This weekend I had the pleasure of going on my first javelina hunt. Ben Capps of Three Fingers Bowhunting arranged a hunt for four of us at the ranch as he had previously been there. I was a little concerned about the hunt due to my shoulder repairs a few months ago and the doctors instruction to wait till mid April to resume bow shooting. I took some practice shots the weekend before, packed my gear and headed out Thursday morning early with my friend Jason Womack of Constrictor Rods, Ben and Paul. We got to the ranch around 2:30pm or so and met Bill and Rob. After signing our release agreements and unloading our stuff at the lodge we suited up to head out for a drive around tour with our hosts and to start hunting on an 11,000 acre piece of land.
The first afternoon all of us had ops to kill animals and unfortunately they were always zigging when I was zagging. We started off with a hitch mounted feeder feeding the gravel roads and then planning to retrace and find them feeding in the road. While getting turned around on a spot where we should have turned right we saw one crossing the road. We turned around and went back through and it was out in the open. It went into the brush and we dropped of Jason, corned the road and drove off a couple hundred yards to wait. After a few we went back and Jason was there, bow held high, with his first Javelina ever. He had shoulder/spine shot it and dropped it in it's tracks.


After pics, high fives and a congratulatory beer it was off to find more skunk pigs. Then I had a front and center spot when Paul shot his first Javi of the trip. We had been dropped off when we drove through a group of javis that we found at a spot we had corned. We had a blown stalk on a group earlier and hoped these would returned as Ben ran the feeder as he drove off. Well they did. His shot was a little back and it jumped a couple feet in the air and ran off. Fortunately the shot was high enough to cut the artery under the spine and the blood trail was profuse and short.


We had been dropped off and as Ben and Jason drove around they found another group and Ben made a successful stalk and hammered his first of the trip.


That left me the only one without a skunk pig on the rack. We drove around but ops were scattered and they were skittish. Then, just as the sun was going down, we spotted two singles on a gravel road we had corned. A 150 yard stalk later and I came back out on the edge of the road. The range finder said 31 yards and as I came to full draw I stepped out into the open only to have the critter turn and face me slightly quartering. It was a small target but a very doable shot and as I released and followed through I saw the arrow hit right where the pin sat. It passed through and the javi hit the brush at a dead run. He only made it 40 yards or so and was piled up. So ended the first afternoon of hunting and we headed to the lodge to cook our meal and drink a few in celebration.


Day one half and we already half of our limit of javelina.



The lodge has a full kitchen, grills and a nice fire pit and we enjoyed our first night with a good nights rest.

That's AWESOME passthru, glad to see you are back in the swing of things!!

Awesome hunt. What about the rest of the story?

Did you find any good sheds?

No monster ones but they did. I personally did not. I will have more details and pics when I get time.

If anyone were considering going to the Bowman spread I would recommend staying at the lodge. The decorations keep the conversation going and it has all the amenities of home. A beautiful fire pit and grills to enjoy the fire and a meal.




The next day we all scored on our second Javelina. Although I was the last to punch one on the first afternoon I scored early on the morning hunt. I walked about 1/2 mile before finding a single male in the gravel road eating the corn. A quick 100 yard stalk put me at just under 30 yards and a quick quartering away shot left a profuse blood trail that only lasted 30 yards. The pic didn't come out well but the other hunters got good skunk pigs that way as well.

Ben took this one at less than 5 yards with a perfect shoulder shot.

Jason made a good shot at about 10 yards on this one.
All in all it was fun and expensive. But it's hard to put a price of times like that with friends. Thanx for looking.

Congrats on a fun hunt with friends

Congrats to you and your buddies!!!

Good job Gary, looks like a great time.

Good times. Bill and Rob got us started off right then let us do our thing. The walk in freezer, processing station and nice accommodations made it a sweet trip.

looks like it was lots of fun...nothing like a good hunting trip

passthru you have mail.

I was off hunting again. PM returned.