Hey ya'll. Booked a pig hunt with Tom Willoughby out of King City for July 10th. I am going to try to find some free hunting anyways, but am tired of not getting a shot on anything so booked a hunt too. My stepfather met and hung with Tom years back and he was a good guy at the time. Just wondering if anybody has hunted with him since then?

In talking to him he recommended I bring my 06, and said to make sure it is scoped. Anybody here got opinions on guns, I was thinking of maybe taking my 7mm Rem. or 35 Whelen. all will get the job done, more just a "which rifle do I feel like that day" type of thing.

What bullets weights would you look at for pig?

Thanks
Red

I'd go 35 Whelen, 30-06/180, and 7M/160 (or 175), in that order. But it probably doesn't matter. Okie John.

Yeah, myself and my buddies have hunted with Tom recently.

Tom and Blake put on a good hunt. They have a number of good properties with plenty of hogs. They have good dogs should a hog get away and need tracked down.

Any of the rifles you mentioned should work well, I would just stick with fairly heavy bullets.

The last two hogs I shot with Tom were shot with a 338 Win Mag using 200 grain Ballistic Tips and a 300 Weatherby using 180 grain Sierra Pro-Hunters. Both went down with no problem and both bullets gave complete penetration.

The last time I hunted with Tom there were four of us hunting. I shot my boar in the morning, we found around a dozen sound asleep in the shade. We snuck up on them and Blake helped me pick out the largest boar. When I shot him the rest took off, but we let them go, no good ones really.

We did not get any more that morning. We went back out about 6:30 in the evening, plenty of light left, last July.
We filled the other three hunters that evening and it was plenty exciting. I would bet that from 6:30 till dark I saw at least a 100 pigs. One really nice boar, but he was on the other side of the fence on another property.

Back to bullets, though. My dad was using a 7mm Rem Mag loaded with 139 grain Hornady SST's. Those bullets are just not up to the task for hogs. A solid hit right in the shoulder resulted in a wounded hog, the bullet never penetrated into the vitals. It was just damned near dark and the dogs were used to make a quick follow up and kill.

So, you should have a fine time with Tom Willoughby.

Good Luck, R F

I hunted with Tom around 2000 or 2001 and like they said it was almost too easy. Got a good shot about 75 yards or so with my 30-06 for a one shot kill. They cleaned it and I took it to a nearby butcher. A local restaurant served a lot of the sausage. Saw quite a few pigs. Mine was not real large but it was also not too tough. Enjoy.

Great feedback guys, I appreciate it. I am not sure on rifle but will keep the bullet weight up. Just got word from my gunsmith that my bolt for my 06 is on the its way back with the safety installed (03 springfield getting the mod70 safety working). Don't know how it shoots the heavier bullets but if it is anything like the lighter ones it may be in the running. The whelen load uses a 225 grain game king flying at 2800fps out of the 26" barrel, so it will be a hard choice. I'll get the rifles ready and maybe draw straws the morning I leave. :-)

I'm real excited about this, never been on a pig hunt before, and unless something happens between now and then it will be my first successful hunt.

What is best, have it butchered there in King City area and sent to me later? I can always go back and pick it up later, it is only a couple of hours away. Alternatively I could quarter it and put it in ice chests and bring back here and drop at the local butcher. Thoughts????

Red

I had mine done in King City at the IGA. The butcher shop is (or at least was) run by a fellow named Leeno (spelling?). I'm pretty particular and thought he did a great job; trimmed up nice and boned out the cuts I wanted boned, wrapped, and frozen. A the time, it cost $45-$50. Money well spent.

I wanted to add that another hunter who was with us took his with a .270 one-shot-one-kill. Tom will recommend a few of the local butchers and give directions.

Red, in regard to the meat processing, I guess having it done over there would be all right, but I have always just brought mine home. (Like you say, it is only a couple of hours away.)

In the past when I hunted with Tom he not only gutted the hogs, but he and Blake would skin them as well.

On one occasion we killed four hogs in the morning, they skinned them and we headed back, stopping long enough to put a bag of ice in the body cavity of each hog. They did fine, and this was in July.

