Javelina With A Belly Gun (from the old sixgunner.com website)

[JimT]

It had been 4 years since I had hunted the smelly little pigs in the high Sonoran Arizona desert country. I had put in for Arizona's Draw-Hunt Permits and had gotten drawn for the last hunt of the season . Applications have to be filed with the Arizona Game & Fish Dept. about 4 months or so before the hunts. They are then drawn on a lottery-basis and I had made the cut. From what the hunters in Arizona tell me it is getting harder and harder to get drawn for the particular hunts you want. More and more hunters I guess.

I had lived in and hunted the area I where I applied for many years and was reasonably certain that if I could spend a few days hunting I could find the pigs. While Arizona has a good strong population of Javelina, they are hard to find. I remember reading a report some years ago where the Game & Fish Dept. had fenced off an area up in the Three Bars that contained a large number of pigs. They then had various hunters go through and try to find them. Very few saw any pigs and only a handful counted more than 5 or 6. No one came close to seeing the 20-some pigs that were actually in the enclosure.

Once I received the notification that I had been drawn for the hunt and had received my tags and licenses I began to plan for the hunt. The area was at about 5000 feet above sea level and in February the weather could be warm, cold or hot depending on how the jet stream was running. I decided I would prepare for anything and packed accordingly.

I decided I would hunt using the Reeder/Sixgunner.Com Limited Edition .45 Colt Vaquero as my primary hunting gun. This was back in the years when I was running the sixgunner.com website and we had Gary Reeder build a special run of sixguns for the people on the website that responded, with it being limited to the first 20 who signed up. I had not hunted with the short-barreled Vaquero yet and Javelina looked like a good way to break it in. I took along a back-up gun in case anything broke, but it was not needed. However, when traveling any distance to hunt a back-up gun is only common sense. I also packed my .22 Single Six but never had a chance to hunt jackrabbits as I intended. In fact, we did not see many jacks.

For several months I practiced with the .45 every day. On the days that I could not actually fire it I dry-fired. My practice consisted of pulling the gun up, catching the front sight and squeezing the trigger while holding the sights steady. For dry-fire practice I used a 1" aiming point at about 15 feet. On the range I shot bowling pins and paper targets at ranges to 25 yards. All shooting was practiced using a 2-hand hold. I also practiced thumbing the hammer rapidly for a second or third shot. Practice like you shoot. Shoot like you practice. In the end it pays off.

I settled on the Cor-Bon 200 gr. JHP factory loads as the hunting load I would use. The Limited Edition gun hit just above Point-Of-Aim at 25 yards with these loads. I sighted the back-up gun to hit the same POA with them so there would be no difference in hold should I have to use it. As I said, it wasn't needed but I was ready just in case. Cor-Bon lists these as producing 1100 fps. While the short barreled gun will not necessarily reach that, velocity was sufficient to produce good bullet expansion.

The trip to Arizona was long but it was a nice drive and a friend of mine had put in for Javelina also so we traveled together. We had a great time watching the countryside. There are places in New Mexico where you could hide Los Angeles and it would take you a week to find it! The first day we drove as far as Grants, NM and spent the night. The next day we drove into Arizona and cut south through St. John's, Show Low and the Salt River Canyon. My friend had never been in this part of Arizona so it was new country for him. Seemed like new country to me also in some ways. People are moving into Arizona in vast numbers and little hamlets that I remembered from years ago are now large towns, bordering on becoming cities!

We arrived in Oracle, AZ on Wed. afternoon and hooked up with friends. Rob Lundberg was to be hunting with us. He was just getting into hunting and this was to be a new experience for him.

On Thursday we made our way into the hills where I felt we could find the pigs. The road was bad 4 years before I made this hunt and it had not gotten any better in the years since I last drove it. The drive into the area where I wanted to camp ... not more than 2 miles I don't think... took about 30 or 40 minutes. We arrived with only minor "desert pinstriping" on the sides of the truck from cactus, catclaw and other scratchy growth and proceeded to set up camp.

Camp was located above a large canyon. The hike down into it was at least a quarter mile long. The hills and valleys around that canyon had always been good game habitat and I hoped that it had not changed in the years since I had been there. An ominous sign was that the first night out we did not hear one coyote. The weird thing was, we never heard or saw any coyotes all the days we were in the hills.

Opening day found us hiking down into the canyon and searching the hills and valleys for Javelina. While we saw Whitetail Deer, we hunted all day without spotting any of the little elusive pigs. Sign was abundant. Droppings, tracks, rooted up ground and shredded prickly pear cactus were quite evident. We saw where the pigs had been. We saw where they should have been. But we did not see any of the pigs. That evening back at camp we were all tuckered out.

Rob was not used to camping or being out in the wilds and this was all new to him. He sorta freaked out when we ate the evening meal. He called his wife on his cell phone and said, "You won't believe this! Jim just opened a can of Beef Stew and ate it RIGHT OUT OF THE CAN! WITHOUT WARMING IT UP!" I am not sure if he thought it was gonna kill me or what.

Next morning we were up before daylight and figuring out our hunting strategy. Rob and I decided to circle up over the hills and strike toward the head of the canyon. It was an area abundant with prickly pear, mesquites and scrub oak. It also was covered with signs that the pigs were somewhere's nearby. After we had hiked a couple miles I asked Rob, "You want some breakfast?" and he said he did. I stopped and dug out some rolled up tortillas that I had put peanut butter on. Rob wasn't sure if he could eat it or not but he gave it a try and liked it! Hiking mountains and canyons can do wonders for a picky eater.

