It was hotter than Election Day in a pit of rattlesnakes and so late even the lizards strutted around with long shadows.

Redding, Calif., hit a high of 108 degrees that day, and now, with the sun going down, temps were still in the high 90s.

By this time Friday, we had counted close to 60 boars, sows and piglets. They were here for the water, a scarce commodity in the ranchlands east of Redding. A year-round creek cuts through the ranch, and springs burble out of the ground and push up the new shoots of grass.

Guided by Parrey Cremeans and Tom McCloskey, Troy Neimann had tagged a 160-pound boar on a hilltop morning hunt.

We found another group of hogs where they wallowed in a spring and I took a cross-canyon poke. The bullet kicked dirt over the boar’s back and the swine kicked into high gear.

At lunchtime, back at the range, the Nosler Custom Model 48 cut the X in the target. My faith restored in the rifle, we set out again after dinner.

In the blackberries, we walked into a sounder of pigs sound asleep. First away was a sow, trailed by two other dry sows, and then a young boar broke out of the brush on our left. He stopped half a dozen times to look back, broadside each time. Robyn Neimann leapt out of her boots when a snorting pile of pigs erupted out of the bushes next to her.

Another sow bristled, bluff-charged and popped her teeth like she could chew the sights off a six-gun.

Later that evening, we watched two bull elk in velvet, one a 7×6, walk out of the oaks and into the open. Beyond them, two huge boars trotted toward the creek.

There were four of us on the hunt. Out with his brother Steve, Ed Boero, of Redmond, shot a big boar at close to 200 yards on Saturday morning.

We were joined as well by bowhunter Dennis Dunn, from Kirkland, Wash. Dunn — who has taken all 29 species of native North American big game, a hunting career he chronicled in his new book, “Barebow!” — was on his first hunt for wild boar, a species introduced to the New World.

With all the swine we saw on Friday night, I knew I could hold out for a big one on this, my last evening to hunt.

The nonnative feral wild boar has become California’s most popular big game as well as the state’s biggest pest. To hunt south of the border you need a nonresident hunting license ($144.65) and a tag ($66.70).

Adult wild hogs tip the scales at between 100 and 200 pounds, but boars can reach 375 pounds and grow wicked tusks. Meet one with his bristles up, and you’d better make yourself as scarce as sunflowers at Christmas.

We started at the springs where the shoots of grass were ankle high and every footfall sank an inch into the saturated ground. We climbed high for a look into the valley and prowled through patches of blackberry. Then we found fresh tracks — backhoe tracks, where the rancher had been cutting irrigation ditches earlier in the day.

Now we had something for which we could blame the lack of ambulatory pork. Alarmed by the equipment, the pigs must have scooted across the creek. By the time we figured that out, it was almost dark, too late to change our plan.

Tom McCloskey had his eye on the black Angus that had grouped in the flats. Wild boar often move in with the beef for protection. After a few minutes of glassing, Tom located a group of pigs.

“Let’s get a closer look,” I whispered.

We used the blackberries for cover and closed the distance to about a hundred yards. But an old cow spotted us and started a stampede. When the dust had cleared, the cows hadn’t traveled very far, but the pigs were now at the far side of the herd. Four pigs — two gray, two black — stood in the long grass beneath an oak. The biggest of them was a black.

When the pigs started to trot, the biggest one was at the back. This was a group of pigs we had watched the night before. Last night, they had been too small.

McCloskey set up the shooting sticks and clicked the range. “One-hundred-sixty-three yards,” he said.

A 140-grain AccuBond streaked out through the dusk. Three pigs charged away and one, a young boar, went down. Last night he had been too small, but this evening, with the sun low in the west, he cast a big shadow.