I took my 11-year old son, Michael, to Silver City, New Mexico for his first big game hunt...javelina. He has been practicing shooting off the shooting sticks standing up, and has gotten good enough to keep them within a 2-inch circle at 100 yards with a CZ 527 in .223. I load him up ammo with the 55 gr Hornady bullet with the cannelure - a fairly tough bullet as opposed to a really fragile varmint bullet.
We met up at the dirt road leading to my friend's ranch at about 4:00 or 4:30 PM, and I put Michael in the truck with my friend, Wayne, and his 7-year old son. After just a few minutes of driving in, we spotted a lone javelina trotting up a hill, following a small herd of antelope. Wayne felt that it would trot over the hill and slow down or stop in the next canyon/gulley over. So we all bailed out and started up the hill. We were almost at the top when I spotted some movement back down in the flats and about 100 yards from where we had parked the vehicles - javelina! About 4 of them...
We decided to let Michael and Wayne go after them to have a better chance of getting closer.
They got to within about 75 yards and set up the shooting sticks. Just before they headed off on the stalk, I reminded Michael to pick a spot on the javelina, just behind the shoulder, and aim at that spot - not just at the whole animal.
That is just what he did, and just where he hit. A perfect heart and lung shot - the javelina ran about 20 feet and dropped, DRT. I was/am a very proud father!
Here is the happy boy and his trophy -
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We met up at the dirt road leading to my friend's ranch at about 4:00 or 4:30 PM, and I put Michael in the truck with my friend, Wayne, and his 7-year old son. After just a few minutes of driving in, we spotted a lone javelina trotting up a hill, following a small herd of antelope. Wayne felt that it would trot over the hill and slow down or stop in the next canyon/gulley over. So we all bailed out and started up the hill. We were almost at the top when I spotted some movement back down in the flats and about 100 yards from where we had parked the vehicles - javelina! About 4 of them...
We decided to let Michael and Wayne go after them to have a better chance of getting closer.
They got to within about 75 yards and set up the shooting sticks. Just before they headed off on the stalk, I reminded Michael to pick a spot on the javelina, just behind the shoulder, and aim at that spot - not just at the whole animal.
That is just what he did, and just where he hit. A perfect heart and lung shot - the javelina ran about 20 feet and dropped, DRT. I was/am a very proud father!
Here is the happy boy and his trophy -
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