d only been out about 15 minutes.  It wasn’t much of a “hunt”, but it was a great shot, and a great looking boar. 

We got him cleaned up and back in the truck and we were off to see if we could fill my tag.  We kept following the road working out way up the canyon rim to an area that has a large spring that had been hosting several pigs before dark recently.   On our way up we spotted five hogs working their way down a spine of a ridge and we were sure they’d drop right down to us as there was watering hole in between us.  We jumped out of truck and worked our way towards them but another couple of deer had us busted.  They were focused on us and we were pinned to try and make a move.  The hogs never made it our way; we figured they dropped off the other side.  So we headed back to the truck to make it to the spring before dark as last light was approaching.  Nearing the spring we rounded a bend and had four hogs at 150 yards.  I jumped out of the truck, cranked up my scope and got myself a good rest.  I needed to wait for the hog I had chosen to clear the other and I squeezed off a round.  We heard her squeal, and watched the others bolt.  As we were near the spring (we were about 400 yards below it) the hills came alive with hogs scrambling as the sound of my 30-06.  Both my guide and I got distracted for a moment by the hogs running and came back to notice the pig I shot (or so I thought) running away.   “Is that my hog, is that her”, I said.

“Yeah,” said John, hit her again.”

I fired again but clearly missed and we watched her duck off into the trees.  We got on her trail through the tall grass which was clearly marked by the trampled stems but could not find any blood.   I couldn’t believe I missed, but there wasn’t a lick of blood.   As darkness arrived we planned to call it a night and see if we could find any indication that the hog was hit.
 
We headed down the hill, skinned my Dad’s boar under the headlights of the truck and got him ready for the butcher.  After we dropped him off at the butcher we headed home to San Jose, and awaited the 4:30am alarm clock.   In many ways I had hoped I missed on the first shot to avoid having a wounded animal.   I was a bit frustrated, as I had spent a lot of time at the range over the summer sighting in handloads that my Dad had been making for me.  Unfortunately most of that time was on the bench and I didn’t shoot much free hand, but I was pretty well anchored for the first shot.
 
The alarm clock came and the coffee flowed soon after and we were on our way once again.  This time the landowner and guide Wyatt was going to take us out.  He got a download from John the night before so we jumped in the truck and headed back to where I missed.   We confirmed that I had missed the pig as I must have pulled right over her back, or maybe grazing her neck fat causing her to squeal.  Either way, I missed her and that was a bummer.
 
Wyatt took us out to a point where we could see the entire valley and we glassed for several minutes.  The pigs were not out in force like the night before, but I spotted one about a 1,000 yards off and we made our way to him.  On our way we spotted a group of seven feeding in a small bowl on an open hillside and we were closing fast.  The road turned and we were out of sight as we closed the gap.  One final bend and a hillside in front of us Wyatt turned the truck off and we were on foot.   We crept around a little knoll on the open hillside just out of site of the group.  As we began to crest the top and coming into view we came down on our hands and knees and soon I was on my belly.  The group was about 60 yards away in a small depression allowing me to only see the top of their backs.  I inched my way forward on my belly fearing that I would be busted or they would stay in the depression.  Slowly they started to work their way toward me and two were in sight.  There was a calico in the mix but a nice small sow was standing broadside at 50 yards.  This time I had the 7 mag in my hands for fear of the 30-06 being out of zero.  I raised the rifle, let out a breath of air and squeezed the trigger; this time there was no doubt.  She made a bolt for it with the rest of the group but you could see she was hit hard and didn’t make it 100 yards.
 
We cleaned her up, skinned her and decided to pass on the butcher as she was small enough dressed out that I could manage.  I brought her home, carved out the backstraps and tender loins and boned out every thing else but the hind quarters.  I tossed those in a brine for 24 hours and smoked them today for 9 hours.   It was a great dinner tonight and a great time getting out hunting with my Dad again.   Elk season opens in Idaho today so I hope this was a sufficient trade off this year.   Next year we’ll have our elk camp, but for now I got to take my Dad to shoot his first pig, a welcome role reversal.  I even made a little video of my Dad getting his pig, even though I had a pretty crappy angle of his shot.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0FfKLckb2k
 
Regards,
J.R. 

Nice work, fellas!  That’s a nice boar and a great way to spend some time with your dad!

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