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Stalking the Elusive Javelina by Christopher Canevit
It was a rather cool morning as the second weekend of my hunt started. I threw on my jacket to keep warm as we worked our way up the first high hilltop to start glassing. We had already missed the coyote that ran behind our truck, so maybe I wasn't as awake as I should have been. After spending about 20 minutes glassing from the first hilltop, and not seeing any activity from the highly elusive javelina, we decided to go ahead and move forward a few more hilltops. So we moved, over one hilltop, then the next. At the third hilltop we were forced to stop because of the 5 does running down the hillside. Ron and I jumped out and watched them as they moseyed on down, away from us. I grabbed the video camera and grabbed a quick recording of them. They soon moved into the brush and vanished from sight. Amazing how those critters can just disappear like they have been teleported.
Steve, in the truck behind us, decided he would stop and glass for a bit between the two hillsides. When Ron and I got up the next hill, we noticed that he had fallen back and called him on the radio to make sure everything was OK. We got no answer. We called again, and still no answer. Then right as we were getting ready to call one more time, we hear over the radio Steve’s excited whisper, "Pigs!".
That was probably the sweetest thing we had heard all day. Ron, who was really running down on energy from lack of sleep, suddenly perked up, and quickly grabbed the radio and asked, “where?”. Steve radios back, "Come back here quietly, I don't want to loose them, and bring a tripod." So we drove back down between the two hills. Steve tried to point out where the javelina were, however, I still didn’t see them. I guess I was going blind or something. Finally he pointed my tripod at them and I saw them. It was a herd of about 10-15. We watched them meander about and then they went across the wash and disappeared behind another hill. It looked like they were headed to the bedding site.
We quickly devised the plan; Steve and I would go back to the previous hill and try to get them back into view, and then Ron will come back up after we spot them. We drove up to the hill and got out to start glassing. Five minutes go by, and we still don't see them coming out from behind the other hill. Ron comes up, and we tell him that we haven't spotted them and that they must be taking the long way around to the bedding site.
After his signal, I looked under a nearby bush, and saw on the adjacent hillside, about 50-60 yards away a javelina feeding. My heart started to race, and Ron tried to come back down slowly making sure they didn’t spot or hear him.
Meanwhile Ron was trying to get to his spot, but a large cluster of brush kept him from going over the hill like he wanted, so he ended up coming up the side. He had the pigs in sight so he waited. One looked at him and he just sat frozen, waiting until the pig got bored and continued to feed. Suddenly, he heard a pig talking behind him. Then he saw the shadow of a very large pig behind a Palo Verde. One had gotten behind him. He tried to wait him out, he was motionless, however, one of the straps on his pack wasn't, and the pig spotted the movement, and freaked out. He ran down the hill woofing through the herd. Ron took a shot, but unfortunately, he shot low and pigs scatted in all directions. The plan didn't go exactly as we wanted!
Two pigs did end up running in our direction. I heard crashing coming towards me, but I didn’t see anything so I didn't draw my bow. Next thing I knew, a pig came right at me on a game trail that was one of my shooting lanes. I wasn’t thinking. He ran 5 yards away from me and I wasn't at full draw. All I saw was a blur of pig as he ran by leaving my nose full of his musky smell. Then, I saw one of his partners in the wash. It stopped and started moving up a hill across the wash from me. I made a woofing sound. This made him stop and turn around and look, I did it 2 times, then decided I would range him, darn, 111 yards. I woofed a few more times having fun with him. I got him to stop and look four more times before he decided to haul butt out of there.
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