It was a beautiful morning along California's Central Coast. We were on a high ridge, with contour-farmed barley stubble stretching away for miles. The clear October sky promised another cloudless, unseasonably warm day, but the morning was pleasantly cool. Outfitter Doug Roth of Camp 5 Outfitters had warned us that this was a transition period. The live oak trees were starting to drop their acorns, and the pigs were switching from the barley fields to the oak valleys and hillsides. But he figured there would still be a few pigs coming out of the barley.

He was right. A small herd flitted past us before shooting light, just dark shadows against the bleached stubble. More had almost certainly slipped through in the dark. In warm weather, pigs naturally tend to head for their bedding grounds early. With constant hunting pressure, pigs--especially the older boars--become almost like vampires, never allowing the sun's rays to catch them.

But they make mistakes, and a few minutes later a good boar made a colossal blunder, trotting across the skyline two ridges away, headed vaguely in our direction. The wind was fine, so we maneuvered quickly to get in front of him. This was the way it was supposed to happen; my hunt would be finished well ahead of sunrise, and we'd have to wait to get the light right for photos. I guess I was already posing him for the camera, because I blew the easy shot.

A little while later we spotted a group of a dozen or so, just small dots at maybe 1,000 yards. We had to scramble a bit to get in front of them, but we did. My buddy Geoff Miller took a sow for hams and sausage, and that was pretty much the end of the morning.

The hunt I just described is fairly typical for warmer months, when the action is generally limited to the first couple of hours in the morning and the last hour before dark. During midday, the pigs are bedded along the chaparral hillsides--thick, nasty stuff. You can go in there after them, but they'll usually smell you or hear you, and while you might get a shot, it's unlikely to be able to see clearly just what kind of a pig you're shooting at.

Opposite: Killing a mature boar with big tusks is the equivalent to a 28-inch 4x4 mulie or a 10-point whitetail in terms of difficulty and accomplishment.

There's another reason why we don't spend much time trying to "walk up" pigs during the midday hours. While you can hunt hogs in their favored feeding grounds day after day, if you disturb them in their bedding grounds, they will leave and may not return for weeks.

However, if you're dead-set on putting pork in the freezer, midday glassing the chaparral thickets is an option, and sometimes you get lucky. Last spring, hunting with John Lazzeroni and outfitter Kyler Hamann of Boaring Experiences, we were glassing a hillside at just the right time to spot an unseen boar get up to shift to a shadier location.

We were on one ridge, he was on another, and there was no way we could approach him. The distance was 250 yards, so we set up a super-accurate Savage 110 in .308 Patriot on a bipod, and I sailed a 220-grain Sierra into exactly the right place. I wish I could do it that well all the time.

On most guided hunts, you can figure on two good mornings and two good evenings, with the middays played by ear depending on the weather and the degree of determination. In that time, most pig hunters along the Central Coast will be successful--especially if they're looking for an eatin'-size pig. Now, if you want a mature, big-bodied boar with good tusks, the odds drop in a hurry.

Wild hogs are not found throughout California, but they are well-distributed along the coast range from Santa Barbara northward and in the foothills of the Sierras on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley. By nature they are hard on fences, voraciously destructive of crops, and their rooting causes erosion.

Although declared a game animal many years ago, the season is year-round, any pig is legal game, and in most areas there is no bag limit. Pigs have to be tagged; residents pay $9.20 for a book of five tags, and nonresidents pay $12 per tag (plus the cost of a basic nonresident license).

Despite this liberal season, California's wild hogs continue to increase and expand their range. For many years they have attracted more hunter interest than deer--making California the only state in the Lower 48 in which an animal other than deer is the most important big game animal.

The primary reason for the continued expansion is that pigs are extremely prolific, breeding year-round with multiple litters possible. Populations drop noticeably (and shift) during dry years, but they rebound quickly when the rains come.

Most California hogs live under conditions of periodic drought and long summers that are always hot and dry. Because of this, Golden State pigs generally don't get as large as do Southeastern wild hogs. A mature boar will probably be at least five years old, maybe twice that, and might weigh as little as 175 pounds or maybe as much as twice that. Genuine weights exceeding 350 pounds are possible but extremely rare.

Variously described as "wild boars" and "wild hogs"--and, by some imaginative outfitters and writers, as "European" and even "Russian" wild boars--California wild hogs are all properly termed "feral pigs." They are descendants of domestic swine that, during the homesteading era, were allowed to roam free, and they established breeding populations in the wild. Still, they are the same Sus scrofa species as the genuine European wild boar, and after just a few generations in the wild their physiology changes considerably. They become longer and rangier, with smaller hams and more powerful shoulders. The tail unkinks, the ears become straighter, and the snout appears longer.

