Wife's first hunt, first animal and my daughter's 2nd Javelina

[gotcoues]

My wife Colleen is more than happy to cook anything the kids and I can bring home. She has always said absolutely not, no way, no how will she ever go hunting. She could never bring herself to harm one of God's creatures.

 

I have always tried to get her to go hunting, but with no luck. Well, this year proved to be much different. I finally convinced her she should give it try, time for her to step up and bring home some bacon like the rest of the crew. The whole family got drawn for Javelina, I put Colleen and my daughter Ashley in for the HAM hunt. A good friend loaned us his Thompson Encore in .233 with a scope to use for the hunt. Colleen had high hopes of getting it done with her conceal carry gun, a Ruger .380 LCP.

 

We went out shooting several times to practice and she proved herself to be quite deadly at 10-15 yards which was my target goal to sneak into too. I had her shoot the .223 each time we went out in case I could convince her to use it instead. My daughter got in a round of practice and we were set to go.

 

Opening day, I set the ladies up with tripods and glass even though my wife had not enjoyed trying to glass in the past. I was optimistic and very encouraging. After a short hike we were in position and glassed for an hour or so. We only found deer and decided to move to the next

glassing hill.

 

Stop number two warranted our first hunt pictures.

 

 

Within about 15 minutes, Colleen told Ashley and I she had found pigs and started to count them as they came over the a ridge towards us. I was shocked she scored pigs on her very first time out, so was Ashley. Impressive, very impressive I assured her of that. We watched the pigs for a while to get a feel for what they were going to do. While we were waiting, I gave my first attempt at digiscoping even though I hadn't found an adapter yet.

 

 

After watching and snapping some pics of the javis, we packed up and headed down off the hillside. We crossed a wash and topped over a mound of boulders to see if we could pick them up again. As luck would have it, they moved in a good direction and were about 75 yards underneath us. With the wind blowing steadily in our faces, the stalk was on! We got into about 35 yards and ran out of obstacles to hide behind. We decided rather than Ashley take a shot with the scoped pistol, that Colleen needed to get first crack with her .380 so we waited. The pigs slowly but surely came right at us. Finally, they were less than 20 yards. I coached Colleen and she was very hesitant, even gave a sad sigh and told me she didn't know if she could do it. One stopped broadside at about 10-15 yards and her first shot missed the mark. The pigs spooked and if it wasn't for a couple small boulders they would have ran us down. My daughter jumped on a boulder, pointed the gun what seemed like straight down and fired. I immediately responded, and asked if she got one. She said no I missed, I was in almost in shock. She told me she forgot to look through the scope. I told her to reload the single shot bad boy and luckily, one of the last two pigs to head out stopped at about 20 yards broadside. This one wasn't so lucky, the shot rang out and the pig dropped so fast and hard, I thought I had just seen a magic trick. The other just stood there looking back so I told Colleen to fire again. Through the chaos, her composure was out the window and her second miss ensued.

 

After looking around and following the trail they all exited on, I was confident they were indeed misses with no wounded animals. Now for the celebration. Colleen was very excited about the first leg of the hunt. Although she was disappointed she didn't get one, she definitely thought it was awesome they were both shooting at the same herd.

 

This was Ashley's second Javelina, first with a pistol

Between full time classes at Pima and a part time job at Sportsmans, Ash didn't have much time to hunt this time around. We were all very pleased she got it done quickly.

 

Saturday we hit a new location, this time it was my wife and I, and my hunting buddy Nelson (bowfishAZ). We were treated to a cold, windy and nasty morning with hills covered in snow. We didn't turn up any pigs all day, but it was a day to remember for sure. I glassed up a lion, second one so far this year. The man cannon was in tow just for this reason. Andrew and I got the radios and rifle ready so I could bail and dang it if that thing didn't bail in a hurry. Colleen was watching it through her binos and yelled for us. We didn't know what happened, but while we were at the truck I realized I was losing air. We did a quick change out of the tire and headed of on foot to pursue the lion. With all the snow on the ground, I knew we could at least give it a fools try.

We ended up following track for over a mile, maybe almost two before the snow started to burn off. Weapons drawn the whole time just in case.

