Contributors to this thread:
It's about time for some more pictures. We apologize for the absence but want to thank all of you whom have texted or written us with words of encouragement.
In the meantime, we've been blessed with meeting some new friends. This past week we've had the Fulton family come visit us from Indiana and we got to share with their family hunt. Their first evening out, young Ben shot this dandy Black Hawaiian ram. Congratulations on a great shot Ben!
Ben's mom, Christy, was hunting with him and shot this nice red and black spotted hog, both from the ground blind at stand #5. Good shot Christy!
Dad was hunting with Hannah at stand 1a, when she put a perfect shot on this big black hog. Congratulations Hannah! That's the way to show the boys how it's done!
Here's a nice family picture. We didn't get a picture of big sister Madison yet, as she was back at the guest house cooking dinner. Maddie prefers to cook the food rather than kill it, which sure sounds like a great arrangement to me!
Here's Madison with a trophy birthday cake she baked. Thank you so much for sharing some of that great cake with us, as well as your spring break. It was a pleasure to get to meet you all and look forward to seeing you all again!
Congrats Fultons! That is a great looking Black Hawaiian. ROE beast!
Ben made a great shot on this monster gold medal Black Hawaiian!
Great job Fultons! Thanks for the pictures.
So glad that Ben removed that tempting ram before Porkapalooza.
Thanks Ben!
Wow, Matt and Cheryl. Do we get a camp chef like that, too? Beautiful cake by Madison. More good folks making memories at Shiloh Ranch....shooting and cooking. You have to be proud.
I'm with you bad karma, we've never had a camp cook like that before. About all we get is one of the guys and Matt grills the steaks for Porkapalooza usually. I'm sure back in his younger days he was a real looker though.
Glad to see family memories being made and the kids out there. No place better to break them in than with Matt and Cheryl.
That is one fine looking ram- Congrats to a very happy, young hunter.
Looks like it was a great family outing and celebration.
The next group of guys are friends from Missouri whom have hunted with us several times in the past, and old hands at hog hunting!
Here's Jared with a big ol', hamp colored boar he shot.
Mason put the hurt on this nice black hog.
And here's Mike with what I think is the reddest hog I've ever seen!
I have to tell you, that we were downright impressed with the meals these guys "threw together" while down here! On their drive down, they stopped and caught some nice rainbow trout that they prepared Friday night. Then on Saturday this is what we found when we arrived in camp to start picking up hogs. Hunting is just as much about the camaraderie as it is about the killing, in fact even more so! That's part of what gives us so much enjoyment in getting to host the hunts. Thanks again guys, and we are looking forward to doing it again next time!
Thanks Matt!!! Drool and a keyboard don't go well together!
Actually I'm in turkey blind. Cheryl posted these. Big hogs for sure!
Looks like we may have to create a new menu for Porkapalooza. Those kabobs are way to colorful and fancy for hog camp. So did they go down over the fire pit as well with some oak and mesquite coals?
Man, when do they have time to hunt? Impressive.
I dunno looks like the guy on the left is standing guard over the kitchen workers to me. Maybe he didn't get to hunt and was brought along to cook only. I hope you don't expect me to do that in June. Lol
Well, since you volunteered....
Believe it or not, those guys threw those fancy meals together after their evening hunt. They cooked them over the fire pit.
Here are a few more pics from the last couple of groups. This is Bill from Virginia with a nice grizzly boar he shot.
Toby from Missouri shot this nice spotted hog.
Here's Kevin from Missouri with a nice fat hog! That one there is going to make some mighty fine pork sausage!
Spike from Missouri shot this good black hog. Congratulations guys! It was great seeing you all again and look forward to doing it again next year! Stay safe out in this crazy world you work in.
And for those of you who may not have seen it, bad karma was down here and did a mobile live hunt last week. There are a bunch of pictures and details from his hunt on that thread. Make sure you go check it out!
Kevin always manages to kill the big ones. Here's a picture of one of the two hogs he killed on this hunt. Go check it out to see the rest!
And Cheryl, the backstrap from that hog, with a brown sugar/ginger/serrano pepper/sweet Italian sausage seasoning rub, was one ridiculously tasty Sunday night.
The big ones are still delicious.
Kevin, I still contend that your taste buds were compromised in your younger years! 8^P
There were about 20 people at this gathering. The pork was gone in minutes. That boar is tasty....had layers of fat on his back from eating some farmer's crops and gorging on them.
Do you weigh every one? If so, what does that last one weigh?
I didn't weigh either one. Matt estimated my first one in the 150 range, the 2nd one around 180 as I recall. Matt's eyes are well-calibrated. He's not off by much when he's off.
The one on this thread had rolls of fat on him. Darn good looking piggy. And the backstrap was magnificent.
Man they look like giants in some of the photos compared to some of the hunters standing next to them. Sounds like a fun hunt.