Colors are a grab bag: black, spotted, belted, white, and various shades of brown and red. Over the years there have been several introductions of pure European wild boar into various populations. The first known release of pure European stock into my part of the Central Coast occurred in the 1920s, and a large percentage of our Central Coast pigs show the grizzled hair on adults and the horizontal striping of piglets found on wild boars across Europe and Asia.

To me, a trophy boar is a grownup male pig with thick, gleaming tusks. Circumference is just as important as length, but I figure a good pig will have lower tusks protruding 2 1/2 inches out of the gum line, and a great pig will reach three inches.

One of the most effective ways to hunt Central Coast hogs is to glass feeding areas at first light and last light and try to intercept any pigs entering or leaving.

The tusks continue to grow throughout the pig's life, but longer tusks are rare because the lower tusks are sharpened and worn down by rubbing against the upper tusks, and of course they are worn down farther and often broken by rooting and fighting.

On the hoof it is nearly impossible to judge tusk length. Sometimes, in the right light, you get lucky and can see the gleam, but you'll rarely have the time and the angles to see both sides, so you often have to take your chances based on body size and obvious maturity.

Given their relative scarcity, difficulty to judge and the fact that older boars become nocturnal, I figure a mature boar with good tusks is a trophy of similar quality to a 28-inch 4x4 mule deer or a mature 10-point whitetail.

Unless the food conditions have been exceptional, an older boar is rank and tough--what we call a "sausage pig." The meat from younger boars and especially dry sows is much, much better. In my opinion, the chops and properly cured hams from our wild hogs are better, more flavorful and as tender as the best domestic pork. So I generally pass up boars in favor of a nice "eatin'-size" hog, maybe 150 pounds or so.

Timing the Hunt
I prefer the morning hunt because it lasts longer; in the evenings you often don't see pigs until that last half-hour between sunset and the end of legal shooting, and it can be a real scramble to get to a pig you've glassed before it's too late. One evening, Kirk Kelso and I were posted along a ridge above a thick chaparral pocket that was classic bedding cover. We saw absolutely nothing until the last hour before dark. Then we started hearing pigs moving, grunting and fighting in the dark brush down below us.

With the sundown came the hogs, streaming out of the chaparral along trails through saddles on our ridge. In the last half-hour of shooting light I'm sure we saw more than 50 hogs in several groups, and Kirk took a big-bodied boar.

Central Coast pigs can be hunted successfully and effectively throughout the year. I used to think that the late winter was best because the hogs are out longer in the cooler months--sometimes all day. However, this is also the time of year when we get most of our annual rainfall, and when the first winter rains bring on new green, the pigs scatter to the four winds.

A bit later on--May or possibly April depending on the rains--the barley comes up. This is irresistible to pigs, and they will hit the barley every night as long as it remains.

Although the hunting hours are short, I really like summertime pig hunting because the animals are concentrated in the barley. And summer is probably the best time to find big boars because even though they tend to come late and leave early, they will hit the barley.

Later, in the fall, acorns become more important. Pigs are harder to spot under the oaks, but in a good acorn year you know that's where they will be--or headed to and fro--in the mornings and evenings.

California hunters discovered long ago that our pig hunting is just plain wonderful. The coastal mountains are beautiful, and even during our hot summers the mornings and evenings are pleasantly cool.

One of the few drawbacks is that the hogs are concentrated on private ranch land where there is developed water and at least some agriculture, so public land opportunities are few. However, that fact is balanced with the wealth of competent guides who have good private land to hunt. Success isn't assured, but it's unusual to hunt a couple of days without getting an opportunity, and prices are very low as guided hunts go--especially since you'll go home with a cooler full of good meat.

Our local guides tend to stay busy with California hunters; nonresident clients are fairly rare. I've never understood this. It's a real hunt, in pretty country with normally beautiful weather. The odds are good that you'll see lots of game and be successful, and it's a hunt that can be done in a long weekend in any month of the year.

I go out several times a year to test bullets, guns and optics, and to keep my glassing, stalking and field shooting skills sharp. But these are just excuses. Mostly I hunt pigs because they're lots and lots of fun.

Big Guns For Big Pigs

Wild hogs are not bulletproof and under most conditions are certainly not dangerous. But they are more strongly constructed and are tougher, pound for pound, than any deer. They also have thick hides underlain by layers of fat, so they rarely leave good blood trails. And they do have the capability to turn the tables if you make a mistake--especially if you have to follow a wounded pig into the thick stuff. It isn't common, but every year our local hospitals stitch up hunters whose encounters have been a little too close. The best way to avoid trouble is to shoot straight, use enough gun and use a tough bullet that will absolutely penetrate. "Enough gun" doesn't mean a cannon. I like the various .35 calibers from .358 Win. up through .35 Whelen and .350 Rem. Mag., but the .270s, 7mms, and .30 calibers are just fine if mated with a bullet designed to penetrate: Nosler Partition, Barnes X, Winchester Fail Safe, Swift A-Frame.