Had an opportunity for a pig hunt last week on some fairly productive land and glad I did. I'm green so this gave me the opportunity to get my feet wet with big game.
Showed up in the afternoon and was able to do some scouting around the property and check for sign, water holes, wallows, etc to prepare for the next few days hunt. We found some water sources and nice draws but not much sign. The pressure was on so we figured the pigs would be staying pretty far from the roads and decided to hike the next few days and find sign to setup for when they are on the move.
The next two days we scoured the hills, working the wind and investigating all sign we could find, up and down every draw that was promising. Sign everywhere, but nothing new. Everything looked at least a few days to a week old. In the process of looking for pig we jumped at least a dozen blacktail, which was reassuring. At least we knew we were quiet and we were working the wind correctly.
The last day we were getting a little discouraged but pressed on, we planned on sitting on a good remote watering hole at twilight, hoping for a last opportunity but had a few hours to kill and decided to do a little more scouting on an out of the way ridge that was the only spot we hadn't hit the last few days. It didn't look promising on the maps so we all but ignored it, but determined to cover the whole available area we checked it out.
It turned out to be the best sign we'd seen and so out of the way that pressure was all but non existent. We hit a high point and decided to glass. I glassed one direction and my hunting partner headed the other direction. I saw nothing interesting and headed back to the truck to change and get some water when I heard shots fired. I looked toward the ridge my partner was glassing and saw a scatter of pigs. 4 in total. I grabbed my gun and took off in a sprint toward the ridge hoping to get a straggler. By the time I got within shooting distance it was too late for me, but for my partner it wasn't. He plugged a 200 pounder on a 3rd shot just off the ridge.
A great few days in some beautiful country. I would have been happy even without the meat for our freezers but it was definitely a good ending to a solid hunt. You learn a lot being in the field that you could never sitting at home researching, the information you gather is always useful but nothing compares to boots on the ground ;D
Showed up in the afternoon and was able to do some scouting around the property and check for sign, water holes, wallows, etc to prepare for the next few days hunt. We found some water sources and nice draws but not much sign. The pressure was on so we figured the pigs would be staying pretty far from the roads and decided to hike the next few days and find sign to setup for when they are on the move.
The next two days we scoured the hills, working the wind and investigating all sign we could find, up and down every draw that was promising. Sign everywhere, but nothing new. Everything looked at least a few days to a week old. In the process of looking for pig we jumped at least a dozen blacktail, which was reassuring. At least we knew we were quiet and we were working the wind correctly.
The last day we were getting a little discouraged but pressed on, we planned on sitting on a good remote watering hole at twilight, hoping for a last opportunity but had a few hours to kill and decided to do a little more scouting on an out of the way ridge that was the only spot we hadn't hit the last few days. It didn't look promising on the maps so we all but ignored it, but determined to cover the whole available area we checked it out.
It turned out to be the best sign we'd seen and so out of the way that pressure was all but non existent. We hit a high point and decided to glass. I glassed one direction and my hunting partner headed the other direction. I saw nothing interesting and headed back to the truck to change and get some water when I heard shots fired. I looked toward the ridge my partner was glassing and saw a scatter of pigs. 4 in total. I grabbed my gun and took off in a sprint toward the ridge hoping to get a straggler. By the time I got within shooting distance it was too late for me, but for my partner it wasn't. He plugged a 200 pounder on a 3rd shot just off the ridge.
A great few days in some beautiful country. I would have been happy even without the meat for our freezers but it was definitely a good ending to a solid hunt. You learn a lot being in the field that you could never sitting at home researching, the information you gather is always useful but nothing compares to boots on the ground ;D