Oh, a 180 lb hog is big. And they drag like a Volkswagen with the parking brake on. I find elk easier to drag than pigs.
My biggest one, a rarity, went 295 on their scales. Inbowdude remembers it, he helped me load it in the Mule.
A normal mature hog is in the 110-150 lb range. I've been fortunate.
I agree, Matt can estimate actual hog weight closer from a low-light phone picture, than I can standing beside the hog. I've seen it happen. :)
My back remembers that monster better than my mind, BK.
Ben from Nebraska came down to Oklahoma for his first hog hunt at Shiloh and took this nice black boar.
DW, also from Nebraska, shot this nice black meat hog. Congratulations guys! It was nice meeting you and getting to host your hunt.
Matt and I were blessed to have State Representative Brian Renegar, DVM come visit our ranch this week. Representative Renegar has been working diligently to educate the public about the need for hunting ranches in the state of Oklahoma to help control feral swine. Last year alone, the licensed sporting facilities such as Shiloh Ranch and No Mercy had killed over 30,000 hogs at no cost to the taxpayers. The Department of Agriculture on the other hand killed only just over 3,000 hogs at a cost of well over a million dollars...and then left the rotting carcasses for the landowners to deal with! We are working diligently to educate the public that without sporting facilities to buy the trapped hogs, the population will grow out of check. It is necessary to kill over 66% of the hog population just to maintain the current numbers. With over 600,000 feral hogs in Oklahoma, that's a lot of pork that needs to be killed! We will tell you more about our legislative battle as it unfolds.
Nice job by the folks from Grand Island. Great...
And Matt and Cheryl, thank Rep Renegar for me, and all of us "swine-o's"
This group from Nebraska didn't waste any time putting some pigs on the pole! On their first evenings hunt, six of them shot five hogs. Here is Cassie, Steve, Cary, Dan, Darrell and Rich with their trophies. Congratulations guys and gal and good shooting!
Here's a close-up of Cassie with the big, blonde boar she shot. Not to rub it in the guys noses or anything...but you go girl!
Hey, Cheryl, it's not a REAL update unless we have a progress report AND photo of Spuds McCraken...er, I mean, Kai.
Sadly, we don't have any good photos since she never holds still long enough for the camera to focus on her! I took over 20 pics of the last couple of hogs she tracked, and this is the best I could get!
We have started turning her loose on a couple of tracks where we were confident that the hogs were dead, but are still hesitant to let her chase a live, wounded boar. She is a bit more advanced in her training than Sage was at this age so it's easy to forget that she's still a pup. Unfortunately she has no fear and is wouldn't have any qualms about trying to fight something 10 times her size.
She does have one new advantage though that Sage didn't, and that with her GPS tracking collar. No more running through the woods trying to hear the bell!
GPS collars make it soooooooo much easier to enjoy a good hunt. My coonhound buddies say it is THE best invention of their time.
Thanks for the update.
Hank's still happy. I let him smell some fresh turkey feathers last night and he showed no interest. :-(
"No more running through the woods trying to hear the bell!" Shoot, that was half the fun! Of course, doing it once or twice is cool. I imagine it loses it's luster after the 30th time... Hard to guess how many times you guys had to do that with Sage!
Now, if you could just teach her to drag the hog to the road...
Yode, we brought a game cart last time. Money well spent. One guy wheeled his 90 pounder in from near number 3, all the way to base camp, and had no problems. James was pretty excited. First pig, shot in his bed.
I'm using wheels when a 200 lb hog is a few hundred yards in. We park it where the turn off is to get to number 1, or at the no. 4 right turn. That makes it reasonably convenient for about anyone.
Looks like Kai is getting a snout full of that porker:) Maybe a little shot of brandy might slow her down enough so she can take a good pic. Glad that she is doing well.
Take care gang.
Yode, well typed!
Bad Karma, once again, you prove you are a wise man.
Matt & Cheryl, Glad to see Kai is training well. But like Yode, I will miss hearing that bell.
Hearing the bell was the fun part...Not hearing the bell is when we got worried! At least we can see where she is on the GPS hand held when she isn't within bell distance. :)
Matt
When Kai gets on a hog, she's a walking commercial for doggie downers. That dog has no shortage of enthusiasm.
You aren't kidding about that Kevin! We are now letting her run entirely off-lead which sure speeds things up a bit. Last night she got to track her first double, recovering both hogs. It was the first time I've seen her sit quietly in the Kubota while we gutted the pigs. She was whooped!
Here's Josh, Brandon and Marco from Colorado. They went three for three last night. Congratulations and good shooting gentlemen!
And meanwhile, back at the Kubota, Cheryl and Matt can just sit back and relax, thanks to the folks at Garmin. :-)
It's almost like that little dog is getting a lot of practice, or something.
ITYS - Cheryl! :-)
Matt, those figures are impressive, may I quote that data? It's a great "for" argument.
love that pic of the red headed girl with the big hog and huge grin.... that's what it's about!
