This past weekend, BDann, bornagainbowhunter and his 2 sons (Lane and Joe), My buddy Tim who is not a member here, and myself went on an awesome javelina and hog hunt. This is an annual hunt for the core of our group that we have been doing for about 5yrs now. This year, we found a new ranch to hunt near Caterina, Texas. It rained a BUNCH the day before we arrived, and everything was real muddy. We went out for the first afternoon hunt, and it started raining again, so most of us (me included) opted to hunt from ground blinds on the ranch.
The rain stopped about an hour before dark, and the sun even came out for just a bit too. As soon as the rain stopped, the wildlife came alive all around me. Birds were chirping and rabbits moving around, it was awesome!!!
After a little while, I caught some movement thru the brush to my left, and sure enough, it was a pig meandering my direction. After a little while, it cleared the brush and was heading right for me.
Meanwhile, I got a text from BDann that he had shot a javelina, but they could not find it because the blood trail was virtually non existent due to all the water everywhere. :(
Anyway, my pig is meandering around right in front of me. He finally turns to a good angle and I draw and shoot him at about 12yds. Arghh, I hit him high, but HOORAY because I spined him! A quick second shot, and he was mine. I made a bad shot, but got very lucky so that I did not have to trail him thru all that wet brush. Anyway, here is a pic of my boar:
Around the same time I shot my pig, 12yr old Lane sent a msg that he had missed a pig, shooting just over his back. Lane has been going on this annual hunt for several years. He has shot a gazillion rabbits with his little longbow, but has yet to connect on a pig or javi.
My boar was the only critter brought back to camp for the first afternoon, but was a good start to our weekend!
The rain was done for a while, and things dry out really fast in South Texas. Overnight, the main roads became mostly dry, with pockets of slop here and there. The smaller roads were still very sloppy though!
Saturday was an awesome day for the whole group! The sun came out, and it warmed up, and the critters were everywhere!!! My buddy Tim slept in a bit and decided to hunt around camp in the morning. All the rest of us went out.
I started out in a blind because I really did not know my way around the place. About 7:15am, I got a text that bornagainbowhunter had knocked down a nice big sow!!!! Now, that is a good start to a day of hunting!
Here is a pic of Nathan with his sow:
I did not see anything early, and decided to ditch the blind. I corned a few roads around my area. I was coming around a bend in my ranger and saw javies in the road! The stalk was on! I made my way through the brush till I was finally about 15yds from them. When the lead javi turned to a good angle, I drew and shot. My arrow hit him in a good spot, but he rolled on the shot, and as he ran by me, I could see that the exit was quite high. I was confident that he would be mine. I went off to look farther down the road and give him some time. After about an hour, I came back and started looking for him. Everything was still wet in the brush, and I could find very little sign. I did find the front half of my arrow, and fresh tracks, so at least I knew I was on the right trail. I followed the tracks for a ways, and even found a few drops of blood to confirm that I was on the correct trail. After about 40yds though, I got completely stuck, and just could not figure out where he went from there. I did a grid search around the area, but still no javi!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: I finally had to concede defeat. I know that javi expired. I just could not figure out where he was at.
I decided I needed to go get Tim, and left another group of javies in the road to do so. We came back, and sure enough they were still out there. He put the super sneak on them and proceeded to shoot right over one of them.
Like I said earlier, the javies were all over the place with the nice weather after the previous 2 days of rain. A short while later, we came up on another group of javies, and it was my turn for the stalk. The brush was really thick in this area, which made getting close a challenge. I snuck thru the brush and came back to the road right where the javies were, but the brush was so thick, I could not get a shot! As I was watching them, trying to figure out how to get an opening, something spooked them, and they entered the brush towards me. I could not see them, but knew they were real close. I crouched down and scanned, when one darted into an opening right in front of me and stopped. There was not really much between me and him......except one little limb above me that my upper bow limb/string got tangled in as I was trying to draw. He stood there staring at me while I fuddled around till I finally got it loose. I could not believe he stayed long enough for me to get a shot off, but he did! Complete passthru at about 11yds or so. I backed out and marked the spot to give him a little time. After a while, Tim and I came back and began to track. The arrow was completely covered in blood, and there was good blood on a cactus pad about 5' from the shot. THAT WAS IT!!!! We looked around and could not find any more blood. Again, I was on a trail of tracks, and after the last one, was getting very frustrated. After following tracks for about 15-20yds, we fianlly started seeing blood on the ground, and my javi was DRT just a few yds farther. It was relief to recover him. He was a nice boar, and this was my first critter with my newest Sarrels longbow:
We then went back to camp for me to take care of my javi, and to eat lunch.
More to come..........
Topic: AWESOME group hunt this past weekend! (Read 2838 times)
