Cholla's and Chili Meat
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Cholla's and Chili Meat
Another Javalina handgun season's in the books. The final score is one hunter (son) - one javalina , another hunter (me) - no javalina .
Hunted two full days, dark to dark. On the first day, late afternoon, we spotted a couple sows feeding 500 yards across a canyon dissected by deep creek bed. Since I've killed my quota of pigs over the years and my son, who has faithfully beat the cactus for years, hadn't yet killed one it was decided that this stalk would be his. As we watched the sows, a very large boar emerged from somewhere near the others and walked straight into the creek bed, out of sight. I said, "there's your pig." We quietly discussed the stalk as three more pigs materialized among the others. We were exposed on a hill side, with a friendly wind, and needed to shuffle ten yards to the right to hide behind a large bush and tall cactus. Once hidden it was determined to walk single file down the hill directly toward the pigs until we reached a foothill bench with some sparse scattered bushes and cactus. Now on the bench we split up, my son sneaking to a small wash that would take him near the rim of the deep draw where we'd seen the boar desend. I said I'd stay put and be quite, perhaps moving forward just a bit in hopes of getting a little closer for a few "hail Mary" shots when the action began. It was determined that I would not shoot until I heard him shoot. He began his stalk and I creep forward closing the gap a few yards a little time later. Perhaps 10 minutes passed before the canyon bellowed out the bark of 44 Magnum, at which time the entire canyon across the draw erupted in javalina. There were a dozen or so, spaced out, scurrying away single file up the canyon wall through a shallow saddle to safety. I let my first shot go at a big black boar and saw dust spray three feet below it. Now I new just how far away they were. I fired a couple more times getting very close but only after most of my front blade rose above my rear notch, and they were gone. My range was outside of 150 yards. I gave chase across the draw, up the steep canyon wall, through the saddle and to the other side. I was able to witness one pig hopping like a cricket through the thick brush way out of range and beyond danger. On my way by the creek bed I confirmed that my son had killed his first javalina. His grin said it all.
When he stalked close to the edge of the creek bed he had the boar in his sights for just a moment before it walked behind a rock out cropping. A sow stayed in the open and presented a broadside shot. Since he'd been skunked several times before, he decided to take the sow and get the "javalina off his back." He made a good one shot kill using a 44 Magnum pushing a 240 grain SWC cast bullet at 1,200 fps. The shot was 50 yards off hand from a 5.5 inch Ruger Redhawk.
We cleaned the little sow and hauled it to the truck and counted the day a success. I hunted the same area three days later from dark to dark and never saw another pig. I'll get one next year.
The following a couple pictures from the hunt.
Desert flats in the Morning.
Small draw hunted earlier in the day.
Another draw hunted earlier in the day.
Cholla spines which I encountered frequently during the hunt.
View from where the javalina were to where we began the stalk - across canyon about two-thirds of the way up.
Picture taken from spot of shot to where javalina stood when shot (son holding javalina at spot is was shot). He said his blade covered the entire pig.
Little sow with Redhawk cylinder placed over the bullet hole. It was shot through the lungs.
I sure like to hunt these little pigs. Yee-haw!!!
Hunted two full days, dark to dark. On the first day, late afternoon, we spotted a couple sows feeding 500 yards across a canyon dissected by deep creek bed. Since I've killed my quota of pigs over the years and my son, who has faithfully beat the cactus for years, hadn't yet killed one it was decided that this stalk would be his. As we watched the sows, a very large boar emerged from somewhere near the others and walked straight into the creek bed, out of sight. I said, "there's your pig." We quietly discussed the stalk as three more pigs materialized among the others. We were exposed on a hill side, with a friendly wind, and needed to shuffle ten yards to the right to hide behind a large bush and tall cactus. Once hidden it was determined to walk single file down the hill directly toward the pigs until we reached a foothill bench with some sparse scattered bushes and cactus. Now on the bench we split up, my son sneaking to a small wash that would take him near the rim of the deep draw where we'd seen the boar desend. I said I'd stay put and be quite, perhaps moving forward just a bit in hopes of getting a little closer for a few "hail Mary" shots when the action began. It was determined that I would not shoot until I heard him shoot. He began his stalk and I creep forward closing the gap a few yards a little time later. Perhaps 10 minutes passed before the canyon bellowed out the bark of 44 Magnum, at which time the entire canyon across the draw erupted in javalina. There were a dozen or so, spaced out, scurrying away single file up the canyon wall through a shallow saddle to safety. I let my first shot go at a big black boar and saw dust spray three feet below it. Now I new just how far away they were. I fired a couple more times getting very close but only after most of my front blade rose above my rear notch, and they were gone. My range was outside of 150 yards. I gave chase across the draw, up the steep canyon wall, through the saddle and to the other side. I was able to witness one pig hopping like a cricket through the thick brush way out of range and beyond danger. On my way by the creek bed I confirmed that my son had killed his first javalina. His grin said it all.
