# 2020 Javelina Hunt



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Our 2020 javelina hunt started out like all the others for the last 26 years. A very long drive down to either Oracle or Catalina Arizona but the last 10 or so were broken up with a stay at some friends down in Mesa, Arizona. There we caught up on old times and harvested a box full of oranges and grapefruits. It was Roy's turn to drive so I was able to either sleep on the way down or keep him company.

Our hunt started on a Friday and we took to the washes on our ATV's looking for tracks. The first wash usually held very few tracks but it has easy access to a few of our hunting areas that hold javelina. I was headed to an old familiar canyon where I have taken a number of them and Roy headed to an area further to the east. I took a hike into my canyon and did a lot of glassing, not finding anything other than some deer I headed down into the bottom of it to walk along the edge of the draw in the bottom. These little buggers like to live down in the bottoms and won't move unless they are spooked out of it. I hiked this one canyon out and then into the one further to the south and did the same thing then to the next one. By this time I was a couple of miles away from the ATV's and it was nearing lunch so I headed back through a prickly pear garden. By the time I got back to the ATV's Bob who is a friend that goes out with us had a fire going and was getting ready to cook up some Chimi-Chungas or whatever wrapped in tinfoil and cooked over the coals. Roy soon showed up with the same type of results that I had so we sat down and had some lunch. For the afternoon we headed over into the wash to the west. Now for those of you that know javelina you know that they like to take naps around noon until later in the day and to get them to move you need to push them out of their beds in the cat claw and other thorny plants. Soon it was time to load up and head back to Bob's for dinner and a good sleep for the next day. 
Saturday we headed up into the second wash looking for tracks. There were a few other hunters and families out for the day so most of the tracks in the bottom were driven over and hard to tell old from new. Without seeing any we decided to take a hike and see what we could find. Roy took off to the east and I headed to the west with plans to meet at a confluence of two different washes for lunch where Bob would have a fire going getting ready to heat up some Chimi-Chungas over the hot coals. During my hike I thought that I had heard a shot and when I got to the meeting place Roy was there saying that he got off a shot but had missed. He said that he looked for blood but didn't find any and that the javelina were scattered to the four winds. We followed the same procedure for our afternoon hikes with very little to report to each other.

Sunday was the same routine. But I headed to where Roy had been the first day since there were a couple of deep canyons to explore but in the end I came back empty handed. Roy on the other hand had jumped some more javelina and got a shot off. This time he drew blood and said that the javelina had humped up when he shot. We ate lunch and then went looking for blood and tracks. We looked for a couple of hours without finding any blood or dead javelina, I figured that the ravens would tell us where it was at around noon on Monday.

Monday was the same routine but different areas and different hikes. I again came up empty but you guessed it Roy got into them again and got a shot off with a clean miss at 150 yards. For that afternoon I decided to take my ATV down an overgrown wash. The wash was thick with cat claw and other thorny plants. We used to be able to drive down this was and push some out but not today. I also figured that this would be the last time that I drove down this wash without a chainsaw to clean it out a little if I decide to go back.

Tuesday same problems no matter where I hiked to I was seeing very little if anything, and again Roy was getting into them but not being able to hit anything. I asked him if he had sighted in his handgun since he lost it off of his ATV last year and he said that he hadn't. So we set up a target at 100 yards just before lunch and he took a shot. Dead center&#8230;he was really ticked off now.

Wednesday went along with neither of us getting any shots off or even seeing one. It was as if these little beast has grown wings and had flown away.

Thursday Roy went one way and I went another. I glassed up a couple over towards an old copper mine that was off limits. Roy had headed up into familiar ground and jumped some out of the bottom of a wash. He was off but lost them on the top of the ridge. In the meantime Bob had spotted a lone javelina traveling along the same ridge that Roy was on. He was able to get Roy to head to the north as he watched the javelina. Roy finally spotted it and went to get into position to take a shot but there was a tree in the way. So he moved to the side and as he did so the javelina did also. Now it was quartering away from Roy but Roy had a tree to rest the pistol on to take the shot. It was quickly over Roy had is javelina. I met up for late lunch and then afterwards we tried to find the ones that Roy had missed that morning but couldn't come up with them.

