Our Great Hunt

[More D]

I am blessed in the fact that my family shares the love that I have for the outdoors and hunting.

 

My wife had never hunted or even handled a firearm prior to having the (un)fortunate luck in meeting me. My now nine year old daughter has been in the outdoors since just about birth. We have just applied for her first Elk hunt and have are fingers crossed that she will be successful!

I picked up a few left over Javelina tags to help prepare my daughter for her first hunt. Our HAM hunt was great but without success. We both had a lot of fun and got to chase a large heard for a while. Both of us even fell once or twice. And like Casey says “it is not hunting until you have fallen!”

With the HAM hunt behind us my daughter was more excited than me for the general javie hunt. I figured that we would take it ‘easy’ and do mostly glassing for her first hunt as back up or support role. We got settled into our glassing spot and I have to say that I brought along much more stuff than I normally would. A blanket, a book, a 14inch sub sandwich, a full size bag or doritos, 4 cans of soda…….you get the idea. I was trying to make this hunt fun and try and head off all not all good/boring situations. After a few hours she wanted to walk. ”OK, let’s walk this way so we can make a big circle back to the truck” She looked at me funny and said “I want to walk to the top of that hill….I know we can see further over there” all pointing to a big hill completely in the wrong direction. So off we went. As we crested the hill he eyes lit up. We could see for miles and as high as we were we could glass for days. She quickly found a tree she wanted to sit under to glass that was half way down! I tried to explain that we would be too far away and if we saw something we would be chasing them in the wrong direction. With no hesitation she turned to me and said “I am up for it!” I was so proud!!

Luckily I quickly spotted a heard before we got too far down. It was a 30min tuff hike to set up for a shot and we both loved every min of it. We got set up. All the while coaching and explaining what I was doing and its purpose. I could see she was soaking up every bit of it. I asked If she was ready. After I got the OK I shot twice and a nice sow was down.

 

I did not want to mess up such an important shot. The blanket I had secretly cursed earlier earned it keep!

 

 

We gave the heard a few moments to regroup and move away. Only then we hooted in celebration!

 

As we found the sow!

 

Photo set up....sorry about the blood.

 

I always tie the Javie from the top jaw behind the canines. Skin first while changing gloves and knives often. You can see the skin still attached. THEN GUT.

 

The whole time my daughter keep asking for the heart so she could examine it as we have always done with all of our game animals. This is the bottom of the heart as it fell out!

 

After a long nearly mile walk back to the truck without stopping or a single complaint.

 

This had proved to be one of my BEST days ever! Only my wife and young son were missing.

[wayno945]

Congrats on the hunt. Great story!

[Mocha1545]

What a PROUD Dad! Great job by both of you. Congrats on the pig and the great time with your daughter!

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Thanks for the write up I love that skinning technique, I will be using that next time around. Congrats

[Santana Outdoors]

very nice story, congrats to you!! Awesome photos!

[trophyhnter]

Great story! Put a smile on my face! Makes me reflect on how I miss my two boys and wife on my hunts! Soon they will be inspiring my to climb higher! Thanks for the story!

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Can I ask how you would handle a deer processing in the field? I have never seen a pig done that way so thought I would ask.

[nutzos16]

Congrats! Great job!

[CouesWhitetail]

Outstanding!! Loved the write up and pics! Congrats on a fine outing with your daughter, that's truly a blessing!

 

Just an fyi, you don't have to gut it after you skin it like that......You can just quarter or bone out the meat and never gut it. Do you keep the ribs? If you do, then you would want to gut it, but if not, go gutless....less mess.

[Falkners]

Congrats Great story

[More D]

Thanks for all the great comments! My daughter and I loved them.

 

 

Mule,

 

This method is harder and takes twice as long but it is the only way to ensure that the meat does not get contaminated with the musk/odor. You will never see me in a picture holding, touching, carrying a javelina. I change gloves and knives any time I touch the outer hide. I never have to soak, marinate or ‘cure’ my javelina meat before eating. It is not gammy at all.

 

Deer are much easier. I gut right off, cut off the legs from knee down. We skin as soon as we get back to camp and place in a new tarp and cover in ice. The one exception is if it is cold, like low 30's, I will let it hang in a game bag over night.

 

 

Amanda,

 

I typically grind all of my javelina to make chorizo so I take everything out with me. I have only done the gutless method once for a young bull elk I took 1.7miles in a quiet area. I worked great but I was disappointed at the amount of meat I ended up with. For me it is a major benefit of hunting.

[Rifle2Bow]

So great that she was game for the hiking. My son will be going w me next year (5yrs old) w 3 Generations as so will my dad.

[PRDATR]

Congrats on the hunt and enjoy your times with your daughter. They go all too fast. Great story and pictures you should get "Dad of The Year" award for that.

[cosninocanines]

That's what I'm talkin about! Great job and great write up. Thanks for sharing

[Evan]

Awesome! Cant wait until my daughters are old enough for their first hunts!