I've hunted this particular area in New Mexico for the past 4 years for deer and I've always encountered good numbers of javelina in there. I've taken javelina with my rifle in previous seasons, but I decided it would be fun to use my muzzleloader this year. The season runs January-March and I headed out for a weekend at the end of February to try my luck.
The weather was terrible the first day and a half with very, very windy conditions and I saw a couple of deer, but that was it. However, I tried a new spot in a canyon system with a little bit of shelter from the wind the second evening.
Long story short, I glassed up a javelina just over 500 yards away about an hour before dark. I made a stalk across the canyon to where I last saw the javelina, but they'd moved on. Luckily, they were feeding into the wind and I was able to approach from behind without them smelling me. After a few more minutes, I spotted a javelina and took a shot at about 30
yards. He was slightly quartering with his left side facing me and the bullet went through his left shoulder and exited behind his right shoulder.
The javelina grunted at the shot and then unsteadily ran in two complete circles before falling over. He ended up falling less than 10 yards from where he was when I shot him. Almost immediately, 3 more javelina emerged from the bushes behind him and stood around in confusion trying to figure out what had just happened. I eventually had to chase them off (I only had 1 javelina tag) so I could get to work butchering my javelina and making the long walk back to the truck.
What a great hunt and I can't wait to go back next year!
I was using a CVA Optima with a Muzzleloaders Genesis 3-9x40mm scope and loaded with a 250gr PowerBelt AeroLite pushed by 100gr of loose 777 powder.
You can hear all the details of the hunt in the podcast episode I recorded about it below.
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