This was the opening weekend of deer season here in CA, normally its 115 degrees and everything has been nocturnal for weeks, but this has been an unusually mild summer so far, new moon, and lots of fog, so everthing is out durring the mornings and afternoons. Means GREAT hunting for us banned individuals that dont get the fun Thermal or NV toys all the rest of you get to play with!
Saturday morning we went out, saw 11 does and a handful of fawns, no bucks. On our way back in we swung into one of the canyons we had skipped over to check water and cows, low and behold in the bottom was a sounder of hogs!! So we all got out ( I was hunting with my parents) and spread out on the hillside right above where the hogs were feeding to and waited. Both me and my dad were wispering to my Mom to pick one and shoot it, since she doesnt come out with us much anymore we were going to be nice. After 10 min of indicision I gave up and opened up with my *** 6.8spc. Double lung and heart shot on the first (205yds), mid-spine and then a head shot on the second (244yds), and then I shot a 3rd hog 4 times, knocking her down all 4 shots (361yds). ZOMBIE SOW!!!! She still got up after all that and made it into the chamise.
So me and Jack aka "Scud", one of our working dogs, cross the canyon and dive into the brush after the ZS. True to his name, "Scud" fires off after the ZS and ends up catching a 50lbs piglet instead who beat the snot outta him (hes only about 25lbs) lol. Finally I get him back on track and into the brush after the ZS.
Jack finds her and starts doing his thing, working her back to me. If you have never seen CA chamise, its some nasty thick stuff. Visability of about 6 feet. I was on my belly worming into it down the hog trail while a dog is pushing a 200+/-lbs wounded sow to me. Makes ya pucker up a bit if you stop and think about it.
Then the zombie sow decided she had enough of the dog and started chasing him. Jack lasted about 10 min at that game before he told me to shove it and ran for the jeep. I dont blaim him.
After the dog left things got real quiet in the brush, so I thought she had laid down and died. But after 4 hours of belly crawling in the brush I couldnt find blood, or any good sign to follow and ended up giving up.
We went back that night to look agian but no dice.
So in the end I ended up with 2 good eating sized sows, 155lbs and 167lbs according to our meat scales. Zombie Sow got away, and lived I think! At least there have been no buzzards since saturday....
Saturday morning we went out, saw 11 does and a handful of fawns, no bucks. On our way back in we swung into one of the canyons we had skipped over to check water and cows, low and behold in the bottom was a sounder of hogs!! So we all got out ( I was hunting with my parents) and spread out on the hillside right above where the hogs were feeding to and waited. Both me and my dad were wispering to my Mom to pick one and shoot it, since she doesnt come out with us much anymore we were going to be nice. After 10 min of indicision I gave up and opened up with my *** 6.8spc. Double lung and heart shot on the first (205yds), mid-spine and then a head shot on the second (244yds), and then I shot a 3rd hog 4 times, knocking her down all 4 shots (361yds). ZOMBIE SOW!!!! She still got up after all that and made it into the chamise.
So me and Jack aka "Scud", one of our working dogs, cross the canyon and dive into the brush after the ZS. True to his name, "Scud" fires off after the ZS and ends up catching a 50lbs piglet instead who beat the snot outta him (hes only about 25lbs) lol. Finally I get him back on track and into the brush after the ZS.
Jack finds her and starts doing his thing, working her back to me. If you have never seen CA chamise, its some nasty thick stuff. Visability of about 6 feet. I was on my belly worming into it down the hog trail while a dog is pushing a 200+/-lbs wounded sow to me. Makes ya pucker up a bit if you stop and think about it.
Then the zombie sow decided she had enough of the dog and started chasing him. Jack lasted about 10 min at that game before he told me to shove it and ran for the jeep. I dont blaim him.
After the dog left things got real quiet in the brush, so I thought she had laid down and died. But after 4 hours of belly crawling in the brush I couldnt find blood, or any good sign to follow and ended up giving up.
We went back that night to look agian but no dice.
So in the end I ended up with 2 good eating sized sows, 155lbs and 167lbs according to our meat scales. Zombie Sow got away, and lived I think! At least there have been no buzzards since saturday....
