Boar Hunt at Rancho San Fernando Rey

A report on another successful hunt.

Last month I reported in several articles on boar hunting in Santa Barbara County, specifically on Rancho San Fernando Rey. This ranch was a sleeper for a long time,  mainly known to locals and to the initiated. Not so any more.
Wild pig populations on the ranch are expanding – and so is the number of hog hunters heading out to the ranch.
One of our readers must be one of the most avid fan of Rancho San Fernando Rey. He just returned from his second hunt at the ranch and submitted the following report for your perusal. His report contains several valuable hints and observations. I will comment on them in a separate brief article shortly.




“17 April 2011 Santa Barbara Mountains Pig Hunt
Last month, taking a 200 pounder within 10 minutes is a terrific experience, but leaves one with a longing for a bit more chase and a little less kill. However, Guide Marco of Rancho San Fernando Rey in Santa Barbara California counseled patience to my request last March for another hunt, as an historic 11 inches of rain in the area had made the Santa Ynez River crossing impassible even in his 4x4 F450 truck.
After almost four weeks, the declining river depth made fording a possibility.  We met up at 5:30 AM in front of ranch HQ,, threw the ice chest in the back of the flatbed and trundled off to the crossing. Despite Mario’s dozer work the prior week to shore up the stream bed, the F450 got little traction and slid two feet downstream in the deep section – we barely made it across to the north county of the ranch, with its 30,000 acres of rolling fields and Oak forested canyons.
The boar were far more elusive than five weeks ago despite being left alone to their own devices for five weeks. Our slow search along the dirt track took us through the meadowlands and up a wide flat bottomed canyon where deer, quail, turkey and squirrel abounded.  Early on we spotted a single 350 pound boar 200 yards off, but I was hoping for an eating pig and Marco felt obliged to keep looking.  After one hour without any pig signs we reached the end of the canyon and turned around to drive out from the canyon.
Halfway back down the track Marco spotted a couple shadows 200 yards off under a large Oak.  Glassing the area he identified two pigs bedded down from a night of foraging.  Looking at the same spot, I could see what looked like a pile of dirt with what might be an ear sticking out, but nothing that I would have given a second glance.  That one ear would turn out to be a sounding of eight pigs!
Marco’s guide services are successful in part because the pigs have never connected the truck we rode in with hunts, so we continued to trundle down the dirt track and over a rise to where we couldn’t be seen.  We left the truck and Marco immediately noted that the light morning winds put us directly upwind of the sounding.  He figured that we had only minutes before they would catch our scent and leave the bedding area. Marco decided we would hustle across the canyon and ascend the ridge behind the pigs to flank them until we had a line of sight for their expected route of departure from the bedding area.  Sure enough, as we crossed the canyon we could see in the distance that the sounding was already rousing and moving slowly downwind and up canyon away from us.
Being 20 years older and stuck in an office all day didn’t do me any favors while I followed Marco up the ridge in the thick Oak forest.  Later he explained that the pigs are foraging these lands with grazing cattle, and are a bit indifferent to the sounds of twigs snapping and leaves being crushed underfoot.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know that at the time, and was pushing myself hard to keep up with my guide while being quiet.
After 10 minutes of fast movement we got ahead of the slow moving sounding and could see them down on the canyon floor through the trees.  I set up my rifle on a tree branch just as a 125 pound sow stepped from behind a log; there was heavy forest everywhere but I had her clearly in sight at a range of 150 yards down to the canyon floor. I took the shot, and missed.
With perfect hindsight, my bad aim was predictable.  My heart was still racing and I was gasping from the hike to the interception point, resulting in an unsteady aim. I had zeroed the rifle at 200 yards and was aiming down at a 25 degree angle, which put the point of impact 2 to 3 inches higher than my aim point.  However, my biggest transgression was to target the sow’s shoulder rather than her lower heart/lung area, so my shot flew past her. Of course, I thought that I had scored a hit and saw a pig-sized pile of dirt in the canyon that was sure to be my trophy; Marco thought otherwise.
Luck followed Marco and I, and after climbing down from the ridge to the canyon floor we continued tracking the sounding’s slow movement up the canyon.  They hadn’t been spooked by the sound of my rifle and hadn’t seen us through the forest.  We quickly closed the distance by moving slowly from one Oak tree to another to arrive at my second chance, from a range of 60 yards.  The sounding was rooting for grubs when a 80 pounder stepped out from behind the far side of a log. Not wanting to push my luck, I took the shot and had my pig.

The truck, the guide and the unlucky wild pig.

Due to the thick cover, the rest of the sounding was only confused by the rifle shot and their downed sister, but not alarmed.  Spying around to try and find the source of the rifle noise without success, they ambled off 300 yards to the far side of the canyon.  We stayed under cover until the sounding lost interest in what had happened, and went to the pig.  After bleeding the carcass, we doubled back to my missed shot to look for blood trails in case I had actually wounded my target.  Fortunately there were none, because Marco had warned me that I would have to give the pig CPR if I didn’t have a second pig tag.
Marco provided a most excellent field dressing and consoled me by saying that a 80 pounder was the best size for eating.  He also counseled me to change my scope to a 100 yard aim point, which he thought would provide better accuracy under the conditions of the Rancho and his guiding skills.  The next day I used Handloads.com ballistic calculator to figure out that my first shot may have worked had I followed his advice.  Regardless, I am looking forward to the BBQ with my family.
Grant H.”

That looks like a great meat pig. There is no better eating!
PJJ