Post by bowtech on Feb 5, 2006 10:24:37 GMT -5
[blue]California's boars are the real deal, and they offer great hunting year-round.[/blue]
[red]By Craig Boddington[/red]
During midday, the pigs are bedded along the chaparral hillsides--thick, nasty stuff. You can go in there after them, but they'll usually smell you or hear you, and while you might get a shot, it's unlikely to be able to see clearly just what kind of a pig you're shooting at.
Killing a mature boar with big tusks is the equivalent to a 28-inch 4x4 mulie or a 10-point whitetail in terms of difficulty and accomplishment.
There's another reason why we don't spend much time trying to "walk up" pigs during the midday hours. While you can hunt hogs in their favored feeding grounds day after day, if you disturb them in their bedding grounds, they will leave and may not return for weeks.
However, if you're dead-set on putting pork in the freezer, midday glassing the chaparral thickets is an option
Glassing a hillside at just the right time to spot an unseen boar get up to shift to a shadier location.
On most guided hunts, you can figure on two good mornings and two good evenings, with the middays played by ear depending on the weather and the degree of determination.
In that time, most pig hunters along the Central Coast will be successful--especially if they're looking for an eatin'-size pig. Now, if you want a mature, big-bodied boar with good tusks, the odds drop in a hurry.
Wild hogs are not found throughout California, but they are well-distributed along the coast range from Santa Barbara northward and in the foothills of the Sierras on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley. By nature they are hard on fences, voraciously destructive of crops, and their rooting causes erosion.
Although declared a game animal many years ago, the season is year-round, any pig is legal game, and in most areas there is no bag limit.
Pigs have to be tagged; residents pay $9.20 for a book of five tags, and nonresidents pay $12 per tag (plus the cost of a basic nonresident license).
Despite this liberal season, California's wild hogs continue to increase and expand their range. For many years they have attracted more hunter interest than deer--making California the only state in the Lower 48 in which an animal other than deer is the most important big game animal.
The primary reason for the continued expansion is that pigs are extremely prolific, breeding year-round with multiple litters possible. Populations drop noticeably (and shift) during dry years, but they rebound quickly when the rains come.
A mature boar will probably be at least five years old, maybe twice that, and might weigh as little as 175 pounds or maybe as much as twice that. Genuine weights exceeding 350 pounds are possible but extremely rare.
Variously described as "wild boars" and "wild hogs"--and, by some imaginative outfitters and writers, as "European" and even "Russian" wild boars--California wild hogs are all properly termed "feral pigs." They are descendants of domestic swine that, during the homesteading era, were allowed to roam free, and they established breeding populations in the wild.
Still, they are the same Sus scrofa species as the They become longer and rangier, with smaller hams and more powerful shoulders. The tail unkinks, the ears become straighter, and the snout appears longer.
To me, a trophy boar is a grownup male pig with thick, gleaming tusks. Circumference is just as important as length, but I figure a good pig will have lower tusks protruding 2 1/2 inches out of the gum line, and a great pig will reach three inches.
One of the most effective ways to hunt Central Coast hogs is to glass feeding areas at first light and last light and try to intercept any pigs entering or leaving.
Given their relative scarcity, difficulty to judge and the fact that older boars become nocturnal, I figure a mature boar with good tusks is a trophy of similar quality to a 28-inch 4x4 mule deer or a mature 10-point whitetail.
Unless the food conditions have been exceptional, an older boar is rank and tough--what is called a "sausage pig."
The meat from younger boars and especially dry sows is much, much better.
Chops and properly cured hams from our wild hogs are better, more flavorful and as tender as the best domestic pork.
Lots of great info in these threads on hogs. 
