Back in the truck and Steve wants to go back down and check a flat area where we saw the sow and pigletts. Just a note the Tejon Ranch idea of a flat area is A LOT differant from my idea of a flat area
. Any way we get above the flat and start glassing it and see a lone hog across the canyon (he is the highest red dot in the pic) feeding from right to left. Even from this distance he looks to be a huge hog. Steve asked do you want to kill him i responded with a Hell Ya. He puts the truck in 4X4 and starts down to the bottom of the canyon, we get the truck parked at a creek crossing right in the bottom, get unloaded and geared up. We start up the canyon face, i would say hill or mountian but those terms dont apply here
anyway we start up the canyon face (the red dotted line) and make it to a spot we should be able to see the hog but there is no sign of him we decide to start back down and about a quarter of the way down we see another single hog up to our right (the highest blue dot) we decide to try for him (blue dotted line) as we make our way across the face, he is feeding his way from right to left. He enters the round patch of live oaks, we follow right behind him, come out on the other side of the trees and there is no sign of him. We had the wind but it was purity noisy going through the trees.
So now were sitting there looking around and all the way across the canyon we see a group of 14 hogs (red dots lower left) we plan a route, side hill 45 degrees down into the creek and then side hill 45 degrees up. This should land us just under them, my only worry at this point is daylight is starting to fade. Well we no more get 75 yards and clear of the round patch of oaks we look up to our left and see about 7 hogs feeding in the open (red dots uper right) so now we try to decide which bunch to go for. I decide to go for the ones across the canyon, less up hill and closer to the truck. We take three steps and see another group not more that 150 yards up the hill just feeding away and enjoying them selfs (black dots). No brainer here and off we go on a stalk (green dotted line) we side hill across the face and drop into a little finger, this puts us out of sight of the hogs. We turn stright up hill and make our way as close to the last bit of cover there is. We turn right out of the finger and make our way to the last tree. Light is fadeing fast, I cant breath and my up hill leg is dead.
I catch my breath and start the final stalk(blue dotted line) for the single hog that is about 60 yards lower and 60 to 65 yards from me. Steve stays by the dead oak tree and watches the hole thing unfold. Im makeing up ground slowly, staying low trying to look like a hog. I cut the distance between us in half. Right about now the boar looks up and stares right at me, i can hear him chewing on the grass in his mouth, he must have a itch in his ear, he starts shaking his head and i can hear his ears flap back and forth hitting the side of his head. Im losing light fast i may have 10 min left at the most. Then it happens he starts feeding right at me (black dotted line) he picks his head up and stars me down again, im sitting on my left hip, bow in my left hand arrow nocked, i start tearing grass out of the ground in hopes the sound will make him think im a feeding hog. I dont know if it worked but he put his head down and fead right to me again. I brought the bow up about half way and up his head came, he looked at me and then turned boardside. Up the bow came, back to anchor and the arrow was gone. Not enough light to see the arrow fly but the sound of the hit made me smile and turn to steve with a thumbs up. Upon impact he took off on a dead run (red dotted line) We followed a light blood trail for about 70 yards and then it turned straght down hill for ten yards where we found him on his back.
Here's a pic of first blood found...
Well we started rolling him down to the creek, with him getting hung up in brush it took about 30 min to get him to the bottom. When we got their there was a 40 to 50 foot drop off to the creek below so we sat him up for some pics before we dropped him off the cliff. He was about 225 with 2 to 2 1/2" cutters. Apparently he was quarting to me a little bit on the shot. That is the exit wound in the pic, i hit him right in the sweet spot and had fletch sticking out on the enterance and broad head sticking out the exit that was between the second and third rib from the back. Shot took out lungs and liver. Here's a couple of pics of the brute...
Once we dropped him off the cliff we made our we down, took care of the field dressing then headed back to the truck. We left him over night, it was no where near safe enough to try to drag him out in the bottom of that creek at night. O I ended up taking a bath in the creek on the way out
Pics of recovery comming up...
Topic: Back early from my Tejon Ranch Pig hunt...pics (Read 1415 times)
