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Lately I've been slacking on keeping you all up to date on our hunting adventures. I finally got around to typing up the story about Angie's successful javelina hunt from last February. Its another one of my LONG stories. Hope you all enjoy. Well another year has come and gone and as usual I look back and think to myself, “I cant believe its over already”. Most people know that I have a very special passion for those stinky little creatures we call javelina. After filling my archery tag on January 1st and then taking Jackson out on his successful Jr hunt at the end of January we were much anticipating Angie's javelina hunt at the end of February. Angie had already taken two javelina in the passed with a rifle so this year she decided that even though she had a rifle tag she wanted to try to fill her tag with her bow. After all, with two archery coues under her belt, one of them being spot and stalk, she is way overdue on an archery javelina. We had a total of four days to hunt so our plan was to hunt the first two days with a bow and if unsuccessful we would hunt the last two days with a rifle. I really wanted to get Angie's hunt on video but I knew it would be tough to help her stalk in on a herd and talk her through the shot, all while trying to video. Luckily my good friend Ron offered to let us hunt one of his spots where he had a trail camera set up a month earlier. He had been getting a herd of javelina almost daily on his camera. After showing me his spot, I set one of my own cameras and was very pleased to see that there was a herd of at least 12 javelina that were using this area to bed. This area was very dense and thick so we planned on trying something very different from how I usually hunt javelina, we were going to sit a ground blind. Hunting javelina from a ground blind seemed a little crazy but with as frequent as the herd was showing up on camera it seemed like a good idea. I also liked the idea of it being a little more of a controlled environment where I could have the camera on a tripod and be able to talk Angie through the shot. Opening morning we were up early and on the highway with high hopes. After about an hour drive we were to our parking spot well before sun up. We hiked the half mile in, set up my Double Bull blind and got situated for a day of waiting. Boy did it turn out to be a LONG day! We sat sun up to sun down with the most exciting part of our day being when a few quail came by. The next morning we were back at it. Before light we were in the blind and prepared to sit all day again. The morning started out just as the day before did. Hours of staring at NOTHING! I was starting to realize that maybe this wasn't such a great idea and I was really starting to question my sanity but we were determined to stick with the original plan. At about 1:00 in the afternoon Angie whispers to me, “pigs”. I get super excited and tell her to quietly take her bow off the bow stand. I was very nervous as the wind was in a constant swirl. The first two javelina were coming up a trail and headed right for us. Angie had her bow in hand, arrow knocked, release hooked and ready for the shot. The javelina were headed for an opening 22 yards in front of us where Angie would have a perfect shot but when the lead pig got 5 feet from that opening he stopped dead in his tracks and stared right at the blind. “OH NO!” is all I could think. I knew he must have caught our scent. He stayed frozen for a good minute with his nose in the air as he tried to figure out his surroundings. It was torture having him so close yet Angie had no clear shot. He needed to take a few more steps but he decided that something didn't feel/smell right so he turned around and walked away from us. We could see the entire herd through the brush as the crossed a little ravine and walked passed us at 40 yards. I struggled to watch them through the brush as they continued on their way to their beds. Soon enough there was no sight of them and the waiting game was back on. Angie and I sat in the blind for another hour or so and we discussed our options. She had about enough of sitting in the blind and begged for us to get out and go look for the herd that had passed by earlier. Being sick of sitting in the blind myself I agreed and we decided to get out of the blind and do some hiking around. I slipped out of the blind slowly and and took two steps forward trying to look around through the bush. No sooner than I started to relax I heard the oh so familiar “WOOF” sound coming from my left. I turned to look in the direction of the sound only to see two javelina just 40 yards away taking off in the opposite direction. My heart sank as I had just realized that we made a huge mistake. We sat in that blind for over 17 hours total over the day and a half and as soon as we give up is when the pigs were on their way to pass by us. What a disappointment! We shook it off and decided to stick with our decision and do some hiking around. For the next couple of hours we hiked around slowly through the thick mesquites hoping to run into the herd. We never did run