Two years ago, I went on my first ever TBH group hunt. It was a 3 day hunt down in South Texas near Laredo for javelina and hogs. that first year I was hunting with a compound bow, looking for my first bow kills. I shot a rabbit, a javi, and a hog. Last year I brought my Samick Sage recurve and while we only a few stalk opportunities, I didn't connect when it counted. This year's trip coincided with my 2 year anniversay of shooting a trad bow.
I packed up my widow and a OMP longbow for backup. I didn't expect anything to go wrong with the widow, but I like a backup and since they shot the same arrows, I figured if I was killing things left and right, I might try killing something with the longbow. (BW 58" PCH 48# @ 27", OMP 66" Addirondax 48# @27" - 540gr arrows with Zwickeys)
A good buddy of mine (Little John on here) lent me his mule since the forecast called for rain and the ranch roads we hunt tend to get sloppy after a good soak. I was even more excited about the prospect that I'd be able to hunt some rabbits with greater ease since I wouldn't have to open and close truck doors just to jump out and put a stalk on a few.
We arrived Thursday around noon, filled out all out paper work, confirmed our areas and set off to corn the roads and look for sign of game. The absolute best part of the weekend came within the first 2 hours. My "pasture buddy", Tim, got in a stalk on a lone javi boar while we were corning our area. This was his third trip out and our 2nd consecutive year as partners. He hadn't shot an animal with his bow (other than a rabbit) and I really wanted him to have success. The boar didn't cooperate, but some corn and 20 minutes was enough to get him back out onto the road. This time, Tim would come out ahead. He put a perfect stalk on it and placed his arrow double lung and it was down within sight.
After that, the pressure was off. My partner was happy and I couldn't have been more happy for him. He was on the board. We went and dressed out his javi and then went back out and drove around looking for more javis.
We drove down one of 2 roads that we knew were going to be our best areas. One of the roads had a big tower blind looking down it and I'd have to climb it to see the whole stretch of the road/sandero due to some brushy areas in the middle. I thought I could see something moving beyond the brushy areas so we decided to drive down it to check it out. about 100 yards shy, we saw a rattler crawling across the road. Tim asked if I wanted to shoot it, I thought for a second and said, sure, why not! I got out and tried to shoot at the base of the head... miss. Not aware of what was taking place, it kept slithering away. It got to the edge and was under a brush limb and stopped. I took another shot. It too was a miss, but the gig was up. He rattled and I jumped back. He didn't move on.
CRAP!!! I want my arrow. But I didn't get much time to think about it when Tim alerted me to a pack of javis in the area I had seen movement. I grabbed the other arrow out of the dirt, put it in the quiver and set off. The stalk was pretty crummy. I had the wind to my left and I headed south to the them. When I got to about 40 yards, I could feel the wind swirling. What was at my side, was now at my back. Their hair ruffled and the "sentry" started staring me down. Once he turned, I slowly started closing the gap... but 2 steps and they were gone.
Meanwhile, back at the snake, the snake wasn't budging until Tim turned on the mule. I wanted my arrow and I really didn't want to have to come back for it and NOT know where that rattler was. So we walked up to it and it retreated... rather slowly to cactus patch 10 yards away. While Tim kept an eye on it, I moved in to retrieve my arrow. Just as I knelt down, about to reach in and grab it, I saw it. Another rattler coiled up at the base of the bush, no more than 5 feet from my arrow.
I WANT MY ARROW!!! Only way to do that was kill that snake or scare it off. But I didn't want to lose another arrow to it. So I grabbed one with the small game (wing nut) head on it. I was maybe 4 yards way when I drew back and focused on its tongue licking the air.
You would have thought that snake opened its mouth to bite my arrow as it came flying at it... but what really happened was I hit it in the mouth and rammed it down it's throat. He rattled for a good 3 minutes with my arrow down it's throat. I had to finally pull it out with my arrow and chop off its head. I got my arrow along with something new to try in the stew pot.
We wouldn't see any more javis during legal shooting hours that day. But I would bag some cotton tails (3 I think that evening.) We did go out looking for hogs after dinner, but only ran across a pack of javis in our "hot zone."
