Javelina: Arizona, round two!
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Im back in Carefree Arizona for a few weeks away from the (really friggin) frozen north. Mostly a family visit but I plan on a few days hunting. Last year I hunted the Sonoran Desert Reserve, because it was close and I knew the legal boundaries. I saw no javelina while hunting. And now they have excluded more of the preserve. So that is off the table.
I was at the AGF office today and asked some questions and then went to check out the archery range out back. I happened to meet a couple of guys, that worked in the office, and they were very helpful. I ran a couple of places past them and they both agreed that the White Tanks area, in Unit 26M, would be a good place to look. Thanks guys!!
So tomorrow, I’ll assemble my bow and head out to the range for a shooting session to make sure it’s good to go and that I’m good enough to splurge on the tag. It will be about $330 in my dollars. I’m a little torn between going scouting first and then buy a tag if it looks fruitful or buy the tag and go hunt. I definitely have a better chance of seeing pigs if I’m not carrying a tag.
Last year I got lots of scouting tips on what to look for and lots of encouragement from fellow bowsiters, so hopefully I can make their efforts pay off. I’ll try to do a live or semi live hunt report for each day I go out.
So in between family visits and touring beautiful Arizona, I hope to spill some blood on the desert soil!!
Part of the archery range behind Game and Fish head office. Seven bucks for a whole day shooting and a nice course lay out by the looks of it. Maybe I’ll even practice crawling through cactus without whimpering.
That is a neat looking course. GL!
Good luck, Rod! I’ll be following along.
Are you going purely spot and stalk, or are you considering trying some calling as well? I’ve only killed 1 javelina in Texas. I spined him, and the other 2 with him, jumped on him for a bit and then took off out into the brush before I could get a shot at one of them. I called them back to me at least 5 times, but every time I stopped calling, they would take off again. I never did get a shot off at the second javi, but it was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had hunting! I wish I’d videoed it.
Thanks Troy. I don’t have a call, but have watched quite a few videos of guys doing it. Looks like it would be quite exciting! May plan is to use vantage points to glass and look hard for sign while moving to a new spot.
I’m pretty much counting on the “ blind squirrel” method for success.
Wow that's looks awesome. Loved your thread last year. Very cool to see things through new eyes. I will be hanging on your every post living vicariously through your binoculars. Please go photo HEAVY. Good luck!
Rod, to up your odds, you should purchase a predator call as you only have a few days to hunt.
Our group is headed down for Coues and Javelina Saturday... Cannot wait
Nice critters Ed. I’d be thrilled if I take one of each like those. Tough having to work the rest of this week.
If you do get into them and spook them they will scatter and start "huffing" as they run off, try to mimick the "huffing" noise and some should run to you.
I’m good to go on baby javelinas anyway.
I’m good to go on baby javelinas anyway.
Baby coyotes to!
Baby coyotes to!
I spent most of the morning at the archery range. Nice course and a pleasant desert walk.
Coues, cactus and country. Got to be a prickle pig out there for me somewhere!
Best of luck Mathewsman and post your grip and grin here to.
Ed, quit making it look easy, you’re not helping. lol.
Going north for a couple of days of tourist stuff, Antelope Caves, etc.
Considering that they are pretty dark colored, on a relatively light background (most of the time), I have always been surprised by how difficult the little buggers can be to spot.....
I'll tell you how to find javalina... just glass for deer and they magically appear. When I glass for javalina they're difficult to find. Ed F
Thanks for the well wished Rod, and Ed, I will use your advice. This time tomorrow we will be into the 15 hour drive down... I'm excited. Also my dad called me up last night and for my birthday this month we are headed to GSCO in Las Vegas....
in the open, easy to spot
in the open, easy to spot
Paul where did you take the photos?
Southern AZ while deer hunting. I have hunted them once but like to concentrate on deer while I am down there which will be a year from now.
Buy the tag and be ready. I'd also have a predator call. My first archery hunt was AZ javies with a call and it was life altering and a bit scary! Good luck!
Very cool photos. Like that ones nose. Looks like it would have been a good fight to see.
