2020 Ham- double down

[elkhunter]

Couldn’t find much in the usual spots so we headed to a cool little canyon we discovered last year, a nice hike out of sight from the road and we got to glassing. At first we glassed up fresh digs a good 500 yards out and kept glassing, we figured the pigs were bedded down for their midday nap. About 2 pm we caught movement of pigs and the stalk was on. We arrived and only one pig was out. We were 112 yards away. My pops is confident at 100 with his TC so he let me shoot first with the new muzzleloader. I hit my pig and she went down screaming, that woke up the whole herd and they came into view. Pops got the pistol settled on a pig at 103 yards and it was over. Usually the HAM hunts kicks our butt with us walking miles and miles for 5 days. It was refreshing to harvest on the first day out! 

[eddielasvegas]

Congrats!

Which unit?  I must add these to my game list.

 

Eddie

[elkhunter]

Unit 9- probably the best pig unit in the state

[eddielasvegas]

24 minutes ago, elkhunter said:

Unit 9- probably the best pig unit in the state

Thanks elkhunter.

 

Eddie

[CatfishKev]

Cool to see you always kill stuff with your pops.  I hope you know how lucky you are. And btw,  that shirt is starting to look faded,  I hope it can keep up with you pig killin fools.  

[eom]

Congrats!

[elkhunter]

8 hours ago, CatfishKev said:

Cool to see you always kill stuff with your pops.  I hope you know how lucky you are. And btw,  that shirt is starting to look faded,  I hope it can keep up with you pig killin fools.  

For sure without a doubt- we are pulling off more hunts, fishing trips and camp outs than ever, gotta maximize it all before he’s not able to do so anymore. 

Yes that shirt is faded, you can see through it at parts. The company doesn’t make these originals anymore so I’m screwed. 

 

[DCS]

Nothing like hunting with family,congrats to both of you.

[AZHunter1]

Good job guys!

[PRDATR]

Congrats on a double. My usual spots came up nill but I did get a chance to meet some new people and watched some Big Horns on Friday. Saw a pair yesterday morning at about half a mile but these old legs don't move as fast as they used to and they  weren't anywhere to be found when i got there.

This front gave me second thoughts on staying through tomorrow so I bugged out this afternoon with plans to go back Friday. This area has been getting tougher the last few years. I don't know if it is parvo or just over hunting. I hunt a wilderness area and walk in but on Thursday at dusk I could see headlights coming out of it. They drove past my camp on the only road out so I walked out to meet them. 

Turns out they were locals. I asked them if they drove the road into the area dan the first guy said yes. I asked him if he knew it was  Wilderness  Area and was closed to vehicles, mountain bikes etc and he said he has been going in there since he was in High School. I guessed him to be late 40's. He had 4 or 5 buddies each with an ATV.  He said he didn't know it was a Wilderness Area. Guess the signs just weren't big enough. When I called it into BLM on Friday the guy I spoke to was pretty complacent and said they would eventually get around to posting new signs and locking it back down.

[elkhunter]

PRDATR- that blows, I'm sure they knew it was wilderness and were playing dumb to avoid any issues. 

[218buck]

Congrats

[1uglydude]

On 2/9/2020 at 7:32 PM, PRDATR said:

Congrats on a double. My usual spots came up nill but I did get a chance to meet some new people and watched some Big Horns on Friday. Saw a pair yesterday morning at about half a mile but these old legs don't move as fast as they used to and they  weren't anywhere to be found when i got there.

This front gave me second thoughts on staying through tomorrow so I bugged out this afternoon with plans to go back Friday. This area has been getting tougher the last few years. I don't know if it is parvo or just over hunting. I hunt a wilderness area and walk in but on Thursday at dusk I could see headlights coming out of it. They drove past my camp on the only road out so I walked out to meet them. 

Turns out they were locals. I asked them if they drove the road into the area dan the first guy said yes. I asked him if he knew it was  Wilderness  Area and was closed to vehicles, mountain bikes etc and he said he has been going in there since he was in High School. I guessed him to be late 40's. He had 4 or 5 buddies each with an ATV.  He said he didn't know it was a Wilderness Area. Guess the signs just weren't big enough. When I called it into BLM on Friday the guy I spoke to was pretty complacent and said they would eventually get around to posting new signs and locking it back down.

If it's the same place we both hunt, I called the BLM four years ago to report people driving that road and the guy I talked to was extremely rude and pretty much said he didn't give a dang.  The problem is that there is a private parcel landlocked way back in there, and there is a long legal battle over the scope of access the property owner should have, otherwise that road would have been wiped out years ago.

Sad to hear the herds are still declining there.  I hunted it last two years ago and we struggled to find them.  When we did, they were small herds.  I don't think it's overhunting.  It takes too much effort to get back there and historically the herds were far too large.  I feel like it's cyclical and/or disease.  The last time I was out there I saw four times as many burros as I did pigs, so maybe that competition for water has something to do with it.

[PRDATR]

Last year there were quite a few donkeys. I did not see, or hear any last weekend but I did see some poop where I usually camp and some tracks about a mile in. I'm headed back up about mid morning for a couple of days. Maybe there was an outbreak of parvo.

[elkhunter]

You guys talkin bout unit 9 right? 😆