The next morning was foggy and we didn't see any javis. I shot a jack rabbit and another cottontail or two as we drove around. The jack was a fun situation. While cotton tails will run to the edge and think they are hidden behind or under a branch, a Jack just keeps running. Once you get inside about 15 yards, they bolt. So as we drove around and one ran and got 2 others to run with it and hide behind a tree in a rather open area, I knew this was my opportunity. 1 knew we were there... other 2 just ran because that is what they do. I rounded he tree to see one of the other sitting out in the open, about 15 yards off. I drew back and drilled it in the armpit. It ran off with my arrow and dropped it before running across the road and int more brush.
I didn't think I would going to find it... but as luck would have it, I did. It ran as far as my deer ran this past season on a similar shot. Amazingly tough animals. I used my small game on it and I was happy with the results. But I was done chasing them. I'd only chase cotton tails I know for a fact they eat better. I added a couple more cottontails to the tally as we drove around looking for javi.
We found some in our hot zone and I put in a stalk on 2 we saw 200 yards down the road. The wind was strong out the east on a N-S road. The same road that I had my first stalk on, but I was coming out of the south this time. I got to within 30 yards when they spooked into the brush line. With more cover, I quickly closed the distance to 15 yards to the opening they had walked into. One of them stepped out and I drew. As I did he flinched and scooted forward and rotated facing towards me. I had hit anchor and so I let down. He stared as his partner sounded like it was going to come out within 2 yards of me. He turned and decided to walk back in and as I did I drew and hit anchor as he ran back inside. Dang it!
I waited there, with flies buzzing around me for like what seemed an eternity. But it probably was only 3 or so minutes. I didn't hear much more so I walked back. As is what typically happens, they walked back out when I reached the buggy. Turn around and try again. This time, however, there were 4 now and 1 was acting as the sentry. Javis like to eat in groups towards the wind, leaving one behind to eat and watch the downwind side. I hate these stalks on these types of roads because there is no way to come up the side without getting picked off. And of course, at about 30 yards, I got picked off. Stalk over.
Disappointed because I knew the stalks were few and far between we drove off to check one other spot that we hadn't seen anything last year, but I figured it was a good place to corn because there were 4 roads we would could check in one short drive out. The first 2 had only deer. But the 3rd had deer and 1 javi. I jumped out and as I approached, spooking the deer between me and it, I started feeling great about this stalk. It was an East-West road with the wind swapping to be out of the North. There was a path that veered off to the south just 100 yards from him and it was spotty bushes all in there, giving me room to walk 15 yards off the road and get broadside of him without being detected. Unfortunately, the wind shift was due to a T-storm cell forming just to the south of us in a hurry. But my focus was on this javi.
I got broadside to him with a bush between us. Him on the road, me on the dirt. The road he was on, was actually one of a few stone/oil roads and was really wide. The last time I had eyes on him, he was off to the other side of the road.
I side stepped the bush and there he was. My mind had him at 15 yards based off where I thought I was and where I thought he was. I drew, anchored, and focused on the sight picture. Then I watched my lighted nock sail cleanly over its back!!!
I couldn't believe it. That means he was like 7 yards away. He reacted by jogging 5 yards down the road... and fortunately for me, obscured by another small bush. I nocked another arrow and I closed the 5 yards he gained on me. Unhappy with what had happened he decided to walk into the brush on the side of the road I was on. I drew, hit anchor and followed him as he walked from behind the bush into more brush. I was thinking I shouldn't take a moving shot. In hindsight, that thought came into my mind because I wanted to take the moving shot. I didn’t want this opportunity to slip through my hands. I think he paused, but maybe he didn't... but I do know I relaxed my hand and that arrow flew and hit him behind the collar, a little high and he bolted.
I could hear him running the first 15 yards. My arrow rattling against the think brush deeper off the road. Then it stopped. I surmised because of the arrow breaking or falling out. I was torn... I hadn't made a good decision or a good shot.
I went and grabbed my first arrow. By now a distant rumbling was visible lightening and my mind shifted to keeping safe. I waved Tim down and we searching for my arrow. No blood where I hit him and it was thick where he ran. The intensity of the storm was building and I told Tim we just need to find the arrow and get the hell out before the sky opened up. I thought I hit far enough back that I might have just gut shot him. I needed the arrow to know what to do. Whether it made sense to come back after the storm, in the middle of the night and look. Heck, I just needed to know how bad I screwed up.
It took a few minutes, but I found my arrow. It was covered in blood. It wasn't broken off. No smell of guts. At this point, I knew he was down somewhere. But where? My headlamp was not up to the task as I scanned around in the dark with lightening flashing all around. I marked the spot with a flu-flu arrow and decided that we'd need to track after the storm blew over.