As we climbed up into hills we saw a group of 4 or 5 hunters about a mile away on the other side of the canyon in the direction we were heading. We watched them work their way down into the canyon as we moved in that direction ourselves. About a half hour later gunfire began racketing out of the canyon and as I watched I could see the shape of pigs running across the canyon from us. It was a quarter mile or more away but I could still see them as they ran through the brush. I told Rob to get out on the point of rocks ahead of us at the mouth of the draw we were in. I figured the pigs would cross the canyon and come our way, especially since the cliffs were very steep to both sides of us. The place we were in was a natural passage.

About 10 minutes later Rob signaled that he saw pigs coming our way. I began moving up around a hill in front of me to try and cut them off. As I came over the hill I pulled the sixgun and held it in my shooting hand, just in case. Coming around a point I was suddenly confronted by a large Javelina who had a younger, smaller pig running with it. At the sight of me the larger pig bristled up and began popping it's tusks at me. The distance was no more than 20 feet and the pig presented an almost perfect silhouette shot. I pulled the sixgun up and caught the front sight and fired.

At the shot both pigs ran directly away from me. I put the sight on the large pig and fired again. Then they were out of sight around the corner of a hill. I wondered to myself, "Did I miss?" ... but as I thought about it, the shot "felt" good. I replaced the 2 fired cartridges and then moved along the path they had taken.

As I rounded the hill I saw a large splash of blood on the rocks. A foot or two further and another... and another .. and another. I looked up ahead as I came through some brush and I could see the pig laying on it's side. It appeared to still be breathing and I did not want to spook it so I stopped and waited. Rob came up behind me and I pointed it out to him. In a few moments we moved on up to it.

As we came up on it the pig breathed it's last. I got my camera out and set it on my backpack and took a self-portrait. I did not notice at the time but I did not get all the pig into the picture, but you can see where my first shot hit it. I took a couple more photos and then set to work cleaning it. Rob was easing around the hills beyond us looking to see if any of the pigs relatives might still be in the area.

My first shot had taken the pig high through the abdomen .... gut-shot. Intestines hung out the off side. Devastation from the Cor-Bon 200 gr. JHP was very evident. The second shot had taken it center in the stomach from the rear and intestines were protruding from the entrance wound of that shot. There was no exit from that shot, the bullet going up through the abdominal cavity. The sow ran no further than 50 or 60 feet before bleeding out. I was impressed with the bullet performance. There was a sizable exit wound on the off-side of the pig. Interestingly, when I skinned it later I found some pieces of jacket material and lead under the hide around the edges of the exit wound. My practice at catching the front sight and shooting paid off. The Arizona sun was bright enough I could not see the rear sight very well. I shot instinctively, doing what was put into the computer, and it worked. Both shots were fired fairly rapidly. I did not notice how fast but Rob commented on it later.

After cleaning the Javelina I hung it in a tree and Rob and I went looking for one for him. We made about a half-mile circle through the hills and as we were coming into the last half of the circle I spotted a real large Javelina coming down the hillside toward us. I motioned to Rob and we both froze as the pig ran up to within 50 feet of us. There was a mesquite tree between him and the pig and Rob could not see it at first. Then it moved and presented a sideways shot and Rob spotted it. He fired and missed and the pig took off at a high rate of noise. Rob was watching it run, kinda dumbfounded that he has missed, and I yelled, "SHOOT!" and he levered another shell into the gun and fired at the running pig. The bullet kicked up a large cloud of dust behind the pig as it disappeared from view.

We looked for the pig for some time, but could not locate it. It was getting on in the afternoon so we decided to head back to camp. I shouldered the pig I had shot and we hiked the hills and canyons back to camp. By the time we got there I was wore out. Everyone else seemed tired so we struck camp that afternoon and headed into Tucson to Rob's house. There we cleaned up and packed the cut-up pig into the freezer. Rob had a man who was going to cook one for him if he got one, so I donated the one I had shot to the cause.

The other hunter had hurt his leg .. pulled something I guess .. and was not interested in hunting any more and Rob was not going any more so that was the end of the hunt. I was tickled to be able to do it with the Reeder "Belly Gun" that Gary had built.

The year was 2002. It seems like a long time ago. It surely was a different time.

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[gamekeeper]

I love your hunting stories Jim, especially the way you describe Arizona, I have only spent 11 days there but your story made me feel homesick....
The only Javelina I saw were the one's at the Sonoran desert museum.
Love the Sixgun too....

[octagon]

Good hunting and nice shooting

[JimT]

I love your hunting stories Jim, especially the way you describe Arizona, I have only spent 11 days there but your story made me feel homesick....
The only Javelina I saw were the one's at the Sonoran desert museum.
Love the Sixgun too....

Thank you.
I love Arizona and if I were younger I would be living in the hills somewheres .. but you gotta search these days to find a place were there ain't a whole lot of people!

[Tycer]

Thanks again Jim!

[piller]

Great story. You have had some fun times, and we appreciate you reminiscing and sharing.

[Catshooter]

Good story Jim, I enjoyed it.

And this is the best idea I've heard all week: " There are places in New Mexico where you could hide Los Angeles and it would take you a week to find it! "


Cat