The one and only javi I’ve killed, had a nose similar to that one’s. I thought that was the norm!
A pic from inside the Antelope Cave
A pic from inside the Antelope Cave
I was off doing tourist business. Spent the last two days up on the northern border at Glen Conyon Dam. Did the Antelope Caves and a few short hikes. Absolutely stunning terrain driving through Arizona.
The javelina hunt starts tomorrow, now, with a few hour drive to an area south of Tucson. A friend and fellow bowsiter that I shared camps with in BC is hunting there now and has generously invited me to his camp. So by tomorrow afternoon, I hope to be crawling through the cactus in search of the elusive ( to me so far) prickle pig.
I was going to hunt the White Tanks and another bowsiter had offered to give me a good head start with his local knowledge. I won’t name these generous folks, but they are very welcome to identify themselves. I really appreciate it when hunters help hunters.
Good luck Rod hope you got a good one.
That’s very cool pictures Thanks for posting them
Thank you for taking us a long with you. I really enjoyed this thread last year and am looking forward to the rest of this one.
Cheers
Go Get em Man! They are so much fun! Good Luck!!!
Some animals were created to be shot. Pigs and Javelina are two of them. I guess warthogs would be another.
Good luck Ambush ! So far, javis have been my Nemisis, but I ain't through with them yet.....
Well OK, things are starting look up. Got a tag and now pick up a few groceries, then head to camp!!
You'll get them. We found these while glassing for deer. Ed F
Go to be a pig here somewhere. I’m pretty pumped to get started!!
It almost happened this afternoon!! It’s very thick here and visibility is very limited so I was moving along slowly and looking hard. I looked across a wash and there stood a pig, broadside and feeding!. I quickly slipped an arrow on and ranged him at twenty seven yards. As he turned away feeding two more came out in the same spot, then another!
There was just a few blades of grass and a bit of thin brush. I though about slipping an arrow through but since they were only a few steps from perfectly clear, I came to full draw and waited. Then “huff!!” and the one took off spooking the closer ones. I huffed back and one smaller pig came back for a look but he too quickly left me lonely. The wind must halve swirled.
I sat still for about half an hour. But that was it for the day. Excited for tomorrow!!
Where the pigs were feeding. Almost perfect set up.
Where the pigs were feeding. Almost perfect set up.
How exciting! Sounds like you're in the right spot. Javelina do not have very good vision, they will often not see you unless you move. However, they have a great nose and pretty good hearing.
If that happens again get on their trail and follow them they usually do not go far. I did that on my last one, kept getting into them and spooking them then finally caught them in the right spot and killed the big boar.
Calling works! https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hsimp=yhs-att_001&hspart=att&p=calling+javelina#id=2&vid=8f513c846a39b8400ea992a7173ab135&action=click
Ok, got some time and some cell service, so catch up time.
I had hghi hopes after having the shot opportunity on Monday afternoon. But Tuesday turned out to be a long tough pig-less day. Cool and cloudy with blustery cold winds all day. I saw about fifteen deer and that was it after covering lots of ground slinking through washes and glassing from high points. Wednesday’s forecast was more of the same only with rain. It rained a few times during the night and the morning promised another poor pig day. But like they say, it’s a hundred percent chance you’ll get nothing if you stay in camp. So my partner and I headed out, him to his deer stand and me to slither slowly through the tight canyon washes where most of the sign was. This spot had one pig taken from it in the previous week and the hunter had encountered them in the area while deer hunting most days, so it was a javi hangout.
About an hour into the morning I had just pushed into some cat claw trying to get to a big rock and a pig jumped up less than ten feet away! He must have been snuggled up under the rock. With no visibility forward, I scrambled back out an to my right to gain a vantage point. As I mounted another rock I saw the javi about thirty five yards away heading up a slope broadside to me with another one following! When he hit an opening I huffed to stop him but he just kept trotting along, so I swung back toward the second one and held on the opening. As he entered I tried to time the shot for his speed, but I triggerd too soon and shot just in front of him. They scurried up and over a saddle. I found my arrow and confirmed a clean miss then floored up and over the saddle. The other side was just a giant piece of country without a clue where they could have gone it it. So I sat on various high points and rock out out cropping for the next two hours, glassing and sulking a bit. But I did find lots of pig sign!
