Cindy was a great resource when I went down to Tejon Ranch on my feral hog hunt. So I wasn’t surprised to see an e-mail here last week with the latest bruiser she had arrowed

Got lucky last night and shot this nice boar. His teeth aren’t all that big, but he was a little more than 200 pounds on the hoof. I got within 10 yards of him before I finally got a clear shot at his heart. So much fun!

We spent the morning glassing the wild oats near where we had seen pigs in our midday “Peek and Sneaks”.  If we could execute a stalk rather than still hunting and busting them in the brush we felt like we could be more successful. 

At our third glassing spot that morning we overlooked a canyon that was definate “no man’s land”.  We were on the only road that accessed it and the steep canyon walls dropped from over 4000 feet at the road to 2700 feet on the floor.  We spotted a lone hog above the road and Kiel made a stalk attempt but the boar disappeared into a side canyon.

We couldn’t get to where we saw the feeding hogs in a timely manner.  As soon as the direct sunlight hit the ridge the pigs were headed into the trees.  It was apparent we were going to once again go in after them. 

A distant ridge with pigs feeding. Over a half mile across the canyon...CLICK TO ZOOM

While Zeke and Kiel worked one steep ridge, I found my way down to the bottom of that steep nasty canyon with a road at the top.  I followed a game trail upstream.   I felt like an explorer who had discovered a hidden valley.  While the south facing ridges were parched dry, a stream bubbled in the bottom.  This was obviously the watering locale for the wildlife in the surrounding brush and trees. the trail had deer, elk and pig tracks as it snaked around the oak trees and through the wild grapevines. 

Since the end of the hunt was 12 noon, I told myself I would hunt up the trail until 10:00 am then turn around and hunt back to the truck.  I almost lost track of time and had to turn back only halfway up the huge canyon.  I wished I had a full day to explore it.  Reluctantly I went out the way I came in. 

About 30 minutes down the trail, I saw some dark shapes ahead of me.  I froze and four  pigs materialized along the creek 40 yards away.  I made my way closer to within 22 yards of the closest pig, and I could hear on the hillside above me more pigs headed down the hill.  The group fed there for five minutes as I stood there frozen.    These pigs were the ones we had seen across the canyon, on top of the inaccessible knob, that morning. 

I had ranged the closest pigs when a big dry sow came to the edge of the creek to water…..18 YARDS.  The bowhunting version of a  three foot putt.  She was broad side, and totally unaware.  I drew my bow, levelled the bubble and….

PUT AN ARROW RIGHT OVER HER BACK!

That is right.  I had hog fever so bad, I blew a shot I had made hundreds of times in practice.  As the pigs boiled out of the creek and up the hill, I knew I had blown the last best chance to bring some wild pork home.   I JUST MISSED. 

 Post script:  I shot the bow when I got back home and I had a gummed up dropaway mechanism on my rest, and I think the tie in on my cables slipped on one of the many falls I took in the steep terrain.  On the first shot back home, the rest stayed up resulting in a high and right arrow. 

This just reinforced that you need to clean and lubricate any moving parts in the same manner that a rifle needs to be cleaned. 

When we got back to camp we saw a couple  of our hunters had been successful on a nice 80 pound meat hog, and a 150 pound range black boar.  Unfortunately they left before we could get pictures. 

I have never had a better hunting weekend. It had everything I could have wanted. Lots of action, abundant animals, lots of close encounters, beautiful country, new experiences, and a 2.5 day adrenaline high that crashed at 9:30 pm Sunday night.  This hunt is on my calendar for next year, to be sure.

Morning came at 4:15 pm and a cold pop tart and hot cup of coffee served as breakfast on the drive to our lookout.  We reached the glassing spot as the horizon began to lighten.  Twenty minutes after legal shooting light we had a group of five pigs spotted across the lower reaches of the canyon working into the wind from right to left.  Zeke told me “Sic ‘em” .

I dropped down into the canyon and looked up the other side and began my ascent to get even with the group of feeding hogs.  As I was climbing, I felt the tightness from the night before’s climb and descent leaving, as the sweat began to trickle down my back.

