I am responding to Terry's story request. The photo is of a javelina that I got during week two.
We were hunting at the Annex across the highway during week two. At about 2:00 PM I saw a group of javelinas pop out of the thick prickly pear cover and head toward me from the north down a dirt road with the wind at their backs. They were so close that all I could do was back into an adjacent dirt road and watch.
One of the javelinas broke away from the group and started hurrying toward my end of the road. He went past me and then looked back at the group and started going back to join them. I think he was getting nervous about being separated.
He didn't act like he knew I was on the other side of a bit of mesquite and prickly pear. Then he stopped. He was a good 18 or so yards away, but his vitals were in a window in the brush and I had a clear shot. I pulled back, picked a spot, and made the shot.
He was in high gear before the arrow got there and I thought I missed him because he moved so quickly at the sound of the string. It made sense to me since it was a long shot and he jumped so fast and ran into the brush.
Unbeknownst to me Terry was watching from a distance. He walked up to me and said that it sounded to him like a gut shot when the arrow hit the javelina. We looked around for the arrow and found it covered in blood. We followed the direction that the javelina went and saw a string of small intestine stuck to a low bit of brush -- a sure sign of a gut hit. Apparently the javelina got moving before the arrow got there, but did not move far enough to avoid the arrow completely.
We marked the spot and backed out of the brush. I decided we should wait two or so hours before taking up the trail again. At 4:00 PM we started to look for the javelina again. There was no blood trail, but there were clear tracks of him running in the dirt between the prickly pear and mesquite tangles. It was slow going.
We got to a little clearing and while looking for the next track in the dirt I heard Terry say, "Here is your javelina." He had not gone more than 30 yards or so.
The javelina was taking his last breaths and expired shortly after we saw him.
He turned out to be an average boar javelina -- not big, but not a juvenile either. That explained his willingness to separate from the group and his desire to reconnect with them when he got too far away. He was not old enough to be completely independent or solitary, but the desire to be away from the group was what got him in trouble.
When I skinned him I saw that the shot was behind his rib cage, and that his body cavity was full of blood. He jumped the string enough that shot was too far back, but the shot did make him bleed out internally.
I took the meat to Ruiz Custom Meats in Laredo and had it made into chorizo. I just had some this morning. I really love good chorizo and I am thankful that I got some this year.
Topic: LTR 2025 - The Madness has begun! (Read 12899 times)