Fuzzy, yes you may. The hunting operations in Oklahoma are on track to surpass that number if the legislators and Ag Dept leave us do what we do best. Kill feral hogs!
awesome, I will use it. thanks Matt
Now that's we've got our heads above water again after the floods, it's time to start posting some pictures again. Sadly, I didn't take any for the past several weeks as we were always working in a downpour when we had hogs to pick up, and that doesn't make for good pics. We have some nice weather again and had some good hogs killed this weekend by our guests from Kansas and Nebraska.
The first evening out, Crystal from Nebraska shot this nice black sow. This was Crystal's first big game hunt. Congratulations Crystal!
Crystal's husband Scott had just dropped her off at stand 6 and he was heading back to seven when this porkchop made the mistake of stepping out in front of him. Scott launched an arrow and within three hours both of them had tagged a hog!
Meanwhile, the guys from Nebraska were hunting the stands on the south side of the creek, and before long we got a text from Tom that he had a hog down at stand 3. Good shot on a nice spotted boar!
Morning hunts can be quite slow, but a couple of the guys went out and Carl scored just to show that it's still worth hunting in the morning. Here he is with the nice black hog he killed.
Dan shot what he thought was a grey hog on the second evening. After we rinsed off all the mud, this is what we found underneath it. Congratulations guys. Thanks for choosing to come hunt with us and we look forward to hosting another hunt for you sometime!
So how bad are the skeeters? Can't wait to get down there in a few days.
Oops, sorry I missed your question Brian. I guess you know by now that the skeeters are thicker than normal down here, but still not as bad as they get up north.
For those of you following along on our updates, make sure you check out the live hunt thread from Porkapalooza 9 which was held last weekend. The guys shot some nice hogs and we had another great time with them!
Here are a few of the hogs that were shot by our guests that were down here this weekend. This first one is Mason from Kansas with a nice slick hog he shot from stand 6.
DJ from Colorado shot this nice spotted sow.
And Mason's dad, Robert shot the bull of the woods this weekend with this big boar.
Here's a close-up of the business end of that boar. Congratulations guys, and it was good meeting you all. Thanks for coming down to Oklahoma to hunt hogs with us!
We were honored to have our good friends from Minnesota/Mississippi back down again this week to hunt some more of these Oklahoma hogs before they take over the world! Here's Dylan with the first porker of the weekend. Congratulations Dylan!
And here's Dylan's dad, Dan with a nice hog he shot.
Dylan's papa JP shot this nice hog. Three generations of hog hunters, that's just awesome! Congratulations to you all, and thanks again for coming down to hunt with us!
Another great time at Shiloh! We're already planning the next trip.
Where's NEAssasin's pics?
I'm afraid Gary took a beating from both the hogs and the heat this time. I did post some pics on the other thread though of Matt, Ethan and Kirk that were in camp with him .
Over a month without an update? New hire and I'm sure somebody has killed a hog. Don't make me come down there and do a live hog hunt for the Bowsite because you know I will!
Hope all is well at Shiloh and with the Nappers.
My apologies for not keeping up with the updates lately. I'm going to blame it all on Kai for keeping us on our toes here. In the last couple of weeks we've had to treat her for a snakebite wound, and then spent a morning trying to get her out from under the subflooring in the house. Yes, she managed to tear her way through to the insulation from the crawl space beneath the house (she chewed her way through presumably because she smelled a mouse) and was tunneling through it beneath the floor! We need to keep this little booger busy before she tears the house down!
I just posted a couple of pictures on the Oklahoma Feral Swine Control thread. I'll try to post some more later this weekend. Of course a live hog hunt is waaay more exciting than my pictures! :)
Hey Matt and Cheryl, What's been going on at Shiloh?
Hi Scott! We have been keeping busier than ever here lately. The mast crop is heavy this year and the ground is just littered with acorns. The hogs are still hitting the feeders good though,presumably because there are just so many acorns that the ground is covered with them even around the feeders.
Kai has made great strides in her tracking and is now chasing wounded hogs for us, something we didn't expect to accomplish at such a young age. It's a luxury having a dog to recover animals that otherwise would have been lost. We're still not ready to turn her loose on a big toothy boar though. In fact, probably will never be. I will start a new thread since I had to wait 15 minutes for this one to load on my iPad. Good luck to everyone this season. Keep us posted on all the big bucks y'all kill!
Sounds good. We are looking forward to our hunt in February. Maybe we can put Kai to work on a few pigs. Deer first, lots of acorns here as well. Just about time to start getting serious on the bucks. Good luck to both of you as well, see you soon.
To heck with the hogs, we want more Kai news.
Seriously!!!!!!!
Sounds good. We are looking forward to our hunt in February. Maybe we can put Kai to work on a few pigs. Deer first, lots of acorns here as well. Just about time to start getting serious on the bucks. Good luck to both of you as well, see you soon.