As the sun warmed up the hillside it woke the insects.  Gnats and mosquitos arose from the damp parts under the trees and converged on me.  For the next  two hours I played Cat and mouse withthe group of hogs.  I would close into 80 yards or closer and the hogs would grunt and trot ove the next finger, always climbing.  I wound up  over  3/4 mile away from the finger I started on and after the fifth encounter gave up the pursuit.

With the night prior’s miss still fresh in my mind, I vowed to be more careful about my shot selection.   I still think back to one opportunity I didn’t take that morning and wish I hadn’t been so cautious.

With the long 14 hour days, you can hunt different locations and if one spot doesn’t work out, there is plenty of time to find another.    We spent the mid-day portion finding the steepest darkest places in the North side of the ranch.  With the day time highs reaching close to triple digits we knew the pigs would retreat to inaccessible haunts that didn’t get cooked by the sun. 

Two types of places you will find feral pigs. The open ridges are where they feed, and the heavy timbered steep ravines are where they bed. We covered 'em all in the 16 hour long day.

We were able to leave a vehicle at the bottom of some steep and nasty ridges, and then take another vehicle to the top of the ridge.  In this fashion we covered some ground that other bowhunters on the ranch called “no-mans land”.  During one of the mid-day “sneak-and-peeks” Zeke found fresh mountain lion tracks and a lion killed pig.  That’s enough to make any bowhunter feel inadequetly armed.  Luckily the kitty never made an appearance. 

In the evening we went back to the same locales we had seen pigs before.  I drove the 3 extra miles in , and was fresh for my climb to the top of the ridge once more.  I sat to wait at the 4000ft elevation glassing the wild oats below me.  Down on the canyon floor at 3000ft. the oats had matured  and cast the seeds and on top of the ridge the oats were in the “milk stage”.  So I was intently watching the Bottom of that band 400 vertical feet below me where the hogs were feeding the night before. 

I was so intent looking down the ridge, that a big boar fed up behind me to 16 yards above me on the hill.  I was stuck.  I couldn’t raise my bow for a shot without attracting the hog’s attention.  I waited for him to feed behind a boulder, but he caught my scent and hustled off into the trees before I could draw.

I couldn’t help but be happy at the amount of action we had encountered that day even though it didn’t produce a hog.  It was such a learning experience, about my conditioning, my stalking, and where the hogs were.  I couldn’t get down on my self even for the missed opportunities.  A plate of spaghetti and meat sauce and some sourdough bread finished off the night, a scant 4 hours before we were to get up and do it again…

I began the trip with a late night drive immediately after work Thursday night.  After a quick stop for some sleep, I met Cindy Seitz-Krug for a cup of Coffee and a map lesson at 6:00 Friday morning.  From the moment you meet her it is apparent that she is a dedicated bowhunter who knows her stuff.  She pointed out a number  different areas that held hogs just the day before. 

On this trip I was teamed up with Zeke Bass, and his father Kiel from Fayetteville Georgia.  (I had a secondhand drawl by the time the weekend was through.)   Their previous experience on the ranch, combined with Cindy’s scouting report made for a very productive two and a half days. 

I left Cindy’s house, and hustled to the meeting place near Lebec.  We had our orientation at the ranch headquarters and hit the hunting area at noon.  Spotted a cow elk and mule deer doe, and spent most of the early afternoon getting familiar with the network of roads.  We could tell the heat was going to play a big part in our strategy.

The evening hunt started at 3 that afternoon.  I walked along the creek on the lookout for pigs feeding or bedded in the shady spots under the oaks and brush.  It was evident that there were pigs in the area since pig tracks and rooting and trails were all over.  3 miles, and 4 hours later I had still hunted to the edge of a clearing with an open hillside visible.  At the top of this ridge was a group of pigs feeding across.  When I checked my watch it was 7:20 pm.  So I began the 800 foot climb up the hill with about an hour of hunting light left.

