This is a short story about an epic Hog hunt... Enjoy
Huntin With Hoss
Article I
HOGS..HOGS... & MORE HOGS
On January 30th, Hoss and the boys got the RV packed up and are ready to leave the city lights and head to Central California for some Hog shawakin. After a seven hour drive from San Diego, and one of Hoss' mandatory Lenny's breakfast stops, Hoss and the boys have arrived at Jacks Ranch where they will call home for the next couple of days. As soon as you get off the main highway and on to the ranch road, a feeling of anticipation and excitement over comes you. As far as Hoss' eagle eyes can see are green rolling hills with oak trees littering the landscape and the smell of those dirty little hogs in the air.
We have directions from our guide Frank Hook, that he will meet us at the hunters shack that Friday afternoon and make a game plan for the evening hunt. After a brief meet and greet with our guides, Hoss and the boys are loaded up in the trucks and are ready for a hogaploza. There are four hunters in our group with two guides. We split up into groups of two with one guide per group. It's not long into our drive into the 100,000 acre ranch and Hoss and the boys start to see evidence of major hog invasion. There are craters everywhere in the landscape where these hogs have been routin it up and mud rubs all over the bases of the oaks. Hoss has found hog heaven! It's no more than 20 mins into our journey and we have our first sighting of two big 'ol boars on the run. They heard us coming and didn't want to meet the business end of Hoss' rifle. We push on deeper into the ranch going over tops of rolling hills and down the other side into canyon after canyon. As the daylight starts to slip into darkness, more and more activity springs to life all around us. It seems like around every corner we spot groups of 10 to 12 hogs just feeding right out in the open. Our guide Dan stops and checks out every group of hogs we pass to scope out and see if there are any shooters in the bunch. I ask “Any bastards in there worth takin Dan?” and he replies “There are some Sunday hogs but no Friday night hog, lets keep moving.” On to the next valley and again, group of hogs grazing along doing their thing and again I ask Dan “What you think, any good hogs in this bunch?” Dan replies “No, there is a couple of Saturday hogs but not a friday night hog.” By this time we have seen over 40 hogs in about an hour worth of time, and it's getting to be almost dusk when we come upon a group of hogs about 500 yards out and Dan says to me “I think there might be a friday night hog in that group.” We hop out of the truck and slowly close some ground. The wind is in our face and it's starting to look like Hoss is about to get some cold cuts! Dan gets me within 160 yards of these hogs, sits me down, and gets me ready for the shot. I get a good rest, got my cross hairs on this big 'ol boar, and squeeze the trigger. Hoss put the hurt on this hog, one shot, double lung, goodnight Mr. pig!
Over 40 hogs seen, one hog down and it's only the first night of our three day trip. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. By Saturday afternoon, two of the other boys have filled their tags with one big 'ol boar and nice fat sow. We now have three of the four tags filled and we have only been hunting for one night and one morning. We still have one tag to fill and of course we save the best for last. It's getting late into Saturday afternoon when our guide Dan spots a blond hog taking a snooze in his bed under a big oak tree. From where we are standing, we can't quite tell how big this hog is due to the fact he is laying down, but we're losing light fast and only have one more boy that needs to fill his tag and that boy happens to be Hoss' big brother Eric. Dan advises Eric to take the shot. Eric gets into position, gets comfortable and smacks that hog one shot at 118 yards. That hog never even woke up from his nap! Woooo everybody filled their tags, that's a wrap and we are going home, but wait, Eric came prepared and brought with him a second hog tag and wouldn't you know about 200 yards away from the hog Eric just put the smack down on, here comes another solo hog and it's coming are way. Still not knowing how big the first hog is and being able to see the one that is heading our way is a good size boar, Dan gets Eric ready to take out another hog. Eric gets into position and gets comfortable for the second time. Bang! one shot at 64 yards and that hog was pushin' up daises. Eric just gave two hogs a dirt nap no more then 100 yards and 10 minutes apart from each other. At this time we got two pigs down and still haven't had a chance to check on the first hog Eric put the hurt on, you know the one we had no idea how big he was. Dan got the first up close look at blondie and by how big his eyes opened up, Hoss and Eric could tell he was going to be big. Well let me tell ya, Eric takes the prize for the biggest hog. This bad boy was a 225 lb. hog with 3.5 inch tusks, woooo getcha cold cuts today wooooo!
4 hunters and 5 hog tags filled, now that's what Hoss calls some good huntin! What a great trip and experience. I will remember this weekend for the rest of my life. If any of you been wanting to plan a hog hunt, you can't go wrong with Frank Hooks guide service out of Jacks Ranch and you won't be disappointed. On a scale of 1 to 5 Hosses, I give Jacks ranch 5 out 5 Hosses.
Till next next time...
Hoss.
Huntin With Hoss
Article I
HOGS..HOGS... & MORE HOGS
On January 30th, Hoss and the boys got the RV packed up and are ready to leave the city lights and head to Central California for some Hog shawakin. After a seven hour drive from San Diego, and one of Hoss' mandatory Lenny's breakfast stops, Hoss and the boys have arrived at Jacks Ranch where they will call home for the next couple of days. As soon as you get off the main highway and on to the ranch road, a feeling of anticipation and excitement over comes you. As far as Hoss' eagle eyes can see are green rolling hills with oak trees littering the landscape and the smell of those dirty little hogs in the air.
We have directions from our guide Frank Hook, that he will meet us at the hunters shack that Friday afternoon and make a game plan for the evening hunt. After a brief meet and greet with our guides, Hoss and the boys are loaded up in the trucks and are ready for a hogaploza. There are four hunters in our group with two guides. We split up into groups of two with one guide per group. It's not long into our drive into the 100,000 acre ranch and Hoss and the boys start to see evidence of major hog invasion. There are craters everywhere in the landscape where these hogs have been routin it up and mud rubs all over the bases of the oaks. Hoss has found hog heaven! It's no more than 20 mins into our journey and we have our first sighting of two big 'ol boars on the run. They heard us coming and didn't want to meet the business end of Hoss' rifle. We push on deeper into the ranch going over tops of rolling hills and down the other side into canyon after canyon. As the daylight starts to slip into darkness, more and more activity springs to life all around us. It seems like around every corner we spot groups of 10 to 12 hogs just feeding right out in the open. Our guide Dan stops and checks out every group of hogs we pass to scope out and see if there are any shooters in the bunch. I ask “Any bastards in there worth takin Dan?” and he replies “There are some Sunday hogs but no Friday night hog, lets keep moving.” On to the next valley and again, group of hogs grazing along doing their thing and again I ask Dan “What you think, any good hogs in this bunch?” Dan replies “No, there is a couple of Saturday hogs but not a friday night hog.” By this time we have seen over 40 hogs in about an hour worth of time, and it's getting to be almost dusk when we come upon a group of hogs about 500 yards out and Dan says to me “I think there might be a friday night hog in that group.” We hop out of the truck and slowly close some ground. The wind is in our face and it's starting to look like Hoss is about to get some cold cuts! Dan gets me within 160 yards of these hogs, sits me down, and gets me ready for the shot. I get a good rest, got my cross hairs on this big 'ol boar, and squeeze the trigger. Hoss put the hurt on this hog, one shot, double lung, goodnight Mr. pig!
Over 40 hogs seen, one hog down and it's only the first night of our three day trip. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. By Saturday afternoon, two of the other boys have filled their tags with one big 'ol boar and nice fat sow. We now have three of the four tags filled and we have only been hunting for one night and one morning. We still have one tag to fill and of course we save the best for last. It's getting late into Saturday afternoon when our guide Dan spots a blond hog taking a snooze in his bed under a big oak tree. From where we are standing, we can't quite tell how big this hog is due to the fact he is laying down, but we're losing light fast and only have one more boy that needs to fill his tag and that boy happens to be Hoss' big brother Eric. Dan advises Eric to take the shot. Eric gets into position, gets comfortable and smacks that hog one shot at 118 yards. That hog never even woke up from his nap! Woooo everybody filled their tags, that's a wrap and we are going home, but wait, Eric came prepared and brought with him a second hog tag and wouldn't you know about 200 yards away from the hog Eric just put the smack down on, here comes another solo hog and it's coming are way. Still not knowing how big the first hog is and being able to see the one that is heading our way is a good size boar, Dan gets Eric ready to take out another hog. Eric gets into position and gets comfortable for the second time. Bang! one shot at 64 yards and that hog was pushin' up daises. Eric just gave two hogs a dirt nap no more then 100 yards and 10 minutes apart from each other. At this time we got two pigs down and still haven't had a chance to check on the first hog Eric put the hurt on, you know the one we had no idea how big he was. Dan got the first up close look at blondie and by how big his eyes opened up, Hoss and Eric could tell he was going to be big. Well let me tell ya, Eric takes the prize for the biggest hog. This bad boy was a 225 lb. hog with 3.5 inch tusks, woooo getcha cold cuts today wooooo!
4 hunters and 5 hog tags filled, now that's what Hoss calls some good huntin! What a great trip and experience. I will remember this weekend for the rest of my life. If any of you been wanting to plan a hog hunt, you can't go wrong with Frank Hooks guide service out of Jacks Ranch and you won't be disappointed. On a scale of 1 to 5 Hosses, I give Jacks ranch 5 out 5 Hosses.
Till next next time...
Hoss.
