FIRST PERSON HUNTING REPORT: A SIZZLING SUCCESSFUL PIG HUNT
It was 9:00 a.m. on March 11 and the pigs were heading for cover. The weather was unusually warm that day near Maxwell, California. My hunting partner, Garry Sanchez of Auburn, California and I were resigned to the fact that the pig hunting was going to get difficult because of the heat.
We were seeing a lot of pigs but they were very far away and moving quickly to shade. I had gotten lucky earlier in the day before the temperature began to quickly rise. As our guide, Jim Garcia of Garcia’s Hunting Preserves, was escorting us onto the ranch at daybreak we quickly spotted a nice boar about 200 to 300 yards away. Jim and I began a stalk when it became clear that this pig had no idea we were there and he was coming our way. We stopped out in the open and waited for him to come to us.
This 200+ pound boar, as if surrendering, walked within 100 yards of my already steadied rifle, and stopped, giving me a perfect textbook broadside shot. Having learned from experience, I quickly acted upon my opportunity and obliged this boar’s surrender.
Now with one boar on the ground 10 minutes after daylight, by buddy Garry and I thought that this hunt might be very short. However, we quickly discovered that all the pigs were heading for shade very quickly because of the unseasonably warm weather. What we thought would be a fairly quick and easy hunt suddenly looked as if it was going to turn into a long difficult hunt.
We moved from hilltop to hilltop glassing as far as we could see. As the minutes passed we saw fewer and fewer pigs and it was getting warmer and warmer. By 9:00 a.m. I was becoming very concerned about our ability to find pigs in the heat of the day. But suddenly Garry spotted some movement in the shadows about 500 yards away. It was a pig. It was heading down into a canyon from our left to right. We agreed that it was probably looking for a cool bed and likely would not come out of the canyon. Garry, Jim and I began a stalk to our right and down into the canyon in an attempt to get in front of the pig.
As we moved into the canyon, we lost sight of the pig but we knew it had not come out of the canyon. We moved very slowly. I hung back about 20 yards so not to interfere with Garry’s hunt. When we were about three quarters of the way down into the canyon, the pig gave up it’s location with a short grunt. I followed Garry and Jim as they proceeded in the pig’s direction.
After a couple of minutes of moving slowly toward the pig, I saw Jim point and Garry raise his rifle to his shoulder. I was excited to see they had spotted the pig and I waited for Garry’s shot. But Jim started pointing in another direction and Garry shifted his rifle to the right and fired. My heart sank when I saw a pig run out of the bottom of the canyon. But my disappointment was unfounded. I heard Jim say, “You hammered him!” Then I saw five or six additional pigs scattering out of the canyon. I quickly walked up to Garry as Jim was congratulating him. Then I saw a nice boar lying in the bottom of the canyon.
This ended up being a short and exciting hunt. Both of our hunts were very different because of the quickly rising temperature. The deteriorating hunting conditions concerned us but we were able to work through these conditions. We ended up with two very nice boars, each well over 200 pounds. When we have the barbeque this spring, I don’t think the heat will bother us as much.
