6-15-10

Today I guided John Pierson to his first ever wild pig. This morning we sat on a high vantage point where we could see the wheat field hoping to spot some pigs moving back into the hills and have enough time to get on them. At first light we spotted a group of 4 pigs at a reservoir below us and it looked as if they were going to come right to us. Within seconds we saw another group of 6 pigs headed to the same reservoir followed by 3-4 more pigs that were still out in the flats. While glassing into the canyon to try and spot any of the pigs headed our way I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see another 6 pigs making their way out of the wheat field and across the road to a neighboring ranch. After watching the canyon for 30 minutes it was evident that the pigs had taken a wrong turn some where between us and the reservoir, so I elected to get moving in hope that we would spot them again. We could not find any of the pigs so we headed further into the ranch to try and find some more targets. As we descended the next ridge we spotted a lone boar working his way down the fence line. We immediately took off on foot and closed the gap to 150 yards. John got set up on the shooting sticks and let one fly which sailed over the pigs back. The pig then turned a ran towards us turning broadside again at 100 yards. John let another round fly that missed it's mark by inches. As the pig was still visible John loaded another round and fired a third round. Luck was on the pigs side as he made it into the brush un scathed. Oh well you can't get them all, right? We then loaded up and were making our way back to where we started and I decided to give John 1 more chance to redeem himself. John then said that some how in the middle of the stalk he had lost all of his extra rounds and only had 1 shell left but we decided to give a small brush patch a try any how. I set John up in the bottom of a saddle and I walked back to the top hoping to push a pig down to John. As luck would have it I pushed a 180 pound dry sow right down to him and he killed her with 1 well placed shot at 50 yards. After the high fives and pictures we headed down to the barn and got the sow skinned and loaded for the trip back to Sacramento. John was a great guy and we had a lot of fun. As John left he decide he wanted to book another hunt for July, however, he was going to hit the range and hone his shooting a bit first. All in all it was another fun hunt leading to John's first wild pig kill after wanting 1 for over 30 years. Thanks again John for the great hunt.

Andy