Went to Crane, Texas last week for a javi/hog hunt with Curtis Keller of 7th Age Bowhunting. Eight of us went...myself, two of my brothers, my father, one cousin and two buddies. We had a good time and everyone saw game. The area was very dry this year and most of the guys saw game around water tanks. The hunt started at noon on Friday and we were all excited when we saw my brother's truck backed up to the skinning gambrel that evening. He was the only one who saw game that night. He was sitting in a blind near a water hole and corral when 2 javis came up and watered and were feeding around the corral out of range. He watched them for an hour when a big mulie buck walked up and started nosing the corn at 8 yards in front of his blind. The biggest javi looked up, saw the buck and came running over and chased it off, presenting my brother with a perfect broadside at 13 yrds. He shoots a Black Widow and made a perfect shot and watched the animal expire at 50 yrds. The next evening he was in the same blind and had 2 javis walk straight at him. He didn't see them till they were 15 yrds out and he had to sit his book down, pick up the bow and turn to make a shot as they were getting past him. He made another good shot and had his 2nd animal down.
Several of the other guys got shots. One guy had 3 different shots but clipped a limb on one and hit his bow limb on something on another and just missed once...all inside of 15 yrds. I was able to get in front of 2 feeding and waited for them to pass at 10 yrds but got caught drawing and spooked them without a shot. Dad was the only one to see feral hogs and shot right over one's back. Several of the other guys had shots and close calls but just could not connect. I had a close call with some blue quail and remembered that I need to shoot off my knees and not off a chair in the blind as my top limb whacked the top of the blind. I was glad it was a shot at a quail and not on a bigger animal.
We had a great time together and Curtis tried to get everyone on game. Everyone took turns cooking and we had axis deer stew one night, Curtis cooked javi stew one night, some of the guys brought deer backstraps and I cooked pancakes with bacon and sausage for my meal. I am including a pic of the group minus 2 guys that left early before we got it and I'll get a pic of the brother's javi up as soon as he sends me one.
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d168/imhntn/11JaviHunt.jpg)
Sounds like a fun trip. To bad some of ya could not connect but thats hunting!
Sounds like a great hunt.
Great trip,a group of us are heading to a ranch out of Alice in 2 weeks for javilena and hog.This place should be great lots of game and the javelina have not been hunted in 8 years.
After hunting javys for 30 years they still get me excited.
Hope you sack em up huntingarcher. One of the guys with us had hunted a lot down by Freer in years past and had seen lots more animals down there but the guy died that owned it and the son does not feed the wildlife like the dad did and they have gone way downhill in numbers. We talked to him about hunting down there and he said $50 a day but he is just not seeing very many hogs or javis.
Sounds like good fun.
imhntn,I have always hunted in that area Freer,3Rivers down to Larado.This is a ranch that was bought 8 years ago.8000 acres that was shot out.These people have been nursing the place back to were it should be,feeding program and all.One of the owners is a young guy who only been bow hunting a few years.This is all new to them only family has been deer hunting and only shooting culls.Hoping this may lead to bigger better things.The going rate around here is 125-150 a day.Low-end is bring your own camp.
Sounds like a great time. :thumbsup:
Sounds like you had a great time. :thumbsup: I hunted that same ranch out of Crane last April,saw couple Javis but they where out of season. The hogs where far and few between.Curtis is a good guy. :campfire: