Javi Hunt w/ Mahaska

[imhntn]

Got back late last night from my first javelina hunt.  Went to Sierra Blanca, TX to hunt with Kent Ostrem of Mahaska Bows.  Both my brothers, Darrell and Dwayne went in our group as well as a cousin Bart.  We drove from Stillwater, OK to Odessa, TX last Saturday and then drove on to Sierra Blanca on Sunday morning.  Met the other guys in camp, Dennis and Brett (Coast Guard buddies), Joe the taxidermist and Wayne from Colorado.  
Small world story...Wayne gets out of his truck and I think he looks familiar.  I ask where he is from and he says Colorado but he used to live in OK.  I said, "You know me."  We had met a few times over the years and had lots of mutual friends but had never really spent much time together.  He is a retired Industrial Engineering prof from OK State and worked out in the same gym my wife teaches/trains in.  I had hunted the farms around his for years and drooled over his place since he had a beautiful flood control lake just off his deck that always was loaded with waterfowl and also some awesome deer hunting.  It was great to get to know him better as well as  all the guys in camp.  It was a good group and no one ever had a harsh word.  Kent took us out and showed us some spots to hunt and we got our gear into the club house, strung the bows and headed out.    It was cold and rainy off and on that first day...about 40 degrees and windy.  Here is a pic of the cabin with Bart in it.
 
We headed out to start hunting and I went to a place called the "Hermit" feeder.  The feeder was in the head of a draw and there were tons of tracks all around the area.  Here is a pic of the draw from the spot I sat down on the side of the hill to watch from.
 
I have to go start unpacking and get some laundry done...more to come.

[Night Wing]

I'm looking forward to the........more to come.    :D

[imhntn]

Talking to Kent before we got there, he told us the group that hunted two weeks before us, had not harvested any animals.  They had 10 shots and had hit two but not recovered either one.  He told us that if we shot one and were not sure of the hit that we should immediately give chase and try to corner the animal before it could get into the boulders and try to get a finishing shot into it.  He also said that sometimes you could see the javis in the boulders from above and might get a shot at them that way.  None of our group had any experience at all with them and had never even seen one.  Some of the other guys in camp were repeat customers, Joe and Dennis had both been before successfully with Kent and Wayne had seen the javis on deer hunts before but had never gotten one.  The first afternoons hunt was cold and rainy and a total bust.  No one saw anything.  Monday was supposed to be clearer but still cold and windy and we had great hopes but again, no sightings.  A few spots were getting hits on the corn but not many.  Tuesday looked much warmer in the forecast and we all had great hopes.  The wind was much calmer and it got to about 55 during the afternoon.  Bret got a shot that afternoon at a feeder and Joe also had a shot but neither connected.  Darrell, my youngest brother, was hunting an old mine that Kent thought javis were denning in and he sat all morning and then took a long hike at mid day looking for sign.  When he came back to the mine, three javis busted out of it when he was around 30 yrds away and he had no shot.  Dwayne, the middle brother, was hunting near a culvert that ran under I-10 that they were denning in.  He was seeing a lot of sign and they were hitting his and Bart's corn at night but I had yet to see any movement.  The Border Patrol was extremely active in the area and even came up and glassed Dwayne near the highway at sundown.  He saw them watching him and held his bow up so they could see what he was doing.  Kent had already called the office to tell them we would be hunting there.  The guy motioned him over and made him tell him what he was doing, which really aggravated everyone since it was prime time to see javis coming out.  They also came up to the cabin to tell us Tuesday afternoon that 5 illegals carrying back packs were seen up on the ridge above the mine, where Darrell was hiking at the time.  We quickly called him and told him to be careful.  Everyone in camp was carrying a sidearm except him and I bet he will have one next time.  I don't think there were any more sightings that day of illegals or javis.  Here is a pic of Kent talking to a couple of the high ranking BP officers about them messing up our hunts after he had already called ahead.  They were very nice and apologetic.
 
Wednesday's forecast was for the 70s and we had high hopes.

[imhntn]

Wednesday morning I took a long walk out on the flats to see if I could find any bedding in the draws that run through there.  They were not out there either.  About 9:30, Dwayne was hunting at the culvert again and a highway crew stopped on the other side of the interstate and started banging a 5 gal bucket against the road and finally got what looked like a big chunk of hardened tar out of it.  Dwayne was watching the commotion and looked back to a pasture road he had corned and 3 javis were feeding down the road.  He got ahead of them and set up for an ambush.  When the lead one got close, it spotted him through a bush and woofed him and they took off.  He took a shot at 10 yrds and missed.  About that time Darrell texted me and said he had 2 found in a den and they were making a lot of noise.  He wanted me to round up the other guys and get up there to help him.  He had been sitting on the mine again when a group of 3 had come in from a draw and winded him and ambled back off into the draw.  He followed and lost them as they went up the draw.  He knew they must have gotten into the rocks along the south side of the draw cause he could see the rest of the area around that they would have escaped into.  He got up on the boulders and started going all along the draw looking and just got lucky and saw one through a crack between the boulders.  He could only see it when he shielded his eyes from the sun with one hand but when he would try to draw and shoot, it just looked all black in there.  After trying to get a shot for a couple minutes, that one ran out of the den.  By the time I got up there with the brother and cousin, another one had run out and stopped for a couple seconds behind some scrub and it deflected his arrow.  We got close and could hear the javi growling and popping its teeth.  He got us all in position and Dwayne got up on top of the den to try to run him out.  Dwayne had left his bow at the truck because he was afraid we would have too many shooters in a small area.  He spotted the pig through a gap in the rocks and said, "Hand me your bow!"  Darrell says, "Bull crap!  I been waiting for you guys 2 hours...get out of the way!"  Darrell gets in position and shoots down into the den and the growling and snarling gets crazy and out comes the javi.  I shot and missed as he came out but Bart hit him in the rear on the run.  He got across the draw from us and started downhill but was not going full speed.  I ran down my side of the draw to try to finish him before he could get away and Bart shot again and hit him right in the boiler room.  I hit him again from 15 yrds and it was all over.  Darrell's first shot had actually been perfect.  Went in right next to the back bone and came out on the other side just under the leg.  We were really excited to have gotten it and with a family effort.  Darrell is having a full body mount done on it since it has such good memories.  Here is the hero pic with l-r me(Lonnie), Darrell, Dwayne and Bart.
 
