Javelina in 2025

[Bill in Oregon]

I don't bear a grudge against the charming little toots with their impossibly dainty feet, but would like to hunt them once. I'll do some research and try to find a high-odds, old guy-friendly tag to apply for here in southern New Mexico.
I'll put in some study time here:
http://www.javelinahunter.com/javelina_university.htm
And I ordered this book from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623..._dt_b_fed_asin_title
I have friends here in the Southwest who have hunted the peccaries all their lives and swear the meat can be prepared so as to be quite edible. Looking forward to this.
Even thinking of hunting them with the old Remington Model 8 in .25 Remington that my gunsmith, Tom Jackson, has painstakingly rebarreled for me. (It has been a chore, he tells me, and he is a retired Army armorer. For example the muzzle end threads are 18 per inch, with the first four V-threads and the rest square threads!)
Sound like a good plan to ponder over the chilly winter days?

[GunnyMack]

V to ACME threads now that's crazy!
From what I've seen, as long as the gland on the backend is NOT cut the meat is very good eating.
Your Model 8 would be a great nostalgic hunt !

[JimT]

V to ACME threads now that's crazy!
From what I've seen, as long as the gland on the backend is NOT cut the meat is very good eating.
Your Model 8 would be a great nostalgic hunt !

People screw up by worrying about the gland ... BUT .. if you skin it correctly it pulls off with the hide. Don't go cutting around it. Skin the animal and just pull the hide off and there is no problem. I have killed and eaten a (small) truckload of 'em.

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks Will. I think it would be a classic hunt for this neck of the woods. As I recall, early in his career, Frank Hamer patrolled the border horseback with a Model 8 in .25, so it is not an unknown item in this section.
Jim, it was your broad experience with the javelina as table fare that made me take hunting them seriously.

[GunnyMack]

See Bill, just had to wait for Jim, he's the man that knows for sure!

[JimT]

My wife was the one who figured out how to make meals with them. Though I have to say, the time I shot one with the 480 Achilles .. we ate some of that one in camp and it was wonderful.

What happened was .. we had camp set up and a truck stopped at our camp and the driver asked if he could camp in the same area. We said SURE! He was a big American Indian and around the campfire told us some wonderful stories. The next day I shot a nice Javelina with the Achilles and after I got it back to camp and skinned it I gave the meat to this Indian fellow who said his family would love it.

We had a fire going as it was cool and rainy and he cut the right rear leg and ham off the Javelina ... which is where I hit it as it was running away from me. He put the meat on a sharpened stick and seared it over the fire. Then taking 3 sticks about the same length he set the meat up over the fire, turning it every once in awhile. Searing the meat meant it pretty much cooked in its own juices. When it was done we pulled the meat off by hand and ate it and it was amazing!

This is the Javelina

javelina 2005.JPG

[Mark in MO]

I have heard varying opinions regarding how they taste. The wild hog I took made incredible sausage but overall my family was not impressed with the taste. I've always wanted to hunt javelina with a handgun. They're on my list.

[gamekeeper]

My one and only disappointment in Arizona was not seeing Javelina in the wild, did see the ones in the Sonoran Desert museum though.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I’ve killed a bunch of them over the years.

Easiest hunt in the world is setting up on a windmill in the canyon country in the trans Pecos region of Texas.

[Chaser]

My wife was the one who figured out how to make meals with them. Though I have to say, the time I shot one with the 480 Achilles .. we ate some of that one in camp and it was wonderful.

What happened was .. we had camp set up and a truck stopped at our camp and the driver asked if he could camp in the same area. We said SURE! He was a big American Indian and around the campfire told us some wonderful stories. The next day I shot a nice Javelina with the Achilles and after I got it back to camp and skinned it I gave the meat to this Indian fellow who said his family would love it.

We had a fire going as it was cool and rainy and he cut the right rear leg and ham off the Javelina ... which is where I hit it as it was running away from me. He put the meat on a sharpened stick and seared it over the fire. Then taking 3 sticks about the same length he set the meat up over the fire, turning it every once in awhile. Searing the meat meant it pretty much cooked in its own juices. When it was done we pulled the meat off by hand and ate it and it was amazing!

This is the Javelina

javelina 2005.JPG

That sounds like a fine time, Jim. My mouth is watering just reading it.

[jeepnik]

A lot depends on what the critter eats. While I've never hunted Javelina, I have taken several wild pigs. Was a time some of the ranchers and farmers almost begged for folks to come shoot them. Then they figured out how to monetize it. There are still a few smaller outfits that are pleased just to have them eradicated.

As to taste, I'm not a big pork eater whether it's domestic or wild. The last few I donated to an outfit that supplied it to folks that needed food. Don't know if they are still around. They were getting grief from the anti hunting crowd about accepting game animals. I guess these folks would rather see someone go hungry that have an animal killed. They are probably all vegan.

[tray]

I was hunting deep south Texas with a buddy. We were up early hunting cottontails and I looked up and there was a Javelina standing on the trail that crossed the one I was on. He immediately took off giving me only a momentary snap shot with the Browning Challenger .22 pistol I was using. I just through up the gun and fired. When I got up to the cross trail he was laying about twenty feet down the trail. When I skinned him out the bullet had passed through the lungs and part of the heart. He turned out to be an old scared up scrapper with one tusk missing. Even that thing was good eating.
By the way, that gland is right under the hide at the top of the back just in front of where his tail is attached. Once you skin one out you will understand what Jim is saying.

[JimT]

@ Tray ... great shot! I have killed them with .22 Long Rifle also. They would come in our yard, eat the dog food, dig up the flower beds and make a lot of racket at night. Once in awhile I would step out and pop one just to get them to go away so we could sleep. I shot one with a Standard Velocity .22 Long Rifle that I had flattened the nose .. hit it through the lungs/heart and it dropped right there. When I cleaned it I recovered the bullet. Went nearly all the way through.

flat-nose_22b.JPG

[Bill in Oregon]

Dang, boys -- with .22s!

[JimT]

Bill .. my daughter took her first Javelina when she was 11 ... using a .22 Magnum. She got it at about 40 yards.

azalea 1987-2.jpg

[GunnyMack]

There isn't much a .22 won't do. A buddy of mine used to hunt moose in Quebec, one of the guides related to him that as a kid he shot a bull with a 22short ! The kid, father and grandfather spent 3 days tracking it and found it dead. They then butchered and packed it out. True or not I dunno. However I have shot a deer that had been hit by a car, barely able to get around with like Jim a flat point 22lr through the ribcage and it hobbled about 30 yards and fell over dead. A true mercy killing.

[JimT]

There isn't much a .22 won't do.

Absolutely! I once killed a Mule Deer with my Single Six. A friend had wounded it and didn't have any more ammo for his rifle. I followed the deer, got close to it and it jumped up and tried to get away from me. I shot it in the back of the head with the .22 and dropped it.