Javelina Hunt Arizona

[4895]

Hello, I am going on my first hunt in Arizona this month. I bought a leftover tag for rifle Javelina and have a Win 94 .30-30. The rifle is a bare, light weight carbine with a Williams peep sight and Walmart sling. Anyone here have a comment on a .30-30 for collared peccary? Should I consider using a .22-250 or 5.56? Thanks.

 

[Flintknapper]

Any of the calibers mentioned will easily dispatch Javelina.

I suppose the distance at which you expect to get a shot would dictate whether the .22-250 or 5.56 would be more appropriate than the 30-30, but in most settings...you can carefully approach within 100 yds. of Javelina (if not closer).

One bit of advice: Shot placement on Javie's is important. They are not hard to kill...but most folks shoot them too far back and end up having to trail them.

If possible, shoot no farther back than the "collar" itself. Let it be your aiming point (horizontally).

Good luck on your hunt.

 

[4895]

I've been told to cut the musk gland off and also to leave it on. Do you have any experience/preference for this procedure?

 

[Flintknapper]

4895 wrote:

I've been told to cut the musk gland off and also to leave it on. Do you have any experience/preference for this procedure?

If you intend to use the meat (I recommend you do) then take every precaution to avoid handling/manipulating the scent gland.

The scent gland will come off with the hide during the skinning process.

But prior to that..any manipulation of the gland (handling, attempts to remove, or even dragging the animal on its back) can result in "expressing" the musk, which inevitably gets on you or the meat.

The musk/scent gland is located about 6"-7" above the animal's tail on it's back. If you part the hairs...you will find it, (it appears somewhat like a small nipple).

Javelina use the gland to mark objects and also rub it on one another....so be careful when handling the animal that you don't taint the meat with your hands or knife.

Field dress the animal as soon as possible and then skin it carefully, taking care NOT to transfer anything from the outside of the hide onto the meat.

If you follow these suggestions....Javelina make fine table fare.

 

[Art Eatman]

I've always used the eye-ear area as my aiming point. Anyhow, forward of the collar is better than any other choice.

I've always carefully skinned off that musk gland before field dressing Lil Piggie. With the head shot, you can gut him out and never get blood on your hands. Just sorta greasy.

The tusks are marketable to folks who do primitive jewelry sort of craft work. I made a beaded necklace with a tusk as a "dangly" to wear when I go up to Terlingua GhostTown to play mind games with the tourists.

Javelina are fun to mess with. Working the wind and moving smoothly, it's not all that hard to get really close. Run in and grab a baby and watch the fun. They all run except Mama. She pops her jaws; piggie squeals, I laugh. Set him down and away they go...

Baby pigs can be raised. House-breakable. Very territorial; they make good watch-pigs. Back in 2000, a census lady found out the hard way, when the watch-piggie chomped on her leg...

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

Flint, You actually like Java's? I have tried every way imaginable (and some not imagined) to prepare it and have yet to find it worth a damn. Care to email me a recipe? I like to hunt them as they are fun to mess with (like Art so "Artfully" put it) and prefer to bow hunt them. But I also prefer to eat what I kill.

 

[armoredman]

Pit barbecued javalina is quite good. Haven't hunted peccary yet, just eaten it. Yummy rodent.

 

[Art Eatman]

The ones which are some two inches less height at the shoulder are the better ones for eating. Fully grown, they can be on the rank side.

I always slow-barbecued the hams. Start with a high heat over the coals, sorta like broiling temperature. Turn with tongs, not fork. Turn every three to five minutes until there's a crust built up from the basting mix. After a total of maybe ten or fifteen minutes, spread the coals to maybe a 300 degree oven sort of temperature. Maybe even 275. Then, turn and baste every fifteen to twenty minutes. No salt in the basting mix.

I don't really recall: Maybe two hours or so? Something like that. They come out right at well-done, but moist.

I'd cook the little backstraps alongside. They're so small that they make nice yum-yums to keep the cook happy along with the beer needed to lubricrate the cooking process.

 

[wankerjake]

The ones which are some two inches less height at the shoulder are the better ones for eating. Fully grown, they can be on the rank side.

That's been my limited experience as well. Skin them immediately to get the gland off. I shot a juvenile one, it was pretty good. My little brother shot an old sow... she was edible.

 

[Dr.Rob]

I saw some of those at the Phoenix zoo, small and scurrying.

 

[4895]

I do plan to cook the meat. A friend of mine says he knows a procedure for curing the meat and the correct spices to use. I don't want to damage the skull so a head shot is not my first choice. I plan to boil the skull with water and peroxide. It should make a nice trophy/mantle piece. Some of the lil piggies get to 100 lbs. here. I plan to find a nice 45 lb. or so with any luck and get close enough to seal the deal with a 165 grain lead flat tip bullet running about 1500 fps.

 

[wankerjake]

Some of the lil piggies get to 100 lbs. here

I think that's a bit of a stretch. Game and fish says 35-65lbs. Even the well fed pics that ate my garbage in Tucson were nowhere near 100lbs. And they ate a lot of garbage.

http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/game_javelina.shtml

 

[clem]

Cut it off. When you skin the animal, you will be able to get the gland off with it.

