It was an awesome hunt and great experience.
I wish I had looked into the Spring Access program that Tejon offers, because a guy can have unlimited access for 6 full months, which would work for me.
I could have drove down and spent a full week on the ranch for the same price as I had into the hunt by flying and vehicle rental.
Texas has totally lost its appeal after this hunt.
If a guy wants a total Western Experience on a budget, this is it.
You have everything wrapped into one hunt. Mountainous terrain, high peaks and low brush choked valleys. This hunt offers a wide variety of opportunity. Like spot and stalk, still hunting, or ambush.
The hogs are very vocal, which was really cool to experience. I spent 9 days in Texas and saw 3 hogs. I spent 2 days at the Tejon and saw 20 hogs.
You have to be in fair shape for this hunt. None of the terrain we were in is at all forgiving.
I have blisters the size of nickels on both of my big toes.
I spotted several hogs, a coyote, and several mule deer on this trip.
The first afternoon, Friday, I walked side hill into a draw and came out onto a finger that dropped into a ravine where 3 draws meet up. I had a lot of area to glass, so I let the Nikon's do the walking. After spotting a coyote bedded below me and contemplating the 300 foot drop, I decided I was here to hunt pigs and continued to glass.
I saw something black move about 400 yards across the canyon and sure enough, it was a small hog. A few minutes later, there was the whole herd of 7 all together including the little pigets.
They were in a none accessible spot. It was a rock face that I would have had to cross and not and option. They started moving down hill toward the bottom, so with nothing else going on, I dropped down to stay at eye level hoping they would come closer, but no go. I went back up the hill to glass some more and spotted a real nice boar that had potential for a stalk, so down I went again, but that hog side hilled and met up with the others. I stayed in that area side hilling around the finger looking into openings for the rest of the evening, and only saw one more big hog about a mile away on an open hill side, but way too far to get too before dark. Hell, he was too far even if I had all afternoon in this terrain. It was more like a goat hunt than a hog hunt in this spot.
SaturdayI put the stalk on 3 different hogs after the snow stopped, but they dissapeared into the brush before I could get to them. Each of these hogs was 200 to 300 yards away and down hill or across big ravines which took careful planning and land mark reference points, so I knew where to go once I got in the area. Saturday was an extremely fun and tiring hunt. I spent all day on my feet only sitting long enough to get a little chill, which was no more than 5 to 10 minutes at a time.
Sunday, the last day, I went with Rick and he set me up on a finger over looking several trails. It was obvious that Rick is an experienced hog hunter and it was unfolding exactly as he described. I had 1 smaller pig come in below about 50 yards and then could hear another grunting below me, which I was able to get within 60 yards of. It was a big boar around 175 to 200 pounds, but he took off before I could get any closer. With the brush the boar was in, it would have been a tough shot even if I could have closed the distance.
Rick was very hospitable. I don't think I could have found a better guy to meet up with. All of the guys were friendly, but I didn't get much of a chance to visit with most of them.
Here are a couple of pics:
My rental Jeep Saturday morning around 9:00.
Me Creek side snow in the back drop and we were getting out of the snow and taking a cool down to ready for our climbs.
Rick
Topic: Tejon Ranch Groop Hunt 2010......This is my story and I'm stickin to it.... (Read 579 times)
