Nicely told Jeff! Sorry about that bow self destructing! Sure was a sweetheart.
Saturday was quite a day. Up early and rested. The camphouse was abuzz. Everybody was eager and smiling even at the early hour. It is exactly that that makes a great camp environment!
Andrew "Stoney" Kinslow chose to go with me that morning. There was all kinds of room in the sector I was hunting and Curtis had an idea for a spot that might show a hog or Javie.
The morning was uneventful if you don't count being buzzed, peered at, shyed away from by an assortment of different birds.
As I walked out of the brush near my truck I noted that my truck tracks from that morning were covered by Javelina tracks. Not just a couple either... lots of them!
In the time I'd sat in ambush for the little beggars they'd been a hundred yards away, just out of sight. Hmmmm! I needed to change what I was doing.
I picked Andrew up around 10 a.m and took him to show and tell with the Javie sign. We pulled up and got out for a minute to look, then jumped back in the truck to head for breakfast.
I pulled ahead about 50 yards to turn around and as the truck cleared a line of brush we spotted a half dozen Javelina feeding within 100 yards.
Getting the truck into reverse, I backed out of there and down the road where I could park the truck out of sight.
Andrew grabbed his Sunbear recurve and I my Howard Gamemaster. We quickly made time toward the pigs.
As we neared the brushline I sent Andrew ahead of me down a cow/game path that wound toward where we'd last seen the Javies.
I wanted him to take the lead and experience his first Javie stalk.
Best laid plans!
As we eased ahead, Andrew got far enough ahead of me that I couldn't get his attention without making noise that would alert the Javies.
It was about that time that I spotted a Javie just up the hill from me along the brush line. We were about to stalk past them.
With no way to get Andrews attention, I put an arrow on the string and moved toward the grizzled little porker.
He was feeding down a sendero and I had an excellent wind as well as good cover to hide my movement. The red dirt underfoot was soft and powdery and I was perfectly silent.
I jockeyed into a position about 10 yards from the feeding Javie. He was headed toward an opening so I just waited and enjoyed the twitching in my knees.
As the peccary came from behind the last screening brush he suddenly trotted forward a few yards, then stopped.
His nose dropped to the ground and grass shielded his eyes from veiw.
The Howard flowed like silk to full draw and I settled for a moment before the arrow slipped away.
In an instant the world switched to fast forward. The peccary was running sideways. My arrow, buried to the yellow fletch showed way too high on his side. I was stunned and the Javie hit hyper space and was gone.
I mentally noted the spot where he disappeared in the brush.
Momentarilly Andrew and I got back together and I told him what had happened. He hadn't seen the rest of the pack.
I figured it was best to back off and give him time to let the Woodsman do it's job. A few more hands for searching wouldn't be a bad idea either.
We hadn't gone down the road far and we came on Johnboy's vehicle and Curtis' truck. It was obvious something was up.
You've already heard the story of Curtis' pig so I'll just add a picture and add this comment. Curtis told me he was layin behind some cactus playing with his GPS when the pigs showed up so don't let him give you that stuff about huntin hard! :D