Tagged out for 2015

[PatrickJr]

My father and I have 37B HAM tags and we both planned on hunting with muzzleloaders and maybe a sidearm. We could only hunt the Sundays of the hunt due to our shooting schedule. I had just killed a pig on my JR tag 2 weeks prior. Once again, our great friend, John could come along. He said he could only come for the morning. We planned to head to an area that we were headed to when we ran into the pigs that I shot my JR pig out of 2 weeks ago.

 

My father has trouble hiking long distances, so we had him sit on a lower hill right where I killed my pig. We headed to a big ridge that once we got over, could glass a big canyon. John and I got to the ridge and found a tall rock outcropping to glass from. I set down my muzzleloader and pack when John told me he was going to go further down the ridge so he can get a different angle on everything. I set up on a rock and began glassing the furthest ridge I could see, and not 3 minutes into glassing and on my first pan across, I had pigs (6 in the herd). I called John back over and he set up then told me to find some pig a little closer. These pigs were an easy .75 miles across a nasty canyon.

 

And just to our luck, about 5 minutes later, John glasses across my face and finds a big herd of at least 12. We make a plan and take off. Just before cresting the hill we were going to shoot from, I capped my rifle. We went over and couldn’t find t pigs on the very thick hillside. I suddenly saw 2 pigs on the far side of the hill and set up. I was sitting and this pig stopped at 170, almost perfectly broadside. I squeezed, and John told me I had hit the pig but not very well. I reloaded then we got closer. No movement on the hill, I walked across and jump the pig. He was running so fast through the thick brush that I never got a chance at a shot. We went up to where he was when I shot and couldn’t find any blood. John followed his tracks looking for blood on the bushes. Nothing. We came to the consensus that the pig was in fact okay and would survive, whether I had hit it or not.

 

We went to where we figured the rest of the pigs went and I saw one run over t next hill. We ran up to where it was. John thought he could hear them. We finally saw 6 pigs come out of the bottom at 114 yards. None stopped but the nastiest and oldest pig we had ever seen. I pulled the trigger, and of course, the safety was on! He ran off. We turned to plan B, the herd I found earlier.

 

It was close to 10AM now and I am started to get tired on all levels. We got over to an area that we saw the pigs go down into. We circled around to try and dig out these pigs out of the thick bottoms. Nothing turned up for over an hour. It is now 11:30 and I am out of water. We decide to give the distress call a try because of we couldn’t find the pigs, they weren’t going to get up until late in the afternoon. John blew on the call for a solid 3 minutes and stopped. When he stopped I could hear some “woofs” that were not that far away. I set up in that direction. John blew on the call for another 30 seconds. When he stopped again, I could hear the “woofs” getting louder. John spotted the pig coming up the hill across the way from us. Then the whole area exploded with pigs! 2 pigs came over the top of the hill at 50 yards, and I set up on them as the first pig wouldn’t stop. The 2 pigs stopped and john said “Shoot which ever one you want” and I shot the left pig of the 2. The pig was quartering to us and to the left. I was shooting downhill and the pig was faced downhill. The bullet broke his left shoulder and went all the way through to break the right rear leg. It was over. I had my first muzzleloader pig! It was a good sized boar but nothing near the size of the pig I had shot 2 weeks prior. We took photos, boned him, and started the long, horrendous hike out. It took us about 1.5 hours to get back to the trucks. My father hadn’t seen any pigs. This was the most I had worked for a pig in my life. Karma comes back around; I had such an easy hunt a couple weeks ago, and now one of the toughest. I want to thank John for coming with me, you are such a great friend and I hope these memories we have made in the past few month are just the tip of the iceberg!

 

Now the rest of pig season is all about my dad!

 

Here is my view when I shot my pig. you can see a pig near the top of the hill and my pig was in to gap below that one when I shot it.

 

 

 

 

 

Me checking that the pig is dead.

 

Pulling the boar up the hill

[Zeke-BE]

Looks like Black Mt. I hate that hay grass. Never run through that stuff I had a mountain lion jump out the back side once in front of a friend while quail hunting. I was 50 yards back and saw the whole thing!!! But congrats on the pig !

[218buck]

Congrats way to get it done

[KidBowHunter]

Nice ! I like the pose on top of the rock!

[ctafoya]

Nice pig. Looks like you were just on the other side of the mountain from me.

[PatrickJr]

Thanks! It was John's idea to put him on the rock and I'm glad he thought of it, because the photos came out great.

[280REM]

Good job son.

[capoeirajosh]

Nice!! Congrats man!

[tjhunt2]

Very nice pig and congratulations Patrick.

 

TJ

[Mocha1545]

Congrats on a nice pig!

 

Now help your Dad get his!

[PatrickJr]

Congrats on a nice pig!

 

Now help your Dad get his!

 

Haha thanks, we couldn't get out this past weekend for his HAM tag due to a family emergency and a shoot i was competing in however he does have a 37A general tag that will be trying out hardest to fill.

[rossislider]

Congats! Just hope I can help my son fill his 24b tag this weekend. It would be the first for either of us. Anyone have any tips for the unit?