It was going to be my last hunt of the season, a return to South Texas for a quarry that had foiled me on three hunts to date. This animal is not uncommon, it is not overly intelligent or hard to hunt, many people roll out and bag one early in the first attempt, but for some reason the southwestern deserts little porcinoid javalina continued to elude me. I’d have been surprised and not gotten off a shot, I’ve had equipment failure, and I’ve just plain struck out ….. so this time I was determined.
I booked a hunt through Pete Reyes on his property about 80 miles south of San Antonio, with the plan to hunt Javalina with my .308 cnterfire and bring a selection of airguns for coyote, bobcat, raccoons, hogs and whatever small stuff came my way. I would have liked to hunt the javalina with an airgun, but as it is a game animal airguns are expressly forbotten. It is somewhat ironic that I can legally take a 300 lb hog with my .45 airgun, but not a 50 lb peccary. However, Texas is one of the truly hunter friendly states so I won’t complain! I will leave this part of the story by saying, I am still after my javalina and believe that when I finally bag one it will be one of the most expensive trophies on my wall! But the portion of my hunt I want to tell here relates to a night out with my airguns.
The original plan was to fly in on Friday and get in for an afternoon stand, then on following days hunt morning and afternoon for javalina, then mid day and night for varmint, pest, small game, and a mixed bag of the diverse fauna of this part of Texas, until I had to depart on Monday afternoon. In the end an emergency at work came up and I received an email (curse the Black Berry) on Saturday night telling me I needed to be back for a meeting on Monday morning. So on the spur of the moment I had to book a flight home on Sunday, leaving me only a night hunt on Saturday. So getting back to the lodge after the afternoon hunt, I ate a quick dinner, grabbed my gear, loaded up my guide’s truck, and was off for what had become my last chance to shoot. I was taking along a couple PCP air rifles that I’d done bench testing on; and decided that I wanted to get a raccoon, possum, bob cat, coyote, fox, ringtail cat, and may be a couple rabbits. The two animals that I really wanted for mounts in my trophy room were the bobcat and the ringtail, two of the prototypical critter species of the South Texas Senderas.
We drove out to a ranch on the river bottoms about 40 minutes west of the lodge, watching the deer gliding across the road and disappear into the heavy brush lining the highway. Pulling up to the ranch road, I jumped out to open the gate, acknowledging two inescapable aspects of ranching; first is that the driver is legally and morally freed from opening the gates themselves, and secondly no two gate latches work in exactly the same way! But after working out the Rubik cube of a locking system and passing the truck through, we were on our way.
Not more than fifteen minutes later we spotted another set of eyes very high up in a big oak tree. The raccoon was hidden in a clump of vegetation and all I could see was the eyes and his forehead. Joe asked “ can you take him?” to which I replied my view was obstructed but I could see his forehead. Just as I was a bout to shoot, he shifted and we could see he was in fact a very big, very irritated porcupine. These guys are all landowners and/or dog handlers, and none seemed to like porcupines much though I personally bear them no ill will. Joe said “we shoot them when we see them, take it”. As I squeezed the trigger and watched this big pin cushion of a critter tumble down from perhaps 60 feet up. We circled around the carcass each trying to talk the other into grabbing his foot and hauling him to the truck. Finally I pointed out that I was his guest, and as a good host it was his duty, no privilege to retrieve our trophy. We tossed the porcupine into the back of the truck and continued on our way. Continued below
In the months since I’ve tried several iterations along their pre-production testing; some working well some not as they tweaked the design and materials. But in the end they got it right, and brought the product to market under the name of Piledrivers. These boattailed projectiles are available in 30 grain weight and work especially well when fired through a high power PCP rifle. My Evanix AR6 especially likes them and has no problems digesting them through its rotary magazine. The accuracy is very good and the power achieved is outstanding, especially in the context of retained energy and accuracy at longer ranges!
I used the Piledriver in the AR6 for small game on this hunt, and was really impressed. One of the big South Texas jackrabbits I shot at close to 80 was knocked right of his feet. I’ve used these air bullets to shoot squirrels, rabbits, guinea fowl, woodchucks, and monkeys at some pretty impressive distances, always with excellent results. I think these pellets are worth a try if you’re an airgun hunter, you’ll most likely be pleasantly surprised.
Termed an "Air Bullet" By Manufacturer
Accurate out of Many High Power PCPs
Outstanding Long Range Performance
Superb Terminal Performance
Great on Larger Airgun Quarry
A little bit later a bobcat came walking across the road at 35 yards, a slow stroll seemingly only mildly concerned with our presence. I have wanted a chance for a bobcat with an airgun, and have been actively pursuing this goal for a couple years. I had my Big Bore 909 with varmint light sitting in my lap, loaded and ready to go. This was going to be my night, I just had to jump out of the truck and take my shot. Unfortunately, I’d been leaning out of the window and had unknowingly locked the door. And I frantically tried to figure out how to unlock it while squeaking like a trapped mouse to hold him up, as I watched my bobcat continue to walk by. Just as I got it worked out and tumbled out the door, I saw the cat look my way as he stepped behind a cactus not to appear again. Oh well, what can you say, it will have to wait until next time.
On we drove, through a stand of trees with a canopy that grew over the road creating a living tunnel. Coming around a bend, a pod of three coons went running by and up a tree. I was going for variety more than numbers and let these guys go on their way. The rancher would have preferred that I took them, but it was my hunt and I wanted something else ….. primarily the bobcat I’d just missed. I decided I was going to hold off until I had a shot at something different.
And I got that chance in about a half hour, lighting up a tree I saw eyes looking down at me. It turned out to be a ringtailed cat, one of the animals I’d wanted to bag since seeing a mount in a hunting lodge a few years ago. Jumping out of the truck, I sat in the road and braced the gun on my knee to line up the 50 yard shot. The ringtail was sitting in the fork of the tree presenting me with a frontal shot, and squeezing the trigger on the 909 sent the 120 grain bullet right on target. The cat flipped out of the tree and was DOA when I reached his landing spot.
We called it quits and headed on back to the lodge, it was about three in the morning and I was dead tired. The next morning I loaded my gear and made my way to the airport (ironically almost running over a pair of javalina on the way out) for the rescheduled flight home. In the end I didn’t get my javalina, I’d seen them when I had an airgun, which was not a legal hunting arm for a game animal. I had planned to go back the next morning with my .308 centerfire…. but then business called. What can you say, I’d passed on some hogs as well, figuring I could always take one later if I wanted to. At one point I’d been sitting in a blind surrounded by 19 deer; two does the rest bucks including one massive 10 pointer. I didn’t get my javalina, but I did get some cool small stuff with my airguns and saw a lot of wildlife. If I’d been able to spend the Sunday and Monday hunting as planned I have no doubt that I’d have bagged my javalina …. And maybe my bobcat!