into the herd but we did run in to a single pig on two different occasions. One we kicked out of its bed and he took off never to be seen again. The other one Angie spotted as it was working its way slowly on the wash edge up above us. The pig was only 30 yards and stood still, broadside for almost five minutes, but with the thickness of the trees and brush there was no shot opportunity. We tried to sneak around and get in front of him in hopes that he would pass but that didn't work out. We never did see anymore javelina for the rest of the evening so we packed up the blind and headed back to the truck. The next morning we were up early and back in the truck again, headed out with a different game plan. We were headed for my “honey hole” and we were bringing a rifle this time. At first light we were perched up on my favorite glassing spot. After about an hour of glassing I spotted a herd of javelina feeding on a steep hillside about a mile away. We gathered our gear quickly and set off to make the long stalk. I knew we had to hurry because do to the terrain and the location of the herd, we would have to drop down in a big canyon and loose sight of the javelina for about a half hour. We were racing the clock to get through the canyon far enough to where we would have visual of the javelina again before they moved off the hillside. Well just as so many times before when stalking this same herd in the same location in the past, when we got far enough down the canyon to see the hillside again the pigs were nowhere to be found. We hiked up another hill across the canyon from where the herd had been and set up our binoculars to try to relocate the javelina. After at least an hour of glassing we came up with nothing. Just to make sure they hadn't bedded down up there where we had originally seen them, I crossed the canyon and hiked up the opposite side to while Angie stayed behind her binos and watched. The herd was nowhere to be found when I got up to the top so I headed back to Angie. It was getting pretty late by the time I got back to Angie and we were in pretty deep so we started our long hike back to the truck. We stopped a few times on the hike out to do some glassing but we never did find anymore javelina that day. The next morning we were perched up at our glassing spot again right at first light. The pressure was on as this was our last day to hunt. About 15 minutes in to glassing I spotted a herd of pigs feeding in another familiar location. They were high in a big bowl about ¾ of a mile away where I have glassed them many times before in the past. Every time I see this herd in this location they always do one of two things. They either top over into “no man's land” never to be seen again or they work their way into the bottom of the canyon to get a drink. So again the race was on to get closer. Once we got directly across the canyon from the herd we were very disappointed as we could see some of the javelina had already started to top over the ridge. This meant they were headed for “no man's land” and that we weren’t going to get another opportunity. I told Angie that this stalk was pretty much a bust and she begged me to let her shoot from where we were. We were as close as we could get to the herd without crossing the canyon and the rangefinder was reading 430 yards to the closest pig. I told Angie the distance and she didn't care. “I can make that shot, and this is my last opportunity. Please!” She begged. Against my better judgment I agreed to let her take the shot if we could get her comfortable. We moved to a big rock outcropping and I set our packs up so Angie could prone out. By this time the entire herd had topped over except for on lone javelina. Angie laid down behind the rifle as I ranged the single feeding pig. I dialed in the turret and chambered a round on the rifle. I asked Angie if she was on the pig and she say yes. I zoomed the scope up to 20 power. “Are you comfortable?” I asked her. “Yes”, she replied. “Are your cross hairs on him nice and solid or are the bouncing around?”, I asked her. “Dead on him”, she replied. “Okay, kill him!”, I told her. BOOM! Through my binoculars I watched the vapor trail of the bullet as it traveled all the way across the canyon and hit right under the javelina. The javelina just stayed frozen and didn't move. “You missed low. Shoot again”, I told Angie. She racked the bolt and chambered another round into the rifle. A few seconds of silence passed as Angie reacquired the javelina in the scope. The short silence was interrupted by the big BOOM of the second shot. Again, I watched the vapor trial of the bullet all the way across the canyon as it went right under the javelina again. This time the javelina had enough and took off, up and over the ridge where the herd had gone earlier. Disappointment was definitely being felt by both of us as I told Angie that she had missed and that the javelina had topped over. I continued to glass the top of the ridge just in case there was any other javelina that we had not seen that hadn't made it over the top yet. A minute or two had passed with no javelina in sight, when suddenly