I was hopeful that it would just roll through... but by 11:00 it was still raining and lightening. With cooler temps overnight, I decided we'd just go look for it in the morning. I didn't get great sleep last night, but for some reason, I felt good about finding it. The brush was thick... but very spotty, so we had room to move around and look. I was more torn up about losing the meat, but I was confident we'd find it.
The next morning, I tempered my anxiety by saying we should check the roads first. The wind was blowing hard and we discovered all the corn was gone in our "hot zone" last night. We threw more corn down and headed over to look for the javi.
I went to where I found the arrow and of course there was no blood. With binos in hand I started walking in the direction it was headed and glassing every base of every bush and cactus clump. I saw like 6 cottontails. I had to fight the urge to grab my bow. Surprisingly, it didn't take me long to find it. 5-10 minutes later and I'm about 20 yards from the arrow and I'm glassing past a tree towards a cactus clump and I spot him. I had done it! I got my first javi with a traditional bow and I could cross that off the list!
Getting to him was kind of rough. I had gotten to him from a different path than he took and we had to chop though to get to him. There were no flies or anything buzzing around. He stunk... but all javis stunk. After a few photos and a trip back to camp, I decided to try and see what the meat would be like. Overnight temps were windy and in the mid to lower 50s. The rain would have cooled it off even more. The meat didn't stink so I decided to go the gutless route and quarter him out. The shot was back... but fortunately this guy had more lungs than stomach apparently.
It was Saturday morning, one day left of the hunt and I'd killed a rattle snake, half a dozen cotton tails, a jack rabbit and a javi with my black widow... I was pretty gosh darn happy. So I grabbed the longbow out of the truck and set off to kill some rabbits. The rest of the day would be spent corning for hogs that night and finding another javi stalk for Tim. Along the way I took a couple shots with the longbow and missed before I finally connected on a 15 yard shot on a jack rabbit. That would be my first longbow kill.
We finally spotted another javi and we drove around so Tim could put a stalk on it. He got close, but something spooked him. As we drove around, I added 3 more cotton tails to the tally with the long bow.
The final tally was 9 cotton tails, 2 jack rabbits, 1 rattle snake, and 1 javi. It was a great trip. Even though the javi stalks were very few and far between, I really just enjoy stalking critters and there was more than enough rabbits to tide me over as we drove around. But all in all, the best part was watching my partner get the job done on his first bow kill. That really was awesome.
I packed up my widow and a OMP longbow for backup. I didn't expect anything to go wrong with the widow, but I like a backup and since they shot the same arrows, I figured if I was killing things left and right, I might try killing something with the longbow. (BW 58" PCH 48# @ 27", OMP 66" Addirondax 48# @27" - 540gr arrows with Zwickeys)
A good buddy of mine (Little John on here) lent me his mule since the forecast called for rain and the ranch roads we hunt tend to get sloppy after a good soak. I was even more excited about the prospect that I'd be able to hunt some rabbits with greater ease since I wouldn't have to open and close truck doors just to jump out and put a stalk on a few.
We arrived Thursday around noon, filled out all out paper work, confirmed our areas and set off to corn the roads and look for sign of game. The absolute best part of the weekend came within the first 2 hours. My "pasture buddy", Tim, got in a stalk on a lone javi boar while we were corning our area. This was his third trip out and our 2nd consecutive year as partners. He hadn't shot an animal with his bow (other than a rabbit) and I really wanted him to have success. The boar didn't cooperate, but some corn and 20 minutes was enough to get him back out onto the road. This time, Tim would come out ahead. He put a perfect stalk on it and placed his arrow double lung and it was down within sight.
After that, the pressure was off. My partner was happy and I couldn't have been more happy for him. He was on the board. We went and dressed out his javi and then went back out and drove around looking for more javis.
We drove down one of 2 roads that we knew were going to be our best areas. One of the roads had a big tower blind looking down it and I'd have to climb it to see the whole stretch of the road/sandero due to some brushy areas in the middle. I thought I could see something moving beyond the brushy areas so we decided to drive down it to check it out. about 100 yards shy, we saw a rattler crawling across the road. Tim asked if I wanted to shoot it, I thought for a second and said, sure, why not! I got out and tried to shoot at the base of the head... miss. Not aware of what was taking place, it kept slithering away. It got to the edge and was under a brush limb and stopped. I took another shot. It too was a miss, but the gig was up. He rattled and I jumped back. He didn't move on.
