Great stories and pics guys!!! I'm fully enjoying each and every one of them
There's a lot left to tell by many, so I best get my last one out of the way.....
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!...........(yep, to be continued)