Tale of the memorable recovery at TX Sweat 06....
After filming JC and Krister's stalk.....we split up again for the afternoon hunt. Krister wanted some Javie revenge, and JC wanted another crack at those hogs he'd seen the night before, and I was open for anything.
I started my 'rounds' again and soon got caught up wind of a group of Javies that were out in the middle of the wide open at a cross road. Not sure why this area was so open, not sure what the purpose was, but someone spent some time on a dozier there for some reason. I was 60 yards away from this group and the wind was flirting with them. They would often hackle up and point their noses to the clouds desperately trying to get a better snoot full. Twice one of the little beasts walked directly toward me nose high. At about 40 yards he'd hackle up and pose all arched up....then huff and prance off back to his bunch. I played cat and mouse with the wind and the Javies for quite some time, and finally had a chance to get into a more cross wind position were I could move in and try for a closing stalk.
To get to that position, I had to hide behind one low single scrub bush after the next across this wide open area, .....dashing from to to another like we did as kids playing army in the local wood lot trying not to get caught. Once I got in behind them the wind was still chancy, flirting with alerting the gang in front of me.....lady luck was with me, but she was going to toy with me for a while..........
It was nip and tuck for a while, as I just couldn't seem to catch up for a shot, but on this stalk I wasn't going to have to catch them. The lead Javie did a 180 and came strolling back toward me flanked by another Javie....they just kept coming, and I was almost caught in the open with only a sparse limb in front of me.
I ever so slowly began to raise my bow, hoping that I would have it raised enough before they realized I wasn't a prickly pear. Somehow I even managed to get to full draw without them seeing me, and the arrow was off to its 15 yard target. The target flinched and wheeled and bolted for the nastiest little patch in my area. It was close, real close for the shot to be too far forward. You can basically kill them dead one inch from where I thought I hit him. If you are pretty forward yet slide inside that most forward leg bone joint its lights out, and literally one inch more forward and you are outside that joint and will get the base of the neck and may or may not get the jugular.
I knew exactly where my hit Javie dove in and I waited about 3 minutes for the rest of the gang to settle down and I crept slowly to take a peek. He was in there facing me with a look on his face daring me to come in after him. He was quartering to me and even though he's not much to stop a quartering toward 650 grain arrow, I just had no hole to shoot through. When I tried to maneuver to find a hole he swapped ends and took a step giving me what I thought was a big enough hole to get my broadhead through. The shot ricocheted off and looked like it hit him angling in toward the off shoulder........he exploded out of there and left pieces parts of my arrow lying on the parched earth. The nock end with the feathers still in tact was broken but still connected at the cresting, and broke again about 6 more inches up. I figured he was toting the rest of the arrow. Low light set in real fast and I didn't find any real sign of him from the direction he went and passed over a little sparse patch in the desert, and my flashlight wasn't doing much but reflecting off the sea prickly pear...........DANG!.........I'll have to come back for him..... chance of the song dogs getting him before me...........Hmmm......DANGGIT!..........
I was set up the next morning before daylight in the bottom very near where my Javie from the following evening escaped me. I was waiting till it got good light so I could see any sign that may possibly lead me to my critter, and also hoping to catch a hog slipping through. As it got lighter, I was surveying the lay of the land and trying to figure where this animal would try and escape to, and figured he'd escape to the corner of the lake I had been hunting. That was the angle he took going away from me.
A bit of luck met me as I started from where I'd seen him last.....just inside the cactus from the road the thick stuff opened up on one side for about 10 yard all the way to the pond damn, and I knew there was narrow road at the base of the pond damn. I searched these two open and clear ground areas as extensively as I could, and I just couldn't see any blood anywhere as bad as I wanted to.....and lying on the ground looking under the super short canopy from different view points proved the area was void of a find. I then took a stroll broadening my search 'just in case' and finally gave up and trying not to beat myself up.
I set up again in my little hog ambush and chewed some jerky still trying to figure out where my javie went, and just enjoying the solitude of the morning. I could see in one direction a half a mile, and about 60 yards in the other direction. Every so often I'd ease up and take a couple of steps out and have a look the other half mile beyond the 60 yards.
Bought the 4th time I looked, the road was speckled with black critters at about the end of that half mile up hill behind me. Satisfied that my search was to no avail, I decided to climb right back in the saddle during this 1st opportunity to do so. I hurried at a pretty good clip till I got within about a hundred yards and started closing the gap..........
THE MEMORABLE RECOVERY VIDEO For those of you not able to view the clip...I'll make it real short........
I got within 25 yards of the group, and wanted inside 20. Two walked into the catus while the other's kept milling forward. As they sometimes do, they walk out from the exact same place they go in, as did one of the two only I'd sneaked another 5 yards and was waiting.
He walked out at 15 yards and stopped at probably 18 yards quartering away slightly up hill from me. The arrow made solid contact entering well behind the shoulder and stopping at the base of the skull dropping him in his tracks. As I walked up I coulnd't believe what I saw....dried matted blood covering a Zwickey Delta 4 blade hole at the base of the neck. What are the odds of that?
Topic: Texas Dos Stalk (Read 3356 times)
