Oh my gosh, I just re-read my posts and I stink at this.
Back to morning one....this is were it all gets blurry. Hours of nothing, driving, glassing, looking for these little ghosts....and then....somewhere around 08:30 am, on the right side of the truck I spotted our first Javalina. At first it looked like 3 or 4. But as we watched the heard they turned into more like 7 or 8. We all excitedly got out of the truck, gathered our bows and quivers and began formulating a stalking plan. Fortunately the wind was directly in our face. The little critters were about 200 yards off and we fanned out and tried to approach them. As I silently crept, OK, OK, I have to be more truthful, more like bumbled and stumbled my way across the thorn infested scrub, I stalked like I was being watched by a Virginia whitetail. Then I thought, wait a minute, they have poor eyesight, so I sped up my approach. As I did a large single boar stood motionless tucked up into a small bush, seemingly watching me. Really to this day, I am not sure what it was doing, but Tony walked right by it. I motioned for him to stop and back up, pointing to the boars location. He had no idea it was there. He backed up and eventually saw the Javi, but at about the same time it decided to move on. Tony got a shot at this big boy while it was trotting away. Unfortunately, Tony....m,m,m,m, missed.
We hurriedly moved in their direction only to find Jeff pointing to another beastie's location. I was close, danger close, but had no shot, there was to much brush in the way. Both Jeff and I jockied for a shot. Jeff was in a better position before me and got an arrow off with no success.
Again, things are blurry, it was fast when it all took place, thorns were tearing at my clothing, the Texas sun was in my eyes, and my heart was pounding just a little. When it was over, I think Tony got two shots and Jeff let loose of one arrow. After a quick huddle I wanted to take a look at where the heard went off to. I have always been someone who likes to see whats around the corner, over the rise, in the next field.
By the time I was done looking over the next rise, the rest of the gang had loaded back into the truck and was slowly driving back in the direction they though i had gone. I saw nothing, I was a little perplexed, how can a heard that size disappear ? They just turned to dust.
When I noticed the truck I felt like I was holding the guys up and started to run. Just then I saw the outline of a large Javi under a juniper tree. It was between the truck and myself down in a small ravine. I got the attention of the truck and motioned that one animal was there. Jeff, Tony and Jimmy, our guide, all got out and slowly worked their way towards my directions. I was watching the Javalina and was amused by its sticking its nose up in the air test the currents for danger when I saw more movement. That one Javalina turned into a dozen. As Jeff made his way closer they became nervous and made their way out of the cover, just then they must have spotted both Tony and Jeff and they started sneaking up a small wash, mostly obscured by my view. I was trying to motion to Tony to move towards the wash, simultaneously he and Jimmy were trying to tell me they were coming in my direction. Well, quite honestly, all hell broke loose. A large sow and two yearlings ran within 12 to 15 feet of me on my right, but I felt the shot was poor. One or two ran two my left, and I followed them with my bow trying to work out a rhythm. More followed on my right, not sure how many. The sun was in my eyes I tell ya. Two more made their way to my left. I followed them and drew and released on the second one. My arrow was true, but my timing was off> Jeff shouted good shot. The gold tip was so fast it went right through the Javi but it was to far back.
This is not how I envisioned it to be on my first Javalina hunt. We all went in the direction of the one I had shot at and Tony found him and got a shot in him. Excitedly tony went in the direction of the Javi and I followed. Very little blood was found but Jeff was patient and stayed behind. As Tony and I went farther and farther away from last shot,Jeff made a quick and excellent tracking job, only to find that we had ran right past the boar, held up in a small brush pile. Jeff guided Tony to a quick jaw popping follow up shot and we had our first Texas javalina on the ground. Not only that, This was Tony's first big game hunt with a bow and he had scored with an Ed Scott, sinew backed juniper self bow.
Topic: Cure for the Wintertime Blues (Read 1675 times)
