Opening Day Jr. Javelina Success

[H2O Dog]

Well, as most would guess, it wasnt the best of days to get out with my 12 year old son, but, he wanted to go hunting. Looking at the National Weather Service Tucson forecast, there was a hint of a break in the storms for the mid-day hours. So.....we took our chances and headed to the highway on our way to 37A (Silverbell Mountain Area). Got to our spot around 10:15AM. Believe this. It rained from the time we left Chandler until we got off at the Avra Valley Road exit. When we exited the Highway, we could already see the sun shining down on our mountain range. Now, that had to be good sign, well at least we hoped! We have been going to this hill complex for about 8 years and my oldest son, Will, who took his second Javelina there, was with us. We call this place, Javelina Hill, as about 50% of the time sitting on the hill, you eventually spot Javelina. Well, we decided to head off to the back of the hill complex and walk the tops all the way around hoping we would see the Javelinas feeding below. Well, after about a 2 hour walk, we met back up with Will, who was searching for last moment Deer with his bow. We thought we would walk the wash back to the truck and head to Marana for another place we knew on the west side of the tortilitas. Well about 300 yards from the truck, we spotted 4 single tracks (fresh) of a piggie, but no sign as to where he exited the wash. About 10 yards further, we spotted 2 more sets. At that time, I asked Michael (the hunter) if he wanted to go to the truck, or try to find the 3 pigs. He wanted to HUNT, so we got to a high spot and the 3 of us began to glass. I brought my binos up to start glassing and brought them up right on guess what? 3 pigs. We had pretty strong winds that were blowing straight at us, so I knew we had all day to get this done, except unless it really clouded up. But the sun stayed shining. My son Will headed up hill about 50 yards and we ended up following these little buggers over 3 small ridges and ended up right on top of them. They were feeding (on the very windy side!) and sparring with each other. We setup and Michael had a heck of time trying to get a good shot. Either the butt was facing us, the brush was in the way, the Javelinas were too close together, etc. Finally, the big pig separated and Michael told me if the pig got close to this big Saguaro, he was going to shoot. Well, it walked towards the saguaro and just before it got to it, I whoofed at it and it stopped and froze. Michael fired off one round from his SKS and the pig dropped. It ended up as a 26.5 yard shot, took out both lungs and it was just a beautiful shot Michael made. Michael shot his first Turkey last spring and now on his second hunt ever, hit his Javelina. Cant wait to the next spring Turkey hunt as all 3 of us have tags in our favorite spot in Unit 1.

 

 

 

 

[CouesWhitetail]

Nicely done!! Congratulations on a fine hunt!

 

And welcome to the forum H20 Dog!

 

Amanda

[jakehaffey]

Great job! Congrats to you all.

[WadeNAZ]

Sounds like the 2 of you make a good team and he definately has the motivation to stick things out. Right on and Congrats to you both. Well done Michael!

[Tucson John]

Great job Will! & dad!

 

TJ

[555]

Good job Michael! You showed alot of patience to get the right shot, Dad you are definately making memories to last a lifetime - and developing young men. It's a beautiful thing

[tjhunt2]

Congratulations to Michael. Sounds like you stuck with it and got the job done quite nicely. Now get ready for the turkeys.

 

TJ

[bonecollector]

Congrats job well done. Way to get the kids out hunting.