utah400elk
Well-known member
Where to start? (Sorry this is a little long winded)
For several years I have wanted to put my AZ hunting license to good use (besides the annual elk, deer, and sheep point). I thought it would be fun to try a javelina hunt. Well, long story short, I put in this year and drew an archery tag. Apparently it was not a hard-to-draw unit because there are still leftover tags.
I talked with the game warden and looked at the AZ G&F website. I narrowed the area to hunt down to one area about 180 miles from my home in Vegas. I was going to go on opening day but a snowstorm changed my plans.
I finally made it to the area around 1:00 on January 6th. When I got to the area I was forced to acknowledge that I didn't really know anything about javelina. I had never seen even seen a javelina. I didn't even know what their tracks looked like. I looked at a vast area and was completely lost. I didn't really know where to look. There were supposed to be a few in the area.
I ended up driving around for about an hour looking for an area that looked like a javelina might like. This is where the story takes a few odd turns...I found a little south-facing slope that was a little grassy and had a few cactus. This is where I made the first of a few mistakes. I walked away from my FJ out on a little finger ridge to glass the south-facing slope I described. I really didn't think I would see anything as I really didn't know where to even look. I walked away from the vehicle without my bow.
Well I work my way down the finger ridge for about 3/4 of a mile and saw a few tracks that looked like small deer prints (I later figured out they were javelina tracks). These tracks were few and far between. After a frustrating 3/4 of a mile I gave up and started walking back to my vehicle. As I stopped to take one more quick look, you guessed it, I spot my first javelina. It was about 3/4 of a mile away in the middle of pinion/juniper trees. It was out in a tiny opening. It was moving between trees but there was no question as to what I had just seen.
I was shocked and this led me to my second mistake. First, I was kicking myself for not having my bow. I needed to run back to my vehicle to get the bow so I could chase the javelina I had just seen. My second mistake was not marking the spot where I had seen the javelina.
I run back to my vehicle, get my bow and run back to where I had spotted the javelina. Some time had passed before I got back to the area. This is when I realized that I hadn't marked the area where I had seen the pig. I looked for about twenty minutes without seeing anything. I was upset with myself for the mistakes that I thought were going to cost me my first javelina. Well as I was about to head to another area, I spotted my second javelina. Again, it was between pinion/juniper trees. It was about one mile away and two ridges over.
In my excitment I made my third and final mistake. I didn't study the area long enough to get a good idea of the topography. I mentally marked the area and determined the wind direction. I found the area that I thought I needed to be and started out. After I crossed the first ridge I figured out my third mistake. There was not a second ridge but more of a plateau. I tried to find the area I thought I needed to be but it all looked the same.
I had made three big mistakes in rapid succession! I sat down to regroup. I had a javelina call and was about to start to try and sound like an injured piglet.
This is when things rapidly happened. As I was sitting there looking at this javelina call, that I had been bugging my wife and son with for a few weeks, I see movement about 50 yards away. A large javelina walks out into an opening. I get a quick range and draw quickly. The javelina walks back into the trees just as quick as it appeared. I soon realize a herd is moving towards me. The wind is perfect and things looked great. Three javelina walk past too quick for me to get a shot. I can see one that looks like a big boar. I range him and he is in a tiny opening at 30 yards broadside. I have to do a little contortion to get the right shooting lane but I was able to get a shot on him.
All hell breaks loose at the shot and I realized there were about 12 javelina all around me. I pull out the call to try and stop the boar I just shot. As I do my best to sound like a dying baby javelina, things start to get interesting. Either I sounded good or they wanted that god-awful noise to stop. A few charge back into the area with a javelina about as big as the one I shot running to within 10 feet of me. Do you know they have rather large tusks? At 10 feet they look a lot like swords.
I decided to put the call away and try to find my pig. A short tracking job and I find him. I was finshed with my hunt by 3:45.
All in all...a true OYOA type hunt.
For several years I have wanted to put my AZ hunting license to good use (besides the annual elk, deer, and sheep point). I thought it would be fun to try a javelina hunt. Well, long story short, I put in this year and drew an archery tag. Apparently it was not a hard-to-draw unit because there are still leftover tags.
I talked with the game warden and looked at the AZ G&F website. I narrowed the area to hunt down to one area about 180 miles from my home in Vegas. I was going to go on opening day but a snowstorm changed my plans.
I finally made it to the area around 1:00 on January 6th. When I got to the area I was forced to acknowledge that I didn't really know anything about javelina. I had never seen even seen a javelina. I didn't even know what their tracks looked like. I looked at a vast area and was completely lost. I didn't really know where to look. There were supposed to be a few in the area.
I ended up driving around for about an hour looking for an area that looked like a javelina might like. This is where the story takes a few odd turns...I found a little south-facing slope that was a little grassy and had a few cactus. This is where I made the first of a few mistakes. I walked away from my FJ out on a little finger ridge to glass the south-facing slope I described. I really didn't think I would see anything as I really didn't know where to even look. I walked away from the vehicle without my bow.
Well I work my way down the finger ridge for about 3/4 of a mile and saw a few tracks that looked like small deer prints (I later figured out they were javelina tracks). These tracks were few and far between. After a frustrating 3/4 of a mile I gave up and started walking back to my vehicle. As I stopped to take one more quick look, you guessed it, I spot my first javelina. It was about 3/4 of a mile away in the middle of pinion/juniper trees. It was out in a tiny opening. It was moving between trees but there was no question as to what I had just seen.
I was shocked and this led me to my second mistake. First, I was kicking myself for not having my bow. I needed to run back to my vehicle to get the bow so I could chase the javelina I had just seen. My second mistake was not marking the spot where I had seen the javelina.
I run back to my vehicle, get my bow and run back to where I had spotted the javelina. Some time had passed before I got back to the area. This is when I realized that I hadn't marked the area where I had seen the pig. I looked for about twenty minutes without seeing anything. I was upset with myself for the mistakes that I thought were going to cost me my first javelina. Well as I was about to head to another area, I spotted my second javelina. Again, it was between pinion/juniper trees. It was about one mile away and two ridges over.
In my excitment I made my third and final mistake. I didn't study the area long enough to get a good idea of the topography. I mentally marked the area and determined the wind direction. I found the area that I thought I needed to be and started out. After I crossed the first ridge I figured out my third mistake. There was not a second ridge but more of a plateau. I tried to find the area I thought I needed to be but it all looked the same.
I had made three big mistakes in rapid succession! I sat down to regroup. I had a javelina call and was about to start to try and sound like an injured piglet.
This is when things rapidly happened. As I was sitting there looking at this javelina call, that I had been bugging my wife and son with for a few weeks, I see movement about 50 yards away. A large javelina walks out into an opening. I get a quick range and draw quickly. The javelina walks back into the trees just as quick as it appeared. I soon realize a herd is moving towards me. The wind is perfect and things looked great. Three javelina walk past too quick for me to get a shot. I can see one that looks like a big boar. I range him and he is in a tiny opening at 30 yards broadside. I have to do a little contortion to get the right shooting lane but I was able to get a shot on him.
All hell breaks loose at the shot and I realized there were about 12 javelina all around me. I pull out the call to try and stop the boar I just shot. As I do my best to sound like a dying baby javelina, things start to get interesting. Either I sounded good or they wanted that god-awful noise to stop. A few charge back into the area with a javelina about as big as the one I shot running to within 10 feet of me. Do you know they have rather large tusks? At 10 feet they look a lot like swords.
I decided to put the call away and try to find my pig. A short tracking job and I find him. I was finshed with my hunt by 3:45.
All in all...a true OYOA type hunt.
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