When he stalked close to the edge of the creek bed he had the boar in his sights for just a moment before it walked behind a rock out cropping. A sow stayed in the open and presented a broadside shot. Since he'd been skunked several times before, he decided to take the sow and get the "javalina off his back." He made a good one shot kill using a 44 Magnum pushing a 240 grain SWC cast bullet at 1,200 fps. The shot was 50 yards off hand from a 5.5 inch Ruger Redhawk.
We cleaned the little sow and hauled it to the truck and counted the day a success. I hunted the same area three days later from dark to dark and never saw another pig. I'll get one next year.
The following a couple pictures from the hunt.
Desert flats in the Morning.
Small draw hunted earlier in the day.
Another draw hunted earlier in the day.
Cholla spines which I encountered frequently during the hunt.
View from where the javalina were to where we began the stalk - across canyon about two-thirds of the way up.
Picture taken from spot of shot to where javalina stood when shot (son holding javalina at spot is was shot). He said his blade covered the entire pig.
Little sow with Redhawk cylinder placed over the bullet hole. It was shot through the lungs.
I sure like to hunt these little pigs. Yee-haw!!!
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- Senior Levergunner
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- Location: southwest Florida
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Looks like a beautiful place to hunt. The weather doesnt look half bad.
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Temps were in the tall sixty's - short seventy's. In a word - perfect.dr walker wrote:Looks like a beautiful place to hunt. The weather doesnt look half bad.
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
I didn't know you were in the Sonoran desert. The last time I was there daylight temps ran to 112 plus! Of course it was a "dry" heat.
Sincerely,
Hobie
"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend." Robert Louis Stevenson
Hobie
"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend." Robert Louis Stevenson
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- Advanced Levergunner
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- Location: Arizona headed for New Mexico
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
This is going to make Joe homesick.
- J Miller
- Member Emeritus
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Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
mescalero1 wrote:This is going to make Joe homesick.
It did.
But .... I did ask for Idiot to post these pics. Soooooo, thanks for posting them.
Joe
***Be sneaky, get closer, bust the cap on him when you can put the ball where it counts .***
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
You are welcome Joe.J Miller wrote:It did.mescalero1 wrote:This is going to make Joe homesick.
But .... I did ask for Idiot to post these pics. Soooooo, thanks for posting them. Joe
And Hobie, someone has to live in the desert - to get cooked, bit, stung, pricked, and otherwise have fun.
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- Advanced Levergunner
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Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Yep,
We LIKE it.
We LIKE it.
- kimwcook
- Advanced Levergunner
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- Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:01 pm
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Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
I had enough of low desert and I live in high desert. Can't wait to retire and move to the mountains with pines.
Old Law Dawg
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
gotta watch them jumpin' cholla.
spent 4/5 years in the valley of the sun, had to leave before that dry heat killed me.
spent 4/5 years in the valley of the sun, had to leave before that dry heat killed me.
careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
"BECAUSE I CAN"
"BECAUSE I CAN"
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- Advanced Levergunner
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- Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:08 am
- Location: Arizona headed for New Mexico
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Come on up Kim,
Got all the pine anyone could want.
Got all the pine anyone could want.
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Great pics/report and congrats on the pig. That takes me back home as well.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Thanks.C. Cash wrote:Great pics/report and congrats on the pig. That takes me back home as well.
And don't dispare, there's still plenty of room for all you wayward desert expatriates to come home to, and in the summer you get the entire desert to yourselves.
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- Advanced Levergunner
- Posts: 2004
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- Location: Deep South Texas
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
I have a love/hate relationship with cholla cactus. When they bloom, they have very pretty yellow flowers on them. The spines are very loosely attatch and when brush against will come off easy and can be the dickens to get out. That country looks like the Texas Trans-Pecos that I love so dearly. But that of course is the northern end of the Sonoran Desert. It is a wonderful place if a person understand it, a dreadful place if they don't.
Oops, I looked again and saw the saguaro. Must be Southern Arizona. Texas doesn't have any saguaro.
Oops, I looked again and saw the saguaro. Must be Southern Arizona. Texas doesn't have any saguaro.
- gamekeeper
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Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
It made me homesick and I've only been there once!mescalero1 wrote:This is going to make Joe homesick.
Whatever you do always give 100%........... unless you are donating blood.
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- Advanced Levergunner
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Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
You MUST come back and let me show you N.M.
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Great write up, looks like beautiful country!
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Sixty miles east of Phoenix.Charles wrote:Oops, I looked again and saw the saguaro. Must be Southern Arizona. Texas doesn't have any saguaro.
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- Advanced Levergunner
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Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Going towards Globe.
- gamekeeper
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Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
Mescalero, It's on the list!mescalero1 wrote:You MUST come back and let me show you N.M.
Whatever you do always give 100%........... unless you are donating blood.
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- Advanced Levergunner
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Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
That looks great to me, but'cept for the cholla and heat and stickers and lack of shade.... the pig looks good and I would love to have been there......
I don't run so good any more tho
how do the collas go with the chili ?
Grizz
I don't run so good any more tho
how do the collas go with the chili ?
Grizz
Re: Cholla's and Chili Meat
On the hoof chili meat hide in the chollas awaiting the cook. You savvy?Grizz wrote:how do the collas go with the chili ?Grizz