4-17-13

Today I guided Tim, Dan, Lacy, and Melissa on a pig hunt. We arrived at the ranch this morning and were greeted by the lovely North wind! The wind was howling and I knew we would have our work cut out for us today. We left the cabin and headed straight for the lower brush country, as I figured we may be able to get out of the wind down there. We made our way along one of the finger ridges, stopping from time to time to glass the valley below. As we continued on I spotted a lone boar working over one of the grass flats. We quickly formulated a plan and the stalk was on. We closed the distance as quickly as possible and as we worked our way down hill we hit a wall of brush and could go no further. I ranged the pig at 212 yards and Melissa was comfortable with the distance so I got her set up on the sticks and ready for the shot. As the pig stepped up out of a small ravine he revealed his true size, and he was big. He looked to be in the 300 pound range and an old battle scarred warrior. He was feeding and would not turn broadside so Melissa waited for her shot and as he finally gave her the shot she squeezed the trigger. At the shot he bit at his side and walked off into the brush, but he never squealed and I never heard the familiar slap of the bullet. We all agreed that the shot looked good but we needed to drive down there to take a look. As we were walking back to the ranger we rounded the corner and found blood all over the road. It appeared as if the big boar had made his way up hill to the road and crossed it before heading down into the next canyon. We found where he had went back into the brush so I put together a plan. I took Tim, Dan, and Lacy across the canyon and got them set up in case the boar was still moving and Melissa stayed on the trail in case he decided to double back. An hour had passed since the time of the shot and by the amount of blood that I was seeing, I assumed he would be down hill and piled up in the next brush patch. I took to the trail and the blood was thick. I was in disbelief as I continued to get further and further down the rail, there was so much blood that he should have been bled out by now. As I continued on I started finding less blood but was able to follow the tracks were the boars was sliding down the hill. Ever so often I would stop and locate blood so that I stayed on the right trail. I continued to purse the beast and as I neared the bottom of the canyon I lost the trail. I backed up and found the trail again but was having to crawl around on my hands and knees just to keep on the trail through the brush. I stayed on the track for a total of 5 hours but eventually lost the track and could go no further, sick to my stomach over losing such a trophy boar I had to give up. I caught back up with the rest of the group and told them the bad news. By now it was 1:00 so we decided to make one more loop around the ranch and see if we could catch some pigs at water. We managed to spot a couple more pigs at the water holes but they were both sows with piglets so they got a pass and we called it a day. It doesn't happen to often but if you hunt sooner or later you will eventually loose a animal. We did all that we could do to recover the beast but it just wasn't meant to be. All though I do not like it at all, it's just part of the game.

Casey