 

[WardenWolf]

I'll be out there hunting javelina with an Arsenal SGL-21 AK. I'm using a roundnose soft point from PRVI Partizan that almost exactly mimics the .30-30 round's profile. Any .30-30 or equivalent is more than enough for javelina. If you're planning to use a .223 / 5.56, don't use too heavy a bullet weight, and make sure you use soft points, not hollowpoints. I discovered the hard way that a 68-grain hollowpoint will blow clean through with no expansion at 100 yards.

 

[4895]

Thanks for the tip Warden.

 

[4895]

I have a .22-250 but it is more of a bench rifle. Its much too heavy to carry around or sling it for 6 hours or more. Besides, if I bang the scope up, I might just cry. I think the .30-30 will be more than sufficient with peep sights. I have shot it plenty in the desert at cans and empty 44 oz. cups (dead on hits at 50 yards). I need more practice at 200 yard ranges to feel confident. I am going to put in for Elk this year and will have to buy a higher power rifle. I am thinking 300 win mag or 7mm mag. I don't have an ATV so I would try to rule out those high-dollar 400 yard shots. I need to scout more. This year, I plan to take Javelina, Mule deer, White tail (back east), Elk, and plenty of coyote.

 

[dprice3844444]

make sure you wear those arm length rubber gloves handling the pig.try not to get the blood on your clothes etc.

http://search.aol.com/aol/search?query=skinning+javelina&s_it=keyword_rollover

http://www.javelinahunter.com/field_dressing.htm

 

[sixgunner455]

4895 - your .30-30 will kill anything in North America. Just got to get close enough. It's not too tough to get close to a javelina. Personally, I've just never had the urge to shoot one.

Except for this one time, this little pig wouldn't go away, and was all kinds of upset about my dog. Hair down his spine was all standing straight up. That one, I considered shooting. Didn't want him biting the dog.

They just don't smell very good.

 

[Flintknapper]

Freedom_fighter_in_IL wrote:

Flint, You actually like Java's?

Yes. I don't eat Feral Hogs...but do eat Javelina.

I have tried every way imaginable (and some not imagined) to prepare it and have yet to find it worth a damn.

You'll have to be more specific as to your objection. Javelina meat generally is more flavorful (read gamey) than pork, so that alone might be something that renders it unpalatable for some folks. I feel the same way about ducks, you can't make duck taste good IMO.

As with anything...you'll do best by selecting a younger (smaller) animal...as the meat is more tender to start with. After that, a quick kill, immediate field dressing, CAREFUL skinning and cooling of the meat...should provide you a satisfactory meal.

Some exceptions would be IF the animals have been foraging on either Sagebrush or Creosote brush roots. Typically, their diet consists mostly of Prickly Pear cactus (in Texas), I can't say what they eat in Arizona.

Care to email me a recipe?

There are scads of recipes out there. We BBQ them almost exclusively...but we let the meat cool and age for 2 days in a cooler filled with ice and water. Change out the water and ice each day.

Then make up a marinade using Italian dressing and whatever spices you prefer. Soak the meat in that for at least 12 hrs...then BBQ. You'll love it.

 

[avs11054]

Personally, I'd use a .223/5.56 if you have one available. The only javelina I shot I killed with a .243. Did plenty of damage to the meat. I'd opt for a smaller caliber next time.

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

You'll have to be more specific as to your objection. Javelina meat generally is more flavorful (read gamey) than pork, so that alone might be something that renders it unpalatable for some folks. I feel the same way about ducks, you can't make duck taste good IMO.

Mainly, the meat just had a very bitter flavor to it. Never tried a young one. A couple of sows and a few boars. Was always careful on the skinning (was well aware of that scent gland) and I have always hung all big game for a minimum of 3 days in a walk in or, if cold enough outside, in my skinning shed. If I am out of town and can't hang it where I am, Ill butcher it then put it on ice immediately. Maybe next time I hunt Texas or Arizona I'll see if I can't get up on a couple of 25 pounders and give it another go.

 

[Art Eatman]

I go more by height than guesstimated weight. Simplest put, "Don't shoot the big one!"

From what I've seen, around Uvalde, Texas, javelina are generally shorter and a bit more roly-poly. In the desert around Terlingua, they're taller and somewhat lankier in build.

Typical Terlingua piggie: http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=153551&d=1322444041

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

They all look "rolly poly" to me

 

[Art Eatman]

I don't really understand the reason for dprice's concern. If you're halfway careful, it's easier to field dress piggie than it is a deer--except that when skinning, the hide is definitely tougher, and the hair seems to work on the knife's edge more than deer hair does.

avs, there's a reason I use the head shot. And if saving the skull is part of the deal, definitely go for the neck ahead of the shoulders. Lord knows, there's not all that much meat on a javelina.

In my cooking, I've described the flavor as "delicate" and "not quite sweet". Nowhere near as sweet as a mountain lion.

My basting mix starts out with whatever store-bought is cheapest. I then throw in miscellaneous spices as the mood strikes; it's never really the same way twice. I dunno. Dill; oregano; sometimes some garlic. Whatever. Some butter. Some Lea & Perrins Whigglewiggy. Keep the saucepan by the heat. The main thing is to turn and baste fairly often so a crust builds up to hold in the moisture.

Yum.

 

[4895]

Thank you all for your replies. Without input from experienced people like yourselves, I would likely make more mistakes that necessary.