March 07, 2018 by Shawn Chittim
As the civil twilight began to illuminate the eastern skies, we were quickly shuffling gear from our pick up to the Ranger, as it idled. You couldn't have known the difference in our routine as we ready for this big game hunt as we have for hundreds before it. We were met with a brisk 34 degree morning, but we weren't preparing for a day of blacktail, mule deer or elk hunt. We were preparing for a California Wild Pig hunt on a spring March morning, what an awesome oppourtunity.
We had predicted that the hogs would move later in the morning due to the cold morning, we figured they would be piled up early, sharing their body heat. Sure enough, a short hour later found us glassing a group of 7 hogs, huddled up under an oak. Those, little prophetic moment makes it seems like we know what we are doing from time to time.
We took advantage of nap time and dropped down in their kitchen while they slept. Once in position at about 75 yards, we got a little assistant from a few yearlings as they bumped them up from their bed. Fortunately, for this group of the boars all which tipped the scale at about 160 lbs, none would meet Pete's requirement to punch his tag.
That quick first band was just a teaser, over the next 10 hours, we would move across the ranch to new vantage points putting our glassing skills to the test. I know we literally looked at thousands of acres all in the field of view our 10x42, 12x50 and 15x56's would offer. We were looking for everything from a moving hog to a dark spot burrowed almost level to the terrain. To make our task more difficult the ranch was full of winter range yearlings, all about the good hog ground.
Around 5:30 p.m. we were positioned at the saddle of a deep draw that we thought we had glassed a band of hogs enter early in the day. As we worked out the north ridge we began to get into some fresh rooting, about 15 minutes later we were 90 yards above 12-15 hogs with at least one boar that might prove to be a shooter. As the contoured the steep sidehill we had time to judge the biggest boar in the group, at 60 yards Pete decided this boar would wear his tag.
Hunting with Pete was easy, he loves to hunt, he enjoys the hunt, there was never any assumption that the success of this hunt was dependent on him killing an animal. That takes an immense amount of pressure off our shoulders and makes us hunt more naturally. We have been very fortunate to have many great clients, which have led to our success and we hope for them many great hunts.
Posted in: Wild Hog Hunting - California