CRAP!!! I want my arrow. But I didn't get much time to think about it when Tim alerted me to a pack of javis in the area I had seen movement. I grabbed the other arrow out of the dirt, put it in the quiver and set off. The stalk was pretty crummy. I had the wind to my left and I headed south to the them. When I got to about 40 yards, I could feel the wind swirling. What was at my side, was now at my back. Their hair ruffled and the "sentry" started staring me down. Once he turned, I slowly started closing the gap... but 2 steps and they were gone.
Meanwhile, back at the snake, the snake wasn't budging until Tim turned on the mule. I wanted my arrow and I really didn't want to have to come back for it and NOT know where that rattler was. So we walked up to it and it retreated... rather slowly to cactus patch 10 yards away. While Tim kept an eye on it, I moved in to retrieve my arrow. Just as I knelt down, about to reach in and grab it, I saw it. Another rattler coiled up at the base of the bush, no more than 5 feet from my arrow.
I WANT MY ARROW!!! Only way to do that was kill that snake or scare it off. But I didn't want to lose another arrow to it. So I grabbed one with the small game (wing nut) head on it. I was maybe 4 yards way when I drew back and focused on its tongue licking the air.
You would have thought that snake opened its mouth to bite my arrow as it came flying at it... but what really happened was I hit it in the mouth and rammed it down it's throat. He rattled for a good 3 minutes with my arrow down it's throat. I had to finally pull it out with my arrow and chop off its head. I got my arrow along with something new to try in the stew pot.
We wouldn't see any more javis during legal shooting hours that day. But I would bag some cotton tails (3 I think that evening.) We did go out looking for hogs after dinner, but only ran across a pack of javis in our "hot zone."
The next morning was foggy and we didn't see any javis. I shot a jack rabbit and another cottontail or two as we drove around. The jack was a fun situation. While cotton tails will run to the edge and think they are hidden behind or under a branch, a Jack just keeps running. Once you get inside about 15 yards, they bolt. So as we drove around and one ran and got 2 others to run with it and hide behind a tree in a rather open area, I knew this was my opportunity. 1 knew we were there... other 2 just ran because that is what they do. I rounded he tree to see one of the other sitting out in the open, about 15 yards off. I drew back and drilled it in the armpit. It ran off with my arrow and dropped it before running across the road and int more brush.
I didn't think I would going to find it... but as luck would have it, I did. It ran as far as my deer ran this past season on a similar shot. Amazingly tough animals. I used my small game on it and I was happy with the results. But I was done chasing them. I'd only chase cotton tails I know for a fact they eat better. I added a couple more cottontails to the tally as we drove around looking for javi.
We found some in our hot zone and I put in a stalk on 2 we saw 200 yards down the road. The wind was strong out the east on a N-S road. The same road that I had my first stalk on, but I was coming out of the south this time. I got to within 30 yards when they spooked into the brush line. With more cover, I quickly closed the distance to 15 yards to the opening they had walked into. One of them stepped out and I drew. As I did he flinched and scooted forward and rotated facing towards me. I had hit anchor and so I let down. He stared as his partner sounded like it was going to come out within 2 yards of me. He turned and decided to walk back in and as I did I drew and hit anchor as he ran back inside. Dang it!
I waited there, with flies buzzing around me for like what seemed an eternity. But it probably was only 3 or so minutes. I didn't hear much more so I walked back. As is what typically happens, they walked back out when I reached the buggy. Turn around and try again. This time, however, there were 4 now and 1 was acting as the sentry. Javis like to eat in groups towards the wind, leaving one behind to eat and watch the downwind side. I hate these stalks on these types of roads because there is no way to come up the side without getting picked off. And of course, at about 30 yards, I got picked off. Stalk over.
Disappointed because I knew the stalks were few and far between we drove off to check one other spot that we hadn't seen anything last year, but I figured it was a good place to corn because there were 4 roads we would could check in one short drive out. The first 2 had only deer. But the 3rd had deer and 1 javi. I jumped out and as I approached, spooking the deer between me and it, I started feeling great about this stalk. It was an East-West road with the wind swapping to be out of the North. There was a path that veered off to the south just 100 yards from him and it was spotty bushes all in there, giving me room to walk 15 yards off the road and get broadside of him without being detected. Unfortunately, the wind shift was due to a T-storm cell forming just to the south of us in a hurry. But my focus was on this javi.
