We got a little insight from a gentleman named Darrel who pretty much runs the hog hunting program for Tejon. He took us to a ridgetop during the afternoon with the idea of trying to jump some sleeping pigs. They like to bed near the top of north facing ridges because of the shade and breeze. My two buddies and I spread out along the top of a large bowl and stalked as slowly and quietly as possible down toward the jeep trail about 1 mile and 1,000 feet down.
There were loads of beds near the top third of the ridge but they were empty and didn't look too fresh. The rest of the decent was through an ocean of thorny, wild CA gooseberry bushes. They were so thick you could only make out game trails here and there where they poked out. The rest of the time you were wading through and stomping over them. Not the best conditions for stalking. I've been nursing a sore hip lately and at a certain point it got to the point of just gutting it out to the bottom. No hogs seen or busted.
Unfortunately, that was the story of this trip. There were few hogs taken by the group of about 30 bow hunters. And those were generally taken by guys who really knew the place. I came home on Sunday early enough to celebrate my daughter's 8th birthday and then go to the beach to wash away the dust. My family asked if I had had fun. Well considering that we took no hogs, worked our tails off and sweated our brains out, I had to say, "heck yeah I had fun!"
Topic: Hot California Hog Hunting (Read 4531 times)
