tjhunt2

Doug, your work is the best I've ever seen. Your work is always awesome and we are lucky to have you as a cwt member for our viewing pleasure. Thanks Doug! TJ

That looks like a really nice pig. Thanks for sharing and congratulations to your brother. Your next! TJ

Holy crap, look at the color of them horns. I just love the chocolate color antlers. Looks like your day was a great one. Congratulations on a beautiful buck. Now go get a pig. TJ

Congratulations on your success this year Lance. Them are are fine looking trophies and congrats go out to all your clients. TJ

Good luck Brian and be careful going in and out of there. You and your Dad are really dedicated hunters that's for sure. Keep us posted. Wow, 71 archery kills for your Dad. That is just amazing. Not only can you guys catch fish you nock the heck out of the deer herds as well. Thanks for posting and I look forward to the next report. TJ

My bad.........it's got to be the age thing working way to soon. Sorry! TJ

You could always grab a Rez tag and go for #33 this year... how much are they and do you know if any are available?

First just let me tell you that I have shot my share of game here in az so don't feel sorry for me. There's no pictures so most won't read this but I just don't have anything better to do, since I need rest and plenty of liquids after yesterdays pig hunt. Pigs are my favorite to hunt and eat and it's been three years now without one and my wife keeps telling me I'm know spring chicken any more and I can't do what I use to do so just suck it up and quit whining about your aches and pains. She says I have an obsession with pigs and it's going to kill me one day. I did once fall off a rock while chasing them which lead to a titanium plate holding two vertebreas in my neck, slipped off a small dirt bank after the dirt let loose under my footing causing me to knock myself out for a short period and brusing my hip to my foot thinking my hip was broke, and now this. I keep telling her not to worry I got the upper hand on them pigs. Last year opening day had me up on the mountain coughing my fool head off with the flu because I refused to stay home but just ended up elevating my sickness and wasn't able to get out much after that. My wife gets sick last week and I try and stay away from her but started getting what she had so I jumped on the antibiodics and hoped for the best. Yesterday finally arrives and I'm feeling pretty good so I drag my two nephews along and we are at our viewing spot by 8:45 and locate the pigs shortly after arriving. After watching and determing their direction of feeding I decide to make my stock and left the two boys to keep an eye on things. Because of the wind I had to circle around the area which took me an hour to get within 400yrds only to find the wind blowing not to favorable for my approach. I back out and change my angle and by the time I was within 100rds of the pigs it had taken me 2 hours. The hillside was steep with loose rocks, cacti and brush was thicker than it looked so it took me another 2 hours to close the deal to within 20yds with pigs in front of me but to much vegetation to shoot thru. It's now 2:00 and I've been frozen in that spot for 20min and find my legs beginning to shake due to the sharpness of the hillside. The pigs move out of site and my spotters tell me, thru signals, the pigs are bedded just 30 yds in front of me. I need a drink of water bad but decide I don't risk making any noise, first mistake, and after a short priod of time I have to make my next step or my legs are going to buckle. I fell alittle off balance and now have a back full of jumping cacti. Now I'm just about had it and been on this stock since 9:00. I take another step and kick out a pig I didn't know was 15yds in front of me. He takes the rest of the pigs with him and I blow on my varmit call. Two pigs come within 10yds but on the wrong side of the tree. They finally smell me and run off but I stop them with another call and one comes back and I have to shoot off balance and let an arrow fly. The string takes my varmit call out of my mouth and sends my arrow on another path other than where I aimed hitting the pig in the back leg. After all this I'm mad at myself for forcing the shot. I have my arrow and some blood and my spotters tell me I have pigs bedded 40yds below. I told them I wouldn't shoot another unless I give this blood trail my best. I sit down and find out I can hardly get my swandwich down and having trouble dringing water. I have dehydrated myself by now and think back at what my wife keeps telling me. You can't do what you use to do so why try? You guys know the answer to that one. After some time I track my pig thru a couple hundred yds and end up in a thicket that I have to crawl thru. The blood trail was getting slim and then I notice I've lost all my arrows but the one I shot the pig with and it didn't have a knock. Now I'm on my hands and knees back tracking and picking up my arrows. I finall get back and my pig had rejoined the heard and I bust them up. My spotters tell me they saw my pig and it seems just fine with a little red spot on a leg. Pigs running in every direction and I set up and blow my cottontail call and pigs running all around me. Two pigs behind me at 5yds and I can't shoot thru the stuff. Another pig charges towards me and I spook it as I try to draw my bow and send him off. More calling and in comes a few more from different directions and I'm just loosing it with excitement. I draw my bow back and I release an arrow before I get a chance to look thru the peep site and hit 10ft in front of a big bore. The rest of the pigs kept milling around but the brush was just to thick to chance a shot. It's now 5:00 and the pigs are gone and I radio my nephews I would see them in about an hour on the other side of the mountain. On my walk back I try and drink some water and it won't go down. I start choking and find myself gaging and having trouble with my breathing. Now what the heck has happened I ask myself. Try more water and get a little down but not without choking again. My throat felt like it had closed almost shut. When I get back to where the boys were to pick me up I wasn't able to talk to them. I let them drive me home and started getting a little better by the time I arrived. My wife wanted to take me to urgent care since she couldn't see an opening in my throat. I said give me a beer and I'll be fine. That p!ssed her of and I said don't give me that spring chicken bull sh!t either. What had happened was I got a case of uvulitis. It is caused by many different things, that you can look up for yourself on the internet, but mine was caused by dehydration and caused my uvula to swell many times bigger than normal size. I didn't know what it was untill I looked it up this morning. It's the thing hanging down in the back of your throat above your tongue. It just about completely closed off my throat from breathing and swollowing. It took about 3 hours before I could talk right again. I'm much better this morning but need some rest and plenty of liquids, I wonder if they mean beer and football, and I'll be ready for tomorrow for another bout with them pigs. Drink plenty of water and I hope someone learns from my experience with dehydration.

