3-28-11

Today I guided Brett Nystrom on a combo hunt. He was in search of a turkey and a pig so we started the morning near the Sacramento River looking for a gobbler. Right at first light we heard a gobbler in the roost tree and moved in to get set up. We got the decoy out and started the waiting game. The gobbler was calling back but would not come to us, so we went towards him. We snuck in as close as we thought we could and got set up and started calling again. Immediately the gobbler answered back and he was headed our way but hung up in a brush line before he got to us. We sat tight and waited awhile but the gobbler just would not come through the brush. We made another move and started calling again. The gobbler answered back and was very close, but just as soon as we thought we had him a deer winded us and took off in a dead run straight at the gobbler and and we never saw the gobbler again. After the blown chance we decided to head up to the hills and see what we could find. We loaded up in the ranger and were on our way to the back valley in search of some turkeys when we ran across a group of 30 pigs and decided to switch gears. The pigs crossed the road in front of us and Brett grabbed the rifle and we took off on foot. We followed the pig tracks a couple of hundred yards and could hear them in the brush ahead of us. We slowed  down and kept creeping along and looking into the creek bed when we spotted the group of pigs feeding on the creek bank. Brett got ready for the shot and I kept trying to pick out a nice boar for him to shoot. After a couple of minutes the sows moved through an opening and a nice sized boar stepped in to the shooting lane. I gave Brett the go ahead and he made a perfect shot on the boar rolling him down into the creek. We immediately walked up the bank and saw that the boar was dead, and began the task of gutting the boar and dragging him back to the ranger. We got the boar loaded up and took him back to the shop and caped him out as Brett wanted him for the wall. It was a great day in the field and we will just have to get the turkey on the next hunt.

Casey