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Pigs 3 - Hunters 0

Lynn Babcock

We should have known that this hunt would be "different". A forecast of rain on the day before the hunt turned into 3+ inches and in the desert that translates into flash floods and dry washes that are anything but dry. We did succeed in getting to our camp site and setting up camp before it really started to rain and did not stop for 14 hours. Since we were on the only high ground it was not long before we were joined by additional hunters. Luckily they turned out to be good sportsmen and hunters.

Opening day started out pretty wet and still very cloudy but no rain. About 10 AM of that day my son-in-law Chris, who is sitting atop a very deep canyon, locates a Javelina and it is deep down in the canyon (naturally). He spends the next two hours trying to stalk the little critter only to have to climb back up out of the canyon with nothing. For those of you who have never hunted in this desert, you have to understand that, even in our current drought, you can walk 10 feet off of a back road and be lost in the thick brush. We do have a lot of vegetation. So loosing sight of a Javelina is not uncommon.

Day two goes by with no sign of pigs. The trick to hunting these stinky little critters is to find a high spot and use your binoculars. When you finally locate them you get to stalk them over crumbling, rolling rocks and through dry brush. Javelina do not see well but their hearing is excellent as is their sense of smell.

At about 8:30 AM on day three I locate a single Javelina making his way down the ridge of the same deep canyon as in day one. It is my turn to climb down into this rocky, brushy, deep hole (actually it is a cliff dropping off to lower elevation leading to the Hassayampa River, pronounced Hass-ee-am-pa with a Spanish A.) After stumbling and sliding down the rock strewn ridge, I find him and another that I had not seen, milling around under a Palo Verde tree. There is a lot of underbrush and they are moving toward more dense cover. If  I am going to get a shot, I have to take it now even though it will be through some brush. Probably not a good thing to do but the only shot I get, and miss. Javelina can also run like the wind when scared, and they do.

I probably need to mention that this is what Arizona Game and Fish calls a HAM hunt. Handgun, Archery, & Muzzleloaders are the only legal weapons for this area. My choice is a S&W Model 19 with a Red Dot sight. This still did not make the shot go any more true. I just missed. Chris has flanked me down the mountain and one of the pigs runs his direction. We both spent the next hour tracking the pigs only to loose their track on rocky ground and in thick brush.  It is at this point that I am asking someone to please remind me why I climbed down into this hole? I now have to climb up, over the same slipping, rolling rocks and through the same "cats claw" bushes and mesquite trees.

We do not see Javelina the rest of the day, thank goodness because I could not climb another mountain that day, but we do find a herd of seven early the next morning. It is pretty obvious from their fast gate that they have a destination in their little pea minds and I think it is a windmill water tank   about a mile away in the direction they are moving. We try to flank them and by the time that I have made a 1/2 mile through the brush and cactus the sweat is running from under my hat and my two layers of clothing is sticking to me. I run right into the middle of the pack. They  had made a slight turn that I did not anticipate, and now the Javelina are in second gear but not running yet. Guess where they go! We are on the top of a mesa with many canyons leading off in all directions. The pigs split into two groups and move off into two different canyons. Both are thick with brush and very deep. We spend the next two hours trying to find them in impossible conditions. They make their escape and leave three tired, sweaty hunters.

Time to go home. But sure was fun while it lasted. Rain, sneaky little pigs and all.

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