Mr. Jonathan Report post Posted January 16, 2010 Well, after Christian (azcouesandelk) showed me the ropes of glassing for coues deer last year, I became really interested in hunting javelina as well. I picked up a leftover archery tag and invited Christian to come along, hoping I could glean from some of his expertise on hunting pigs. We glassed up some coues deer right off the bat, and they were in low cholla-country, which i thought was pretty neat, but no piggies anywhere. We went to the gas station around 10 am and I asked the lady working there where I could find some javelina. She laughed and told me to look in her back yard. After gassing up and getting some tasty breakfast sandwiches that only small town gas stations can produce we tried another canyon a few miles to the north. Apparently the combination of mid-morning sun and a hot breakfast was enough to put Christian to sleep, however, I learned later that just like Chuck Norris, Christian doesn't sleep he only "waits." Well, while he was 'waiting', I was glassing glassing glassing... Then finally I pulled the truck up to another overlook, and as I was setting up the binoculars I happened to look down the canyon with my bare eyes and see a nice batch of javelina doing lots of javelina stuff about 200 yards below me. I said "Oh wow there's a lot of pigs!" I was met with a little unbelief, until Christian looked to confirm that this old 'carp' hunter wasn't just seeing things... Christian stayed on top of the hill to guide me while I worked my way down and around towards the group of javelina. There were 17 animals in the group. What do you call a collective group of javelina? A herd? A pack? I don't know. Anyways, they were sleeping in "piles" which I had never seen before, and they actually looked kind of cute in a weird way. I got in to 35 yards when one of the pigs decided to get up and walk around, then it sort of sprinted towards me until it got to 18 yards away. I was already at full draw, and since I shoot a single pin slider sight I had already set the yardage to 35 yards. Initially I thought I might take a head on shot, but when he faced me I couldn't believe how thin their bodies are, so I remained at full draw. I followed the pig until he quartered enough for me to slip an arrow through him. All the pigs erupted, running everywhere and making crazy noises, and then Christian says "Ok, he's down. He's not going anywhere!" Then the hootin and hollerin started. The javelina only ran about 20 yards before expiring. Christian hiked down and we had a regular photo shoot with my first Arizona 'big' game animal, then we got him in the pack and called it a day to go look for deer. He was a non-typical with three tusks on the bottom there. Well if you can imagine such a thing, here's a hoyt guy hanging out with a bowtech guy. But if I remember correctly, only the bowtech drew blood that day, even though both bows put an arrow in the sky. I'll let azcouesandelk tell that story though... Thanks for the help man! Oh, and if Bill Quimby reads this, I know they are not pigs, or rodents for that matter, and I do know they are actually 'peccarys.' I'm just trying to demonstrate some cultural sensitivity to the subject when I use the more vulgar vernacular. Its hard enough being a muley hunter Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jakehaffey Report post Posted January 16, 2010 Congrats! Thats some cool tusks there! Keep that skull or get a mount! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted January 16, 2010 Loved the story!! You have a fun writing style!! Thanks for sharing the details and taking such nice photos! Congratulations on your first big game animal!! sounds like you did everything right! Amanda Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DUG Report post Posted January 16, 2010 Congrats on your pig. I have yet to see the pigs piled up sleeping on each other. Bet that was neat. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tjhunt2 Report post Posted January 16, 2010 Congratulations on your first pig and sounds like you had the right guy helping you. I can't get enough of these pig stories and yours was a good one. Thanks for sharing. Good job Christian. TJ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coues Archer Report post Posted January 17, 2010 Wo!!! That is one nice pig congrats. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
willhunt4coues Report post Posted January 18, 2010 Congrats on your first big game animal. Job well done. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bonecollector Report post Posted January 18, 2010 Congrats on your first AZ big game animal, and nice write up also. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HaYen Report post Posted January 18, 2010 Nice pig. Did some glassing yesterday and scouted around unit 20A for a campsite for next months hunt. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