Then back to camp for lunch and to talk over our morning hunts. My partner did see a cougar from his stand so that was a real highlight.
More to come.
By early afternoon it had warmed up from 47 to about fifty five and the odd patch of sun. Winds were still completely unreliable in the canyons. I had thought about cruising the grassy mesquite flats nearby, but my buddy talked me into going right back to where I had the sightings and the shot that morning. Sounded wise, so Ok. I was moving very, very slow through a bottom out of the wind when I spied a pig walking about fifteen yards away and unaware. He was traveling across and would end up passing at twelve yards. But he was screened and the outlook was only worse as he moved. There was one hole through a downed and dead mesquite tree so I put the pin on that hole and waited for his chest to fill it.
Wack!! Smashed into the branches and never even got to him. He jumped and then just shuffled off unconcerned. Same thing, he went over the saddle and into that great beyond, vanishing without a trace. Crap!! I suck at this!
I spend the next two hours on the high points, walking slow and telling my feet all about my hard luck.
More to come.
Dang it! Soo close!
Did you pick up a call to try, or are you wanting to get it done spot n stalk?
Troy, I borrowed a call and did try it on the pair running over the hill, but they didn’t come back, so I didn’t try it again. I may have run them off quicker and farther.
I have about an hour of shooting light left as I’m moving along the edge of a thickly treed, wide wash, hunting my way back to the car. I catch movement ahead out in the open grass and it turns into two javelina scooting across to some mesquite. I quickly diagonal toward them, with a good wind. They made it across the open and down a slope thick with mesquite and three foot tall cat claw. I pick way way into it and at one point I kneel down for quick check around. There’s a pig looking right at me at about fifteen yards! Dropping to my knees I put a pin on his chest and let the arrow go. It sounded solid and the pig ran a bit toward me then downhill. He stopped behind a thick trunk and was screened by cat claw. It looked like he was wobbling so I moved quicker than I should have trying to get a clear finishing shot. He blasted out downhill! He hit the open in a narrow wash and another arrow went his way, missing him. I quickly backed up and grabbed my first arrow. No blood?!? But there was blood on the ground!
I went down to my second arrow and strangely, it had one big drop of blood on one fletch. Wierd. I heard some grunty squeals a bit further in. This side of the wash was mesquite and grass, so good visibility. Slowly advancing and peering around, I spotted that familiar face looking at me at about thirty yards. I took a very careful aim and touched off. Thump!! It looked like it centred him perfectly in the chest. He let out a loud squeal, reared up and ran back the way he came from. Then quiet.
I moved to the shot location and set up a little rock cairn where he was standing. Then I followed his lead back across the wash. Just as I hit the bottom, I saw a pig run up the hill, crest it then disappear. Crap!! Crap, crap! It was getting too dark to do much now and not wanting to push him, I reluctantly headed back to camp to wait till morning.
I was very confident in the last shot, but I also know that what I think I saw, is not always what really happened.
A good super and some talk ( and a little feeling sorry for myself) finished off the night.
More to come.
Good luck in the morning!
Haha. It’s already “the morning”. I’m just trying to stretch the story out. But I’ll speed this part up.
Ah-ha, pork on the ground ! Those little buzzards can be hard to retrieve, even with what looks like a perfect shot. I left two of them in the S Texas brush a couple years ago. Bled a little then nothing........
Congrats to you, you got it done !
Right on... congrats. Ed F
Pretty sneaky, Rod!.....congrats on your javi!
Congrats ,,good job,,,they look tuff to kill
Nice!!! Very fun critter to chase around with a bow n arrow! The country they live in is as unique as javelinas are . Congrats!!
Congrats! That is AWESOME! So glad you got one. Can't wait to hear the whole story.
