A little fun in the sun...

Beendare

WKR
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
8,319
Location
Corripe cervisiam
Pardon me if I jump on the OPs thread….


IME, Javelina are about the easiest critters on the planet to kill with a bow. I have shot plenty over the years- 1/2 a dozen with a recurve and could easily have shot more.

You just can’t let them wind you. Many times I have been 30y and in on Javis and they will stare at you…even walk closer staring…but if you don’t move they go back to rooting, feeding.

I think They are the best camouflaged critters in the woods Especially if the sun is shining on them. They don’t move much when feeding. Once you learn to check each boulder, its easy to spot them.

One stalk years ago I had with a buddy who had never killed one is typical of these javi’s. . I spotted them with my 15’s about a mile out in a large patch of prickly, pear, cactus on a steep slope. They love that stuff. We moved quickly across the desert for the first 3/4 of a mile and didn’t slow down until we got about 200 yards from them..

We picked our way up the rocky slope. The vegetation there got thicker. It took about 15 minutes to go that extra 200 yards with the wind in our favor. We got to where we had last seen the small herd of 15 Havelina and they were gone.

I was standing on a big 4 foot boulder with my buddy 8 feet away on another boulder above the brush and we were looking around WTH, they disappeared. . We stood there for about five minutes. Then all of a sudden One moved 10 feet away.. …then another and another. They were right there, and we could not see them..

After a couple minutes of silent gestures, “ you shoot first….no YOU shoot… “
He shoots one and the Chinese fire drill begins. The Javi he shoots starts squealing, and all of the other Javelina start huffing and puffing and running around us some literally an arm length away All puffed up.

So I shoot one at 6 feet with my recurve, and the whole Chinese fire drill begins again. Hilarious. if you hold still, they literally will run right between your legs but if you started running away, they might Chase you. Its about as much fun as a guy can have with a bow.

Tough critters. I think its best to shoot them a little bit forward right behind the shoulder. It used to be wide open hunting them…but now Tag apps are in the spring early summer.

They have a tarry musk on their hide from a gland on their back side. If you touch the hide then the meat- yuk, its wrecked. In fact, I glove up before jiggering them for pics as that stink will stay with you even after washing your hands- its nasty.

I skin them down with nitrile gloves and then change to clean gloves when handling the meat- then its pretty good. Not wild hog good…but not too gamey.

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OP
nevadabugle
Joined
Mar 8, 2013
Messages
699
Nice! Story, please.
I'm not the best story teller. Especially typing it out on my phone. But here is the abridged version.

This is our third time hunting this area. Found it three years ago, just through internet scouting. It's about a 13 hour drive so felt lucky the first year that we found javelina. This year we decided to spread out a bit and see where else would could find them. And just like we hoped, everywhere there was decent habitat, we found squads.

Every day we got into javelina and infact on the first full day of hunting my partner and I double stalked a group and waited them out for about 15 minutes at 30ish yards. Just out of my range, but my partner decided things were gonna fall apart soon (wind was swirly) and took a 32 yard shot with his compound and 12 ringed one.

For the next six days I got under 30 yards atleast once if not twice a day. But lady luck was not on my side. Even once had one at about 6 feet, but couldn't get a shot off. Lots of reasons no shots were fired, brush in the way, terrain, spooked by day hikers, etc, etc. It was actually pretty frustrating.

On the last night of the hunt, my partner spotted two large squads on the highest peak in the area we were hunting. I had about 3 hours till dark so I took off as fast as I could go up the mountain to try and catch up with them. Around 4pm I finally could see them feeding out infront of me, and I started stalking/following them as they fed. Three times I had one at about 25 yards but just as I was ready to shoot they would move. Finally one of them spotted me from about 30 yards away and it actually came to investigate what I was. After a tense minute or two of a stare off it turned and gave me a 22 yard shot.

Upon impact the arrow made a loud snap sound and penetrated about 3/4 way up the shaft. I was surprised by the lack of penetration because this set up blows through deer easily. The javelina ran off, but I knew it was a lethal hit as I could follow the blood trail in my binos easily. I gave it the customary 30 minutes and easily tracked it about 60 yards where it was piled up dead. The loud snap and lack of penetration was my broadhead cutting the leg bone at the joint cleanly in half!
 
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