I just got back last night from a 5 day hunt near Sierra Blanca, TX for javelina. It was very tough hunting. The weather was cold and windy the first couple of days and then got better and the hunting improved. There were 8 guys in camp. Me, my two brothers, Dwayne and Darrell, and my cousin Bart in our group. Bart goes by badaugherty on here. A few people in camp finally started seeing some javis on Tuesday and a couple guys got shots but no hits. Wednsday morning, Dwayne was hunting near I-10 where some were denning in a culvert under the interstate. About 9:30 in the morning, some highway dept guys came up on the opposite side of the interstate and had what looked like a 5 gal bucket of tar that they were beating on the road trying to knock the solidified tar out of the bucket. He was watching the guys and turned around and 3 javis had come out and were walking down the road near him. He moved to get ahead of them and waited in ambush behind a bush about 5 yrds off a pasture road they were on. When the lead one got even with him, it saw him through a bush and woofed and spooked. He took a running shot at 10 yrds and missed. About 10 I got a text from Darrell, who was hunting up on the side of a mountain where some were denning in an old mine shaft. He had watched 3 go up a draw and went after them to stalk them and lost them in the boulders. He started climbing around on the boulders in the area...a lot of them, and spotted one of the javis through a crack in the rocks. He could see it when he shaded his eyes just right but when he drew the bow back, the sun blinded him and it just looked black in there. Before he could figure it out, the javi ran out of the den and he missed it running. The other two were still in there and growling and popping their teeth....hence the text message to get the everyone together and get up there and see if we could run them out and get a shot. It took about 2 hours to get around the mountain to where he was and gather the group. By the time we got there, he had gotten bored and threw some rocks in and ran another one out and missed it. We had to hike up to him and we could hear the growling when we got close of the one still there. Dwayne didn't bring his bow up because he was afraid it would be too many shooters and dangerous and he was just going to try to scare it out. We all got in position and Dwayne climbed up on top of the den and yelled, "Hand me a bow!" To which Darrell yelled "BS...I've been waiting here for 2 hours for you guys, get out of the way." Dwayne showed Darrrell the hole where he could see the javi and he shot. He started growling and fighting and we could tell he was coming out and got ready. He jumped out of the den and took off running. I missed him on the run but Bart hit him in the butt. He crossed the draw we were in and started running down hill on the other side of the draw but he wasn't moving real well. I took off running down my side of the draw to try to finish him when he stopped about 50 yrds from the den. I wasn't watching the shot but Bart held his 40 yrd pin just over his back and center punched his chest. By then I was about 15 yrds and put another shot in him with my recurve just in case and he never moved from that spot. After skinning him, Darrell's shot was perfect, just to the side of the spine on one side and exited just under the other side leg. It was a great rush to all get in on the hunt like that. As it turned out, that was the only one I saw on the whole 5 day hunt. Dwayne got one that night near the culvert he had been hunting when he stalked to 10 yards and made a perfect shot on it and saw 3 more after he had carried the javi and his bow out near the road to be picked up and was going back for his pack. I hunted his spot the next morning with no luck. Here is the family hero shot. Darrell is having a full body mount done on this one because it is such a cool story and memory. Darrell and I were both using Black Widow recurves and Dwayne was using a Black Hollow reflex/deflex bow made by a guy in Haskell, OK. Bart was shooting a PSE compound. Picture is l-r, Lonnie, Darrell, Dwayne and Bart. Bart missed one at 27 yrds Wed night after making that 50 yrd shot look easy and also hitting him in the butt on the run. There were 8 guys in camp for the hunt. 5 shot opportunities with only the two killed. None were wounded though, which is good.
