AgentP
Registered: May 2003
Location: South Pasadena, CA
Posts: 214
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Review Date: Tue April 18, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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comfortable cabin, lots of land, hard working guide
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Cons:
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finding the cabin, dirt roads and unpaved fields are bumpy
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I went on a hog hunt with Nolan Twisselman of Twisselman Outfitters on April of 2006 and had a good time. This outfit is run by 2-3 brothers and some of their sons/nephews who sometimes guide. My guide was Nolan, one of the three brothers, who did a great job for me. This is approximately a 2 1/2 to 3 hr. drive from Los Angeles and the ranch is located about 10 miles north of the Carrizo Plain Nat'l monument.
Setting up the hunt was relatively easy and req'd a $100 deposit. The hunt is for 1 1/2 full days. You can show up on Friday night and sleep in a little cabin they have (included in the price) and start hunting early Sat. morning, Sat. evening and Sunday a.m. again. The only difficulty I had was that when I showed up after dark on Friday, I couldn't find the cabin b/c it isn't marked and I couldn't call Nolan b/c Cingular does not have cell phone coverage up there. I knocked on some doors, found a nephew who called Nolan who showed me to the Cabin, the first building off the road.
I woke at 4:45 a.m. on Sat. and Nolan showed up with a new Ford F250 diesel flat bed at 5:20 and we took off in the dark, driving on a lot of cow pasturage access roads. We drove to a knob overlooking a long valley with water that the pigs frequent and glassed the valley below for close to an hour without seeing any activity. The remainder of the morning (until about noon) we spent driving around the extensive propery the Twisselman family either owns or has access to (mostly beef cattle fields with native grass pasturage with some oak and juniper scrub and a few planted fields. We would drive to a spot and glass for 10 to 20 minutes then drive to a new spot.
This morning was atypical according to Nolan in that we spotted absolutely zero pigs. However, I had a great time spotting a herd of elk, 2 pronghorn antelope, a couple of blacktail, 3 coyotes, innumerable jackrabbits, several quail, a badger, ground squirrels, burrowing owls and two golden eagles. When noon rolled around we decided that it was useless continuing until later on so we returned to the main ranch and I took a nap then drove through Carizzo for diversion. Nolan showed up at 4:30 and we went to a new spot where Nolan's brother has fenced in a small group of Buffalo (fences that obviously wouldn't have slowed the pigs down in the least) where his brother had reported seeing pigs. I walked/still hunted through a steep draw where the pigs were last seen but didn't spot anything. Knowing I might jump a buffalo put some more excitement into the event.
We then drove to yet another property and we eventually glassed a group of 12 - 13 hogs across a steep valley about 500 yds away. Definite wild boar blood running in the strain, 2 whitish pigs and the rest about equally divided between black and reddish colored very hairy. It was now about 5:00 and we decided that a successful stalk and shoot would leave us with a long, up and down drag through juniper scrub in the dark. Nolan knows the land pretty well so he honked the horn of the truck for a minute to jump the pigs who went over top of the hill behind them. As they were doing so we raced around the mountain to the back side on some access roads. From there the hunt was much more on foot as we played hide and seek with the pigs, spotting them several times but not getting any shot opportunities for another hour as whenever we would see them they were moving quickly through dense juniper and mixed shrub.
We got into the truck and drove ahead to where we thought they were going to be coming out, got out of the truck and found comfortable positions and waited. About 5 minutes later the pigs showed up close to but not exactly where we expected them to be and across a not deep but very steep gully/canyon but headed downwards to where the gully/canyon bottomed out. We got in the truck and drove ahead 400 yds. This got the pigs trotting fast again so when we stopped I jumped out and got ready to shoot. I got into sitting position with a hasty sling picked out a nice red sow, probably 150 lbs. or so (there were no piglets in the group) lined her up as she passed by on the opposite side of the gully about 60 yrds away and pulled the trigger, . . . . click!
