New Mexico has a variety of javelina tag options.

I was lucky enough to draw a tag on McGregor range which is nice because it is about an hour from my house. My kids are going with me, my daughters are 9, 7 and 5 and hopefully we will get one. This is their first hunt, I didn't think it was a good idea to bring them on the elk hunt in October. We lived in Europe until March of 2019, so this is their first big game hunt experience.

If anyone has hunted McGregor and knows where some Javelina are please let me know.

Sounds like a fun time with your kids. I've never hunted McGregor, so I'm no help other than to say "good luck."

We did see a few of the little buggers on my kid's elk hunt over in Unit 16 a couple weeks ago. Kinda funny to see them trucking around in the falling snow.

Best of luck.

Jave's are fun!




ya!

GWB

Now that's a head shot if I've ever seen one!

George

get some black nitrile gloves from HF ... they have a very particular smell -- it's not bad, but it is STRONG - i would STRONGLY recommend having the guide/skinner do the work ..

makes great tamales.


of course you know they aren't swine

It is DIY.

We always keep nitrile gloves in the car to get gas with.

As covid has made that a requirement.

I'll stock up before we go down there.

okay .. there are glands in the "ankle" of the rear leg .. frankly, on hogs and javelina, i DO NOT open the gut sack (it's easy to do if you think about it) until i've quartered and then only to pull out the tenderloins.. which are tiny in javelina.

skin them HEAD UP, working down .. that keeps the rear leg skin from flapping on the meat.

Probably skin it first, and then quarter it.

In the tradition of GW, I'll use some kind of fancy knife other than a Havalon. Dozier, Bark River (GW won't like that), or one of custom puukos.

You're going to have a blast taking the family to chase Javelina. There have been times I have snuck to within 30 yards while hunting them. Great critters that don't require a medium bore (unless you really want to use one).

Skinning them head up is a great tip. That scent gland on their back really stinks. I'd get the hide off asap once on the ground.

Good luck on your hunt!

Justin

The choices are 280 Ackley and 30-06. For the 280 I have 140 grain Barnes X bullets, and shoots half inch groups at 100, so probably that one.

My 6.5 CM is at the gunsmith, and he is on the slow side this month.

Javelina aren't tough. I have killed a bunch with any number of smaller rounds starting with the .222 Most often it was 6mm Rem which was my carry gun on the ranch for years. C&C bullets are fine, no need for premiums.

Only bullets I have are 140 Grain X Bullets!

I suspect 140s will kill them. LOL Be Well, Packy.

Could probably kill one with a 22lr, as I am sure that is how the majority of them south of the border succumb.

Javelina are fun to hunt, stalk and just watch. They have jousting matches with their brethren which are entertaining. Used to see them invariably during deer season in southern AZ. One time in the Chiricahua Mts. SE AZ I happened upon a small group on the trail leading to the area where I deer hunted. This was in the mid-1980s. They were at a salt lick that was always by the trail. The wind was right and I saw them before they noticed me. The breeze was very slight early in the morning but directly into my face. They have very poor eyesight (great noses, of course). Just for fun I got ready for a pretend shot and very slowly walked one half step at a time towards them. They would start to get nervous, I'd freeze for several minutes, and then they would relax again. That went on for maybe 20 minutes and I got within about 25 feet of them. I dropped the hammer on the biggest one with a loud "click" and they ran like the blazes. Naturally, I saw the biggest coues deer buck of my life in Javelina season the next spring. He was there and gone, but I remember him well.

Looking forward to the hunt report and photos, Seth. Good luck! I have always wanted to hunt them with a revolver.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
I have always wanted to hunt them with a revolver.

Hey Bill, that's what I'm thinking too. My hunt is in the "good" units in the southwest in February. I'll be using my Dan Wesson .357 Magnum.

Be sure to report back Seth; I'm interested in your hunt.

I actually drew McGregor as a 3rd choice.

The good thing about it is that is not on the Mexican border, and it is 50 minutes from my house.

So today was the first day.

Saw some deer, and a couple or oryx.

Saw prints in the sand for tons of oryx, aoudad, deer and javelina but never saw an actual javelina.

Going to try another area in the morning.

quote:

Originally posted by Docbill:
Javelina aren't tough. I have killed a bunch with any number of smaller rounds starting with the .222 Most often it was 6mm Rem which was my carry gun on the ranch for years. C&C bullets are fine, no need for premiums.

TRUE----I killed my two, 0ne with a .218 Bee with a 45gr. FN and one with a .256 Win. with a 60 gr. FN.

Hip

GOOD LUCK and ENJOY YOUR HUNT !!!

Hip

Oh well, maybe next year.

They only give out 10 tags for an 100 mile tall 30 mile wide unit. I looked at every prickly pear flat and water source I could find. I found tracks, and I found prickly pear that had been torn up by then.

I never found javelina.

