A story of Javelina and Hogs: My hunt started in my mind several months before I pointed my truck south from the far north of the Yooper, and I can tell you that I did not dream big enough. I just love the anticipation of a hunt, don't you?
For a number of years I have been wanting to do a bowhunt with the Wensel bros. and now I had my chance. There was going to be 17 of us at the west Texas ranch and we were to arrive on Sunday afternoon and start our hunting on Monday morning. I arrived a bit late and missed the orientation, turned out to be a good thing too. Soon after I arrived I had Barry come up to me and tell me to not worry, there were still lots of places for me to go out hunting in the morning. Monday morning arrived and we were all up at the crack of dawn for a bite and a cup of joe. Barry and Gene grabbed me and another stickbow shooter by the name of Brad. He let us know we were going to be hunting partners today and where we could do our hunt. 45 minutes later Brad and I were at our area and pulling on our packs and grabbing the bows. After a short discussion we decided we wanted to head up hill to a good viewing spot and glass for javelina. Brad turned out to very good at spotting game and it did not take him long to pick out a mule deer buck. We watched the buck move about a hillside about a half mile away for some time. Brad then hissed at me he had javelina spotted. The little pigs were working their way towards the mule deer and you could clearly see he was watching the javelina too. We watched them all for about a half hour and could tell they were not going anywhere soon. The discussion soon turned to how we could get in on them. Having never hunted pigs or javelina before I was not too sure on how good their senses were going to be but brad assured me they would not see us approach from below them and so off we went. As we stood at the base of the draw looking up the hill where we knew the javelina were bedded we made our final plans. As we cut the distance to about 40 yards I saw a big javelina stand up and then bed back down under a small tree. Signaling Brad of what I saw we crept further and soon we were inside of 30 yards. Nocking arrows we both were ready for our first chance. Pressing forward a very slowly a small step at a time we cut the distance to 20 yards. Now my heart was pumping very fast and I kept saying to myself to keep calm, the shot was going to happen.
Today I was caring a 57# habu VyperKhan long bow. My arrows were axis 340's cut to 30.5" and tipped with 165 grain snuffers. This set up should have no issue shooting through the shoulders of a javelina and that is where I planned to shoot.
Back to the stalk: As I stared down the bedded javelina and thought of how I was going to get the shot I heard soft grunting type sounds coming from my right. Slowly I turned my head and saw a javelina moving out from under some heavy brush. It looked like a good one and if he kept moving he was going to walk right into an opening at less than 15 yards. As luck would have it the javelina did just what I needed and not only did he step into the opening but he stopped as I hit full draw. Bearing down on my spot the shaft was soon on it's way and I could now see the arrow right where I had been looking. The javelina spun back the way he had come and ran only about 30 yards hiding under a small tree. The fun was not over yet though as the other javelina were now on their feet and not very happy. Brad was next to me and it was now his turn. Having forgot to bring the rabbit call I started making some squealing sounds by using the back of my hand. Can this possible work was racing through my mind? Soon I had my answer as the javelina we first started to stalk made his way towards me. I had an arrow nocked but I wanted Brad to get a crack at this one and so I knelt down so he could shoot around me. As I looked back I could see Brad was looking behind him as he had another javelina approaching from the opposite direction. It was a very exciting time and I did my best to get the javelina in as close as possible but it soon turned sour and we failed to get another shot. The good news was I had one down and I was eager to go see a javelina up close. As Brad and I approached the spot where we had seen him go down I was surprised to hear Brad say to me he was still alive. Having a arrow ready I moved up to the cover and at 10 yards the javelina came up from under the brush and offered me a perfect broadside shot. I sent another snuffer through him just behind the shoulder and to my surprise he just jumped high in the air and came down popping his canines at us. Brad hissed to shot him again and soon my last arrow was on it's way, passing through the pig a bit far back. He did not go 25 yards and was down for the count. I could not believe that I had to shoot three times with two shots in the boiler room to put the javelina down for good. Having shot a lot of big game in 40 years with the bow I was thinking that these little guys were tougher than anything I had hunted before. Since we knew where the javelina went down we just walked over to pick up my two arrows and go see a javelina up close. This time the javelina was right were we last saw him and was not going anywhere. High fives were now in order as well as a few pictures. We both were on a pretty good high at this time and we decided to carry our game back to the truck and then go see if we could find Brad a javelina. After taking only a few steps with our hard earned prize I was surprised to hear Brad say that there was a javelina at the bottom of the draw about 150 yards away. We dropped our quarry and I said to Brad that he should go after him and I would watch from the hillside. Brad grabbed his binoculars to get a good look and soon said that the javelina was bleeding pretty hard from a shoulder wound. I then looked at him with my binoculars and it was obvious that he was hurt real bad. Was it possible I had shot two javelina? Brad and I talked about it for a minute and even though we both believed I had only shot one it was evident this javelina had also been shot. "count the holes John", I can still hear Brad say this to me. Sure enough I counted only two holes and not three. We then watched as the javelina staggered under a cedar tree and laid down. Sliding down the hill I walked up on the javelina and put another snuffer through him ( I had picked up two of my previous arrows). The shot hit him in the vitals and he went about five steps and was down for the count. Never have I seen an animal take a broadhead through the vitals like that and go so long. When I skinned him out later I half expected that my shot did not go where I thought it had but that was not the case. My arrow had busted through both his shoulders at midline, taking out both lungs. The little pig had survived at least 15 minutes after the shot.
My javelina hunting was done the first morning and now it was time for me to help out my new hunting partner. Maybe Brad can give you his story of his good fortune later in the hunt.
Topic: Wensel Pig-Gigs 2014 (Read 1348 times)