Friday morning came and I was wondering what I was going to have to do to find one to get a shot off. As we drove up the center wash a herd of 8 or 10 ran right across the road in front of us. I parked my ATV and headed up the hill in pursuit. I topped a small hill and tried to find them only to see them headed over the ridge into an area that we called "The Snake Den" since there is a den or rattlesnakes in it. I got to the top of the hill as fast as I could hoping to find them on the opposite hill or going over the next ridge like they like to do. But nothing, so I figured that they had to be down in the bottom. I started to parallel the bottom up where I could see into the bottom but there was nothing to be seen. Roy came over the hill and was a little down the hill from me so both of us started to parallel it towards the top of the draw. Once we got to the top we had no idea of where they had disappeared to. I hiked over the ridge to the north and Roy went around the top hoping to find them but nothing. So I was now close enough to the snake den that I took a hike over to it but the snakes were deep inside and there was a packrats nest in the opening. It would have to get warmer for them to start moving out and around.

Well, Saturday and Sunday came and went with nothing to report except for a blister that I now have on my heal and a lot of miles covered. I do have to admit that this is a very fun hunt, it is also very aggravating at times but I'll be back in 50 weeks ready to do it again.

Lunch Time


















The Rides









Roy The Happy Hunter


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## muddydogs (Oct 7, 2007)

I'm headed down Wednesday for the rifle season.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

One of the threads I look forward to each year - thanks for the write up!


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## BGD (Mar 23, 2018)

Thanks for the write up. I spent 6 months living in Oracle about 25 years ago while serving a church mission. Almost took out a momma and all her little piglets one night on a backroad between Oracle and San Manuel. Used to always see them at night coming home. Not so much during the day though. Sounds like you spent plenty of time picking your way through the prickly pear looking for the little piggies. Looks like it was a great outing.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

muddydogs said:


> I'm headed down Wednesday for the rifle season.


Good Luck on your hunt, these little buggers are addictive.



CPAjeff said:


> One of the threads I look forward to each year - thanks for the write up!


I enjoy doing it almost as much as hunting them. It breaks up the winter when you know that you can go hunt something in February



BGD said:


> Thanks for the write up. I spent 6 months living in Oracle about 25 years ago while serving a church mission. Almost took out a momma and all her little piglets one night on a backroad between Oracle and San Manuel. Used to always see them at night coming home. Not so much during the day though. Sounds like you spent plenty of time picking your way through the prickly pear looking for the little piggies. Looks like it was a great outing.


You were down there when we first started staying in Oracle. We stayed at the American Motel, the A frames, but right now I can not remember the name of the lady that run and owns them. She keeps getting offers to sell out but she likes what she has. We started hunting down there in 94 out in the Tortilitas near the quarry. That is where I got my first javelina. We then hunted out by the Biosphere one year before moving across the road to the area near the old Tiger Paw copper mine and Tucson Wash. We now stay in Catalina with a friend that I met out on the desert after I shot my first pig.

I don't know if you have seen it but here is a picture of the Tucson Temple. When I first saw it I thought that it was a Mosque but then I saw the angle on top. I took this picture last Wednesday after having dinner at another friends home in Tucson.


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## BGD (Mar 23, 2018)

BGD said:


> You were down there when we first started staying in Oracle. We stayed at the American Motel, the A frames, but right now I can not remember the name of the lady that run and owns them. She keeps getting offers to sell out but she likes what she has. We started hunting down there in 94 out in the Tortilitas near the quarry. That is where I got my first javelina. We then hunted out by the Biosphere one year before moving across the road to the area near the old Tiger Paw copper mine and Tucson Wash. We now stay in Catalina with a friend that I met out on the desert after I shot my first pig.
> 
> I don't know if you have seen it but here is a picture of the Tucson Temple. When I first saw it I thought that it was a Mosque but then I saw the angle on top. I took this picture last Wednesday after having dinner at another friends home in Tucson.


I haven't been back to Tucson for 12-13 years so I haven't yet seen the temple, though I would like to get down to see it. I am in thick of raising kids (high school down through 3rd grade). They seem to have me busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. Lots of fun with them all but also pretty busy. I guess I need to put a javelina hunt on my bucket list to give me a good excuse to head back down that direction.


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## BigT (Mar 11, 2011)

Very cool write up. Thanks for the read on a slow Wednesday morning!

Those sound pretty tough to hunt.


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

Looks & sounds like good times! nice pig.. thanks for sharing


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