The ones on WSMR are almost entirely nocternal. Are the ones in Arizona and Texas night walkers as well? The ones on WSMr destroy the prickly pears when they fruit and shit all over the neighborhood. It is super rare to see them though.

I hope it was fun at least. Been a rough year.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
Oh well, maybe next year.

They only give out 10 tags for an 100 mile tall 30 mile wide unit. I looked at every prickly pear flat and water source I could find. I found tracks, and I found prickly pear that had been torn up by then.

I never found javelina.

The ones on WSMR are almost entirely nocternal. Are the ones in Arizona and Texas night walkers as well? The ones on WSMr destroy the prickly pears when they fruit and shit all over the neighborhood. It is super rare to see them though.

I don't hunt them in AZ but I most often run into them along wide washes that have plenty of hills around them.

The ones I have hunted around in Tx would move throughout the day. Feral hogs are the real intelligent ones that will go straight nocturnal.

Id love to chase Javelina again and use either a longbow, 45cal kentucky flintlock or a .22 hornet. The perfect game to stalk

I had a good time, saw a couple of shooter mule deer and only one other group of hunters the entire two days.

Not sure how you could have a better day and not kill anything.

Even took a lunch break and ran to town to fill up on tacos.

Great day for sure.

Clarence McDonald and I had the south end of McGregor range included Mt. Franklin that goes into the El Paso city limits. Our part bordered the bombing range part, that was about the Texas border leased from the city of EL pason at one time in the early 1950s. Back then it had few Javalinas but it had the biggest mule deer Ive ever seen in my lifetime of hunting, but they had not been hunted in years, a few got over onto us from time to time and eventually moved into our part from the "tin mines to the South and above Ft Bliss shooting range for the military...we would get one or two of those big boys every year in the Texas part..If our cattle got into McGreggor the range rider for the goverment would help us get the cows out and we would see those big muleys everytime...unfortunately the government eventually allow military to hunt them on a special hunt, and they would run them onto us, but that hunting took its tole on the size by over hunting and mismanagement in general..I have no idea what its like today that was a long time ago..We saw most of the game in Soladad canyon if your interested, that is directly East of the college in Los Cruces past the cox ranch. Solodad would have to be accessed from the Ft Bliss side off war road 11...

My dad owned the East side of War Road 11 past Biggs and Ft. Bliss military instalations when I was a youngster, its known as the old Threadgill ranch last I heard and extended to the west side in places and to the mt. top...I saw some big mule deer even then, but they were not abundant and stayed high..de ja vou for sure.

I hunted McGregor Range once. It was a mule deer hunt. Two days, either sex. A tough hunt. I hunted alone. A lot of walking/climbing. The second day, I was running out of time. I spooked some doe and decided to do the deed. I had to carry her to the car in three pieces. I didn't walk 100 yards after breaking her up when I jumped two nice buck.

It took all day getting her off the mountain, and I had blisters the size of quarters on both heels when I was done. I don't have fond memories of McGregor.

I've killed javelina with both rifle and revolver (.41 Mag.) They are certainly not hard to hunt. They can be very hard to find though.

I don't remember seeing them in New Mexico but shot the hell out of them in Texas east of Van Horn around Kent, and south of Odessa and Crane. Never tried to eat one. I knew people that wouldn't let you put one in their truck. Ranchers I knew treated them like pests back in the 70s.

Javalina were scarce as hens teeth on McGregor range back in the 50s we might see a 5 pack or two in a year of checking cattle...Apparantly they have made a comeback, doesn't take long if the preditors will leave then alone, and with hunting going on now in McGregor, the Lions may have moved on with all the people in the area..We saw one Lion on our side of the state line in the 5 years we had it leased..I would bet the hunting is good on the Texas side today with NM hunting that area..Nobody hunts on the Texas side, few even know it has a deer population, land belongs to the city and I doubt that they would even care who hunted it. Its one high rough end of the Rockys, one rimrock stacked on another. hard to ranch and hell to hunt..We hunted on saddle mules mostly..Gotta get on top and work the rimrocks.

That gland is not in the legs, its on the spine in the small of the back by the hips..cut it out as soon as you can, and then wash your knife and hands then clean the pig...

A young Javalina is great bar b Que'd over Mesquite. The Javalina from Sanderson. Tx. to El Paso aren't fit to eat, as they mainly feed on Leche gui, on the other side of the Pecos River they are much milder as they feed on pear and whatever..

The best Javalina or deer for that matter are those in the Big Bend Park area, that have been feeding on Pitaya cactus apples, that cactus fruit also makes awesome pie and pudding..even coyotes, bobcats, skunks, deer antelope eat that desert fruit..I looked into marketing them but they spoil almost overnight so you wont see them in the markets..My kids and wife loved them, ands as far as I know they only grow in the Big Bend of Texas and Northern Mexico and South America..Any way deer and Javalina that are eating them are succulent...