Bryson Hesperia Unguided hunt:
I am not often compelled to…read morewrite yelp reviews, but I feel I should this time because this is a unique type of hunt. One I have been searching for 3 years; a trip that gives a true HUNTING experience, with the scales tipped in our favor..
But, I think it is important to clarify a few things. It goes without saying; you have to question all good and bad ratings. I guess sometimes it comes down to what we expect going in... Did we book the type of trip that we meant to? Do I want a hunting trip or a shopping trip? Funny, I looked at the reviews after booking the trip.. I wonder if some people would have better off asking for a fully guided option?
I am writing this because I have booked a few trips for my son when he was 14 thru 15 and we didn't get what we wanted.. Sure, we killed pigs, but not HOW we wanted them. We wanted to HUNT them. Despite trying to get fully guided trips set up as a glassing and stalking hunt, It seems every fully guided trip we booked felt like shopping with a rifle. For my Son's 16th birthday, I found Bryson and after talking with Deedy, it sounded like a fit. My son wanted a true hunting experience, not a killing expedition. For what it is worth, he is an accomplished long distance shooter with match wins against adults under his belt. So the goal was not just squeezing the trigger, but learning scent management, tracking and stalking.
From my booking and participating in shared lease properties, I am going to attempt to split pig hunting in California into 3 rough categories. Fully Guided and "Guaranteed", BLM or Club leased hunts (without any guidance) and those with trespassing fees on private property.
The most popular, seem to be the fully guided and guaranteed pig hunts (I'll lump trophy hunts into these). The hunts are often sold as 2-1/2 days or until you get a pig. The sole focus seems to be to get the "customer" a pig FAST. Covering a lot of ground and often rustling/wrangling the pigs with the truck or smaller off road vehicle until the guide can position the client to jump out and shoot a pig at close range is the strategy. This to me and my son, felt like an amusement park ride, not really hunting as EVERYTHING is done for you.. If this is what your looking for then don't cheap out and buy the unguided or semi-guided hunting package. Ask for a FULLY guided trip.
For those true hunters, people who really know what they are doing, know how to find active pigs, then maybe BLM or a club is a better fit. BLM or club leased property is often were you rely on many personal scouting trips and already really know what your doing or just get stupid lucky. This can be a very humbling experience, if you relying on luck. I've had a share lease, with no pigs all year..
Lastly, for those that know how to handle a firearm, want to hunt not have a glorified shopping experience, but want to tip the scales in your favor, private property with known pig populations are a great blend. But at the end of the day, if you are up wind and/or loud, maybe just are having bad luck, you will not see a pig. If the fresh sign are there, so are they. But after all, it is hunting. This is the challenge we asked for and were looking for.. So we booked the unguided (semi-guided) trip with Bryson Hesperia.
So after all this, if you had managed to stay with my rambling, Dede took us us out and gave a quick but highly valuable review of how to spot recent pig actively. The next morning, we saw a lot of pigs and shot a very large one. Deedy taught my son how to process the pig taking a lot of time skinning ect. Soon after, we returned for the evening hunting session were had a couple of other opportunities at close range on large sows. We passed, looking for a bigger boar, (we had a 125qt Yeti cooler already full). Even if we didn't shoot or see pigs, all the signs were there, as Dede said they would be. It was up to us to manage our scent, noise and hunting strategy. If we blew it, we would not have seen much-less came home with a LARGE HOG.