In all the getting into and out of the truck I had lost track of whether there was a round in the chamber. I don't like riding with a chambered gun and tried to remember to take the round out of the chamber each time I got into the truck, but I thought I hadn't done that the last time as we raced ahead of the pigs and that a round was still chambered. Oops, the sound of that click was a lot louder than the sound of an actual round going off. I worked the bolt and chambered a round (shooting a Savage 110 in 270 loaded with Federal cartridges topped with Barnes triple X 130 gr. bullets, all topped with a Kahles 2.2 x 9 scope set at 5x).
By now the pigs were strung out over 30 to 40 yrds with the lead pigs already rounding the top/corner of the hill so I selected the last little piggie at about 100 yds., a little uphill and more than quartering away and placed the reticle just ahead of the last rib and squeezed the trigger. By the time I got my face away from the scope to look she was performing her second roll down the hill, an immediate drop shot. She rolled and slid about 25 to 30 yds downhill and came to a stop. We hiked about 80 yds to her, 30 yds. downhill, 50 yds uphill and reversed the journey dragging a 90 to 100 lb. pig. At the narrowest part of the gulley there was a 3 foot wide and 10 foot deep water carved ravine that we jumped over together. My bullet entered just behind her last rib and exited right through the opposite side shoulder but missed any messy organs (didn't hit any guts, stomach or liver, just lungs and I think the heart but we didn't take time to do a thorough inspection.
The shot was at 6:45 p.m. and getting dark so I let Nolan field dress the pig which he accomplished in about 5-10 minutes with me providing minimal assistance. We loaded the pig up on the truck, Nolan dropped me off at the cabin at around 7:30 and I gathered my stuff up while he drove to his house about 3 miles away and started skinning and quartering the pig. I met Nolan at his house at about 8:00 and the pig was skinned quartered and on ice in my cooler by about 8:30 when I started driving home.
Nolan worked hard, and certainly knew what he was doing, where the hogs were, the lay of the land and how to glass. The first two times he pointed out the pigs we found I assumed they were just some more rocks but he picked them out very quickly. He did a great job field dressing, skinning and quartering my hog for me and I had a great time.
If this style of hunt appeals (guided and using a truck to cover a lot of ground) then I would definitely recommend Nolan Twisselman. Nolan seems to be pretty quiet, like me, so we didn't talk much. If you like a story teller to amuse you I don't know if Nolan would fit the bill or not but I enjoyed his company. I will probably bring my older son here for his first pig hunting experience sometime this fall.
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CATManReid
Registered: August 2006
Location: Oakhurst, CA
Posts: 279
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Review Date: Wed October 18, 2006
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Friendly, accomodating, and on the hogs
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Cons:
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Spent a weekend on the ranch with some friends and had a total blast. Shot a couple coyotes and even went with the Twisselman family on a complete hunt and see tour of the ranch. Great family atmospshere. Very accomodating, very friendly. Highly recommended!!!!
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got2fishsd
Registered: September 2006
Posts: 18
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Review Date: Wed February 7, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $475.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Friendly guides who know how to find hogs
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Cons:
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Dirty cabin
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For the price you cant beat it. I was with a group of four, we all got one hog in the slowest time of the year. Hunted with bothe Nolan and Tanner and had a great time. Like stated before lots of ground to cover, so there is a need to use a truck. Both guides were great and knew how to find the hogs. The cabin needs a little work but it is their off season and it will be great when done.
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jonnyboy719
Registered: July 2007
Posts: 6
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Review Date: Thu August 9, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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knows where the hogs are, also a lot of game on the ranch
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Cons:
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hard to find the cabin, not much to do in the cabin
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Went bowhunting for wild pig with nolan twisselman with my dad in the winter and had a great time hunting with him. He knows where the wild pigs are hanging out at and was very good at helping me spot some nice hogs. Through out the hunt we got close to many wild pigs, but they all got away so I came home empty handed. Thought i didn't shoot any pigs I had a great time and saw a lot of game especially deer. I saw about 20 deer in 1 day. Gee, I should have asked if he offers deer hunts.
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;)
;)
Registered: March 2001
Location: SoCal --- Still American Territory @ this time