Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Going javelina hunting next week. Need some tips.

I am going javelina hunting next week. Never been before. How should I do it? Should I bait them, or should I try to walk up on them? If you have any other suggestions i will take them too. I would love to bag one on m first javelina hunt.

They have good hearing and sense of smell but lousy eyesight. If they are used to corn then you can bait them, they will suck up every drop of corn in short order. You can also try walking up on them-it's not difficult in the right terrain. Have you been invited out by someone? If so I'd suggest asking that person how they do around there.

I'll start with the best tip for when you do find one - shoot it so the bullet will go through the lungs in between the shoulders because the lungs don't really extend very far behind the shoulder. Javelina anatomy is different than deer anatomy - if you hit a javelina with a classic deer behind the shoulder shot, you've probably shot it too far back (ask me how I know ;)). Once you have one down on the ground, make sure it is dead (touch it with your gun muzzle from behind). Some people will tell you erroneously that you need to cut out the scent glands on the javelina's back - that's wrong - just leave the scent glands alone, and they will come off with the skin when you skin the javelina. Just don't touch the scent glands (they're near the hams/back legs) with anything - your hands, knife, or anything else, and you'll be fine with regard to the scent glands.

Regarding finding them, it depends on the terrain. If the terrain is such that you can glass for them with binoculars, using your binocular is a good technique. I've hunted them by spot and stalk (in Arizona and West Texas) and by baiting on senderos (in South Texas where there wasn't terrain for glassing). I'll tell you I MUCH prefer the spot and stalk.

One nice way to do spot and stalk is to have a "big eyes" (e.g., 15x58) binocular mounted on a tripod - that is a very comfortable way to cover a lot of ground - with your eyes rather than with your feet.

Here's a website that will help you learn more about javelina hunting:
JavelinaHunter.com

Dont' get caught baiting them as it is illegal in AZ!

Glassing is one of the better ways. It beats walking all over the place.

An alternative is to get into the thick stuff in a drainage and use a varmint call. There actually is a javelina call that has a slightly different tone available. I have called in some nice javis in the thick stuff. The fun part is you never know what might come in!

We have had a very dry spell the last fall and winter till recently. It changed their patterns. Any water source that didn't dry up had them nearby. Unfortunately from a hunting standpoint we have had over 4" of rain in the last few weeks and water is in many drainages now. I would think the javelina would not move far from that permanent water source regardless of the availability of water in the drainages but you never know. I'd glass the surrounding slopes. Don't forget to listen for them. They often have petty fights over food. Their bickering can be heard quite a distance.

We will be going out next week ourselves. Good luck.

AZ,
I thought it was only illegal to bait bears in AZ. Never heard anything about Javelina being added to the no bait list.

biggame,
What unit are you hunting in?
I will be in unit 32 with some guys from San diego. I look forward to the hunt.

Best way I hunt them is spot and stalk. Find a good vantage point and use tripod mounted bins.
They love prickle pear cactus, if you find a choked hill side with cactus or a canyon bottom, you can usually find pigs there.
They also root so look for sign.

One other way that I learned to hunt them and I checked with AZGFD to make sure I wasn't road hunting is to cut track. I either walk a road or drive a road in areas where I feel there is a javelina herd and look for fresh track (kinda like muley hunting desert flats in Sonora). If you can cut a fresh track (about an hour or 2 old), you can track it out and can up to them. It takes some walking and patients, but it can be fun if you don't want to sit on a hill. I prefer tracking when I am handgun or archery hunting. Glassing when I got a rifle.

You also don't have to get up too early and you can usually head out at first light. javelina don't usually get up until after sun up. And if it stays cold like it has been. I won't be going anywhere until after the sun is up.

Kique

Got curious and couldn't resist so I called the game and fish.
The only thing you can not bait in AZ are bears.

Javelina are ok to be baited.


So since we got that resolved, I'd suggest you use dog food. I have never baited javelina, but I know they eat my sisters dog food before tipping over the trash can. So thats a good cheap bait to buy.

Kique

Biggame,

Enrique definitely knows what he is talking about. I went with him on my first spot-and-stalk javelina hunt (in AZ), and I had my javelina only a couple hours into the hunt. Taking what I learned from him, I was the only one out of six hunters to bag one on a javelina hunt in West Texas a couple years later.

Yeah i've heard good things about corn, I think im going to give that a try. Well i havent really been spotting this spot out. But i think we are hunting out of a backyard, they come up the canyon at night. Any tips on how to find them?

Thanks for the tips. Im either hunting unit 22 in bloody basin, or 5a at a cabin. And im leanin towards the cabin because we bait them there all the time.

Haha, thanks for clearifying that. I will definatly try dog food, and corn. I will let you know how it works.

This is one animal like Elk where you should follow your nose. If you are near a bunch or a den you should be able to smell them. Look for caves, rock overhands and the densest brush in the area for dens. Spot and stalk is the most fun they seem to just suddenly appear out of the brush.

A friend I told about a wacky method tried it and saw two bunches where we hadn't seen any previously. He hung one of those Christmas tree air fresheners from a branch and the Javelina showed up. Strawberry, Cherry and Vanilla seem to be favorites. Afterward you can put the Christmas tree in your truck to help cover the pungent aroma of the Javelina on your clothes.

Thanks Enrique,

Sorry for that error on baiting. I stand corrected.

No problem AZ. When we going shooting? I'm just down the road from you. I'm in Catalina.

Kique

I'll be hunting in you backyard, group 33. Any recommendations in that area for those elusive piggies?

Yep. Send me a PM and I let you in on a couple spots. When are you going?

If I only had a limited time to hunt, I would bait corn very lightly along long open roads, trails or the edges of open areas where you can view a lot of ground from a distance. When you see one hit the bait trails, approach from downwind. They are full of brave when they are alarmed at close range or have young. But not to the point you should panic or carry a self defense weapon.
I suggest a European mount of the skull if you get a large one.

Have fun.

stumpy

Coming into this thread a little late, but is there a general season in 5a? I don't see it listed in the regs.

MikeS,

You're correct. There's no General Jav' season in 5A. Also, Bloody Basin is in unit 21, not 22.

Not sure how two different units can even be an option. Tags are usually area specific.

Biggameassassinator, I'd second the advice of the folks that recommend spot and stalk with good glass. Let your eyes do all the walking for you. Focus on areas w/ plenty of sign - shredded prickly pear, uprooted ocotillo, dug up yucca roots, etc.

Regarding the weather, my experience has been that javelina are more difficult to locate in cold weather, especially a cold wind. They don't like the cold and will often bunch up in some kind of shelter to share warmth and get out of the wind.

I peel the hide off right away, even before I dressing it. Then wash my hands and knife. That eliminates the scent gland issue right away so I don't have to worry about it while touching meat. I've also stopped gutting the things. I just do the "gutless method". Quick and clean.

In west TX, we used to deer hunt with feeders, and the javelinas were always eating our corn. They ate a whole lot more of it than the deer did. Try to get out a day or two early and place some corn out so that they have time to find it. I think baiting is your best bet.

Looking forward to a follow up report. I haven't been to AZ in a couple of years to hunt. Life has been getting in the way