Last day Javi

[Mr September]

7 hours ago, Coach said:

Hard for me to say this year. We've had places over the last few years of youth hunts we could always find them. Some places like clock-work. Each year we've found them less and less in the predictable places. Those places have gotten a lot of pressure though, recently.

I went back to two places this year I hadn't been in a long time - over ten years for each spot, and found them easily - but different units than our "go-to" spots.

I was really hoping to hunt our favorite youth hunting spot this year but never got the chance. 

I think it really comes down to pressure. A herd that gets hunted from time-to-time tends to stay close to home. Too much pressure and they'll adjust. From what I've heard from some really die-hard javi hunters is that lions don't really like to hunt and eat Javelina, but occasionally one will really get the taste for it, and that one cat can wreak havoc on a herd and force them to move out of their home territory. That makes sense to me, and not too much different than a herd that gets located by lots of hunters and the constant pressure forces them to move out of a place that no longer feels safe.

That always makes me feel conscious about hunting them too close to their caves and traditional bedding areas. Just my opinion, if I kill one close to their comfort area, I like to move it as far away as possible to process it. Some folks won't agree with this, but I've found them to get a little freaked out if you kill and clean one too close to home. They are a family unit, and they recognize when they have lost one of theirs. 

We have found the same thing. We try to never do the processing close to anything we think they consider "significant". Small animal easy to move. They are more sensitive to these things than most people realize. One reason I will NEVER do any of the unnecessary varmint calling BS in any of our areas. I did that in one of my best spots in 2009 and I have never seen pigs in that exact location again.