Rod, congrads, you sure took your sweet time getting this done. HaHa :-)
You should be very happy with this hunt. Lots of story's to tell.
Early Thursday morning we did the one mile commute to the trail head. My partner headed up to his deer stand in the dark and I waited for decent light. I had made a rock cairn by the trail about where the javelina had ran across, and I did a sweep for blood in the area but found none. I then made my way to the site of the first shot and found that blood. I knew where the pig had gone after the shot but wanted to follow it out to answersome questions. I hadn’t gone ten yards when I see the Javi dead! That made no sense at all because I saw him run off and I’d shot at him. But there he was with a perfectly placed frontal shot. There was a heavy blood trail heading down the slope toward my last shot. I followed it almost right to the marker from the last shot. The Javi must have pulled the arrow out as he ran and flung it because it was several yards away from the blood trail.
The pig I’d seen run up the hill was the second one and was likely checking his buddy out who was laying dead. I had walked within ten yards of the his carcass on my way out. I’m happy the runner didn’t give me a shot! On my first shot the pig must have dropped his head and started running just as I released the arrow because it caught him right on the chin and then deflected down, missing his chest altogether, leaving him with a slash. That was the first blood trail. Ironic that the two blood trails came back together. Made for a bit of a puzzle at first. He died within thirty five yards of the last arrow and backtracked to within ten yards of my first arrow.
It was a boar and I figure about forty five pounds, with nicecutters. I’m more than happy with the hunt and results. And of course it could be called “DIY”, but in reality it is more accurate to say “ Do It With Friends”.
I’d like to thank my camp host and we’ll see each other again in our B.C. spring bear hunt. Nice to just show up with a bow and an appetite and get looked after. Good luck with that big buck, Buddy!
Thanks to Luke for originally locating the Javi’s and relaying the info to me through my host. Too bad I missed seeing you again and meeting your Dad.
Thanks to a couple of Bowsiters for offering intel in pm’s. I won’t identify these good people but they are welcome and encouraged to do so here, if they wish.
Thanks all, Mission accomplished!
Congratulations Rod! I'm glad it all came together for you.
Rod, congratulations on a dandy Javelina! Way to make it happen! What a year with the big mulie, nice whitetail and big black bear in ‘17! ‘18 will hopefully bring you a nice Mt Caribou, two big black bears, another buck, etc to go with the Javi. Kurt
I remember your thread last year. Very cool to see it come full circle.
I dropped the cape and skull off for prep, as I had no time to do it myself. I considered a full body mount since it would look cool beside a wart hog. But common sense and fear (of my wife) vetoe’d that idea.
Rod, I have 2 shoulder mounts and my wife hates them so they stay in the basement. Also have a lifesize skin in the freezer (from the same area where you killed yours) that I was going to make into a rug but and afraid it will not happen as I value my happy life. HaHa :-)
Javelina are one of those species (like cats) where the mounts either look great or absolutely hideous, in my opinion. I would recommend having it done by someone that is skilled at Javelina, which may not be your regular taxidermist. Are you in town much longer, or headed home soon?
I’m just back in Edmonton and heading to BC tomorrow. I dropped the cape and skull off at Southwest Taxidermy in Scottsdale.
Great job Rod! Nice javelina! By the way, Jim is an awesome taxidermist and a great guy. You will not be disappointed!
Great job Rod. Persistence pays!
That is a very nice boar. Darker than most. I would recommend a 1/2 life size wall pedestal. DO NOT DO IT MOUTH OPEN.
Heck I love mine with the mouth open showing off the tusks! That is what Javelinas are about....1/3 head just like a Northern Pike with some good chompers.
I love this wall pedestal form. Ed F
Rod, sorry we never got the chance to meet. You drove within 100 yards of my house every time you went to Game & Fish or the shooting range!
Yes too bad! I messaged you when I got there but you must not have got it Really wanted to see that huge mule deer. Maybe next time.
I responded to you in a PM when I received your message. I'm not sure why you didn't receive it? Sorry it didn't work out.
Not sure why I didn’t either. Just checked and there’s not one there. No worries, alls well that ends well.