Darrell shoots a Black Widow PSA at 58# I think with carbon arrows and magnus stingers.  I was shooting a Black Widow SAII Graybark 62" that is 47# at my draw of 27" and also using magnus heads.  Dwayne shoots a Black Hollow reflex/deflex at 58#  made in Haskel, OK and was also using magnus heads.  Bart was using a wheel bow.  Here is a pic of them weighing the javi....43#.
 

[KSdan]

Great. . . looks fun.

[imhntn]

We all went back out that evening and Bart's corn was all gone and lots of javi tracks around it when he got into his spot at 3.  He had one come in behind him and woof and then another came in that he missed.  It had spotted him and was walking away and stopped at 27 yrds and he shot low.  Dwayne had one come in right at sundown from the mountains above the culvert he was hunting.  He got ahead of it and when it stopped and looked at him at 10 yrds he was already at full draw and made a perfect shot.  It ran a circle about 20 yrds away and came running back past him at 3 yrds and he missed it as it ran past.  It fell into a deep narrow draw and he could see his arrow sticking up out of there and wiggling when he came up to it so he gave it another shot to make sure.  He carried the javi and his bow and arrows to the road and went back to get his pack and there were 3 more javis moving away from the culvert. When I picked him up, he said I could hunt his spot the last morning since I had not seen one yet except the one I helped Darrell with.  Dwayne's was a 48# boar.  I'll post pics of it when he sends them to me as I did not get any with my camera.  After Joe the taxidermist got done skinning Darrell's that afternoon, he got some meat off it.  We had asked Kent, the guide, the first day in camp if they were good to eat and he said they were fine and people ate them.  We asked if we could slow cook the meat in the oven while we were hunting in the afternoon and he went balistic.  It was hilarious to hear after he had told us it was good to eat.  He says, "Heavens No!  It would stink the whole place up.  That is a new oven!  Joe(the owner of the ranch) would have to throw the oven away.  That stuff stinks!"  We ended up cooking it in the skillet that evening and it tasted like pork chops but when you burped, you could smell the musky smell of the javelina.  Oh well, I can say I ate some.  The last morning I sat on the culvert and we agreed to all meet there at 10 to try a predator call to see if we could bring them out of the culvert and get another one.  I didn't see any that morning and everyone showed up at 10 to try it but no luck.  Here is a pick of the guys headed back to the cabin to pack up and head home as the hunt ended at noon on Thursday.
 
We had a great time hunting together.  It was great to take my cousin Bart since his dad had taken me deer hunting every year when I was a kid because my dad did not hunt deer.  I hunted with him every year from the time I was 12 till I was 18 and he died in a car wreck the summer after my freshman year in college.  Bart was only 3 and really has no memory of him.  It was special to me to get to share a lot of stories of the fun times I had with his dad.  I miss him every fall.

[Wannabe1]

Man looks like it was a good time. Thanks for sharing!  

[Night Wing]

Awesome report. Great photos too. Thanks for sharing it.

[Jerry Wald]

Looks like a blast can't wait to get down there..omly two more months till I leave

JB

[fido dog]

Holy Moly! I wish I knew you were coming through Odessa! I would have offered a cold beer.

Looks like a great time! =0)

[katie]

Sounds like fun!  Congrats on the Javi!

[Terry Green]

Thanks for Sharing......they sure are fun to hunt.  Sharpens those stalking skills for sure.

Congrats!

[imhntn]

Thanks guys and gal for the comments.  Here is a picture of my brother Dwayne's 48# that he got near the culvert along I-10.  He is a natural with the recurve.  He still has a Browning Wasp that he started hunting with when he was 12 and he has just always had a knack for instinctive shooting.  He is supposed to send me some more pics that he got.  I am hoping he has one of some of the other guys in camp.
 

[Jerry Wald]

Congrats - you guys are KILLING ME MAAAANNNN..

Jer Bear

[wildgame]

congrats!!  

[Froggy]

Nice thread.... enjoying it.  

[Chris Surtees]

Looks like y'all had a great hunt. Thanks for taking us along      

[rastaman]

Thanks for sharing!      Congratulations on a good hunt with good friends and family!

[2ndxarnd]

It's a good thing those things are only 50 #, if they were any bigger you'd never be able to kill them. Those suckers are tough. BUT man are they FUN to hunt....          

[30coupe]

Thanks for the great write-up! I killed my first deer with one of Kent's longbows. I still have it, but I usually end up using the shorter Kanatis. It's still a great shooting old bow though.