Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game AAR: Dash Ranch Feral Hog Hunt

Once I turned 55, I realized that my big-game hunting time was starting to get limited, and I decided to start making the classic North American hunts that I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. I’ve always wanted to hunt species that don’t live near me, so these hunts are focused partly on species, but they’re focused on terrain, since I’ve spent most of the last 30 years hunting on tree farms as described here https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/11623852/Searchpage/2/Main/800021/Words/%2Broosevelt/Search/true/first-elk-first-roosevelt#Post11623852 and the novelty has pretty much worn off of that.

My son was home from college for the summer, and while he and I have hunted feral hogs and deer several times and in several places, he’s never scored. Feral hogs were on my list, so I booked a hunt with the Dash Ranch in Oak Run, CA (http://northerncaliforniahunting.com/) hoping that we’d break that streak.

The Outfitter
I have no financial interest in the Dash Ranch, but things went really well and I want to pass the word along. Dave owns the ranch and manages the deer hunts, while his son-in-law Tyler runs the hog hunts. The website pretty well explains how the hunts work, and everything it said turned out to be accurate. The one thing it doesn’t mention is how beautiful northern California is. I had only driven through that part of the world once before, but I didn’t get very far off of I-5 on that trip. This time we got away from the main road, and I was blown away by the beauty.

Pre-hunt communication was clear and timely. Tyler answered my questions quickly. He said that the hog numbers were such that we could only take one hog, so my son got the slot. Tyler said that we were all but guaranteed a shot, and that the rest was up to us. And that came true on the ground.

The Area & Conditions
The Dash Ranch is located outside of Oak Run, CA, about 25 miles from Redding, CA. We live in Seattle, and the map indicated a 9-hour drive. We spent the night in Grants Pass, OR, then drove to the ranch.

We passed Mt. Shasta along the way:



The stretch from Grants Pass to the ranch took a bit longer than expected due to road work, so next time I’ll allow an extra hour or two for that leg of the drive.

As for the ranch itself, pictures don’t really do it justice. Most of it is rolling hills with rocky ground, covered in oak scrub with plenty of air and light in between:



The Hunt
The ranch itself is 1,800 acres. Dave and Tyler have game cameras in key locations and they’re out on the ground several times a week, so they have a very good idea of how the deer and hogs are moving.

Tyler said that this was the shortest hunt in the history of the ranch. A few days before the hunt, he emailed and asked that we arrive at 2:00 PM because the hogs were moving earlier in the day than usual. After we arrived, we drove to the bunk house and rinsed off in the shower without using soap or shampoo. In my rush to get out the door, I left our shooting sticks in Seattle, so Tyler found us a pair. We sprayed our hunting clothes with a scent blocker, then headed out.

We drove out the back gate of the ranch headed for a watering hole.



Within half a mile, we jumped a herd of 6-8 large hogs. We didn’t want to spook them, so we watched them and drove another half-mile, parked the Jeep, and walked a few hundred yards to a little hilltop overlooking a watering hole/wallow.



We set up shop there and prepared to wait a couple of hours for the hogs to show up.



But the hogs arrived in less than 10 minutes. Tyler pointed out the one that my son should shoot. My son fired one shot at about 120 yards that destroyed the hog’s heart and broke the offside leg. The hog made a mad 75-yard dash and left a blood trail wide enough that Ray Charles could have tracked it.



We gutted the hog, then took him back to the ranch. Tyler got him skinned and hung in the cooler in time for dinner, which is unusual since most of the shooting happens at last light and the hunters usually don’t get back until 10:00 PM or later. Tyler’s wife, Heather, made us dinner, which we ate with Tyler and his family. It was really nice to come out of the field and have a hot meal waiting for us.

Rifles
My son used a Husqvarna 1640 in 30-06 with a fixed 4x Leupold. The load was a 165-grain Remington Power Point over 55 grains of IMR 4350 in mixed brass. We zeroed at 100 yards per Tyler’s request. I chronographed it later and found that it was doing 2,550 FPS from the Husky’s 20.5” barrel. That's somewhere between 300 Savage and 308 Winchester ballistics, which surprised me. On the other hand, it certainly worked.

Tyler’s backup was an 18” barreled 20-gauge Mossberg pump loaded with buckshot. He’s had to go into the brush after wounded hogs before, and he finds this to be the best tool for the job. He also showed us the head of a hog that he’d stopped with a face full of buckshot at 15 yards. The damage was impressive.

Preparation
My son has been shooting since he was small, but has been away at school for three years and hasn’t gotten much range time since he left. We hit the range twice in two weeks before we left and had a couple of extensive dry-fire sessions. Once we confirmed his zero, we focused the prep work on shooting from sitting with sticks and from sitting with a sling, plus plenty of fast bolt work. It paid off, even though the bolt practice wasn’t needed.

Conclusion
Looking back on this hunt, I realize that it was a classic West Coast hunting experience just like a driven quail hunt is a classic Southern hunting experience. Tyler, Dave, and Heather took care of use like we were family. They were all relaxed and focused on making sure that the hunt went well, which it absolutely did. I’ll definitely make the drive back to the Dash Ranch for another hog next spring, and will probably hunt deer with them if I can book a spot.

Let me know if you have questions.


Okie John

Your post is a very good read. Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations on getting to spend time hunting with your son.

If you woudn't mind sharing, what did the guided trip cost you? Was it a single day hunt? Also, contact information for your guide, please.

okie john,

Thanks for taking the time to put together such a fun story and photos of your hunt. Enjoying a day with a son will never happen for some of us whose daughters never took to shooting and hunting when introduced to it.