 

The one that got away

 

The weather never improved and we threw in the towel about 3:30 and headed home. It was a tough day to say the least.

 

Colleen was already making plans for the following weekend to go out and try again.

Saturday finally arrived and the three of us headed out to try again. We split up Saturday morning to improve our odds of spotting pigs. Nelson was about 3/4 of mile on another knoll. Although the morning went without pigs, I had a decent buck walk right to me, and he blew out of there like a freight train when he finally saw me at about 20 yards. Colleen and I headed back to the truck, I could definitely tell she was bummed. We met Nelson back at the truck and had something to eat. We made a plan for the afternoon hunt and then parted ways for a few hours. We had an engagement we couldn't miss. We met up again at around 1:30 and rode out to a new spot.

 

It was a little after two and we were glassing away when Nelson called out pigs. He was pumped, I was pumped and Colleen was a bit surprised. She has just said "maybe it's not meant to be" about five minutes prior due to all that had transpired up until then. We packed up gear and circle around the front of the herd to get the wind right. As we crept into position, Colleen was now packing the .223 and was eager to get it done! It took us a while to find the herd, we moved careful towards their last location. Nelson was the first to catch movement and they were about 30 yards away. We switched positions and put Colleen out front. The wind was a crosswind at best with a few swirls here and there. I thought this was going end any second getting winded and the pigs blowing out of there. Luck was on our side, and they milled around till one was head on at 20 yards. As one turned I told Colleen to let him have it. She hesitated for just a moment and he disappeared behind a bush. As we waited for another opportunity, Nelson was nailed down and pigs fast approaching at 10 yards. Somehow we were able to fool their noses long enough and the one behind the bush finally stepped out. Boom, another pig down in it's tracks. I quickly turned Colleen's attention to the pigs busting out, all the while praying for a quick expiration. A round of high fives, congratulations and smiles, we walked over to Colleen's Javelina. She was a little sad for the fallen javi, but very proud of herself for accomplishing her goal, as was I.

 

Colleen and her first game animal

 

[nutzos16]

Nice! Great write up! And good job on sticking to it and not giving up. Hard work pays off!

[firstcoueswas80]

Very awesome! Love the smiles and very nice pictures

[bonecollector]

AWESOME!! Congrats to Ashley on her 2nd pig and Colleen on her first animal. Great looking pictures.

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations to all! There is just nothing better then hunting with family and friends. Great recap and pictures!

[azslim]

Great!

 

When I started my daughters hunting the oldest couldn't pull the trigger on an elk, big brown eye was looking at her in the scope, I said fine, you don't have to kill anything, no problem when she decided to stay home for the deer hunt. Then came Javelina season and she said she wanted to try again, javelina are smelly ugly little things and I think I can shoot them, she tagged out and has been hunting ever since.

[Will K]

That's sweet. Congrat's.

[Evan]

Congrats!

[Coues Sniper]

Great job Colleen and Ashley! That first big game animal is something to be proud of and you earned it.

[cosninocanines]

Nice Job, Thanks for sharing

[Santana Outdoors]

Love seeing the hardwork payoff, congrats

[prowlerMan]

Congrats guys! More javi meat in the freezer but probably not for long the way u guys go through it! Lol

[Coach]

That's awesome!!! Ashley made a great shot, and for Colleen to go from not wanting to hunt, to be so into it - that's just outstanding. Way to get out there hunting together as a family! Huge congrats to Ashley and Colleen, and great job to you for providing the opportunity for them to experience hunting. My hat's off to you!

 

Excellent write-up and pictures, too. That's what it's all about IMO.

[gotcoues]

Colleen is grateful for all the kinds words. Thanks for checking out our first adventure, one of many I hope.

 

Day one of the rifle pig season gave us bad weather and bummers out in the field. We'll just leave today as "a bad day hunting is better than working"! Going out tomorrow morning to lend a hand and I hope our luck does a 180 for sure. There is a cat curse among us. Big ones, small ones, longs tails or short, they all have our number!

[azspike]

wow, great story. There is nothing like the javelina HAM hunt.