A monster CA boar

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After a month of booked weekends, I was finally able to get out for a quick hunt yesterday. With a pending heat wave, me and my friend Jose headed out early after pigs. On the drive in we formulated a plan for the day. We knew the heat would probably keep our day short, but we had a handful of places we wanted to check during the morning hunt.

The first few spots lacked recent pig sign and were empty. In the past we've seen pigs bed down during the midday heat near water and in areas distant from water. I really hadn't seen a pattern. We decided since it was going to be extra hot, we'd concentrate on thick beds near some sort of water source.

We hit a spot that we've kicked pigs out of before. A spring spills out of the side of this hill and dribbles into a pond. The vegetation around the spring is thick and always green even though the surrounding vegetation is dry and dead. I told Jose to set up next to the pond and I would run up and kick through the bed.

I circled around and got up near the bed. The grass up on the hill was thick and difficult to move through quietly. When I was up above the bed I started looking for rocks to toss into the thick vegetation. The bed is medium in size and usually easily checked within a few minutes. A well worn path stretched below the bed, and the pond and Jose were fifty yards to the right of this path.

I was 10-feet from the bed, still looking for a rock to toss, when the vegetation in front started shaking violently. I didn't see the animal, but I knew what it was. I yelled "PIG!" and settled me stance for a running shot. For several seconds all I could hear was shaking vegetation. Then the pig appeared running away from the bed and way left of the well worn path below. With the high grass, I knew Jose would have a difficult time seeing the fleeing pig. I leveled the lever gun and fired. The first shot hit the pig in the left rear ham but did nothing to slow him down. My second shot hit it in the spine between the shoulder blades and blew out both lungs. The pig cartwheeled twice before sliding to a stop in a pile of dust.

Jose never saw the fleeing pig until the kill shot. From where I was, the pig was still kicking so Jose ran over and finished the job with his pistol. We dragged the pig into the shade, parted him out before the heat and headed home with meat in the cooler. This was a nicer-sized boar with really good cutters.

Some nice cutters on this beast.




Lots of battle scars on this boar. Wounds on side and torn up ears...definitely a fighter.



Me and my buddy Jose. After running a few drainages, we finally got one on the ground




Parted out and ready for the cooler



Harvested some big back straps of this beast



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Out here we have to use copper bullets in certain areas. My lever gun is a Marlin 30-30 36T. On this trip I used the WInchester Power Core 150-grain bullet.
 
That is a nice hog. I have a few friends who let me hunt their ranches around Lockwood (Fort Hunter Ligget area). That is great fun!
 
I shot my first and second pig with that rifle about 25-years ago. I then put it in the safe and picked up a 30-06. Since I was kicking through beds and the shots were close, I decided to dust her off last year and start carrying it in the thick stuff. The results speak fro themselves. I love that lever gun.

Broadside at 80-yards


On the run at 90-yards

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A tag team boar with my daughter a few weeks back. Shot on the run at 100-yards.
 
I have a few old JM Marlins that I break out of the safe occasionally. Critters hate those things...
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