In a jiffy I was back at the camp house. Heck! It was only a couple hundred yards from where I'd shot my hog.
I don't remember what all was going on at the time. But it was busy as usual at dark.
With forty five minutes since I'd shot the hog, Jerry G. and the ranch owner Pete, go me to go looking for the hog.
I'd scratched a big arrow in the dirt of the sendero to help me orient to the spot I'd last heard the commotion and the general direction the hog had run.
We started Jerry's dog, Banjo in the area of the hit and he was soon off in the brush. As we tried to enter the cover it was obvious the job would be a tough one. It was a veritable wall of thorns and cactus.
I made it in about 10 yards and felt lucky to have gotten back out with all my hide in tact. We'd wait for the dog to do his work.
Eventually the dog quit and so did we.
Back at camp Curtis showed up and figured he could find the hog. The coyotes were carrying on back in the area where I thought the hog was. Sounded like a small pack was having my pig for supper. I wasn't real positive we'd find anything back there, but what the heck, Curtis is a good tracker. I mentioned that it was pretty thick, but the comment was passed off.
Shaun Webb joined us for the little foray and we soon pulled up to the spot where I'd shot the hog. I explained again the direction I'd heard the brush cracking in.
Soon Shaun and Curtis were in the thick of the "the wall". As Curtis would later describe it, he walked, then crawled on his knees and then had to get down on his belly to low crawl through the thicket.
I stayed at the point where the shot was made and directed the searchers by sound. I'll give the guys credit for that search. It's the nastiest thickest stuff on the entire ranch and they went into it looking for my hog. That's giving folks.
Along with the intense tangle of thorns, spikes and spines, the guys also found that it was pig heaven back in there... complete with ticks and fleas galore... not to mention the possibility of running into Mr. No Shoulders up close and personal.
I declared that section of sendero off limits for my purposes from then on.
As the days passed, I teamed up with old friend Mark Harris. He'd passed on some Javies the first day due to shot angle and we were trying a new area.
Curtis had been seeing a lot of Javies along a certain sendero (I think he counted 35 one night) and we agreed it would be a good place for Mark and his Double Bull blind and plenty of room and oportunity for me as well.
In the closing minutes of the second day, Mark closed the deal on a nice Javie.
Sensing something odd at the blind site, the Javie had crossed the fence and was passing Mark at near 20 yards.
Mark's always been a good hand with the bow and he put it on that Javie.