Hello all, well I had a great time at Choppers, thanks Chopper and thanks to Mrs Chopper for the lunch it hit the spot.
Met some new friends, got to hunt with Orso again that was good and thanks Mike you saved me some major boot leather with the rides back to my truck. Great food, great people which seems to be the norm at Choppers. O and one more normal thing at Choppers again was PIGS, PIGS and more PIGS.
So hang on here we go, I will try to make this short and sweet, well sweet anyway.
Thursday afternoon: Im walking some dozer cuts not seeing or hearing much but enjoying it none the less, its starting to turn dusk and i can suddenly hear the tell tail sound of acorns being crushed, as soon as you hear that your heart starts to do the thump thump thing, I make my way into this clearing and see a 200+ lb boar, flash back to two weeks ago, just munching away. I stalk up to about 20 yards or so keeping some bushes between myself and the boar. I get set and he does the peek-a-boo thing, sticks his head out and back then his a#$ and so on, this went on for what seemed like forever. Then he walks out broadside, I hit anchor and release upon release he makes his move and the arrow hits him quatring away and it looks like a good shot. I go to look for some sigh of the hit, all i can find is tracks. I start to track him but run out of light.
Friday morring: Back to looking for the pig i hit. I pick up the track where i left off and it leads me in the brush so i strip off all the gear and start the belly crawl through the pig tunnel, I go for about 30 yards, no sigh of a hit just tracks, out into a dozer cut back into the next pig tunnel and just tracks again and then about half way in i find sign of a not so good hit, then out into the next dozer cut and look up and see acers of brush, Im bumbed, I hate losing an animal this is only the third one in my life, he's gone for good.
Saterday morrning: Start to doing some sidehilling on a part of the ranch i havent been before and get about 45 min in, come up onto this flat platoe and right into 3 boars all in the 175lb or better range. All three had there noses in the grass just tearing it up. Two were black and one was almost all white but for a small patch of black on his left leg and ham. I stalked two with in 30 yards or so and parked behind a small pine sapling, not much cover but to much to shoot through, and crossed my fingers that they would feed my way. That is just what the two black ones did. They fed right to me, one right behind the other. The first one came to within 6 yards right behind the pine tree, he was at a walk and was going to pass right by me in the open. I started my draw and he caught me at about half way, I froze he started to walk again and at about 18" from my shooting lane he got a big wiff of me and blew up and charged down hill, the second one right behind him ,about 5 yards, did not spook we just proseded to do an instant replay of the first hog. Full draw, 18" to shooting lane, big wiff, bullozer down hill. By now you can follow the vains in my neck from my forehead to my armpits. I get my breath look up and the white one is still there just feeding away, so i start for him get to withen 30 yards and he starts to feed away from me, I follow him for about 100 yards never closing the distance, he gets tried of the noise im making and trots away down hill. One heck of a morrning if you ask me.
Sunday morring: I start out and do the same walk as the Saterday heart pumper. I didnt even get as far in and i hear a hog feedind in the bottom of a steep revean. I start down after him, or her I havent seen it at this point, get to about 30 yards out and step on a slipery something and zip, i must have looked like a 49 year old man stepping on a roller skate, was air born for a good 2 seconds before i hit the ground, of course the noise did not help and i looked up to see the big white boar from yesterday go trotting up the hill. Just sat there and smiled. I get up, brush off and start again. About 100 yards in I look up hill and see six boars, (I dont think i saw a sow all weekend it was amazing) five feeding together and one by himself about 30 yards from the others. It takes me about 30 min to close within about 30 yards of the single boar, an oreo. By now my hearts is going good and i forget about the group of five. I take a few more steps to get closer to the oreo and think o no, i look to my left to see the group looking at me i freeze and to my amazement they go back to feeding. I get to about 18 yards from the oreo and thay all get that feeling something is there, they start to trot off. I hit anchor (I pratice a lot with moving targets and this was a chip shot for me not trying to toot my own horn but just that my confadence was there to make the shot) and release, at the sound the boar stops dead in his tracks, the arrow zips right in front of his chest, i mean it was so close i could swear the fletch made contact but it was a clean miss.
Well thats all folks. Back to the cabin to pack, clean up and say good buys.
You got to say Choppers is some of the best hunting around. My summer is full but I will be back in the fall you can count on that.
P.S. Sorry no pics guys I was busy but there are some other good stories out there so chime in you Trad Gangers, tell your tales.
Topic: California Trad Gang ( Swine, Wine and Dine Hunt) at Chopper's place (Read 767 times)
