My First Archery Javelina Hunt - Jan. 2010

by Jakob Prentice

I am a 12 year old boy who recently just went out for my first archery javelina. My dad bought an over the counter tag because dad had forgotten to put me in. I only had a few months to get ready so I went out and practiced as much as I could. I frequently had my dad crank up the poundage on my bow until I could shoot 40 pounds accurately. During the end of December I was making my final preparations. 

 I missed school on Friday so we could start hunting. I was so excited on the way there. I was going to a unit were I recently had alot of good luck shooting my second javelina with a rifle. I was hoping to get #3 with my BROWNING micro-adrenalin. I didn't really care if I got one I was just excited to spend some time with my dad.

 Once we got there we quickly set up camp and headed out for the evening hunt. We headed to my favorite place to glass in that unit and saw a few deer, some hunters, and one pig to far away to stalk.

 Saturday we had the same luck except with no pigs. I was starting to get a little discouraged. Although that day we didn't see any pigs that day we saw hundreds of tracks. I felt as if they were all around and we just couldn't see them.

On Sunday I felt that I was finally going to get one. We went back up to our glassing spot and after about an hour we found a herd of about 3 pigs. Once I saw the pigs in my dads bino's I was pushing him down the hill ready to hike.

It had been about twenty minutes since we glassed up the pigs when we got to were we glassed them up. while dad was trying to look through his bino's I spotted one feeding off of a cactus about 65 yards away. My dad was so excited this was my second time finding javelina on my own. First he said that we had to walk up the hillside to get a closer shot. After a few minutes we had gotten close to a tree that he was by, I had already put my arrow in my string ready to shoot. As the pig walks out my bow is drawn back, my dad woofs to stop him, THWACK. I hit him in his hip from 10 yards away. As he runs off dad says put another arrow in, we walk a little then find him again, as I draw my bow back he runs off again. My second shot I had no time to range him so I put my 10 pin on him when I should have put on my 20. THWACK, this time it was a gut shot he ran away again. This time we didn't see him again, but I wasn't the least bit discouraged I knew in my heart that we would find him again.

My dad looks around and says look for a blood trail. When I finally found it I followed it about 100-200 yards before we landed in a wash. The trail ended. Me and dad were looking around for him when dad found in a little cave just big enough for me to fit in. He didn't want to come out so we decided to wait until he died. About 10 minutes passed and he was still chomping and woofing, so we decided to take another shot. His back was facing toward me so dad told me to shoot right where the the collar meets the spine. THWACK, 5 yards right were dad told me to. We waited about ten more minutes and he still hadn't died. I felt bad hearing him suffer. Dad said you got one more shot so make it count, I really didn't want my dad to start having to pull arrows out of the pig. The pig was in a wrong position so dad poked him with a stick. I aimed right behind the shoulder and, THWACK. I hit him it was a perfect lung shot from 5 yards away. We went off to the side and not a minute later he walked out and died.

 I was so excited my first archery javelina! And the best part was my dad got it on video. My dad is always so excited, so it forces us to take picture sessions that are like an hour long before he gets some that he likes .Me and dad went through the gutting process. I felt so good when I tagged him because I knew I did it. Gutting took like 30 minutes. Then we headed to the quad fortunately for dad I made him carry the whole pig out,HA HA HA.Once we got to the quad I gave my dad a great big hug and said thank you. On the way home I was so excited to tell my mom and sis the whole story.

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