My son and I each shot a boar within 35 minutes of each other. The boar's died about 35 yards apart both of them had their snouts stuck in a sow's honey pot when they were shot...see how dangerous women can be.



Butchering hanging weight on my son's was 128 so 256 live weight and mine was 93 so 186 live weight. Really surprised by my son's because it didn't appear that old was definitely younger than mine and we have had a tough couple of years regarding rain/feed. Not many battle scars on Phil's but a ton on mine both the shoulders and the rump. Notice all the white hash marks.

I was using my custom Argie in 338-06 with 210 Barnes TSX over Varget and Phil his stainless BLR in 30-06 with 168 grn TSXs over H4350.

More of the story later...need coffee.


The day started at O'Dark 30 as usual for CA pig hunting. We got to a barley field before light and it was full of pigs…but as often is the case as shooting light got closer and closer the pigs got more and more nervous and by the time legal shooting light arrived…they wandered across the fence line and up into the foothills onto the neighbor’s property.

We spent the next few hours looking for pigs up in the hills of another ranch with no success. To kill a little time and have some fun we practiced on Kyler’s steel plate range. The range has hanging plates at 225, 250, 300, 400, and 500. All the plates are 8 inches simulating the level of accuracy required for a clean kill in the field.

Ringing the 225, 250, and 300 yards plate was not overly difficult from field (i.e. not perfectly rested etc.) prone positions. The 400 yard plate went unscathed.

It was then off to Paso Robles for lunch and to prowl the gun shops.

At 5:30 we were back up in the hills of the second ranch hoping to catch something moving to feed but with no luck. At about 6:30 we were back at the barley fields. We saw pigs as we drove up. We could tell there were four or five sows scattered about with piglets and yearlings so we drove past them and parked beyond a little knoll and out of the wind. We made a sneak up onto the knoll and started glassing looking for a boar but every adult pig was a sow so we backed down the knoll and considered going across the road. Before we left we decided to take one last look to double check. A new brownish pig had showed up and was approaching a sow with piglets. Bingo! The new pig stuck his snout right into sows rump and started to try to mount her.

What followed was an anxious 5 minutes of hoping the wind didn’t shift while the boar, the sow, and the piglets kept milling about and Phil had to wait for a clear shot. It finally came and he launched a 168 grn TSX from his 06 stainless BLR right thru both lungs from about 130 yards. The boar took off running right at us and then veered to our left then turned away. I touched off a running shot and missed but the boar started to buck and wobble and then tipped over after what was about 70 yard big circle route and then went down according to Kyler.

I lost sight of it but then saw the boar down in the barley. So I slung my rifle and was going to go up and finish it with a pistol shot when I heard Kyler whistling and waiving me back up on the knoll. Kyler had said the boar hadn't moved at all after it went down and he saw lots of blood coming out while it ran so he suggested we wait on the knoll for the last 25 minutes of shooting light.

Turned out both lungs were destroyed and the boar never even twitched. With a butchering hanging weight of 128 it's an honest 250+ lb boar.

So I went back up on the knoll with Kyler and Phil and we plopped down to watch the usual access/egress route for pigs into the barley field.

About 7:20 a lone pig appeared up on the hill side and it was good size so we thought it might be a solitary boar and it was headed down the slope. But then just as suddenly 15 more pigs popped out and about 2/3rds were yearlings and piglets. They then disappeared in the trees further down the slope. Five minutes passed...no more visuals...ten minutes past no more sightings. Shooting light was fading fast. Then they appeared at the base of the trees near the bottom of the slope but still a good 70 yards from the correct side of the fence line.

They started moving forward at a better pace and we were desperately trying to identify a boar. Then sure enough the last two were sniffing sows and turned so we could see their testicles. They all crossed into the field including the two boars. The pigs were milling in all directions. We needed to pick our shot as the neighbor is not hunter friendly so we wanted the boars to move away from the fence line in case we did't get a bang/flop.


Then a sow and one of the boars came to the near edge of the barley and were walking right toward the base of our knoll. 100 yards out...then 90...closing to inside of 80 then inside 70...at 65 yards they stopped. The boar was behind the sow and I held right on his shoulder at the top of the barley and squeezed. The loudest sound I have ever heard. "CLICK".

I recycled the bolt re-acquired the target...bang and flop. The 210 grn TSX struck a little high and forward. Broke both shoulders and clipped the spine. The sow in front did an immediate 180 and literally trampled over her dead boyfriend as she exited the field. I had a bad primer in the first round. The primer was completely crushed but no ignition.

A long day ended great...we were skinned and loaded and on the road home by 9:30. I pulled into the drive at 1:00 am tired but quite happy and of course very proud of my son.

Well done. Congrats to both of you! Thoroughly enjoyed the write-up as well.

Good to hunt with family and a good read.
Thanks, I near held my breath as the boar got closer.

Reading Mike's hunting stories always means one thing: in a month or so, we'll likely be seeing photos of some mouth-watering dish he's created from his bounty. As much as I love his hunting stories, those food photos may just be the best part of all. I'm officially waiting...

Way to go Mike and Phil. Another fun hunt with Kyler.

That 'honey pot' has been the ruin of many good men !
Enjoy your organic pork. Around here, 'it's what's for dinner' many nights !

Honey pots won't kill you
but 30 caliber boo-lets do

Enjoyed reading that