I reached the top of the ridge 30 minutes later  soaked in sweat.  I worked along the top of the ridgetop trying to get my breathing under control.  The big group had blazed a trail through the wild oats over the ridge.  I slowly peeked at the face I had viewed from below and spotted a big black pig stripping the oats off of the stem some 150 yards below me.  With the wind blowing up slope, I decended steathily to within 16 yards of the oblivious feeding pig.  I came to full draw as the pig turned sideways, and the grass began to shake as tiny babies swarmed behing her.   I let down and the motion caught her attention and she walked off stiff legged popping her jaws.   

By this time it was 8:00 pm an I had 20 minutes of legal shooting light left.   I spied a pig further down the ridge.  I scrambled as quietly as I could down the 40 degree slope to a shooting position as the light deteriorated.  At 35 yards I could tell I wasn’t going to get any closer.   The range finder said to shoot for 28 yards because of the steep angle.  I came to full draw and had to let down because a piece of grass was blocking my sight. 

With that removed I drew down and simply rushed the shot. I shot left as she quartered away and turned.  No THWACK, no squeal, just a clean miss, and a dark walk back to the truck in the dark, three and a half miles away.  Luckily, Zeke and his dad came looking for me and picked me up at 9:30 pm a couple miles down the road.    

Tired and hungry we ate venison sausage for dinner and collapsed in bed.

When I had the opportunity to join eight other bowhunters  for a wild pig management hunt on the historic Tejon Ranch I counted my vacation days and decided I could fit a couple more in..

“COUGH COUGH…Gotta be the swine flu boss….Probably won’t make it in Friday.”

The Tejon ranch is California’s premiere diversified agriculture entity including enterprises in Wildlife, Ranching, Farming , oil and gas development and even real estate development.   If you have ever driven over the Grapevine pass to or from Los Angeles on Highway 5 you have seen the steep and rugged hills of Lebec.

At nearly 270,000 acres, Tejon Ranch is the largest contiguous expanse of private land in California. Its 422 square miles make it larger than the City of Los Angeles and about 40% the size of Rhode Island. The Ranch is located along Interstate 5, approximately 60 miles north of Los Angeles and 30 miles south of Bakersfield.

Tejon Ranch was founded in 1843 as a Mexican land grant. In the decades that followed, the Ranch grew in size as additional land grants were purchased by Tejon’s founder, General Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a historic figure in early California. The 270,000–acre Ranch is now the principal asset of the Tejon Ranch Company, which was incorporated in 1936. The Company’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “TRC.”

I was going to be taking part in one of the ranches wild pig management hunts for 2 1/2 days in May.  The ranch offers a variety of options for the hunter from  season access passes for nearby residents, guided hunts, or even  a package deal for groups.  Check out the Website www.hunttejon.com for details.

On this trip  I was in the company of some experienced porcine pursuitists.  Most were from the southern half of the state.  I already knew Zeke Bass.  The Triathlete / Realtor / commercial diver from the Santa Barbara Area.  The fellow Pope & Young Measurer was on his third trip to the ranch.

Nate Treadwell is another Pope and Young measurer along on the trip.  He had been successful in previous years. You may have read his adventures over at Phillip’s Hog Blog

So I felt confident that I was in the company of eagles even if I was just a turkey.

The Archery Wild Pig Management hunt is similar to the public and private hunts except that it is designed to offer additional help to archers to help raise the rate of success. This is a 2½ day unguided hunt. The hunt includes meals, lodging and one of our guides working with your group. The guide will work with you by directing and assisting all the hunters in getting to areas that have active pig populations and informing them on how to successfully hunt these areas. As with all of our hunts, each hunter will be required to have hunting liability insurance, purchased from Bob Boggs Insurance. There must be a minimum of 8 hunters and can be up to 11 hunters.

 Kirk Edgerton, a hunting buddy just over a couple of ridges from me in California had a good day hog hunting.  He left home at 2:30 a.m. to reach his hunting spot at daybreak.  He started out glassing for hogs with his bow in his hand, and a rifle in the truck. 

The morning hunt was pretty good and I got close on two groups of hogs, 55 yards on a decent boar that had a slight limp. I really thought about running after the hog and seeing if could bay him up, but figure that’d be pretty stupid with my bow. (Remember the ’stupid’ part for later in the story) Read the rest of this entry »