[camper4lyfe]

My dad turned 60 on Saturday, and one day while watching Hog Wild on TV, he decided he wanted to do a boar hunt for his birthday, so he set one up, with he, myself, and my brother-in-law.

The hunt went great. I had a difficult time accepting that it was "canned" hunt until I found out that these boars were actually trapped wild down south and brought to the ranch. At that point, my dad referred to them as "free range hogs", and compared them to free range chickens, and honestly, it's a pretty good comparison.

Anyway, we got into Tioga around 4, had a chance to get unpacked before supper at 5: Buffalo goulash. Yum! After that, we were on our own. Being from NY, we had completely forgotten that PA's alcohol laws are weird, so we made a run back to NY (only 15 minutes) to grab some frosty adult beverages, and returned to the ranch to hang out for the night.

We got up the next morning and headed over for breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, and coffee. Breakfast was a little late, but we got finished up and headed out to meet our guide. We had Jason, and he was great. After the standard "here's what you need to know", we headed into the woods and set up. My brother-in-law and I decided that my dad would go first to give him the most time to get one, as the hunt was his idea, and it was his birthday. About 5 minutes after finding our spot, the first group of pigs came through, but he didn't have a good enough shot on any of them. The pusher found one hog hanging out down the hill some, so we went down to "adjust its attitude". My dad dropped it with a single shot. It's the black and white one in the attached pictures.

After the guide dressed out my dad's hog, we set up just up the hill for my turn. As we're sitting there talking and waiting, I looked up the hill and saw 2 hogs just hanging out. I called the guide over to size them for me. Unfortunately, they headed up the hill and out of range, but they both walked into another group who got the bigger of the two. The smaller one that we were looking for came back down the hill, and I finally got a good shot on him with my .22-250, and he decided to take a nap about 20 yds from my dad's. Mine's the black one.

My brother-in-law went last. As the other groups were finishing up their hunts, there were less people out and about pushing up the hogs, so we had to do some walking for find one for my BIL. Between getting mine, and finding one for my BIL, it started to rain. By the time we got to shooting range for the 3rd, his scope had fogged up, so he couldn't get a good shot, and missed on a running hog. We decided to call it a morning by that point, and went back for some lunch.

After a really good lunch of roast boar, mashed potatoes, and gravy, we headed out to fill tag #3. As we're walking through the woods, we spot one bedded down in a ravine. The pusher was practically on top of it before it got up, and unfortunately headed in the wrong direction. We moved off to what equated to a junction of paths to wait for the next little piggie to come through. We watched him come over the hill and magically stop almost perfectly broadside, and he was dropped with a perfect .30-06 heart shot.

All in all, it was a good time. I'm glad I did it, and our freezers have a fair amount of meat in them. It's not something I'd do every day, but under the right circumstances, I would gladly do it again.