I got broadside to him with a bush between us. Him on the road, me on the dirt. The road he was on, was actually one of a few stone/oil roads and was really wide. The last time I had eyes on him, he was off to the other side of the road.
I side stepped the bush and there he was. My mind had him at 15 yards based off where I thought I was and where I thought he was. I drew, anchored, and focused on the sight picture. Then I watched my lighted nock sail cleanly over its back!!!
I couldn't believe it. That means he was like 7 yards away. He reacted by jogging 5 yards down the road... and fortunately for me, obscured by another small bush. I nocked another arrow and I closed the 5 yards he gained on me. Unhappy with what had happened he decided to walk into the brush on the side of the road I was on. I drew, hit anchor and followed him as he walked from behind the bush into more brush. I was thinking I shouldn't take a moving shot. In hindsight, that thought came into my mind because I wanted to take the moving shot. I didn’t want this opportunity to slip through my hands. I think he paused, but maybe he didn't... but I do know I relaxed my hand and that arrow flew and hit him behind the collar, a little high and he bolted.
I could hear him running the first 15 yards. My arrow rattling against the think brush deeper off the road. Then it stopped. I surmised because of the arrow breaking or falling out. I was torn... I hadn't made a good decision or a good shot.
I went and grabbed my first arrow. By now a distant rumbling was visible lightening and my mind shifted to keeping safe. I waved Tim down and we searching for my arrow. No blood where I hit him and it was thick where he ran. The intensity of the storm was building and I told Tim we just need to find the arrow and get the hell out before the sky opened up. I thought I hit far enough back that I might have just gut shot him. I needed the arrow to know what to do. Whether it made sense to come back after the storm, in the middle of the night and look. Heck, I just needed to know how bad I screwed up.
It took a few minutes, but I found my arrow. It was covered in blood. It wasn't broken off. No smell of guts. At this point, I knew he was down somewhere. But where? My headlamp was not up to the task as I scanned around in the dark with lightening flashing all around. I marked the spot with a flu-flu arrow and decided that we'd need to track after the storm blew over.
I was hopeful that it would just roll through... but by 11:00 it was still raining and lightening. With cooler temps overnight, I decided we'd just go look for it in the morning. I didn't get great sleep last night, but for some reason, I felt good about finding it. The brush was thick... but very spotty, so we had room to move around and look. I was more torn up about losing the meat, but I was confident we'd find it.
The next morning, I tempered my anxiety by saying we should check the roads first. The wind was blowing hard and we discovered all the corn was gone in our "hot zone" last night. We threw more corn down and headed over to look for the javi.
I went to where I found the arrow and of course there was no blood. With binos in hand I started walking in the direction it was headed and glassing every base of every bush and cactus clump. I saw like 6 cottontails. I had to fight the urge to grab my bow. Surprisingly, it didn't take me long to find it. 5-10 minutes later and I'm about 20 yards from the arrow and I'm glassing past a tree towards a cactus clump and I spot him. I had done it! I got my first javi with a traditional bow and I could cross that off the list!
Getting to him was kind of rough. I had gotten to him from a different path than he took and we had to chop though to get to him. There were no flies or anything buzzing around. He stunk... but all javis stunk. After a few photos and a trip back to camp, I decided to try and see what the meat would be like. Overnight temps were windy and in the mid to lower 50s. The rain would have cooled it off even more. The meat didn't stink so I decided to go the gutless route and quarter him out. The shot was back... but fortunately this guy had more lungs than stomach apparently.
It was Saturday morning, one day left of the hunt and I'd killed a rattle snake, half a dozen cotton tails, a jack rabbit and a javi with my black widow... I was pretty gosh darn happy. So I grabbed the longbow out of the truck and set off to kill some rabbits. The rest of the day would be spent corning for hogs that night and finding another javi stalk for Tim. Along the way I took a couple shots with the longbow and missed before I finally connected on a 15 yard shot on a jack rabbit. That would be my first longbow kill.
We finally spotted another javi and we drove around so Tim could put a stalk on it. He got close, but something spooked him. As we drove around, I added 3 more cotton tails to the tally with the long bow.
The final tally was 9 cotton tails, 2 jack rabbits, 1 rattle snake, and 1 javi. It was a great trip. Even though the javi stalks were very few and far between, I really just enjoy stalking critters and there was more than enough rabbits to tide me over as we drove around. But all in all, the best part was watching my partner get the job done on his first bow kill. That really was awesome.
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