the entire herd of javelina came over the top of the ridge, running single file down the side of the mountain right in our direction. “Holy smokes, they're coming back!” Angie scrambled to get them back in the scope. The entire time the herd continued to trot at a pretty steady pace down the side of the canyon getting closer and closer to us. I told Angie, “As soon as one of them stops, drop em.” I was continuously calling out the distance to the lead pig as the herd moved down toward the bottom of the canyon. “300....275....250, wait until one stops.....225....200.” The herd never even slowed before disappearing down into the thick trees in bottom of the canyon. Angie and I sat still waiting and hoping that the herd was going to continue heading toward us. We stared at the tree line less than one hundred yards in front of us, waiting in anticipation, but the herd never appeared. We could see completely around the group of trees that the herd had disappeared into. For the first few minutes I could hear one of the piglets being pretty vocal as they typically are. We stayed patient, watching all the possible escape routes but after about 30 minutes without seeing any javelina I started to wonder if they had slipped away undetected. I hadn't heard the piglets in quite some time either so concern was really starting to grow on me. I knew it was possible that the herd had bedded down in the thick trees so I decided to try a little calling in hopes of drawing one of the javelina out into the open. I didn't want to take a chance of spooking the entire herd so instead of the typical distress call that most people use while trying to call in javelina, I just blew softly on the call making more of a natural juvenile javelina sound. I did this periodically over the next ten minutes, adding a little more excitement to the sound each time. I noticed that there was a small line of brush leading to a bend in the canyon that the herd could have possibly used to escape without us seeing them. I told Angie to stay put while I moved around to the other side of the big rocks we were sitting on to get a better view of the bend in the canyon. As I slowly moved around to the other side of the rocks I looked back out in front of Angie and could see a javelina slowly walking up toward us. I ducked down low and hurried back around the rocks toward Angie thinking that she was unaware of the approaching javelina. As I rounded the rocks I could see Angie motioning to me that she could see the javelina. I immediately reached into the cargo pocket of my pants and pulled out my Sony Handi-cam video camera. I turned the camera on and started recording all at the same time as Angie was following the javelina in the scope of the rifle. The javelina continued up toward us until he stopped, standing still at only 40 yards. Angie wasted no time at all. As soon as he stopped, BOOM! The javelina dropped instantly at the report of the rifle. PIG DOWN! WOOOHOOO!!! I watched the whole thing through the view finder of my video camera. “You smoked him!” I told Angie. We were both surprised at what had just happened. I couldn't believe the delayed reaction of the javelina to the call but I was very happy that we stayed patient and that it all worked out. After the shot the rest of the herd moved out from the trees heading down the bottom of the canyon away from us. They had been bedded in the thick trees just as I had thought. I kept the camera running as Angie headed down to her javelina. Shortly after I headed down and shot a little more video of Angie with her pig. Her javelina was a nice boar, right in his prime. Probably the lead boar and that is why he was coming to investigate the “crying juvenile” sound I was making my hand call. I carried Angie's javelina up to the rocks where she had sot from, and we took pictures before starting the pack out. As always, it was an enjoyable pack out of the canyon with a javelina in my pack after a successful hunt. We made it back to the truck by 1:00 and were happy to be headed home early after three and a half long days of hunting. Congratulations to Angie on her third javelina! She did a great job staying patient and sticking with the game plan. We had another great year of javelina hunting. Myself, Jackson and Angie all took nice mature boars this year. It was definitely a fun year and as usual as soon as it all comes to an end, I start looking forward to next year. Thanks to all who stuck with me through another one of my LONG hunting stories! Its probably obvious that I am very passionate about hunting, especially javelina hunting. Most of all, thanks to Amanda for such an amazing site where we can share our passions and experiences with each other. -Tracy Now for the pics! Angie's sniper perch. Over the shoulder view of the shot. The red arrow is pointing to where the javelina was standing when Angie shot. The view the javelina had right before the shot. You can see Angie perched up on the rocks. Same view, just zoomed in. Angie with her trophy! Angie and I with her trophy! Angie showing off her Coueswhitetail.com shirt. Getting ready to start the pack out of the canyon.