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Jason's Pig Hunt | March 2003 | ||
Dave Cooley |   | ||
I left work early on Thursday about noon to get an early start on
the Javalina HAM (Handgun, Archery, Muzzleloader) hunt that was to
begin on Friday. I was really looking forward to this hunt for
several reasons. One, I had purchased a new javalina call that I
had heard worked exceptionally well and couldn’t wait to try out.
Second, it had been since the October bear hunt that I had been out
camping and hunting. That’s a pretty long spell for me. And third,
I really enjoy javalina hunting with a pistol. Javalina don’t get
up in the dark so we don’t have to get up at 0-dark-thirty, and the
weather is generally good this time of year as well. Added to that,
our Honeywell Sportsman’s Club had put on a Handgun Hunter’s Challenge
shoot the previous weekend where I had done fairly well with my new
.44 Magnum. I was ready.
My son Jason, Steve and I had put in together. Steve and I would
leave Thursday afternoon and Jason would join us later that evening
as he had a soccer game to go to first. The predicted weather was
for lots of rain. And when I say lots, it rained over 3½ inches
over Thursday and Friday at our house in Phoenix. That’s more rain
than we got all last year put together.
So we started out, in the pouring rain on Thursday for unit 23, north
of Roosevelt Lake. It’s about a 2½ hour drive to where Steve had
left the tent trailer the weekend before. The rain had let up enough
for us to raise the trailer and put up the canopy that would allow us
some activity outside while it rained. Then the rain started up again
and didn’t stop completely until noon the next day.
Opening morning found us slipping and sliding along the muddy road in
the rain and drizzle to a spot where we have seen pigs in the past
and near where I had shot my last one. When the drizzle slowed to a
tolerable level, we left the truck and hiked a short distance to the
edge of a small canyon to begin glassing. We took up positions along
some rock outcroppings on the west rim and began painstakingly picking
apart the canyon with our binoculars from one end to the other.
Jason was about 20 yards to my left and about an hour later began making
hand gestures indicating he was hearing pigs directly below us. Sure
enough, after I quietly snuck over to where he was standing, I could hear
them as well. They were rattling rocks and occasionally grunting and
snorting to each other. Jason now had the .357 out of the holster and
was frantically stuffing the cylinder with shells. He had forgotten to
load it when we got out of the truck. He had also grabbed a handful of
JFPs instead of the hollow points that I had loaded for the hunt.
Now loaded and with pistol in hand, he began sneaking toward the nearest
pigs who were about 70 or 80 yards away. I was now where I could see
them but could only see three. As Jason closed the distance to about
40 yards he looked back. I am whispering, “SHOOT!” and making a gun
with my hand, pointing at the pigs. Jason is whispering they're too far.
I keep saying, “SHOOT, SHOOT!” So Jason takes aim and BOOM! The silence
is shattered by the .357. The pig was hit but not mortally and they all
began to scatter. I immediately started squealing on my new J3 javalina
call and miraculously the pigs all begin to regroup, giving Jason another
chance. The second and third shots are clear misses but the fourth is
through the lungs. The pig ran a short distance and collapsed in the
bottom of the canyon.
The two of us started the fun chore of cleaning Porky. I can say right
now that I’d rather clean ten elk than one pig. I don’t know of anything
that smells worse and they always seem to crap themselves. This was a
real mess. After about half-an-hour, the pig was gutted and we started
the long climb out of the canyon back to the truck. Steve was still on
the rim watching us from a safe distance from the smell and messy work.
About half way out of the canyon the rain began again in earnest so we
left Porky by the rear of the truck and after washing up a bit, got in
the cab to wait for the rain to settle down.
When the rain died, we left Steve to continue hunting up the canyon and
I took Jason back to camp to help skin and begin the de-boning work. As
we drove into camp an AZG&F officer drove up in his Dodge to check up on
us. You guessed it -- that’s when I remembered that we had not put the
tag on Porky. We had been in such a hurry to get out of the rain we had
forgotten to tag him. Jason and I showed him our tags and then I told
him about the pig in the truck. He said that since we had told him about
the pig and obviously weren’t trying to tag more than one pig, he would
not cite us. He was a nice guy and we had a great conversation before he
left us to check out some other camps. He judged that the pig was 35 to
40 pounds and from checking it’s teeth that it was 3 ½ years old. It was
about 11:00 and we were the only ones to have gotten a pig so far that day
that he knew about. We had heard no other shots.
I left Jason to finish the de-boning and drove up the hill to find Steve.
We covered about four miles, walking completely around the top of this
mesa and glassing several canyons without finding a single sign or pig
and returned to camp after dark, very tired of walking. This was
compounded by the fact that our boots were each carrying about five pounds
of mud with each step.
Steve’s tent trailer had developed an electrical problem where neither the
lights or heater would work. Being the electrical engineer in the crowd,
I was laying on the floor with my head under the galley, checking out some
wiring with my digital volt meter when that new J3 javalina call slipped
out of my shirt pocket. Hmm. The temptation was irresistible. Jason and
Steve were not paying any attention so I quietly slipped it into my mouth
and while watching them, let loose the loudest, most blood curdling scream
I could muster. I couldn’t stop laughing for fifteen minutes. The startled
expressions on their faces was priceless. They both left to change underwear
shortly afterward.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. Jason left Saturday morning for
Phoenix with 10 pounds of meat and Steve and I hunted all day Saturday,
Sunday and Monday morning without seeing a single pig. We also didn’t see
any rabbits, coyotes or any other wildlife except for ten mule deer and two
whitetail while glassing. I’m also surprised that I wasn’t able to call in
some predators with that J3 call. Evidently the drought has taken it’s toll
on the wildlife in that area. On the good side, the weather was beautiful
for the rest of the hunt and we got to see some great country, visit some
Indian cliff dwellings and enjoy a nice campfire and great food each evening.
It sure beats work.
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