Additional Adobe Lodge Hunting
Javelinas - Hogs - Doves
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Javelina Hunt
February 24 - 28, 2011
Back in early December, an unusual request came our way. Seems there was a group of twelve bow-hunters looking for a place to hunt javelinas. Neither guide, nor cook, nor food was needed. They were just looking for a decent facility to house their group and a place to hunt the wild desert pigs.
With the Home Camp having six bedrooms (two beds per room), three bathrooms, a kitchen full of cooking supplies plus refrigerators, fire pits, etc. etc., we just happened to have the perfect venue for their group. A deal was struck and sure enough, about 1 p.m. on Thursday, it looked like an invasion was upon us. You never saw so many hunting rigs in one place - jeeps, ATV's of all kinds, trucks, trailers, boxes of food and cooking gear.
And bow-hunting equipment. Mercy. No war party of Indians was ever so well-supplied. Since all the hunters in the group are from up on the Texas plains (either Lubbock or Plainview), the Indian analogy is a good one. Comanche Indians, with their stronghold in that part of the world, prevented the settlement of the entire northwest two-thirds of our state until well after the Civil War. Just like these hunters, they would descend from their sanctuaries on the plains and cap-rock areas. But instead of riding war-ponies, these guys were a bit better off with mechanized vehicles of every description, and four-wheel-drive, to boot. Raiders from the plains had invaded once again after all these years.
As has been mentioned elsewhere on this website, javelinas are impossible to pattern. Sometimes they'll return regularly to a feeder - but more often not. That first afternoon in camp, the hunters were given orientation tours of three ranches totaling pert-near 10,000 acres. In addition to the javalinas, feral hogs were also included in the quest since our goal is to keep their numbers in check as long as we can.
As the hunt unfolded over the next four days, javelinas were commonly seen in only a few places. Indeed, at one feeder, the javelinas would come as if a dinner bell had rung. But that wasn't so at some of the feeders which had been plagued by the swine back during deer season. In any case, trying to collect a javelina with a bow is a major challenge, no matter how you go about the task.
Similarly, the feral hogs were hard to find. Granted, there are not yet too many around here, but predictably, where they have been seen recently, they were scarce when we finally had some hunters ready to put their lights out. On one ranch along a river where the feral pigs have been seen numerous times, the bow-hunters dutifully did their part but saw nothing. Just our luck.
When the dust settled at the end of the four days - literally, since our area was plagued with a major dust storm on the final afternoon of their stay - the grand total was three javelinas and one feral hog. There were an indeterminate number of missed bow-shots. Understandably, it was a challenge to get admissions of such from the guilty parties.
Steve Reeves, one of the group, saw a mountain lion - always an exciting event, no matter what else happened. One of these days, one of our hunters will collect one of these critters and we'll have a celebration that will last for days.
In the collection of photos below, there is a side-by-side comparison of a feral hog and a javelina. When alive and on-the-hoof, it is much easier to distinguish between the two species. A javelina, shaped like a buffalo with larger fore quarters and smaller hindquarters, has a khaki-colored stripe around his shoulders. One of the most noticeable differences in the two critters shown below is the size of their ears. Feral hogs have big ones; javelinas have small ears.
During the deer season, feral hogs can be taken for free whereas javelinas command a trophy fee of $300. Inevitably, a hunter will wonder how to tell one from the other. Our standard answer: just shoot it and bring it to camp. If we charge you $300, it was a javelina.
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