Another Sonoma Boar

[jdm49]

Had a successful fall boar hunt last week, east of Lake Sonoma.

Had to work for this one.  We hiked for over an hour across a creek bed and up a steep ~1200' climb.   Initially it was very steep scrambling, sometimes actually climbing from treeroot to rockhold.   There was boar sign everywhere under the occasional oak tree, and I had the rifle in hand as we climbed,  but we didn't see any animals on the way up.   As we made it to the top of the ridge,  we had the requisite beautiful Sonoma views, but still no boar.    We made it over the top and hunted north, but eventually we had to turn after another hour hunting along what we thought were the edge of bedding areas over the ridge line.  WIth the shorter fall days it was getting late and we wanted some chance of catching the pigs out on the rooted up slopes we had climbed up while we still had light.   We almost ran down the slopes as cloud cover moving in from the coast quenched the sunlight and  accelerated the early nightfall.  

 At the last possible moments of usable light, in one of the last meadows before the last 500 ft drop to the creekbed,  my partner spotted a group of about 8 pigs.  Luckily we had approached them with a tree between us and with the wind in our face, masking our scent.   The pigs paused for a moment or two,  but then went back to rooting at the base of the meadow around a small oak further down.    Most of the group was behind the tree but we were being stared down by a very large boar - estimated in the 350-400 lbs. range.   He was so large and muscular that we thought the meat may not be that good and actually held off and waited for a shot at one of the smaller boar behind the tree they were rooting around.   At this point I had crept up to the tree we had approached from behind and I had taken up a firing position about 60 yards from the group.  I had one knee down and the rifle braced against the trunk.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a great shot on the smaller ~200 lb boar behind and to the right of hogzilla in front.  After a couple minutes waiting, which felt like an hour, the group of pigs, either on a whim or possibly because they had started to detect us, started to move off into the brush.  However, there were some small pigs and a large boar another 10 yards back that broke off from the main group and started to climb up the small valley we were in to the left pausing broadside to chew for a moment.  Jim whispered/hissed 'take that one out left',  I already had him in the scope, so I steadied the crosshairs over the front leg and forward a bit, squeezed, and in an instant the boar tumbled over.   As was the case in my first boar hunt,  I felt a wave of exultation and relief as the shot had placed well and instantly put down the boar. There would be no squeeling or bloody chase.

We approached carefully, but the big black, very Russian-looking boar with jutting aggressive  tusks was long gone, unblinking with acorn bits on the ground under his partly open snout.  Due to the extra distance for this boar from the main group, I had underestimated its size,  Jim thought it was 300 lbs, but I felt it was smaller than my last one and maybe closer to 250.  In any case, this was still a pretty big animal, and we struggled with a doubled rope to drag it and  hang it up over a tree.  There was very little blood and it took a while to find the entrance wound over the front leg.  Towards the end of the field dressing, we found what happened to all the blood.... it was in the chest cavity where the 270Win copper bullet had made Friday the 13th with the cardiovascular center and buried itself into the opposite shoulder.  Aside from instantly walloping the boar, the bullets path  had not ruined anybmeat (unless you like to do the ultra hardcore, share the beast's energy, eat the fresh heart thing....   I prefer smoked loin, long cured pancetta, and sausage in good time!)

We were finishing the field dressing in the dark now,  and bagged up the leg quarters and the torso as best we could for the hike out....  which got pretty crazy.  We had headlights on but it was difficult to retrace our uphill route  and  the 150+ lbs of meet, rifles, and gear turned that descent into a zigzagging, slide and scramble.  Needless to say we could pay no heed to poison oak, snakes, spider webs and whatever  else we tore through gracelessly in the dark.  I lost footing once or twice,  but with the help of a walking stick I picked up after a scary slide, I managed not to do any permanent skeletal damage.  At several points we came to ledges where we couldn't see footing and had to backtrack and try to out flank those drops.  By the time we finally made it to the creekbed, I was exhausted and desperate.  Another 100 ft of that and I probably would have lost it.

In the end, 150 lbs of wild boar made it into my cooler and I have fond memories of the look on the faces of the well-heeled  wine country tourists who were in the Geyserville convenience store when I shuffled in with wild hair, gore-soaked camo on and bought Clorox wipes, beef jerky, a bag of ice, and a bottle of ibuprofen .. leaving a blood trail ...  My legs have never ached before like they did in the week after this hunt.  My success rate with Sonoma boar hunting is pretty good,  but this was no easy hunt. 

-Devin

p.s. a shout out for Kuiu hunting pants and Barnes copper bullets. After the rough and tumble sliding, falling and jabbing I took on they way down the hills with that boar meat, I was expecting my fancy, "I paid too much for these things and the oldtimers are going to laugh now" outerwear, to be shredded.  After I got the blood out of them (there was a gory/comical moment when the game bag broke and I lunged to catch a slippery boar quarter and all the associated drained fluids right int my lap) I was pleased to see that Kuiu warm weather gear was completely unfazed by some hard, warranty annulling treatment . I can't say the same for my arms and lower back now covered in hydrocortisone to soothe the scrapes and keep me from scratching myself into raw blissful oblivion from the poison oak.  Also, the Barnes 130gr copper bullet we dug out of the shoulder was fully expanded like some sort of evil flower but 100% intact. A shoe-in for some morbid FBI ballistics textbook figure.

pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12440539@N04/sets/72157637455317524/

[David Grove]

Awesome! Way to go! Was it a public land hunt? 

---

From: jdm49 <j.devin....@gmail.com>
To: bull...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2013 10:54 PM
Subject: [BMHS] Another Sonoma Boar

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bull Moose Hunting Society of Northern California" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bullmoose+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to bull...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bullmoose.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Nick Chaset]

Great write up. Thanks a lot

Sent from my iPhone

--

[Fred Salisbury]

Excellent write up.  Sounds like a serious hunt; makes me appreciate the driveability of the ranch I hunt on.  It is really, really nice to be able to head back to the house, grab a truck, and drive out in the pasture right up to the hog.

--

[jdm49]

That sounds great.  I am still thinking about joining a club/lease and the idea of drive on access is enticing.  If you ever need a driver, let me know!   Maybe I can entice you with some cured Sonoma wild boar?!, I cured and cherry wood-smoked my first wild boar ham from the boar I took in the last write up.  I am very pleased with how it came out.  It is very very good,  not counting aged dried hams,  its among the best I have tasted.  Either I am getting lucky, or the myth that big boars taste bad is just that, a myth (borne of bad dressing/handling practices?).   This front shoulder ham is good - hard to stop eating it good.  The sausage I made based on a pretty stripped down (low spice - taste the pork)  Hank Shaw recipe is very good also.  I haven't even got to eating any loin,   but the loin from the last >300 lb'er was smooth, tender and good.