Laredo Tusk Roundup 24 ‘HERE WE GO’

[supernaut]

Way to go, thanks for sharing your hunt and the pics with us!   


 

[trick00]

Nice job so far guys! Keep the stories coming.

[Wudstix]

Great weather to hunt Javies for a couple days, looks like it's a tad breezy.
 

[Terry Green]

Someone just lost a tag.

[STICKBENDER98]

 

Campfires warm and the coffee is on, lets here some more stories!!!


Jason

[H A Higgins]

Javie hunting can be a sit and wait game or a ground pounder
After day 2, I chose to mix.
Found a hid at the end if 1 sendero with access to 2 others.  A regular loop every 45 minutes added up

[H A Higgins]

Hard to believe the terra firmament I'm stalking on was once the bottom of the ocean, but the proof is there

From water to bordering desert


Rock showing sediment layers

[H A Higgins]

There is beauty too.
Just have to look to see
(Yellow flowers)

[H A Higgins]

I had a successful stalk on day 1, less than stellar follow thru.  At 9 steps javies are HUGE!
Forgot the basics of picking a spot.
Arrow hit way forward, I figured front of a front leg or across the sternum.
200 yd track before I ran into stuff to thick to follow.
Came around from other side and grid searched for a couple hours
Figured javie was still walking

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon.  On one of my walkabout I detoured down the sendero that was closes to last sign
This stopped me dead in my tracks

I knew the meaning.  Another 15 minutes of griding turned up hide, shoulder blades, pelvis and back leg.
20 to 30 yards where I had lost the blood.  Had to have walked over it. THICK
Resolution to my shot.  Not what anyone would have wanted.  Lots of spare time to get into my head and coach for better results.

[H A Higgins]

How many years did this tortoise survive it all?

[H A Higgins]

Sometimes its not all green and brown

[Terry Green]

Day 2 on the new property was an exciting adventure.  Lots of ifs, ands, and almosts.

On to day 3....

Joe dropped me off at "Power1' at about  11:30 and he proceeded to 'Power 2'. 

It was slow for a bit but a large sounder came out of the sendaro to the left of my hot one.  They were feeding toward me so I set out after the to try and set up on the 60 yards out, but the got full and lazily wandered ³ into to the bush toward another sendero....

Hold on.... somebody just lost a tag...

[woodsman196]

Corn thieves! 

[elkken]

Some great pics boys ....  keep them coming

[woodsman196]

Well the second half of the week was a challenge for me. We had Javies working in our area but they always came out downwind with no way to get in a good position for a stalk. I was fortunate to be able to see many birds that I don't get to see in Indiana. That made the time pass a little quicker when things were slow with the Javelina action.

The last evening Terry offer the spot he and Joe had been hunting to John and I since they had both filled their tags. We put John in a chair to ambush on what had been the most active road for Joe and Terry. I sat in the shooting house and watched all the other roads ready to hop out and make a sneek. It didn't take long before a group of 6 popped out at the end of the sendaro just as expected. What wasn't expected was that they would mill around before walking back into the bush two different times. Soon after they went north I had a group of 9 turkey poults and two hens come down my sendaro vacuuming up all the corn. They caught me trying to get pictures and turned back. I recorned the road and prepared for the golden hour. Like they had read the script a small group of Javies started down the road in my direction. For the first time since Sunday the wind was perfect. I climbed out of the box blind and made my way to an ambush spot about 40 yards from them and prepared for a shot. After waiting for what seemed like forever I snuck back out to the road to see the group had turned to follow a sendaro that T'ed into the one I was hunting. Once they were out of sight I hustled back to the box blind and turned up a different sendaro hoping to cut them off. The wind was favorably quartering when I found a good hide near the intersection of the two sendaros. As I was squatting down to be ready to shoot from my knees I saw a Javie through an opening in the brush that was watching me get into position. As I was kneeing his hackels were going up. I was busted! They bolted into the brush and I returned to the shooting house. The last day was getting shorter and I just blew what I expected to be my last opportunity. Back in the shooting house watching all the roads I watched a good sized covey of Scaled Quail and some other birds. 10 minutes later a pair of Javelinas that were with the last group I spooked came out. Back down on the road I took cover and hustled to a hide to wait for them to pass. I watched them feed in one area for a while until they turned and started to feed away from. They were moving away faster than I could close the gap so out of desperation I took out my Javie call and made a couple of short calls to mimmic a small tussle. Both of the Javelinas turn my way and looked briefly then went back to feeding. Since they were now facing me I put the call away hoping they would feed back to me. No such luck. The turned and started back in the original direction they were heading. I tried my call trick again but they would only glance in my direction and did so with little concern. Even more desperate I desided to go full distress with the call. That got them moving! Straight into the bush in a hurry. Ok, back to the shooting house for the last 20-30 minutes. No sooner did I get settled and the same 2 Javies came out in the nest sendaro west of where I last saw them. Once again I'm off to find a hide before the fading light ends my hunt. I shot down the sendaro east of then and cut through the brush to where I expected them to soon pass and I'll be....there they were. Calm and feed in my direction. I had a great hide, a fair quartering wind and only about 15 minutes before time was up. It seemed to be perfect. And it was as the first Javie slipped into the shooting gap. First his nose, then his collar. Two more steps and I'm sending an arrow about 12 yards to fill my final tag. I had my bow up and tension on the string. One step and I'm going to full draw. Suddenly without warning and without lifting his head he shot across the sendaro into the bush and my hunt was over. So close but still so far! The hunt was good and the group was great. Looking forward to the next time!

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Looks like a good time! Hey Terry....where's the other end of that broken arrow?   

R

[Terry Green]

I'm working on it right now, Ryan. 

[woodsman196]

Ryan, I shot my Javie with a 160 suffer I picked up from Gene Wentzel. Great MOJO in that head. They are and have been my go to for years!

[Terry Green]

Okay, the day three merry-go-round.....

Joe and a pre corned the spots on the original ranch this morning and we got over on the other side of the road new property about eleven o'clock after corning , the original property's hotspots for the next group of hunters that are now coming in tomorrow.

It was pretty slow the first couple of hours and then a sounder of 11 came out of the sendaro to the left of my hot one but they went away from me. So I let them go knowing that they would reappear somewhere else later in the day. Then it was slow again for another hour. So I was still at the hub monitoring all of the sendaros.

Then all of a sudden, I look directly to my left up a senndaro that had a deer feeder with a short fence around it the keep out the hogs and javalina that was set off to the right side of this sendandero in a circular open area. It was like a scene out of young guns where the regulators were ride up and appear at the top of a hill and pause.  It was the 11 again and yes, they we coming my way. They were maybe 60 yards  away from the circular opening with the deer feeder in the middle. The perimeter short fence had several small mesquite trees growing up in it. So I had a great approach without getting caught. Once I got to the circular opening , I went to the right and went around the perimeter fence which kept me completely covered. The only place that I could set up was at the brush where the circular open area ended. So I knew I had no backcover whatsoever. I only had this wall a brush to stand beside. As I peeked out to see how far they were away away from me. I saw them go into the bush on the right. At this point I thought they were headed toward the other sendaro  where I saw them before so I went back to the hub to monitor it....

[Terry Green]

I will be finishing up the story tomorrow morning as a new group of hunters arrived today and will be launching out tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, thanks to Meathead for working with the pic on my 1st javie making it look much better in contrast....