elkhunter

Man Craig, you really did draw some excellent tags last year!

I felt I wouldnt have enough time for archery javelina this year so I picked up a rifle tag instead. I didn't hunt opening day due to work/coaching and planned to hunt only sat and sunday. Friday night I went to bed pukin and had diarreah, first time i've ever had the flu. Didnt get any sleep that night but got my pukin body out hunting. Sat we located the first herd, they bedded down and we snuck into 50 yards (was using an open sight .308 rifle) and for no reason the pigs took off running, we werent moving and the wind was perfect, tough luck. Later on Sat we located another herd and they were in some crazy thick ocotillo, we lost them but kept moving in the direction of their digs/tracks. One pig jumped and ran bout 50 yards, we tried to locate the rest of the herd and once we spotted them it was too thick to shoot and pigs were moving too much, eventually ran away. Again, we were very quiet and the wind was perfect, no idea what pushed em. We think that archery season is super duper easy now, these pigs get very spooky by the time of the rifle hunt. If I still felt bad on Sunday, we were not going to hunt. But Sunday morning I woke up feeling great so pops and i headed out. We went out to the first spot, nothing. Went to locate the third herd we know about and sure enough there they were in the oaks. This time Dad brought his 300wsm that he won from the ADA banquet (paid $20 for a ticket and won a $1050 rifle!). Because of his sweet little rifle, there was no stalking needed and I shot right where I was, 200 yards and pig went down. Overall it was weird compared to the archery hunt. During the archery hunt the pig herds are 9-13 pigs large, during the rifle hunt they are in groups of 3's or 4's. I guess pressure does get to them. Ontop of that we saw about 15 hunters whereas we never see a soul during the archery hunt! This marks for my 11th pig! Here to a good year.

sounds like you got things up and running, congrats and best of luck

Binos are sold

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Does the tripod head come off? Is it possible to put a bogen manfrotto 701 head on it? Thanks

Sold pending funds*

knowing andy, his trail cams are in a range of 297 mile radius of tucson

Mail the shed to yourself from Mex to Arizona! That's a hog dude!

my bad, the binos has been sold...sorry bout that!

sold

looks like one of those bucks with 20+ main beams, awesome

"geez, I wonder how that got started" Oh I know I know

Looked like a good ole time, congrats to all involved

that's a hole congrats

Thats one of the fatter pigs i've seen this year- Everytime I drive down by sahritia or along highway 83, i know those flats are loaded with pigs, only seen em a time or two though! Congrats

I'd be happy to see a draw weight for each category of animals- I know for buff some people even take their bows up to 100lbs. One positive outcome is that now Jr hunters can actually go out and enjoy archery javelina with 30lb bow, which is plenty to harvest a pig as well as a coues deer at certain distance, all comes down to hunter's ethics

190 2/8

Rock on!

always been checking your blog for updates and pics/videos, glad to see you guys on here.

Over the last 12 years, i've got to witness or harvest 33 javelinas! I swear some herds are getting very smart and during the nights of freezing temps they do not bed in the wash but instead high up on a hill side where the temp is much warmer. Javelina have a home core area where they spend 75 to 90% of their time and I've seen the core areas being the size of a football field up to a good half mile square. To increase your odds, always glass the sunny slopes first in the morning, watch the saddles, look for a combination of vegetation (you will more likely find javelina when there's 2 to 3 different type of food in the area). The pigs are also wise enough to often feed in the sun when the sun starts to set. A good size herd is very easy to glass up from a mile away so try to find areas where you can observe several washes, 3 or so sunny slopes, mixed vegetation and you should be near by. If the pressure begins to increase on the hunt, they are always on the next hill over (or so I always say, i'm usually right 30% of the time!) Overall the easiest way to find pigs is to get some elevation and glass towards the flats, if there's green grass in the flats they'll spend more time feeding there rather than up in the hills.

still up for sale

100+

I always kept that event in mind, I certainly won't be able to come, i have a newborn son and already used up my "hunting leave" from home! Hopefully in the near future when the kid's a little older we can venture out there and have some fun.

I don't usually post javelina success on this forum, however since TJ made it more interesting, I'll follow up with this story. Like most of you guys every year in Jan, we are all packed up and ready to chase pigs, it's a real passion in my family, something we can do every year and have no worries about harvesting a small one or a big one!My dad and I have been doing this for the last 10 or so years. This is my dad's 10th pig and I'm hoping to get my 11th later on! This year is a little different from usual, I picked up a rifle tag incase I had no time to go archery hunting this year and my sister is 7 months pregnant so she can't go hunting either, my dad was the lone holder of an archery tag. Lets say that yesterday was a great day and we got to see 32 javelina total, I believe that ranks as the most pigs seen in a single day! We started off in our usual area, the area consists of 3 canyons that holds 2 herds, the first canyon produced nothing and from the first canyon I got a sneek peak at the highest ridge on the second canyon and found pigs, we counted 11 at that time and they were somewhat 2 miles out (hard to believe but it was like looking at fleas moving along white tile). As we cut the distance down to 1000 yards, the pigs got pushed out by some form of predator, they were running and now there was 22 pigs total. Once in a blue moon the 2 herds from the 3 canyons will spend the night together, resulting in a huge herd. As these pigs were running all over the north and south end of the hills, they finally settled down and my dad continued his stalk. A few months ago my dad ruptured his biceps and has a bad rotator cuff in his shoulder, he is only able to draw back his bow for a few seconds then he is forced to shoot before his arm takes a "seizure" of it's own, which made for a real fun hunt. The first stalk produced a miss and with 22 pigs, nothign really hung around and they all ran off in groups of 4's. We went back to the quad and try to locate a country where some pigs may have ran off to. We checked out beyond the 3 canyons, a territory that we do not venture into often because we have scouted this area several times but never found pigs there. Within a few minutes the new herd popped up and the stalk was on! The wind was great, 25 mph gusts which allows us to be a little more loud on our stalk. We got to 25 yards of 10 pigs and waited for them to move towards us, the first pig came above us to the left, 15 yards...dad draws back and shoots...complete miss! The pigs did not do much, they kept feeding and never heard the arrow bouncing on the rocks. Dad moved in closer and waited for more pigs to come towards him, finally after a mere 10 minutes or so, one pig finished up a root and began walking towards my pops, stops at 15 yards slightly quartering, my dad draws back and shoots the pig 4th rib back and arrow took off the opposite shoulder. The pig bolted a few yards down hill, went around a bush and was ready to approach my dad, kind of like a charge..after a few seconds my dad was getting ready to rip another arrow when the pig back legs started to give up and laid down. The rest of the herd was still feeding so my pops pulled out his brand new iphone and began recording while I called in the herd for fun, they got a little too close for me..at a point where I had to pull out my pop's pistol. Throughout this hunt, pops and I located two new herds and we've seen great growth in our usual herds, juveniles were everywhere to be found. Should make for a fun rifle season and upcoming years! This is my pop's 10th javelina and he's ready for number 11 after he gets his arm repaired.