Setting Up a DIY Hunt

    Since leaving Hawaii and moving up to northern California I have had to address many issues with wanting to start hunting locally. Although I live in northern California, all my family and friends that would want to hunt with me are in southern California. So logistically it becomes an issue. Another obstacle is finding an over the counter tag for a species that everyone would like to hunt. And lastly, finding accessible public land to hunt on. I have found that the internet is a god send for all hunters looking to set up a new hunt in a new area. Our big annual hunt is an archery elk hunt in Oregon. This requires a minimum of a week off of work and close to a $1000 per person once you add in the out of state license, tag, gas, food, etc. So keeping the smaller, in between hunts, to 0-1 days off of work and as cheap as possible is of the highest priority. Another thing that I needed to keep in mind was the annual hunting and fishing trips that we already have planned. I wanted to find something that we could fit into the off season. Something to keep us hunting when all other seasons were closed. So we settled on hog hunting.

     I have a little experience with hunting wild boars on the island of Oahu with my bow, but never hunted them in the wide open spaces of the west with a rifle. So I started my research. In scouring the web for any and all details for hog hunts in California, I found out a few things. Number one being that most of the hogs are on private land which will cost a minimum of $500 to harvest. The other being that there is not a lot of public land to hunt on. After a few weeks of getting quotes for private guided hunts, I found an article on SFGate.com. The article, titled,"Wild pig boom provides decent hunting on public sites" makes mention of a few public land hunts. I then took that information and Google searched the specific sites, taking specific interest in anything from the BLM. (Bureau of Land Management). When doing that, I was able to find animal species in the area, camping options near the hunting grounds and specific instructions pertaining to the area. Some specific instructions might be, no 4x4 off of designated roads. Or bows only, no rifles. That is the kind of stuff I was looking for.

Once I was able to get dialed in on the BLM information in regards to the specific area's, it was all down hill. I was then able to check the harvest rates through the DFG (Department of Fish and Game). So I had narrowed it down to three specific locations. I put together a package that had location (driving distance), harvest rates, camping options, list of species in the area, and cost for license and tags. This took me a couple of months to figure out, but by following these basic steps, I think I can set up any DIY public land hunt in California. These types of hunts I find to be the most rewarding. I get a since of pleasure knowing that I did the research and went from knowing nothing to providing wild game on my table for the family.

You can find website links on our Links page.

Thanks for Reading.