5-9-13

Today it was up to the hills in search of pigs. I met Mitch at the casino at 4:00 and we headed up to the ranch. Upon completing all of the paper work we jumped in the ranger and headed up on a high ridge to start glassing. We continued down the long ridge stopping from time to time to glass, and it did not take long to find what we were looking for. I spotted a group of 20+ pigs down in the valley and off we went. We had to back track to get down to the valley that the pigs were feeding in, and then drove up the valley to within a mile of the pigs before taking off on foot. We worked our way up the valley towards where we had last seen the pigs and Mitch chambered a round and got ready for the shot. As we worked towards there last known location I caught movement in the brush and out stepped a 250 pound boar a mere 30 yards from us. As the pig came out of the brush he looked up and I could tell that he had spotted us so we froze and he eventually went back to feeding along the brush line. He had moved closer towards us but put a tree in between us and him, so Mitch did not have a shot. As we moved to the side for a better visual the pig disappeared into the brush. I figured that the rest of the herd was up hill where the boar had come from so we pressed on. We had not gone 20 yards when I could see ears coming up over the rise. I quickly got the shooting sticks set and as the pigs crested the small rise Mitch was ready for the shot. The pigs froze and Mitch centered the cross hairs on the lead pigs forehead and touched the trigger, pig down!! Mitch had another tag so we scrambled around the brush patch trying to find the rest of the group but they eluded us. We made the trek back to the ranger and drove back and loaded up the pig and then headed up the valley towards the truck. As we crested a ridge I looked up and spotted a lone boar feeding under some oaks. Mitch grabbed his gun and jumped out of the ranger and crept up the hill towards where we had last seen the pig. As he got closer the brush started breaking and the pig gave us the slip! We decided to call it a morning and headed to the skinning shack to get the pig skinned out and cooled off. The hunt was short and sweet, as we had the pig taken care of and delivered to the butcher by 10:00 AM.

Casey