In April, my daughter Lisa and I were on a hog hunt with Rocky Ridge Hunt Club out of Red Bluff, California.

Shortly after our hunt started we came across a coyote hunkered down below the road. I saw it right away. I took a rest and popped it.

Later in the morning, Crystal Burrill, our guide, sent us with Tony down into a narrow valley while she and Tom chased a herd of pigs toward us. We weren`t set up right and had to dash to a spot to get a shot. I shot at the trailing hog going up the ridge at about 225 yards. I shouldn`t have shot and was glad I missed.

During the evening hunt we covered a lot of ground, checking water holes, creeks, wallows, etc., but it was too warm and nothing was moving. Then Tom told us hogs were crossing down by the road. By the time we located them it was 6 p.m. and they were busy rooting up on the hill but didn`t notice us. I climbed the hill with Tony coaching me all the way. I rested my rifle on a log. I had a broadside shot on a young boar, I took him behind the shoulder.

Meanwhile, Lisa was getting set up when another young boar came over the hill wondering where the shot had come from. Lisa shot but missed. The hog took off uphill at a trot. She shot a second time but when she saw a puff of dirt fly up, she thought she had missed but then the hog fell over — she had shot it through the ear on the run at about 85 yards.

I using a Remington 30.06 BDL using a 165-grain Hornady SP reload; Lisa was shooting a Savage 110 .270 using a 130-grain Hornady SP reload. We both shoot left-handed guns.

We took the meat to Country Market in Maxwell and the hogs dressed out at 78 and 72 pounds. We had thought they were 200-230 pounds at first, but this makes them younger and better for eating. They were also just what I had wanted even down to the colors, black and brown and not belted.

We sure had a dream hunt of a lifetime, and Crystal and her family treated us like part of their family.