..... good one! TJ

I know exactly where you are coming from. On my very first archery elk hunt I watched a bull walk right by me and drew my bow back and shot 90deg. the other way while watching the bull at 20yds. Never knew what I had done until my Dad told me. I once popped a blood vessel in my arm trying to pull back on a turkey. Never did get the bow back. Better luck next time. That had to be pretty exciting to say the least. I wish I could help you with this but I still have problems of my own controlling my breathing and the shakes sometimes are still terrible. TJ

Well, are you going to tell us what the name of the book is or do we have to guess? TJ

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. I'm finishing my sausage up as I write this. I was taking pictures as I go on the sausage making this morning and saw where azslim posted this morning on some great recipes. Check out his post because he makes his about the same as I have been for years now. His recipes all sound so good. Come on next year!

Congratulations to both you hunters on your trophies. Great looking country. Thanks for sharing. TJ

azslim, how crazy is this? I wake up at 4:30 this morning and decide to finish cutting up the pork butt for my javi sausage. I sit down here at the computer to figure out how much mix to add and turn on cwt and you have posted some recipes. I have even been taking pictures this morning as I go and needed a little break. Great minds think alike. I really don't need to post what I was figuring on because your right in line with how I proccess mine. I also use 50/50. I picked up a sausage mix from Von's in Chandler yesterday on the way home from work. Thanks for all those recipes. It all sounds great. TJ

Gino, I think I know how you feel getting your first lion trail cam because I've yet to get one myself. I know it will happen someday. Thanks for sharing! TJ

Congratulations Matt on your first buck. I never shot my first till I was 25yrs old. Great writeup and an awesome trophy for the wall for sure. Thanks for sharing and I got a feeling this isn't the last of your seccuss stories to come. TJ

First of all thanks Christain for the indepth explanation of your hunt. I was wondering how you were during in that snow storm that hit up there. Congratulations to Mathew on his fine buck and I hope you can seal the deal on yours as well. There is no doubt if anyone can do it you will with your determination. Good luck and I look forward hearing the rest of the story. TJ

Congratulations to your buddy and good luck on the rest of your hunt. Have you ever tried calling them in with a varmit call? If not I suggest you buy one if you don't already have one. I found one of the best times to use one is right after someone shoots and the heard splits or gets uneasy because they know something is up but can't figure it out. Blow the call as loud as you can and be ready for some quick action. Remember to take the call out of your mouth before you shoot. It hurts like he!! and makes your arrow do funny things. Keep us posted on your hunt. TJ

I've done them many different ways over the years. Lately I have been making sausage out of them. Never touch the meat while you're skinning them out due to the scent gland odor that is embedded on their hair. After skinning wash your hands really good and continue to clean out all blood shot and bone it out. The most I have ever gotton was 15lbs on a gutted out 43 pounder that my wife shot. I will probably get around 8lbs of meat off this one. Whatever the lbs come out to I purchase pork, whatever's on sale, and add the sme amount and grind together. Then I add a sausage mix and grind it again. Awesome eating. You can purchase sausage mix from most meat proccesors. Good luck on your hunt and if I wasn't so far away I would take it off your hands. TJ

Well, Peg thught I should rest one more day but yesterday had our house alive with daycare and I headed out by 11am and I was into pigs by 2pm. I was at a stand still for over 3 hours and never got a shot off. Had them at 40 yds but couldn't close the deal. Today was another day and I knew I didn't have a whole day in me so I left the house at 11am again. After 2 hours out I heard some rocks fall above me and knew it had to be pigs. I stood there for 30 minutes and finally saw a pig working my way. I couldn't get the range finder out of my pocket because I had other pigs off to my side. After 1 hour a pig worked in to my shooting lane and I thought it was 25yds but found out later it was 30. I have only killed an animal once at that range and pulled back and let an arrow go. I misjudged it and hit low. Found some blood and after 30 minutes I jumped her and got another arrow in her but way back. I waited another 30 minutes and then started tracking and jumped her again and finished her off with a perfect lung shot. It weighed 100 pounds by the time I got it back to the truck. This made number 32 pig kills over the years and all but one were arhery. I'm one happy guy tonight but don't know how many more of these archery pig hunts I have in me. Not the best pictures but I had to leave the camera at home to seal the deal.

Great story and pics. Now that's a buck to be proud of. How cold did it get that night? You certainly worked for that one. Congratulations! TJ

That was a great writeup and pictures to go along with it were awesome. Felt like I was there along side of ya. Thanks for sharing and congratulations on a nice buck. TJ

Good luck and keep us posted. TJ

That's the best one I've heard yet on the global warming issue. Good one Bill! TJ

Good luck! TJ