My first big game ever! And with a bow too!

[coatimundi01]

Well, after eating my oct WT tag by missing a forkie, eating an archery tag after many days hitting the hills in Dec, I had already gone out pig hunting three days and had only seen a single javi. Me and coues kid went out yesterday late morning and drove around to a few spots just exploring 34a and wasn't seeing much, We decide to run back to the Rosemont/gunsight pass area for the afternoon. Found a really good glassing spot on the backside of Fagan and had lunch but anything we saw was gonna be a far, far hike and the wind was whipping on the east side. We run up and over the pass, hit a little glassing area we found Thursday morning, and made the ultimate decicion to head back to the Santa Rita flats where we know there's pig sign everywhere, it's just a matter of finding them. Tried a new area in the experimental range, and saw deer track after deer track. Some big ones too! FINALLY we start seeing some fresh looking pig tracks. We track and lose them multiple times so we start heading down a wash at about 4pm. We get on some more fresh looking tracks and Nick is following some in the wash and I'm following some on the side and right as I'm about to tell him "hey these look really fresh..." he stops and whispers "PIGS!" We walked up on them at 40 yards which is easy to do in the flats with all that prickly pear. We see one pop out, and another, and another. I was full draw on one at 30 yards, but there were too many branches in the way. After a few tense seconds, they start trotting off. I tell Nick "hey wail on my javi call..." Sure enough, they stop, start grunting, and trotting right back towards us. The first pig that gave me a shot was a sow at 10 yards with a big ole boar behind a tree. Being new, and the fact they were kind of pissed off and grunting at us at 10 yards, I rushed a shot and watched it hit right in the middle of the hind quarter. The blood started good, but was very faint at times. We jumped her once, and then caught up to her again at 70 yards. We were sneaking in to put a finishing shot on and she gets up again. As we walk up to where she was, another big boar runs away.

 

I'm thinking bad thoughts at this time, as I gut shot my first ever animal I've ever flung an arrow at and we've already tracked a couple hundred yards and the blood was getting real faint. Sure enough though, she didn't run far. Tried at 20 yards for a kill shot, but my arrow wasn't on the rest correctly and missed horribly. She ran off again! Now its getting real late in the day and we're running out of light. But this time luckily she only ran 10 more yards behind a paloverde and started raising her back hair and snapping her tusks at us. I walked up to 3 yards and tried to get an arrow through the little branches but missed over the top. Got on my knees, got around the tree to TWO yards of a PO'd gut shot pig, and smoked one through the lungs. After that she stood up, snapped her tusks some more, and faked lunged at us all while I'm still kneeling on the ground TWO yards from her. I yelped "OH $###!" and jumped back a few yards, but you could hear her labored breathing and it was just a waiting game for a few minutes after that!

 

I shot her at about 4:20pm, tracked for a few hundred yards thinking we would lose her as it was getting dark, and finally got my hands on her at about 5:30. Field dressed it, slung her over my shoulders, and we started the 2 mile packout by moonlight. Right now, the skull is in the freeezer and the quarters and back straps are in ziplocs on ice in a cooler to be taken to WGP today!

 

Big thanks to Nick (coues kid) for going out with me and helping find these elusive little buggers and for literally giving me the shirt off his back so I wouldnt get my bloody stinky shirt all over my truck seat!. Thanks to all you forum members offering help and advice with that old ancient barnett bow when I was trying to get it up and running. And thank you thank you for letting us find that pig last night! I really was afraid we were gonna lose it to the yotes overnight...

 

And now for the good stuff... PICS! (disclaimer they were all on cellphone as we were losing light, so clarity isn't great but the memories are there!)

 

Blood!

 

The sunset as we were waiting for her to take her last breaths

 

Nick and me as we were waiting

 

Success at last!

[buckmaster21]

Congrats nice pig

[lucky2hunt]

Good job! Congrats!!!

[PelaPapas]

Congrats on your pig! Read your other post about heading out with your son. Was he excited when you brought that javi home?

[coatimundi01]

Yeah, when my wife showed him the pic on her phone she said he went ballistic and like started to run around and turned right into a wall... Lol.

[PelaPapas]

Haha if he was that excited for yours, imagine when he tags his own! Congrats again on your pig and best of luck to you in future hunts with your son!

[Heat]

Congratulations on your javi! I have taken a couple of bigger critters with my bow, but still haven't gotten a pesky javi! Good job staying with it! Hopefully this is just a first of many successes with your bow.

[bonecollector]

Congrats on your first. Way to keep after it and recover your pig.

[Mocha1545]

Congrats! Memories for life. Too bad your wife didn't video your boy when she showed him the pics!

[trophyhnter]

Congrats on your javi! Sometimes the drama associated with getting animal makes the recovery more memorable!

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations on your first! Way to stick with it.

[coatimundi01]

Thanks guys! Yeah I was getting a little worried as we were running out of light but glad we got it done! I kept the backstraps and a front shoulder for myself and dropped the rest off at wgp to have 1/2 done into chorizo and the other 1/2 maple breakfast sausage. Can't wait to chow down!

[Coues Kid]

Glad I could help you out Ben I told you we would fine them just glad I looked up from tracking lol

[Guest akaspecials]

Congrats on your first big game animal. That's always an awesome experience that you'll never forget. Good luck to many more in coming years!

[Couestracker]

Congrats on your first success! I'm glad you were able to find it.