The last time I hunted with him we did not fill out till flat out dark in the evening. They gutted and skinned the hogs then put them in a cold box they have at one of the ranches. We stayed in Paso Robles that night then drove back out and picked them up in the morning. Man, they were cooled down nice and ready for the ride home.

You want to remember to bring a deer bag to put them in though.

I live in Hanford, not far from you. I can highly recommend meat processing by either Weiberts out on Belmont near Sanger, or Glicks in Visalia, both have done good jobs for me in the past.

Good luck on the hunt.

R F

Weiberts is who I was going to use, I have been out there and talked to them before, great people. Since I have never been successful before I have never gutted out and skinned game. Being as anal about things as I am I didn't just want to read how to do it, but wanted to see, so went out there and they showed me on a cow the whole process.

I will discuss it with Tom before I go up there that I would like to bring it back, will take a bag of ice up there in a chest and make sure to have the deer bags.

I also hear that Weiberts makes the best sausage around, have you tried this out?

Red

Sounds like you got a real education at Weiberts. They are a good outfit. We take a lot of hogs in there.

Their sausage is very good. Be forewarned that the extra hot is just that, it's pretty darned hot. I mostly have them make their Oakie sausage, but had one made into German sausage recently. The Oakie is pretty much like their regular except that it has more sage. The German is real mild, but has a good flavor.

Be sure to have them cut you some chops off the pig as well, very good on the barbecue.

Sounds like you have got all the bases covered.

R F

Dago-

I used Weibert's when I was living in Clovis. I can recommend them too. They do good work. I believe they now require a deposit on hog processing. Just something to keep in mind. The okie sausage has too much sage for my taste. They did some deer burger Okie style for me, and the sage overpowered the rest of the flavor. A buddy had the same done to his buck and felt exactly the same way. Keep in mind though that those are just personal taste preferences. Weibert's does very good work. Good luck on your hunt.

Gib

Dago,

I'm booked the weekend after you. Leave some for me, lol.

I will leave you some nice ones. Although I would take a trophy pig if I saw it, I am just shooting for 120lbs plus, which Weiberts said is the minimum if I want enough on the ribs to get bacon, which of course I want bacon. That's like asking if fish want water.

So I know Weibert's hours, have a pretty good idea of what I'll have them do, and have a big barbeque here at work in August, so it'll be perfect timing. I just have to get up to the range enough in the interim to make sure I can shoot! I am leaning towards taking my 7mm with 175g bullets loaded up if I can get a load developed and shoot it straight in time.

by the way, isn't the 450 for two days? I thought that the one website I got his number from said it is for two days but almost everybody gets theirs the first day.

Red

That's a good question? I assumed it was for both days and that if you got yours the first you just went home early. I'll use the extra day to give the public lands a go or at least scout them out. Got nothing to loose.

I know what you mean about getting a load worked up in time. I just finished putting together my .308 and the first outing at the range was ok. I managed a few sub 2" groups which is good enough but most were about 2". I realized I need to work on the bedding and forearm in particular. I found I hadn't allowed enough room in the forend to compensate for the finish I applied. No big deal but there goes another load development session.

Not me, the gun is a good shooter it seems, I just can't hold it steady worth a crap, one group under 2", then about 3" groups (two shots close and I would pull one wide). so for now I am not going to try. I am going to take some small paper plates out to the range with me, set them up at 100, 150, 200 and take off hand and one knee down etc. shots at them in no particular order till I am hitting them consistently.

Red

Does he do any hunting ON Fort Hunter-Liggett or just in the King City area? Does he go over the hill to the vicinity of Jolon?

Hobie, Tom lives in King City but has ranches leased in several areas.

When I have hunted with him we have hunted mostly down closer to San Miguel which is just north of Paso Robles.
He has access to some good properties, he kills lots of hogs.

I do not believe anyone hunts Hunter Liggett commercially.
It is open to the public on weekends and such, but I doubt they would allow commercial operations.

R F

Jimmy Rizzo will guide you on FHL.

Sorry, he just changed numbers and I don't have his new one yet. I'll try and get it this week.

How do I get in touch with Tom? Sounds like I may need to book a hunt!

Thanks

Tom Willoughby's phone number is (831) 385-3003.

R F