I took a long weekend to meet my nephew to hunt. He and his buddies had Javelina tags. I didn't get drawn for a tag but decided to meet up with him and hunt preds while they pursued Javelina.
We were in central AZ in the mountains and these were steep mountains 10% grades getting in and most of the back country gravel was the same. I noticed the first night camping not a single coyote howl. the next day I started my education, most of the hills were too steep to climb without taking a chance on slipping and sliding a long way and being alone and no phone service I I started to hunt the washes. I'd walk them into the wind until I got to a wide spot or where two washes came together and set up a stand. I did call in one large grey fox but he fooled me completely coming up wind on the trail I just walked in on, not quite as sly as a coyote, Oh I missed. I learned real quick that next time I come back there will be combo gun or drilling in my hands as most of the ranges are very short.
At noon I headed back to camp and spent lunch glassing the hills around camp as there were a lot of old mines on the hillsides. This area the washes were even narrower but found quite a bit of Javelina and fox sign in the sand. I did find a number of fox toilets with scat from bleached white to fresh black and slick. It was hard to set up in these and noisy trying to get some elevation. On to the next strategy. I found some old roads leading up the hills, these were really old, washed out and overgrown but with a grade that I could navigate. So I hiked these up to the tops of the ridges and tried setting up in the saddles between different ridges not successful but I think I still had my mind in coyote mode. Well I hiked till I knew I had just enough in the tank to get back to camp. Near the bottom I stopped to rest and realized in my fatigue I had left my caller on the last stand. I stuffed my rifle and pack under a bush and hiked back up and retrieved it. By the time I got back to camp I was totally done in. I went to bed early and the alarm woke me after nine hours of dead sleep.
I'm still trying to figure out what kind of vehicles they used to get up those roads or even build them. I did find one steep spot that they had put a steel ring in at the top of the steep part.
My nephew was interested in the sign I'd seen and decided to hunt near camp with me the next day. We hiked up to the ridge tops and called a couple of saddles with no luck and it didn't take long for my legs to give out and I had to head home at noon so we headed back down. I had a great trip and am looking forward to a rematch with those hills.
At noon my nephews friends came back to camp and after I left headed back up in the hills and went just a little farther than in the morning and picked up two nice greys and a Javelina up there. They went up again this morning and missed another Javelina. They had to be back in SLC to work tomorrow.
A good time was had by all.
View from the campsite
We were in central AZ in the mountains and these were steep mountains 10% grades getting in and most of the back country gravel was the same. I noticed the first night camping not a single coyote howl. the next day I started my education, most of the hills were too steep to climb without taking a chance on slipping and sliding a long way and being alone and no phone service I I started to hunt the washes. I'd walk them into the wind until I got to a wide spot or where two washes came together and set up a stand. I did call in one large grey fox but he fooled me completely coming up wind on the trail I just walked in on, not quite as sly as a coyote, Oh I missed. I learned real quick that next time I come back there will be combo gun or drilling in my hands as most of the ranges are very short.
At noon I headed back to camp and spent lunch glassing the hills around camp as there were a lot of old mines on the hillsides. This area the washes were even narrower but found quite a bit of Javelina and fox sign in the sand. I did find a number of fox toilets with scat from bleached white to fresh black and slick. It was hard to set up in these and noisy trying to get some elevation. On to the next strategy. I found some old roads leading up the hills, these were really old, washed out and overgrown but with a grade that I could navigate. So I hiked these up to the tops of the ridges and tried setting up in the saddles between different ridges not successful but I think I still had my mind in coyote mode. Well I hiked till I knew I had just enough in the tank to get back to camp. Near the bottom I stopped to rest and realized in my fatigue I had left my caller on the last stand. I stuffed my rifle and pack under a bush and hiked back up and retrieved it. By the time I got back to camp I was totally done in. I went to bed early and the alarm woke me after nine hours of dead sleep.
I'm still trying to figure out what kind of vehicles they used to get up those roads or even build them. I did find one steep spot that they had put a steel ring in at the top of the steep part.
My nephew was interested in the sign I'd seen and decided to hunt near camp with me the next day. We hiked up to the ridge tops and called a couple of saddles with no luck and it didn't take long for my legs to give out and I had to head home at noon so we headed back down. I had a great trip and am looking forward to a rematch with those hills.
At noon my nephews friends came back to camp and after I left headed back up in the hills and went just a little farther than in the morning and picked up two nice greys and a Javelina up there. They went up again this morning and missed another Javelina. They had to be back in SLC to work tomorrow.
A good time was had by all.
View from the campsite
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