If you wanted to hunt pigs again there is a place closer. It is called 4 Aces Hunting Ranch near Madras, Or. I normally get a couple pigs a year from there. It takes the nine of us about one year to eat that much pork, fish and venisen. They also skin, clean them, and cut them down the spine with a sawsall and put them in your cooler. The owner Caleb Johnson, the former PBR rider, is a pleasure to hunt with. Here is a link. http://www.fouracesranch.net/contact.htm

Normally the pigs are $600, but I go to the sportsman's show and get the show special and save $50.

Yes, it was a one-day hunt. The cost was $850 plus $150 for the non-hunter (me). This included the actual guide services, plus gutting, skinning, hanging the carcass in a cooler overnight, lodging on the ranch on the night of the hunt, dinner on the night of the hunt, and a light breakfast on the morning after the hunt.

You also need a California non-resident hunting license ($164.16) and tag ($75.60). Travel expenses were on top of that.

Contact info for the Dash Ranch is at http://www.northerncaliforniahunting.com/ I'll ping the guide and ask if it's OK to show his phone number here.


Okie John

Just heard from the guide. Feel free to call him at 530-472-3374 or 530-945-7139.


Okie John

I have a couple of questions to throw throw out there. How many other states with hogs also charge a tag price as well as the hunting license? What is the the typical hunting license for pigs in other states, just asking. Thanks for your time. Cheers NC

I thought hog hunting was free.

I typically do not do paid hunts, as I have a trespass lease.

In the last two years I've done the 24hr hog hunt with Prickly Pear Outfitters at the Thompson Ranch in south Texas. Two years ago it was $750 for four days, meals, lodging and 3 hogs. A fourth could be shot for $100. Four hog limit. Last year it was $900. Exotics could be taken for a fee.

I can kill all the hogs I want at 1/3rd the price. I do this hunt cause I like the guys that go on it.


IIRC, a 5 day non-resident license in Texas is +/- $48 and will allow one to hunt hogs and non-indigenous species, but not white-tail deer or turkey.


As to free hunting, nothing is free! There is a cost to everything. Somebody pays.

Landowners pay taxes, for equipment, for labor, for maintenance, for stock, for feed, for electricity, for gas. You let someone come on your property you don't know, they may shoot your livestock, set fires, leave trash, sue you if they get hurt, or expect you to wait on them hand and foot.

Landowners have realized that folks will pay good money to hunt critters that are a nuisance at best and vermin at worst, and trespass leasing and day hunting can be a way to recoup costs.

On the other side of the fence, in Texas I pay for a hunting license, and a trespass fee for my deer lease. When I go to my lease I pay for ice, gas, groceries, adult beverages, cigars, corn for my spin-cast feeders, and ammo. I make 15 to 20 trips per year. It usually cost me between $250 to $400 per trip all in. When I invite guests, I make sure I have two ATVs to get around on, Ice, adult beverages and cigars. I don't charge my guests, but they still have the investment in transportation, tobacco and specific beverages that they prefer as opposed to what I like.

just sayin!

GWB

Nice write up and I'm glad you had a good time.

Looks like a great trip!! Thanks..

I live in Washington state. You need a license to hunt hogs here, but we don't have any hogs to hunt. Hog hunting in Oregon is free; they've only got a few and they want to keep it that way. Both states get so much rain that we'd be ideal hog habitat, but hogs would destroy the tree farms that fuel so much of our economies. (See Hawaii as a case in point.) Hunters want to manage hogs like deer or elk, but hogs multiply faster than hunting can control them, so that's a no-go from the agricultural standpoint. Our state legislatures and game departments work closely with timber companies, so there will be a full-court press if there’s any chance that feral hogs might get established around here. Part of that is keeping them from getting established in the first place. In both states it’s illegal to let hogs turn feral, so you couldn't set up a hog hunting operation without ending up in jail.



Like geedubya said, someone always pays. When I pay for a hunt, I don’t see it as paying to shoot something. I see it as paying for someone to spend 365 days a year
1. Owning and maintaining the land where the game lives and dealing with all of the hassle and taxes that go with that
2. Owning and maintaining a TON of equipment including vehicles, boats, mountain bikes, etc.
3. Owning and maintaining a place for me to stay
4. Knowing where the game is most of the time
5. Knowing where the game will go when it gets pressured

If I kill something, then I’m paying them to help me recover several hundred pounds of meat and prepare it for the trip home.

When you see it that light, paying to hunt is a bargain, especially when you compare it to self-guided hunts. Most folks I’ve hunted with have two or three other jobs in addition to ranching and guiding. They earn every nickel they get from me or anyone who hunts with them.


Okie John

Thanks. I'm seriously looking at giving up hunting deer and elk as a result of how well this hunt went.


Okie John

Just picked up breakfast sausage, andouille, ribs, and chops from the butcher. Report follows soonest.


Okie John

Finally got a moment to apply heat to sausages. Started with bulk breakfast sausage:





Mild sage/spice + strong pork flavor. NOT gamey. Extremely lean—I tossed it into a cast-iron skillet expecting to have grease to fry andouille and eggs afterwards, but I had to add olive oil for the andouille. Speaking of which:



Again, rich pork flavor with some back heat but zero grease. The grind was a little coarse so the one that I butterflied fell apart.

Final verdict on feral hogs: 10/10. Would hunt again.



Ribs and chops are up next.


Okie John

Looks like a fun time; I love the taste of the wild pork!

Nice write up of a great time!

But where's the picture of the hog? That's a nice gut pile but where's the Trophy pic?

Todd

Feel free to overnight sausage samples...